More General Keywords

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… there is no more important step in the SEO process than keyword research. One could make a compelling argument for link building or for architecture or for copywriting but at the end of the day – ranking highly for keywords that either don’t convert or which you close up shop waiting to rank for isn’t going to help too terribly much so in my opinion – I’d put keyword research higher in importance. In fact, when I’m building affiliate sites my first step is to look up keywords and competition levels – then I look into products and websites and this method has worked very well indeed. It insures that I choose keywords that will both convert and that I can rank for in a period of  ime and with an effort level that matches the return.

So – if you’re doing keyword research, where should you begin? Unless you’re an affiliate marketer you already have a product and since you’re the target audience of this article – I’m going to assume that’s the case. For the purpose of this article I’m going to pick a hobby of mine and also an area where I don’t have a client and imagine I’m doing keyword research for the imaginary online downhill mountain biking store, DH Mountain Bikes.

So Where To Begin …

The first thing one needs to do is try to think up all the possible phrases that might apply. I call this my seed list… it’s the list of phrases that my research starts with and is generally based on brainstorming. In this case the list would be:

• downhill mountain bike
• dh mountain bike
• mountain bike

The keyword tool I generally use first is Google’s keyword suggestion tool. There are other great tools but I’ve found Google’s tool to be as accurate as any other, the price is definitely right (free), and they’re very good about providing the information required to know just how wrong the data is if you know where to look. So let’s do just that.

Before we begin you’ll need to head over to Google’s keyword tool at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. In the top left (for now) you’ll see a link to a beta version of the tool. Click on the link and you’ll be at the new version of the tool which will provide you easy access to much more information – as long as you know what to look for. So let’s begin with our three seed phrases.

When you see the list you’ll first have to know what the numbers are. This tool is a tool designed for AdWords and the default number is the Broad match which means it includes every phrase with the term. For example, the term “mountain bike” has a broad match total of 2,740,000 which will include “downhill mountain bike”, “mountain bike parts”, “kona mountain bike”, etc. etc.

What we want to know is how many searches are for “mountain bike”. Down the left-hand side you’ll see a set of check boxes. Deselect “Broad” and select “Exact” and you’ll get the Exact match numbers – the number of searches for the exact phrase. You’ll quickly see that 2,740,000 drop to 450,000. This is how many people searched the GOOGLE SEARCH NETWORK for “mountain bike”. Why is this in caps – because it’s so commonly
misunderstood that I definitely want your attention brought to it. This isn’t the number of searches on Google.com – it’s the number of searches on all sites whose search is powered by Google. From YouTube to Beanstalk’s blog search – it’s all in there so the data starts to get skewed from the start. Then let’s add in all the automated queries from rank-checking tools and just manual searches from you and your competitors and the data gets further skewed. This skewing will exist in all data – the thing I like about using Google is that at least we know more about what’s adjusting the data.

OK – so from there we need to organize the data into a more useful set of information. To do this one needs to understand the columns of data. The first column is the keyword, the second you’ll see is a link to the term on Google Insights. We’ll get into this later. The next is Global Monthly Searches – this is the average number of searches/mo. worldwide. This can be helpful in some industries but in ours – I’m only concerned with the US market which is where my imaginary store ships to so I’m more interested in the next column Local Monthly Searches which is the number of searches in the US (or whatever region I’ve specified when entering my keyword phrases). This is the data I’m interested in. The last column is the search trend. This is extremely important but often overlooked. It is a column that wasn’t visible by default in the old/current version.

OK – let’s organize our data by search volume. Click on the “Local Monthly Searches” and you’ll see the keywords order by descending search volume. With this data in front of me I then typically look over to the Trend data to see what I can find there. In our case we’re going to see an increase in search volume in the spring and summer. This make sense of course. Think of your industry and see if the trends reflect what makes sense.

I’m also looking for anomalies. Often I’ll see phrases that jump for a single month. One has to know that unless there was a news story or other event that would spark interest in a single term or brand – a tool or some other such incident is likely falsifying the data. You need to look at these trends and see if they make sense. If not – you need to either test the phrases with PPC or just skip over them and select different phrases. There’s little worse as an SEO than focusing energies on a phrase only to find that the search volume is not what was expected based on the estimates delivered.

