This may sound terribly boring as well as very much like beating  the proverbial dead horse but keyword research is so critical  I must mention it.  It needs mentioning because so many new entrepreneurs are recognizing the opportunity that exists for starting an online business.  Excellent keyword research will lay a foundation for the possibility of quicker success.

Why?  Because good keyword research will tell you a lot.  It can tell you what terms are being most searched and it can provide you with insights on the amount of competition that is fighting for those words.  If your competition for a particular keyword is huge and it also involves strong players, you are better off finding another search term within your chosen topic (or perhaps even another niche).  In some established markets, it is just too hard for start up businesses to effectively compete.  The best way to compete is to carve a niche using terms that your target market is looking for but which have been overlooked to some degree by your competition.

This is the case with the Virtual Assistant niche.  There are 3600 searches per month for this term - which is a good - but there are 1.8 million competitor pages for this term.  Because of the economy, competitors (e.g. businesses offering Virtual Assistant services) are entering this business on a daily basis.  This is not to say that there is not an opportunity to make money here.  It means keywords must be chosen carefully.   I believe virtual assistants will be in ever increasing demand; especially as small businesses recognize the value in using virtual assistant services and the number of searches increases further yet.

The point is that anyone who is attempting to create an online business and fails to use the right keywords will be sorely disappointed when the new business is lost in cyberspace.  Enormous efforts to get it found will be needed.

A really thorough keyword research would avoid this type of headache and would boost the new Virtual Assistant entrepreneur (or any entrepreneur) in the right direction right from the start (to get business coming in sooner).

Let’s consider the other extreme.  The new business owner  does a keyword search and  finds less competitive keywords by using the Google Adwords Keyword tool.  The business who uses these will probably start coming up on the top search engine pages pretty soon.

What is the problem here?

Well… if only a few people are actually searching for the keywords chosen then you will still have trouble. Further compounding this is the fact all the visitors who do find you will not become your customer.  Many are just looking for information.  They are not in the buying stage.

The keywords Virtual Assistant have a medium to low value in terms of being used by buyers. There are better ones for startup Virtual Assistant businesses to use.

A good keyword search will help you discover keywords that are more likely used by buyers instead of information seekers.

So despite the fact that this is nothing new, it is worth repeating.   Keyword research is vital to the foundation of your online business.

This is not to say that establishing your business will be assured.  It is to say that finding a way to effectively compete in an arena in which your target market is looking and buying will be to your advantage.

Whatever your business endeavor is, good keyword research must be done right and it should be done on an ongoing basis in order to keep market share earned.

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And that’s one area where a good virtual assistant can help.

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The Benefits of Personal Outsourcing by Ed Gandia PART 2 « HMV.co.in