A key part of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is tracking the performance of keywords.  For some sites, a high traffic flow is the goal regardless of who the visitors are and what they want. Other websites, particularly e-commerce sites, focus not only on traffic but conversions as well. In either case tracking keyword performance is necessary.

The first part of tracking keywords is actually selecting the keywords your SEO campaign is focusing on. A simple Google search for “SEO keyword tool” will yield many results.  However, two of the best tools I can suggest are Google’s Keyword Traffic Tool and Wordtracker’s GTRends. For each page of your website I would focus on no more than two keywords.

When it’s time to see where you rank for those keywords, purchase a SERPS (Search Engine Results Page) rank checking software or choose from the many free services on the web. The important thing is to run these often and always record the results.

Once you’ve picked your keywords it’s time to set up website tracking software.  Again, a simple Google search will provide many options to choose from. Before you try any of the paid services, I highly recommend you try Google Analytics.  This tracking software is highly configurable, creates great reports and gives most, if not all, paid services a run for their money.

Now for the hard part, combining your SERPs data, website tracking data and your SEO efforts.  This is why most companies pay SEO Agencies the big bucks.  You must discard the keywords that rank well but are not converting or bringing traffic in,  increase SEO efforts on keywords lagging in SERPS but still bringing performing well and track new keywords that you discover through data analysis.  All the while you must continue  to collect, analyze, combine and organize all tracking data.

Tracking keywords is an intricate part of a successful internet marketing plan and a must for effective Search Engine Optimization. While it may prove time and resource consuming, the end result is a website that more than pays for itself!