Pete Codella conducts a popular PR Daily webinar series on social media tools for PR professionals. He features one social media tool every week on PR Daily.

How many of you have a set of 25 to 30 keywords that guide your online publishing?

I’m guessing most of you don’t.

Whenever I speak to groups of communicators and marketers, I’m surprised by the relatively few hands that go up when I ask this question.

It’s one thing to think we know what the most important keywords are for our organization. It’s another to really know based on what people are searching. Sure, some of you may have a set of keywords you use in news release titles and blog headlines, but do you have a strategically crafted keyword list that’s vetted against actual online searches?

No need to worry. There’s a free tool that’s just right for you: Google AdWords Keyword Tool.

Here’s how you can use it to build that keyword list:

Let’s say I own a cupcake shop in Houston. I would begin this process by entering a few keywords in the Keyword Tool to find the most appropriate words and phrases for my online initiatives. I may type in something like cupcakes, bakery, dessert, Houston.

I’d then get a list of 100 or so keywords that people are using when they search online to find related information. (You’ll get two or three times that amount if you log in with your Gmail account. Plus, when you log in, you can export the data to Excel.) From that list, I’d select 25 or so of the most important keywords.

Keep in mind that choosing your keywords is part science, part art.

The tool enables you to sort by competition for keyword terms as well as local or global monthly search volume. In the cupcake shop example, I’d pay attention to local search volume, unless I was in the business of shipping cupcakes around the globe. I would also look for keywords that are competitive with high local search volume and for terms that are less competitive to strategically build a campaign around both sets of terms.

Of course, you should include the important keywords for your business, like the name of the business, its owners, product or brand name(s), etc.

Once you’ve determined these keywords, use them in your website copy and headings, press release headlines and copy, and, of course, in social media. Here’s where you should drop these keywords: your Twitter bio, YouTube channel (for example, YouTube.com/houstoncupcakes), and blog’s URL (such as HoustonCupcakes.com). Use those keywords in your blog posts.

You’ll also want to set a benchmark for your efforts. To do this, simply start by with a Google search for your keywords. Record how many first page search results point to your online resources. Repeat this process every month or quarter to see if your company or client is appearing on more first-page results.

To learn more about keywords, I recommend watching this 18-minute video by Wordtracker. Take some notes, and be sure to apply your keyword list to your newfound search optimization knowledge.