Keywords play a major role in Search Engine Optimization. Generally people choose 2 kinds of keywords while optimizing a site.

They are:

1. High competition – highly profitable keywords.
2. Low competition – highly profitable keywords.

Generally it takes couple of weeks to months to get ranked for high competition – highly profitable keywords as the competition for these keywords will be too high.

I always go for low competition – highly profitable keywords as the competition for these keywords is low and they are easy to get ranked in Google in a shorter time.

Here is my strategy for finding low competition – highly profitable keywords. The goal is to find relatively high-search-volume, low-competition ‘keyword phrases'.

1. Open a spreadsheet.
2. Brainstorm and write down all relevant keywords that are related to the product you're selling including synonyms. For example, if your main keyword is “dog beds”, list other keywords also like “pet beds”.
3. Go to google keyword suggestion tool and type in with the keywords from your spreadsheet. Make sure to select “Broad search', analyze the results. Select the appropriate keywords by clicking the Add button at the right-side column. It is a bit tricky to select the keywords as nearly all results seem to be related to our products. Just choose the key phrase that you think is closer to your niche and for which you can write content for your website. Do not select, say, “discount on dog beds” if you don't have or can't provide discount on your products.

Note: Approximate Search Volume is not exactly the search made in Google.com. According to Google, this column shows the approximate number of search queries matching your keywords that were performed on Google and the search network.

Google Suggest

Go to Google.com (not a regional Google website like google.co.in) and start typing the keywords from the spreadsheet. Google Suggest analyzes what you are typing in the search box and provides relevant suggested search terms. You can choose one of the suggested key phrases by moving up or down the list using the arrow keys or mouse. As you type, it gives you you key phrases. You find few key phrases that are not in our spreadsheet. These are hidden keywords.

Try to find more and more key phrases by typing slowly in the search box and going alphabetical.

Examples:

“dog beds ab”
“dog beds b”
“dog beds ba”
“dog beds c”

Note down all such keywords. Put everything that you discovered to the spreadsheet.

Yahoo!'s version is called Search Assist.

However, unlike Google, Yahoo! suggests phrases that do not necessarily start with the letter or word you typed in. You find few keywords that do not exist in initial search of “dog beds” in Google Adwords Keyword Tool.

Try different terms and combinations to reveal more key phrases. Note all the keywords you discovered in the spreadsheet.

Yahoo Answers

Since most people visit Yahoo! Answers to ask a question, you have very valuable data — the actual keyword phrases used to find information related to your niche or the product that you're selling.

Within the questions, we can spot phrases such “quality dog beds online” and “cheap place to buy dog beds“.

With a little imagination you can find more long-tail keywords that have little to no competition at all. Add all these phrases to the spreadsheet.