• SEOmoz, Thursday, June 12, 2008 2:30 PM

Rishi Lakhani outlines the keyword discovery process she uses for her small business clients--and notes that keyword discovery is actually the cornerstone of a simple, cost-effective SEO strategy for clients that don't have the industry knowledge or hefty bank accounts to warrant more in-depth proposals.

First, ask the client to choose the one word they'd use to describe their business--then do the same with two words and on up to a total of five. With these questions, you're covering the most common keyword, and then some long-tail variations.

Next, ask the client how they'd search for the competition--without using any of the words chosen before. Typically, this leads to synonyms, complementary services, layman's terms, as well as competitor's brand names. Now, Lakhani says, you've covered alternative and complimentary keywords, as well as branded and competitive terms. Follow those questions up with geographical questions, and then plug all the results into a keyword discovery tool.

"This half hour process has now enabled us to identify a fair list of target keywords, while at the same time inspired confidence in a client who knows less about your specialty, but knows his / her own field well," Lakhani says.

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