(The sixth in a multi-part series that covers finding and using lucrative keywords.)

In last week's article, Research, Step One, I explored the first of four steps in using keyword research tools to come up with your list of lucrative keywords.

This week, I'll be exploring the second of four steps in using those tools to come up with your list.

Let's find a better keyword.

But first, a word to those in the first group, that had the right keyword.

If your site had the same theme as the word you want to rank for, go to your browser, load up Google, and search for your site. If you're coming up with the keyword you wanted on the first page, and you're happy with the traffic you're getting from search engines, then your problem probably has nothing to do with keywords.

Your issue either has to do with your site content, the links on your site leading back to your site, the fact that your site doesn’t reside on your server, or the method you’re using to get your prospects to convert to sales, which we’ll get to later on in the content section.

There’s only one aspect that you may not be able to completely resolve using the tips here, and that’s if you're losing visitors between your product/service and your sales page or site design. They either can't find what you sell or don't want it.

That’s really beyond the scope of this article, but if you find that this is the problem, send an email to me. I’ll take a quick look and if it’s an issue a few tweaks can resolve, I’ll do my best to walk you through it. If not, I’ll give you as much guidance as I can, or give you the necessary information for a consulting request.

If you're still here because you didn't show up on the first page in Google, then here's where you're going wrong.

It’s one of two things. Either that's the wrong term to shoot for or you haven’t given it enough time. This isn’t magic. It took me about a month to hit the first page for “free traffic” the first time.

If you’ve been trying to rank for that term, using the methods outlined in this article for more than two months, chances are that the term you chose is either too competitive, or not targeted enough.

If it’s too competitive, I’ve run you through the drill on that already. I know full well that it’s not a popular stance, but if I wanted to be popular, I’d have joined the cheerleading squad in high school. :-D

For what it’s worth though, it’s the plain truth. That’s what I’m here for, to tell you the best way to get where you want to go with your site. I’d be steering you wrong if I told you the fairy tale.

Skip ahead to step three with your term and see if it comes up as harder than intermediate in Search Guild. If it does, go back and repeat step one to find another term. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll probably be able to rank for terms that are “hard” or “very hard”, but for now, that’s overshooting.

If you’re still here because your term is not targeted enough, you might get a ton of traffic and maybe some subscribers but no real prospects who are willing to buy. And quite frankly, you’re wasting your time.

There’s an easier way that doesn’t have to cost you a fortune. If you’re willing to take your time and learn the methods that work, there’s no reason you can’t earn an income from your site if that’s what you’re looking to do.

But there’s no magic potion and no cheating method that stands the test of time.

So here’s what you do in the case of a term that isn’t targeted enough.

Take that term and go to Search Guild. Find out what its difficulty ranking is. If it's harder than intermediate, again, you're wasting your time. You want "easy" or "intermediate" as a result. Later on, you should be able to climb into a hard or very hard keyword from there.

You can do the same at Wordtracker, just sort your results by KEI. The higher the Keyword Effectiveness Index is, the easier it will be to get that term. We'll take that term, as well as your originally desired keyword, and go to step three.

In the case of a term that isn’t targeted enough, what we need to do with your site is harder. You need to brainstorm better keywords. Go back to the most general term for your site and start the lucrative keyword research again from step one. This time, use Wordtracker.com’s free trial - you’ll find more keywords.

This time, analyze every keyword that has a relationship to your site, rather than just the one that seems most related. Start with the keyword you originally wanted, and brainstorm related terms from there.

If you're having trouble with this, use the OneLook Reverse Dictionary Search. You can read more about it in my blog - that’s a direct link to the discussion. When you find one that is more targeted, continue on to step three.

Discuss this article in the Small Business Ideas forum.