All you have to do is review your existing (or proposed) Web pages and note 50 words and phrases that specifically describe your products, services or information. For instance, you may own a site that provides information on buying, selling and starting a franchise. Your mini-brainstorm list may look something like this:

Franchise
Franchises
Buying a franchise
Franchise law
Franchise information
Franchise fees
Like all successful brainstorming meetings, there are no "bad" ideas or wrong answers. Your main goal is developing a raw list of around 50 terms that you can research later. If you’re running out of keyphrases, a little research will net you some additional ideas. Some reliable places to start are:

1. Your competition’s site.
A site’s Meta keywords tag can provide you with some initial keyphrase thoughts. To view the tag, load a competitor’s Web page, right click, hit "view source" and look for: <-META NAME="keywords" CONTENT= (keywords and phrases should be listed here>

Unless this function is disabled, you’ll be able to view the keyphrases your competitor used in their Meta tag. Tempted to copy a competitor’s keyphrases verbatim and plunk them on your site? Don’t do it. Not only would that be a copyright violation (and could get you sued), it’s also not smart. Remember, the majority of sites--including major corporate sites--are not optimized correctly. You may be stealing a worthless keyphrase list--and sabotaging your rankings as a result.

Your site’s "search" results. Can prospects search your site for the information they want? If not, why not? Your company will gain instant keyphrase data the moment they install a simple site search script. You’ll instantly learn what your prospects surf for, what keyphrases they use and how they phrase their queries.

2. Your site’s log files. Server log file analysis software, like WebTrends, uses URL data from your server log files to determine the keyphrases users typed into search engines. Many people do face a learning curve with this type of analysis software, but the site metrics and keyphrase data provided are well worth the time and financial investment.

3. The search engines. Another source of excellent keyword planning data is available at search sites such as AltaVista, HotBot, About.com, and MetaCrawler, that offer related searches. Try typing the word "insurance" into AltaVista or HotBot. When the SERP results page loads, you’re graced with additional phrase ideas under the headings, "People who did this search also searched for" (HotBot) or "Others searched for" (AltaVista). These data come from user-generated engine-specific searches, but they do provide general guidance on related phrases.

Google provided a sneak peek at their Google Labs, with their recently released Google Sets. Simply enter some key terms, and Google will predict other items in the set. For instance, if you type "Web graphics" and "Web design," Google returns related terms such as "JavaScript," "authoring tools" and "site management."

Some people enjoy using Google’s AdWords Keyword Selection Tool for keyphrase brainstorming. Simply type in your keyword or keyphrase and Google returns a list of keyphrase suggestions. There’s no hint as to how many times a particular phrase is searched upon, however.

If you want more detailed engine-specific data, use Overture’s Search Term Suggestion Tool. Unlike Google AdWords, Overture provides suggested search terms as well as the search term popularity. If you type in the word "franchise," you learn that there were over 44,000 searches for "franchise tax board" in April 2002.

Despite the keyphrase metrics, don’t believe your keyphrase research ends with Overture. It doesn’t. The Search Term Suggestion Tool is based on Overture searches only--not MetaCrawler data from the spidering search engines. For maximum results, use Overture as a keyphrase-brainstorming tool. Then, research these (and your other phrases) with Wordtracker, the industry standard for keyphrase research. Now, you’re almost ready to do keyword research.

Hot tip: Remember, brainstorming keyphrases is the "fun" phase (really!). Don’t let specifics sabotage your process before it even begins. If you can’t think of 50 words or phrases that describe what you offer, that’s okay. You’ll discover even more keyphrase choices below.

Keyphrase Research
Unfortunately, many good companies make bad keyphrase choices. Like people who jump into dreadful relationships, these companies leap into the arms of a new keyphrase list without doing their homework. It’s only later--after the company has wasted thousands in time and money--that they realize they made a bad keyphrase decision. Don’t let this happen to you. Sure, a company may not initially realize its keyphrase choices are duds. There may be an initial honeymoon phrase where some of those bad keyphrase choices (like multilingual communication systems--a true keyphrase choice from a dotbomb casualty) have high search engine rankings. But soon, the company realizes that their high rankings aren’t generating any traffic. Despite the top ranking, no one is searching upon the term "multilingual communication systems" (especially when what the site really offers, in plain language, is "free instant translation chat rooms").

The result? Their site transforms into a virtual ghost town, with the rare surfer stumbling across their pages. Think about it. Who cares if you have a No. 1 ranking if nobody searches upon that phrase? How much revenue will your site lose if your target market can’t find you? The only way you can ensure if a term will bring value to your SEO campaign is if you do the front-end research.

Unfortunately, keyphrase research is cavalierly disregarded as an "unimportant" step, thus hobbling any search engine success before it starts. Sadly, many marketing departments and business owners single-mindedly claim to "know" the exact phrases their prospects query with, refusing to do the most rudimentary reality check. That type of target market hubris results in worthless rankings for bad terms--and the offending Web site sees minimal ROI from its SEO campaign.

Still tempted to ignore this step? Think that SEO hubris (and low rankings) will never sully your large corporate site? Think again.

Heather Lloyd-Martin is president and CEO of SuccessWorks Search Marketing Solutions Inc., Click-through conversion pages for successful sites http://www.SearchEngineWriting.com This article is excerpted from her new book, to be published in February. To read a chapter on from the book, click here.