More and more companies go along with the times and recognize that search engines can bring volumes of highly targeted prospects to their website. What's best about it is that it costs just a fraction of traditional marketing.

The problem, however, is that these same companies often overlook the most important part of their search engine marketing campaigns, which is selecting and evaluating keyphrases.

Keyphrases are phrases that potential customers are using in search engines to find products or services. These are the building blocks of any search engine marketing strategy and it is essential that they are chosen carefully.

Here are ways to select and evaluate the ongoing performance of keyphrases for search engines.

Compile a keyphrase list

Companies are usually sure that they already know their ideal keyphrases, but more often than not they are wrong. It is hard to separate oneself from a business and look at it from the perspective of a potential customer.

It is best to ask everyone outside of your company for their input, especially your customers. Only after you have put together a list of likely phrases from external sources do you add your own keyphrases. Also, add variations, plurals, and derivatives of the phrases on your list.

Evaluate keyphrases

Once you have compiled a master keyphrase list, evaluate each phrase to hone your list down to those most likely to bring you the highest amount of quality traffic. There are three aspects of each phrase to consider: Popularity, Specificity, and Motivation of User.

Popularity would be the easiest to evaluate. Use specific software or sites that would track search phrases based on actual search engine activity. The higher the number of searches, the more traffic that can be expected. Specificity is more abstract than the sheer popularity number.

Using keyphrases that would put more focus into your site, such as "auto insurance company" or "baltimore real estate", would make it reasonably sure that a much higher percentage of visitors will be looking for what you offer. It also makes your site attain higher page rankings, since specified phrases would be less competitive.

The third aspect, motivation of user, calls for an attempt to understand the needs of a search engine user by simply analyzing his or her search phrase. Determining subtle distinctions between terms can make a large difference on the quality of the traffic they attract.

Evaluate keyphrase performance

There are software available for your to decipher which phrases were bringing you the most quality traffic. These new tools make it possible to periodically analyze which keyphrases are brining your sit the most valuable visitors-those who buy your products or service, fill out your contact form, download your demo, etc.

This is more valuable when you are refining your search engine marketing campaigns, since you can discard and replace non-performing keyphrases and put increased effort toward the phrases that are delivering visitors that become customers.