So now what?

So what do you do once you’ve filtered your data down to just what you’re interested in looking into competition levels on. Well – the first thing I do is to look to the trends to see if there are any phrases that obviously need to be filtered out. In this case there really aren’t any high in the search volume column. So the only thing left is to look at the competition levels to see what makes sense. For our purposes we’ll be dividing the list and research into two categories:

Major phrases – We need to decide what the long-term goals are going to be and the targets for the main pages. These will be the totally generic phrases such as “mountain bike” and “downhill mountain bike” as well as brand or type specific phrases such as “specialized mountain bike” and “full suspension mountain bike”.

Longtail phrases – We also need to look into the types of longtail phrases we’re going to want to target. In this case I know I’ll want to target specific parts which will require new research. I will spare you the details there, but I’ll end up with specific models of components such as “hayes mx2″. You don’t need to know what that is  - you need to know the makes and models in your industry (or other longatil opportunities such as “new york hotel with jacuzzi”, etc.)

I generally would gather together a list of 15 or 20 major phrases and 50 or 60 longtail phrases and would then head into the competition analysis to determine which phrases to move forward with.

And next week I’ll have that article for you…

Keyword Effective Index (KEI) what is it?

In laymen’s terms, the KEI of a keyword research term is the equation that you end up with that will tell you how easy a particular keyword is to rank for. What this is supposed to do is highlight quite easily which search terms to target in order to drive traffic to your site. Sounds great doesn’t it! If only it were that simple…

How to Calculate (KEI)

There are different variations out there about how to calculate KEI effectively, but I use and suggest the below:

KEI = (volume of searches per month)^2/(total number of competitors)

I said at the beginning of this article I would make this as simple as possible, so I will now attempt to explain how the above calculation works in terms of a real example

Cheap bathroom Suites (9900)^2/17700000 = 5.54

So, the KEI of the search term Cheap Bathroom Suites is 5.54. From experience, to find an ideal search term to target that will get results quickly (and this is where I am making it simple for everybody), I would be looking for a KEI of between 20 and 150, so this search may not be the best to target initially!

Sorry to get a little complicated now, but there are reports out there which say KEI is calculated using exact matching search technology. Let’s use our example again of Cheap Bathroom Suites. If we search Google by simply typing in our search term (broad match) we get 17,700,000 competing sites, making our search term not ideal to target initially. If we use exact matching searching we get 50,400 competing sites. Let’s run our equation again:

Cheap bathroom Suites (9900)^2/50400 = 1944

What a different result we get! Generally the consensus is the higher the KEI, the easier the keyword will be to target, and at 1944 we should be able to hit that in day one.

So what do we believe then? Do we listen to the articles that say that KEI is calculated using exact match search, or by broad match as in my first example? I tend to lean towards the first theory, as if nothing else, the first option will give you the worst case scenario allowing you to make a much more realistic decision.

Please bear all of the above in mind when looking into KEI, and there are thousands of calculators out there that will no doubt use a mixture of equations and searches (i.e. Broad and exact match). For this reason alone I always use my own equation, so I am happy that I am getting the results I expect to see.

As with everything in SEO do not rely totally on the KEI value when selecting Keywords use this only as a guide.

Some aspects of Internet marketing can be likened to surfing where you take advantage of natural forces to bring you to your destination.

Take keyword research for example. The aim of keyword research is to find out what most people are looking for so you can capitalize on it. Conducting research will reveal how much interest in a keyword exists even before you create a buzz about it through a marketing campaign. The main goal of keyword research is to identify existing interest and seek to use it to sell our products.

Like a good surfer, we must be able to identify the right wave and know how to use it in order to be successful. You can find many tools which are used to research keywords but only the best one can be a real asset to your business. Every Internet marketer should have a good keyword research tool because using the right keywords can easily boost your web page’s rankings in search engines.

