In the beginning of this chapter, we introduced the three phases of keyword strategy: collection, analysis, and expansion. We have learned how to gather and collect keywords, and now we'll move on to the analysis phase: how to tune and hone your keyword list for maximum effectiveness, how to prioritize keywords, how to group keywords into families, how to account for seasonal variations in keyword traffic, and finally how to introduce negative keywords to avoid useless traffic.
Be realistic about the breadth of your keyword profile: if you are just starting out in a competitive market, you may not realistically rank for all your desired keywords. Even experienced SEO professionals with tremendous link building power at their disposal will prioritize certain keywords for an initial launch and then introduce other keywords and keyword families in phases once rankings have been established.
It makes sense to work in phases, preferably in...