Archive for the ‘Keyword Research’ Category
published by Dan in Keyword Research | SEO Strategy
- discount computers - Just like for the search term “refurbished computers” you should optimise a special landing page that highlights the list of computers that are currently on sale. Note that you should not only optimise the page for the keyword so as to get traffic but that you should optimise the entire landing page to increase conversion rates. One way to do this for discount pages is to showcase the amount slashed off from the original price so as to make it more appealing.
- computer promos - Again the search term should be placed in the promo page and the page optimised accordingly. Note that discount computers and refurbished computers can be considered as falling under this category so provide a section and link to the two pages. Other other promos including freebies will be in the page. Make sure that if you plan on optimising this page for the search term in order to drive lots of traffic to it you always have at least one current promo customers can avail of. The reason for this is that while SEO will get you traffic an empty promo page will turn these very same people off. Even if its just a free mouse pad or a nice canvass tote for computer peripherals you should always have something there to entice the traffic you get from your SEO efforts.
- computer technologies - Even a website that sells computers and computer parts can benefit from traffic brought by people simply researching for more information about computer technologies. However, you shouldn’t opt to send people looking for information to a sales page but can bring them to a special pages that has computer articles or to a special page that provides useful links. The benefit of this is that even though these people do not plan on buying anything now by getting them to come to your website you will be able to develop brand recognition increasing the chances of them coming back to your site when they do need to buy a computer in the future.
Popularity: 100% [?]
published by Dan in Keyword Research | SEO
After discussing the purpose of the user for entering the search terms used as example for the previous post I will now discuss how knowing the intent should affect your decision regarding the placement of the keyword. I will be discussing the placement per keyword. Please refer to the previous post to re-check the user intent if you need to.
Before continuing with the discussion let us assume that the website being optimised for the keywords is a website that sell computers and computer parts.
- computers - Since this keyword is very vague as a website that sells computers my advice is to simply make sure that this keyword (both in the singular and plural form) be found ALL OVER the website. Being a very competitive term I would advice smaller websites not to bust their budget trying to make it to the top of SERPs with this keyword especially since users looking to buy computers usually enter more specific keywords.
- refurbished computers - Obviously this keyword should appear on the product description pages of each refurbished computer on sale. A wise thing to do would also to optimise a landing page for refurbished computers on sale. Although you would want your main page to contain the term refurbished computers so that people can still find it via the main page you should optimise the refurbished computers page for this search term more than you would the main page. Leading the user to a page with more specific information will encourage them to stick to that page since they information they need is right before them.
to be continued…
Popularity: 100% [?]
published by Dan in Keyword Research | SEO
Have you ever considered the role user intent plays when it comes to keyword placement? Let us take a look at a few examples for me to be better able to explain the role user intent plays. I’ll be giving some search terms and explain the probable intent of the user.
- computers - By entering a very vague search term the user shows that he’s probably just looking for information. If the user does intend to buy a computer in the near future he’s probably still in the looking/comparing stages and does not intend to buy one at that very moment.
- refurbished computers - The user probably plans to buy a computer and is looking at possibilities.
- discount computers - The user is probably plans to buy a computer and even has a specific budget in mind. Same level intent as someone looking for refurbished computer.
- computer promos - Some one looking for promos has an intention of buying a computer in the very near future if not at that very instant… but only if he finds a good computer promo that suits his budget.
- computer technologies - The user this time is probably searching for computer technologies to be able to learn more about computers. The purpose is research and not to buy anything.
As you can see the kind of keyword entered reveals something, even if not exactly, about the user’s intent. With this in mind you can optimise your web pages for certain keywords with the users’ intent playing a big role in deciding which keywords should be prioritised in which page. I will be discussing more of the keyword placement in my next post.
Popularity: 28% [?]
published by Dan in Keyword Research
One critical mistake commonly made is doing keyword research only once. After doing initial keyword research and choosing which keywords to optimise for many websites leave it at that and then refocus their attention on other things.
The thing with SEO, keyword research included, is that it is a continuous effort. What this means is that even though you already have a master list of keywords you should make review the list regularly. When you review your keyword list you should:
- see how well you rank for those keywords - You might need to exert extra effort and money on desirable keywords.