Keyword Research tools

There are some great keyword research tools on the Internet, with the best ones allowing you to quickly and easily assess what keywords are popular for various niches. You can also use them to assess the popularity of specific keyword combinations as well as the usage of competing sales sites.

These tools can point you to the right backlinks to use,  and it can help you find high quality videos, articles and pictures to link to. The program also has a monetization tool that can help you pinpoint how best to profit from the words you use in your site.

Speed Is Good!

When looking for a research tool, speed should be an important factor. One of the fastest keyword research tools out there can pull up results faster than just about any other of its competitors on the market. When you’re
conducting research using multiple words for several sites, you’ll appreciate the speed that such a product brings to the table.  You’ll achieve more in less time.

Every successful internet marketer undertakes keyword research, and the smart ones use fast and accurate tools to help take the hard work out of the job.  By knowing which ones are out there and taking advice from people who use them and rate them – you will be streets ahead in getting targeted traffic to your site.  More traffic = more sales = bigger profits = desirable outcome.

Done well, keyword research is ‘key’ to driving targeted visitors to your website. In fact, the success of your business correlates specifically to the effectiveness of your keyword research.

It doesn’t matter if you are marketing your business or selling products or seriices via your web pages, you can only make profit if people actually come to your site.

However, you must attract not just anyone, but visitors who are interested in the product, service or opportunity you are marketing. The better the match, the more targeted your visitors and the higher quality they are as prospects for your business.

Why keyword research is important to your business success

Your best strategy will be based upon driving targeted visitors to your website. Keyword research is partly about exploring your niche ‘target’ market and partly about forcing the search engines to find your pages and rank them highly.

Getting on the first page of the search results is important to your business, since this is where the majority of people will find you. 70% of web searchers never look past the first page and the ‘hottest’ area on page one is upper left side where the top five sites are listed.

So how does keyword research help you target your visitors? Well, first, it can help you identify what words or phrases people are typing into their search engine, especially those most predisposed to your offer – in other words, highly targeted prospects equals high quality traffic.

What do people who are seriously interested in starting a home business on the Internet, for example, actually search on? What exact terms or questions are they searching on? This tells you where they are in the decision making process – are they ready to buy or apply or are they still browsing?

Second, how often (to a degree) your page uses certain words and phrases will determine how a search engine values it. All major search engines use ‘algorithms’ to decide how highly to rate any page they analyze. Such algorithms are essentially little programs, called spiders, which scan the text on your page and then index it based upon what the words and phrases tell them the page is about.

A properly constructed webpage should focus on one particular keyword or phrase you are targeting. Placing your main keywords at specific locations across your page means the search engines will ‘see’ them. These are the page title, description, meta tags and body, even the alternative text ‘tags’ for your images and videos. This is partly what search engine optimization (SEO) is all about doing.

How to identify your best keywords

The first step in your keyword research process is to find keywords that best match your most targeted visitors’ searches. Get into the minds of your prospects. What are their hopes, fears, desires, dreams?

Can you recall what your search was when you were exploring starting a home business? What are you main issues, needs, concerns?

As Perry Marshall says: “What’s the conversation that’s going on in their head?” The more you can step into your prospects shoes, the more targeted and specific you can make your keywords.

You are not looking for one golden shot here. You should identify a range of keywords and key phrases, come at it from all angles, test them out and see what converts best for your particular business.

Start off by selecting niches you connect with as an individual or have some expertise in. For example, moms looking to work from home around the kids or people who want to own a franchise business. Either may have an entrepreneurial spirit. People’s initial search may clue you in on where they are coming from.

The second stage is to identify keywords that are profitable. Don’t go after the browser terms, like home based businesses or make money online. These are far too broad and it will be either too expensive or take too much time to rank high for these in either the natural or the paid search results.

The focus of your keyword research must be on identifying longer more specific search phrases, we call “long tail keywords”, that give you a good chance of appearing in the top 5 results on the first page of Google, Yahoo or MSN.

