Science or not, keyword selection can be absolutely vital for a site's success. Considering this, it is important to choose good ones. There are some very common pitfalls webmasters run into when selecting words. Understanding what they are can help you avoid making them, too.

The biggest keyword related mistake, hands down, is failing to see how important they are. It's a simple fact that keywords are very powerful marketing tools. They help sites earn traffic, ranking and even revenue. They can even help focus the entire theme of a site. Although hiring an expensive firm isn't required to see results, selecting goods keywords is important.

Another stumbling block is the research process itself. The improper use of keyword research tools can lead to poor keyword selection. Keyword counts, for example, are only estimates. Tools that reveal these are useful. Just keep in mind they don't reflect the total searches from Google, Yahoo and MSN. The numbers they reveal are simply estimates taken from one source. Plus, some tools report different keywords. To compensate, you might consider using multiple tools for keyword selection. Using Wordtracker and Ad Word Analyzer both is a good idea. By doing so, you can discover more keywords.

Another issue that crops up a lot is the use of only a single keyword or phrase on a site or page. The truth is it is simply much smarter to select a theme and then choose multiple words and phrases to support it. This works to boost latent semantic indexing, too. Picking niche phrases can be done with a little help from WordNet and other similar tools.

Another sticking point centers on Keyword Effectiveness Index reliance. KEI is the ratio of the number of times a particular keyword is searched in regard to the number of sites ranked for that word. It is meant to help webmasters figure competition for a term. KEI is useful, but the thing to look for is how SEO strong the top sites on the list happen to be. Tools like SEO for Firefox and SeoQuake can help with competition checks.

Webmasters who really get the power of keywords often box themselves in with too much research. The mistake these folks make is failing to use keyword management tools to direct their efforts. Spreadsheets can help, but tools like Ad Word Analyzer can be much more valuable. They can sort, filter, and even list related keywords you never would have come up with on your own.

Poorly timed research is also a real killer for optimization. Wordtracker, for example, stores stats for the previous 90 days. This means those trying to research seasonal keywords, for example, won't get very valid results during off times.

Two other big hurdles that a lot of webmasters fumble on include selecting keywords by big price alone and even failing to implement new keywords after conducting research. Greed often comes into play when selecting keywords for a site. The fact is the lower paying keywords can pay out more over the long run since these niche and long-tail keywords don't have as much competition. They can even generate more traffic over the long haul, too.

Keyword selection is an art form that can deliver some major perks to a site. Although finding the right keywords to use can take time and effort, the payoff can be big in terms of visitors and even revenue.