Should I hire keyword research or can I do it myself effectively?

A number of related issues go into the answer to that core question. Some of the most important of those are these:

1. The extent to which you understand how to locate keywords and track down keywords that are closely related

2. The keyword software that you have at your disposal

3. Your skills at using the software

4. Your knowledge concerning determining which keywords are actually beneficial from a business perspective

5. Your budget

Glancing at those five, notice that they boil down to how much you have studied the process of keyword research and whether the outsourcing alternative is within your financial resources. Let me address each of those in a bit more detail.

What You Must Understand

Identifying relevant keywords and phrases is as important as any other part of your new business. In fact, it is more important than most of your planning. Your list will form the basis of all of your search engine optimization efforts, your advertising campaigns (PPC and others), your copywriting and your article marketing efforts (as well as your other content syndication). The entire future of you business is directly related to the quality of your keyword research.

There are many tools available online. Some are free to use, such as Google’s tool; others are not. You must be willing and able to use a mix of these resources in order to develop the most comprehensive list. You should gather information comparing keyword research tools.

While use of the tools is relatively simple, in most cases, interpreting the results can be very tricky if you do not yet have considerable experience or a significant knowledge base. Each keyword that you discover will not have the same value to you as every other keyword, and the number of searches for any given keyword does not automatically make that keyword of greater importance to you particular business than another keyword that draws much less traffic.

Money

I believe that even if your funds are limited, keyword research is so important that, if you are not capable of conducting and interpreting the study, this is a place to spend those precious financial resources. The expense of outsourcing keyword research is relatively small when you consider the potential return on that investment. It is especially useful if the professionals that you hire also provide a competition analysis and include advice regarding how to compete with the established businesses in your market.

Often keyword research is bundled into an overall search engine optimization (SEO) contract. These contracts are considerably more expensive. However, if you choose to go this route (contracting for an SEO package), make sure you understand exactly how thorough your SEO company will be.

Bottom line: You can do this task yourself if you already know a great deal about the process (or are willing to take the time to learn what you need to) and if you have the critical tools.