Keyword analysis is a major part of search engine marketing. Choose the right key phrase,check the market and calculate the ROI in terms of time and money.

I am just trying to redefine "The Boston Matrix" in terms of keypharse analysis, hoping that it will help in your investments.

There are three steps to it,

1. Market

2. Competition

3. Conversion Ratio

Let me explain it one by one:-

Market:

Check different key phrases using suggestion tools like word tracker,inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ or www.espotting.com/popups/keywordgenbox.asp , it doesn't have to be perfect as we are just looking for keyphrases with high search shares.Choose as many as possible with promising market.Google's Adword can also be used.

Competition:

Search in Google or yahoo and see how many sites are listed under respective key phrase search.For example when I search for 'key phrase' in google it says, - Results 1 - 10 of about 4,800,000 for 'key phrase'- this gives the primary idea of the competition. Take the first ten websites in SERP and check the following factors:-

1. Back Links (directly proportional to PR)

2. Saturation

3. Ranked Page's onpage attributes like Title, keyword density e.t.c

Competition is directly proportional to Back Links, Saturation and onpage factors but I consider the back links more crucial as achieving better saturation level along with onpage optimization is comparatively easier to obtain.

Conversion Ratio:

If 100 visits are made to your website from a key phrase, how many will get converted (sigup or buy).For example the key phrase 'mortgage quote' will have higher conversion ratio compared to 'mortgage rate' as the person searching for 'mortgage quote' is more likely to signup.

Create your own 'Boston Matrix' for keyphrase analysis.

Create the matrix in the following way:

Take a blank paper and pencil. Draw a square about 10cm X 10cm in size. Divide the square into four equal parts(cells). Each of these cells will denote a type of kephrase.

Take X-axis starting from the bottom left corner towards right. Take Y-axis starting from the bottom left corner towards top.

Name top two cells as C and D . Name bottom two cells as A and B. X-axis denotes Search Market. Y-axis denotes Competition.

Values on X-axis will be from high to low from left to right. Values on Y-axis will be from low to high from bottom to top.

Thats it - now you are ready to analyse !

C:

These key phrases require high investment of time and money but will deliver high in long run. Proper strategy and resources are required.

D:

ROI is very low, its better to avoid such keyphrases in the initial stage of business but at later stage some keyphrases do well without any investment due to the improved standard of the site.

A:

Low Competition but high market. It is with High ROI.Target such keyphrases as it generates the money to survive and invest on other cells of the matrix.

B:

You may choose not to invest at the initial stages of business as many of these keyphrases will automatically make it to top with time without any investment. After making few A's and C's, check the investment required for B.

Summary:

In the initial phase of your business invest on 'A's,later invest on 'B's and 'C's. I will advice not to invest on 'D's until it starts appearing in top ranks with time. In marketing we say that retaining a customer is tougher than getting a customer. Similarly if making it to top ranks is tough,then tougher it is to retain the position. So do proper risk analysis at every stage of your online business.