Which keywords to choose for SEO?

Question

I have recently started a site. it's not even 5 months old. The site's major content is images. When naming the images, I am using google's adword tool. I am able to see keywords with most and least searches, highest and lowest competition etc etc. But what I'm not sure of is how to choose amontg these keywords, the

• one's with most searches or the one's with least,
• one's with least competition or most
• one's with most approximate cpc or the opposite.

Do these criteria of choosing has to be changed when the site gets popular. Please explain in detail.

Answer 1

Easy:

one's with most searches or the one's with least

--> the more searches the better

but still, this is up to you. better rank high on a low search keyword with less competition, than not rank at all for a high volume keyword ...

"one's with least competition or most"

--> the least competition the better

the more competition you got, the lower your chance to rank solely on you image's file name for your particular keywords ...

"one's with most approximate cpc or the opposite"

--> irrelevant to naming your images

you are not bidding on keywords and do not have to pay per click (CPC = cost per click). generally the higher the CPC value, the more competition out there (or at least your competitors mostly know what their doing and your chances to rank high are slimmer ...)

Answer 2

Quick advice : your workflow seems a bit time-consuming. Maybe should you try describing the image in 5/6 words on-the-fly without worrying about CPC etc...

Instead, optimize data hierarchization inside your website (i.e use landing pages for each categories, tags ...) and use appropriate text links.