- check the quality of traffic those keywords bring - Although a keyword might be giving you lots of traffic the traffic it brings might not really be translating to the action you want - subscriptions, sales, etc. If the keyword brings low quality traffic you might want to refocus your attention on other keywords that might not bringing as much traffic but results in higher conversion rates.
- see if you need to include new keywords on your list - You should also see if you need to strike a keyword from the list. This is especially important for PPC campaigns because you don’t want to be spending money on non-performing keywords.
- see if you need to reconfigure you PPC budget - When it comes to monitoring your PPC keywords you might want to do this more frequently than the organic search keywords since you’ll be losing a great deal more money especially if bid prices for certain keywords are driven up by competition.
Popularity: 25% [?]
published by Dan in Keyword Research
Overlooking the competition - In school if you look at your seatmates paper during a test that is cheating. In the real world if you look at a competitors website before coming up with your own set of keywords its keyword research. Some people either still think they are in school and want to be good boys and girls or do not realise that they need to check out what the competition is doing and how well they are doing. It is very important that you check out your competition and assess their strengths and weaknesses to determine if you can take them on….to know if your business can survive with them as your competition. When checking out your competition you actually need to checkl them on different levels but since we’re talking SEO here all we’ll discuss are their keywords and SEO strategy.
In terms of SEO and keyword research what you should do to assess your competition would be to:
- If they actually do keyword research. They might be committing the very same mistakes listed here! That’ll be good for you if that’s the case.
- Figure out the keywords they’re targeting both for the organic search and in paid ads.
- Find out how well they’re ranking for those keywords. This will help determine how optimised their site is.
- Figure out how much effort and money they are pouring in to rank well for the keywords. This is more applicable to PPC campaigns and other forms of paid ads. This is important because you want to know if you can afford to spend just as much money and effort to replicate and even top their results.
- Note the websites that are doing well and try to figure out the elements that are contribute to their success both the SEO aspect and the web design usability aspect.
In some cases you will find that they are spending more than needed to get great results so at least by checking out the competition you can learn through their successes and mistakes and hopefully make smarter choices when it comes to keyword research.
Popularity: 25% [?]
published by Dan in Keyword Research
Having too many keywords - There are usually plenty of keywords to choose from and many become “trigger happy” ending up with a really long list of keywords they want to target. Targeting too many keywords is a big mistake because in most cases a lot of those keywords are either not used that much as a search term. This means that what happens is that you’ll be investing time trying to compete for keywords that won’t give you much in return. A waste of time if you look at it in the ROI point of view. Aside from this having too many keywords will make you spread your efforts to thinly. Choosing several really good keywords and focusing on building your rank for those words is better. Once you get the results you want you can start adding to the initial keywords. But don’t start neglecting the first batch of keywords you optimised for!
Sticking to vague single-word keywords - Targeting a single keyword such as “SEO” is not the best thing to do. In most cases single words are to competitive making the amount of effort, time, and money you need to rank among the top results for that keyword too much for most websites. That does not mean that you should remove that single keyword but that you should couple it with other keywords that make it more specific to your topic/theme. This one’s related to the error - looking at keyword popularity alone - that was discussed in the previous post.
Popularity: 25% [?]
published by Dan in Keyword Research
Keywords as well as links are the cornerstones of great SEO. As a cornerstone you would expect people to pay more importance to the kind of keywords they use as well as the concepts that underline keyword research. However, there are still several mistakes that people keep on making that impact their SEO efforts either negatively or simply wastes their time. To make sure you steer clear from such errors you should first realise that they ARE errors. Here’s a short list of some of the most common errors when it comes to keyword research and usage.
Hasty keyword research - The biggest mistake you can make when it comes to keyword research is not to do any real research at all. The next biggest thing is to do just a cursory keyword research. Keyword research is not the hardest thing to do but it still takes time and substantial effort to be able to make the best keyword choices. Most of the errors committed actually stem from this very first error. If more efforted is exerted in keyword research and more time is invested then the likelihood of committing all the other keyword errors are greatly decreased.
Looking at keyword popularity alone - Of course everyone wants to choose keywords that will bring lots of traffic, however, choosing a keyword based on its popularity alone os a huge mistake. The reason for this is that popular keywords are also very competitive. It is hard to rank well for keywords that are too competitive. Aside from the popularity of the keyword you should also consider the level of competition and if you are prepared to enter such a competitive arena. A good strategy if you can not is too add more niche keywords to your keyword selection. Remember being prepared to rank well for highly competitive terms doesn’t only mean know how but also lots of money since PPC bid prices for these terms are higher.
