Perhaps the most essential part of any SEM campaign is the list of keywords the advertiser bids on. These keywords are the fist step in getting qualified and interested buyers to your site. Sure you can just go to any online keyword generator, but that’s what everyone is doing. Don’t you want your keywords to be unique to your Web site?

Of course you do! So strap on your hard hat with the little light on the end and pack a lunch – we’re going mining for keywords!

The best way to approach selecting keywords is to grab a pen and paper and start brainstorming. Be sure to think like a consumer who is searching for your product. Ask yourself, “What sets my product apart?” and “How am I different from the competition?” You want to pick unique keywords because not only will these keywords attract those who are more likely to purchase your product, but they will also be less expensive.

After you have a base of keywords, then you can start looking to the Web to expand on those. Check your site first. Read reviews and descriptions because they will often yield keywords you may have never thought of. You can also tailor your keywords geographically, by adding your city, state or zip code to the keyword, or use generators to expand on your already unique keywords. Now it’s time to get sneaky. After you have done all this, you should check out what keywords your competitors are bidding on by looking at their sites as well as conducting searches using these keywords (but don’t click on their ads…that’s a little too sneaky).

So you probably have a ton of keywords right now. Is it overwhelming? It is about to get a lot easier. If you are a SEM novice, a wide array of keywords is a lot to keep track of; however, you need plenty of keywords so that you can build traffic to your site, so what should you do?

Divide them up. Get organized. Pay-per-click sites allow you to have many ad groups for each account, so divide up keywords by geographic location, product, service, theme or seasonality. Start small – you can always ad more as you become more comfortable with PPC.

Once you start to evaluate your campaign, you can search through the keywords you mined and you can start separating the fools gold from the real stuff by eliminating those words that are draining your budget.