1) Unless you are a big fish in a big pond, hunt for less popular keywords.

Using the Google adwords keyword tool in the “Descriptive words or phrases” section, you are more likely to find such words that have 150 to 2500 searches per month.

No, these Google results do not represent the whole picture, but they are a good benchmark.

2) Target keywords that are less competitive.

Do a Google search for any one particular keyword, and ideally the competing sites should be less than 10,000 near the upper right hand of the screen. In the image above, the results 26,900, are above the ideal … but not bad.

3) Use the Google Adwords keyword tool, Website Content section, for the site ranking highest in searches for related keyword ideas. The keywords generated are what Google considers relevant to the highest ranking site for the search you did.

4) Use each of your best keywords in their own article or blog post titles and once or twice in the body of your content.

Your blog posts and articles are more likely to rank well (Page Rank) if the titles contain keywords that have at least a moderate number of searches per month with a modest number of sites competing for the same keyword.

Further, the body of the article or blog post should have the keyword in it once or twice (do not overdo it) to tell the search engines and human readers that the title and content match.

Of course, the keywords should fit the context well. One keyword per article or blog post.

5) Use keywords as anchor texts in the resource boxes and biographical sections of your articles.

Most article directories have a separate section for the author to place self-serving information that may also be helpful to the reader.

Use the keyword as the text on which the reader may click. This helps search engines and human readers know what is relevant to the content of your article and to the site or page that will appear if the human user clicks the link.

… In which case, you should make the anchor text keyword relevant to your article and the page that shows up when the reader clicks the link.

Granted, there are exceptions. Some of the Stompernet guys–I think originally it was a gal–found that an exceptionally high percentage of people who type in the words “baby gift” into a search engine actually do so because they want to buy a baby gift.

But for most searches, people are looking for information. So Chuck’s take was to use the magic word “free” in one’s advertisement and offer some decent value, in this case a pdf, video, software, or mp3 with valuable information. It may be an overused hook, but still a good one that may give the searcher what he or she wants. Or a piece of it.

Chuck’s other point was less common: Write an Adwords ad for each and every keyword/keyword phrase. Most people use a long list of keywords for each ad. But search engines like a close correspondence between the words people type in and what they see in results. Its called relevance. Relevance tends to keep the searchers happy with the search engine.

Chuck’s idea was to maximize the relevance in three ways: (1) as mentioned, write one ad for one keyword in every case, (2) include the keyword in the ad two or more times, (3) include the keyword more than once in the landing page to which the link in the ad goes.

To facilitate points (2) and (3), Chuck as developed some software that dynamically inserts keywords into ads and landing pages. His new product will be launched next week at keywordesp.com, and no, I am not affiliated with Chuck and don’t benefit financially from telling you about this.

I just think it is a great idea and a good lesson in relevance for PPC.

As an example of its use, do a search for the popular term “work at home” on Google. Click on the “Show Options” link in the upper left.

Then scroll down on the left until you find and click on “Wonder wheel.” The image should show a circle with the words “work at home” in the middle. Surrounding the “work at home” keyword circle you will see branches coming out from the circle with accompanying links labeled with suggested alternate keywords in the same area as “work at home.”

For example, click on the word “telecommuting,” one comes up with two connected circles, one with a center labeled “work at home,” and another as “telecommuting.”

In this way, you can “drill down” to long tail keywords that may be less competitive and more relevant to your niche, but also note that some of the suggested terms broaden out rather than narrow in.