...eed first to clarify whatwe mean by the term "keyword".The term "Keyword" has two meanings depending on whether you are: Search for something or Writing a webpage >From the perspective of an Internet surfer a keyword is the wordor words used to search for something. For Example if you werelooking for a information about cruise holidays you would go toyour favourite search engine and enter:cruise holidays or cruise holidays Caribbean, cruiseholidays Med, cruise holidays cheap ...

...etcThese are the keywords from the perspective of the searcher.Notice that although we have used the term keyword the searcherusually enters more than one, 2-3 word searches are the mostcommon.>From the perspective of an Internet publisher i.e. someone whowrites web pages a keyword represents the topic or theme for aweb page. For example if you were going to write an article onMediterranean cruises then the page keyword would beMediterranean cruises, and the page content would all be focusedon that.What is Keyword Research?Keyword research is about finding out what Internet surfers areactually searching for. Are they searching for:cruise holidays or cruise holidays Caribbean, cruiseholidays Med, cruise holidays, Mediterranean cruises cheap,Romantic Mediterranean cruises etcYou don't want to make a website or write a webpage on"Romantic Mediterranean cruises" if no one or very fewpeople search for them.Keyword Research Tools There are number of tools available for keyword research,however the main ones are : Overture Keyword SuggestionTool- Overture is a free tool and can be used directly from theoverture web site or through many derivative programs.Wordtracker - is commercial software specifically developed forkeyword research. They do offer a free limited trial version ontheir website.For more details see the resources at the bottom of keywords and keyword research page and keyword tips for tipson choosing keywords. Keyword research is not just importantfrom a web page optimization perspective but also from amonetization one when using Google Adsense.The value of your web page can vary considerably depending onyour keyword selection as you will discover in Keywords and Google Adsense.