Determining the most profitable keywords for an e-commerce based business is without question one of the best way to drive targeted traffic and increase conversion. Specifically as it relates to PPC marketing which can make or break an online business. Unfortunately, many small online businesses have no clue how to manage a PPC campaign which includes determining profitable keywords, determining profit and more importantly ROI. What often times ends up happening is that shopping cart software clients spend a enormous amount of money on general keywords obtain a decent amount of traffic, but have very poor conversions. In technical terms their CPA (cost per action) is extremely low.  Short of hiring an online marketing firm there are a few things small business owners can do to improve their current PPC problem, and the simple answer is determining the correct keywords.

There are a variety of simple and cost effective  methods to obtain profitable keywords for any industry.  Keyword research could be broken down in to three basic steps. Use online keyword tools,  spy on your competitors keywords and most importantly research what keywords a  potential customer would use to find your product. If you're not understanding how this works don't worry I will explain each step in a bit more detail.

Online Keyword Tools - This option is great for clients who have money to spend on a monthly subscription. Sites like Keyword Discover and Wordtracker provide great research results if used correctly, but might hit your pocket book where it hurts. In addition to these online research tools almost every PPC program offers a keyword discovery tool which is free of charge. Although not as thorough as the paid option they can be beneficial  in determining the amount of visitors to expect.

Spying on your eCommerce Competitors - Browsing competitor sites is a good way of determining what keywords might be useful for your own business. There are two things to look for First, look at the keywords in the meta tags, but be aware that these keywords are usually the general terms and not the profitable specific keywords you want to target. Secondly, examine your competitors pages and look for specific keyword terms in addition I like to run a keyword density report on a site. There are several free sites which will do this for you, but I highly recommend Seochat's keyword density tool this will give you a clear picture of specific keywords words to examine.

What Potential customers might search for - I purposely made this the last technique because it makes use of the top two straagies. Basically you want to pull out a notepad and start brain storming keyword variations which a search engine user would use if they wanted to find your company's product or service. It's a good idea to use the keywords you developed with the online keyword tools and spying on the competition to act as a starting point. Generally more specific keywords result in higher conversion and lower bid amounts.