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Every webmaster has one thing in common, and it is that they want top listings in search engines. If you choose the wrong keywords from the beginning, you will never get any sales. To start an online business, you have to be smart, and being smart deals with keyword research. If you do not do keyword research before starting an online business, you will fail.

Many webmasters that eventually fail after a short amount of time recommend using long tail keywords. I have no idea who came up with this logic, but it can be a real waste of time. It is rare to find long tail keywords that even get searched. If you optimize for some long tail keywords, it doesn’t matter if you are first or last, you won’t see any traffic.

You really need to look for keywords that get searched but aren’t being optimized very well. A long tail keyword can actually ruin your business strategy. The length of a keyword does not indicate how competitive it is. There are many long tail keywords that are being optimized by a lot of people, which leads to it being harder to rank well.

I will tell you how I do my keyword research. First, I examine hundreds of keywords and pick some that apply to my website. Next, I use a software called Keyword Elite to find out the monthly search volume for each term. I try to stay away from using the Google Keyword Tool because I don’t think it is very accurate with the search volume.

After that, I make a search for the keywords that have good search volume. I then use Yahoo Site explorer to analyze the number one ranked websites and their backlinks. After putting the website into Yahoo for analyzing, I check to see how many links the site has with the search keyword.

If I happen to notice that the website does not contain anchor text links, then I know that the website owner is very new to the online world. With relevant backlinks and patience, I will easily be able to get the number one spot for that certain keyword.

New website owners get scared of competition and don’t realize that it’s actually not that hard to rank well. You have to take into consideration that many webmasters know nothing about search engine optimization and are lucky to be ranking well. If you do find website owners that aren’t doing good search engine optimization, you should be able to take their position and make money.