Popularity: 21% [?]
published by Dan in Keyword Research | SEO Tools
I don’t need to stress the importance of keyword research when it comes to SEO. Below are some tools that you can use to aid in your keyword research. Many SEO consultants use several keyword research tools since each tool has its different strengths and weaknesses.
- Google AdWords Keyword Tool - This will not give you in-depth results but is sufficient for looking up keywords and phrases related to your primary keyword. You can sort the results depending on the volume of actual times the suggested keywords are searched by people on Google.
- Google Trends - Helpful for analysing the trend of your keywords and phrases. By staying on top of which keywords and phrases are becoming more popular you can adjust your SEO campagin accordingly.
- adCenter Labs Keyword Forecast - This offers features similar to Google Trends and contains various keyword analysis tools.
- Wordtracker Free Keyword Suggestion Tool - Gives 100 related keywords and phrases to the keyword you entered. The results of Wordtracker comes from daily data provided by Dogpile and Metacrawler. The list of words is also ranked using an equation relating the frequency of search for each keyword and the actual number of sites competing for that keyword.
- Trellian Free Search Term Suggestion Tool - Pretty much works the same way as Wordtracker but differs in that the data used to rank the words comes from yearly data. Wordtracker uses DAILY data from Dogpile and Metacrawler.
- Yahoo Keyword Selector Tool (Overture) - Offers keyword suggestions based on actual searches done on the Yahoo search engine.
- SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool - Uses the Yahoo Keyword Selector Tool but offers other useful information aside from the keywords listed.
Popularity: 31% [?]
published by Dan in Keyword Research
Using the right keywords is a very important component of any successful SEO campaign. However, it is not just the use of the right keywords but HOW you use the keywords that makes an even bigger impact. You might have done your keyword research and come up with a pretty good set of terms but if you don’t put them into proper use then those keywords wouldn’t be as effective.
To optimize the use of keywords you should make sure that the keywords are used in concert. This means that you should have a clear idea of what each page in your website is about and how to use keywords in each page so as to reflect the overall theme of your site. You would want to use keywords that are inter-related to be able to build a more solid theme.
If your website covers a pretty broad topic(s) then you can at least make sure that each portion/section of the website uses keywords that will enforce the specific theme of each section. Aside from this you should of course also use the most important keywords of each section in the main page so as to link the individual sections to the main page giving the search engines (and your visitors) a good overall look of the website’s entire scope.
In my next post I will go over the different components in your website where you should make sure the proper keywords appear.
Popularity: 16% [?]
published by Dan in Keyword Research
Before I continue with the series of online video optimisation posts I would like to re-tell something that happened a few hours ago reminding me about the importance of keyword research.
A few hours ago, right before writing today’s post my partner and I were discussing future plans. I remembered this great prefab houses I stumbled on the internet about a month back. The problem was I couldn’t remember exactly what it was called. Now I know it sounds dumb but ask anyone who loves to surf the net and you will find that this is a very common problem. People tend to remember website names pretty vaguely, unless your website has a very sticky name that you just can’t help but remember, let alone the website’s URL. This is actually the very reason why search engines is the number one gateway for finding information. People don’t want to have to remember exact phrases or words. It is more convenient to find websites by typing in words or phrases that you know are related to what you are looking for. This is why your website’s keywords are very important.
Now the prefab houses I remembered was (as I now know) called FlatPak. It is actually getting really popular nowadays but I just couldn’t remember it. My point about keywords is that I spent more than an hour searching for it trying various search strings before I found it. The search strings I tried were:
- Packed It House
- Packed House
- Packedhouse
- Prefab Houses
- Prefabricated Houses
- Modular House
- Unique House
In none of these did the FlatPak website rank well. Sure I could just have entered Pack House, which it ranks very well for but the point is that I remembered wrong and ended up finding it through difficult research by the time which my partner has already lost interest and fallen asleep. Lesson learned you may sell great houses but if you have a poor range of keywords in which you place well you will lose customers.
Popularity: 14% [?]
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