How to use free tools to identify long tail keywords

There are many different ways of undertaking effective keyword research. Many actually make use of free or low cost tools. I’d advise starting with the free ones.

The simplest method is just to brainstorm. Write down every phrase or term you can think of that could possibly relate to your business opportunity, product or service.

Another way is to use Google itself. Type in a broad phrase like home business and you’ll see it returns millions of pages relating to that keyword.

But watch what happens as you are typing. Google will create a short list of popular searches that start with that broad keyword, so you can then type in these, and get more suggestions again. For any given keyword or phrase you type in, you can always check on related keywords which appear right at the end of the search results page.

You can also use the free keyword research tool at Wordtracker.com to drill down in much the same way.

Although these “long tail” keywords will generate lower volume, they are usually far less competitive. For example, look first at home business, then you might drill down to “home business opportunities in Denver” or “best home businesses in UK”.

A good rule of thumb is to identify a keyword that comes up with around 5000 searches for its specific exact match search (i.e. when you add quotations round it). E.g. “how to start a home business”.

Once you have a list of potential keyword phrases you believe are a good match for your business, you can move on to more detailed research based on actual search volumes and potential CPC (cost-per-click).

Use Google’s own free keyword tool, which can be found under Tools in your AdWords account. SEOchat.com, QuantCast.com and Spyfu.com also have some free tools you can use to spy on your competition.

It’s certainly getting more competitive out there on the Internet. Check out Google Trends (Google.com/trends) or NicheBot (nichebotclassic.com) to review the competition. Be on the look out for new terms coming up that match your business then test those out using the free keyword research tools again.

Keyword research is the solid foundation for your marketing and therefore your business, so using some ingenuity and persistence to find gaps in the current competition in your niche can really pay off.

Ranking high for your keywords

Once you have your list of potential long tail keyword phrases, you should check out the competition in terms of what websites and other content is already out there. This will allow you to create unique content around your keywords that stands out in the market place.

Put each keyword into your favourite search engine and review what comes up. If one of your keywords generates search results for a lot of authority sites or sites with a high page rank, you may find it hard to get your domain website ranked high.

However, you might have good success with a blog page, an article or a video tagged with that keyword phrase, since the search engines love web 2.0 properties like these. But if there are lots of videos out there already, just make sure you create a different web 2.0 property, e.g. a Squidoo lens or hub page, or podcast maybe.

If you develop content that is both unique in type and keyword-rich for your chosen niche, you are putting yourself ahead of the game. Both the search engines and your human visitors will love your stuff and hopefully pass it on and jump start the social viral marketing process.

Testing how well your keywords convert

At the end of the day, all the keyword research in the world will only give you an indication of likely success. The real proof of how effective your keyword research has been is in the testing.

It’s important to track your keywords against conversions rather than click through rates. This is the only true test for whether you’ve hit a profitable niche for your business.

In summary:

• The ability to conduct effective keyword research is a fundamental skill that any serious Internet marketer or business owner must acquire.
• Build unique and valuable content around long tail keywords that enjoy a fair volume of visitors but do not show too much competition with the aim of getting ranked on page one of the search engines.
• Without a profitable keyword list, you will pay dearly for each click in the paid search advertising and there is little chance that you will ever be able to generate targeted, focused leads from free organic traffic.
• Effective keyword research should therefore be the cornerstone of your marketing and your business.

Ever wonder how the pros find the perfect keywords for their website? What secrets or proprietary tools do they possess mere mortals like us do not?

The truth is, most search gurus don’t use any special keyword research tools. They employ the same set of tools available to you or me—most are even free to use.

This article will show you how to find high-volume keywords and determine if the competition warrants a realistic attempt at ranking for these phrases.

But before learning the tools of the trade, you need to get organized. Open an Excel spreadsheet and create six columns using the headings listed below:

• Keywords
• Average Monthly Searches (broad)
• Average Monthly Searches (exact)
• Advertiser Competition
• All in Title
• Word Tracker

Or you can download the keyword research template here to get started even faster.

Each column will serve a purpose in the keyword research process. Some identify competition levels, while others determine search volume. continue reading…