Since I started doing information marketing about 12 months ago I came to notice that there is a big problem within the community. There are many great marketers (including gurus) who are willing to help and provide valuable information to beginners, intermediates etc... Nevertheless I also saw a common pattern, they go straight into the methods, regardless of the level of understanding of their audiece. So hundreds of doubts and questions always come about (especially from beginners). The reason is quite simple, they give for granted that their audience already understands the basics and what the hell they are talking about. But in several situations that is not the case, in fact, in most situations that is not the case. Now that my insight has been covered, I'll go straight to the point. One of the most frequently asked questions regarding internet marketing is "What the hell is keyword research, how does it work?" and other variations of the same question. I'm here to explain it thoroughly. Keyword Research: The Theory We as internet marketers have some very valuable tools at our disposal. One of which allows us to figure out exactly what terms or phrases are being used by people from all over the world to find information about specific subjects in the search engines and also how many people are using those specific terms everyday. With the power of keyword research tools we can find that out and with almost precise numbers. From my understanding there are two types of keyword research tools. 1. The ones that pull the information directly from the databases of the search engines (Such as Google External Keyword Tool and Yahoo Overture).These are usually quite accurate (at least in respect of the search engine database they pulled the data from) but are usually based on a previous month or previous data, so they are somewhat out of date. 2. The ones that pull the information from the metacrawlers and are not as accurate, but they are up to date. Such as Wordtracker and SEO Book Tool. As you can see, not 1 tool is entirely accurate, so I suggest you use them in cross reference. There are also powerful software programs out there that leverage these tools. Good examples are Micro Niche Finder and Market Samurai. All these tools and software allow us to do several things such as measuring demand, market research, but most importantly allow us to use them so that we can intercept that traffic in the search engines. Anyway, that was a brief description and definition of keyword research and the tools. Now time for their practical use. The Practice Keyword research is a lot easier than some people might think. Basically what I do is research a subject or niche I wish to work on, once I get a hold of the terms that are being used within the niche, I start doing the keyword research. For example, let's say I'm researching the dating niche. I find out there are several niche terms, such as: dating ; pick up ; seduction ; flirting ; rapport ; kissing ; attraction (and many more) I grab those terms and insert them into the keyword tools, then a long list of keywords related to the term are displayed. You want to go for the long tail keywords/phrases (3 words or more). Why? Because those have way less competition than the other ones. The keyword tool will also tell you how many daily or monthly searches are being done for the specific terms on the list. Those numbers mean how many people are using the keyword to do a search in the respective search engine. Now, that can be used as one measurement of demand in a niche. But most importantly you want them so that you get your work to be displayed in the search engines for those specific keywords! Be it your blog, article, site, bookmark, magazine, whatever. The next step is measuring the competition, usually that is done by doing a search for the long tail keyword/phrase in the search engines (like Google) under quotation marks. For example: "how to seduce women" A number of search results will be displayed in the search engine and that number is the true competition for that keyword. Why are the results extremely different (and higher) for the keyword when it's not used in quotation marks? Simple, because when it is not used in quotation marks, the sites that use related terms, synonyms etc... also display (that is the fake competition). However, the number of competition is not all there is to it. There is also something called the "strength of competition" which is actually MUCH more important than the number of competition. The SoC includes several variables, mainly: Page rank (not site rank), page reputation, authority, incoming links, page rank of incoming links, relevance of content and many others. If the SoC is low, even if there is a lot of competing sites, the keyword will be easy to rank for. There are tools like Micro Niche Finder which measure the SoC to an extent. You can also use this free tool to detect if a keyword has commercial value or not: Detecting Online Commercial Intention: Audience Intelligence: adCenter Labs The Criteria Now, the personal criteria I use to pick keywords is if they have at least 300 monthly search results, less than 300,000 competing sites and less than 30 incoming links. That works fine for me. With this criteria and 100 keywords (there are thousands of thousands for every niche I can assure you) that's a potential of 1,000 daily unique visitors. But by all means don't consider my criteria as the only one, other people use different parameters. Use what works for you. There are literally hundreds of variables to measure the competition, but I don't want you to complicate yourself for now, so the ones provided will suffice for now. Enjoy! Best of luck, Tadas Luksys
This is a great topic to get a discussion going and thanks for starting it - great post by the way. I'll add a few comments as well.... I am not as good with words as you are but maybe we can generate a great thread where we can direct people to that are asking about keywords, eh? keywords are kinda like using the key to your house... you have to use the right words when you search google to get to certain places... and you WANT to create the right "keys" for others to be able to find YOUR internet door...enter your site and spend money - eventually!;-) I mostly use the free google keyword tool which you can find at: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal Here are some basic steps I like to take when checking out keywords for a niche: 1) enter the keyword and for instance, let's enter "raising kids" 2)once the results are shown for this topic, you can see that there is not that much competition for that particular phrase - ( you can see by the little green boxes how much competition you have) ... competition is basically showing what you are up against with people that are bidding for that keyword on adwords, etc... and how hard it will be to 'get found' on the net by searching for that keyword phrase. 3) the search results are okay but as you scroll down the line of suggested keywords you will soon notice that "parenting" and "teenagers" have MUCH higher search numbers. 4) So I'll change my keyword term to "parenting teenagers" which is much more specific. 5)So now I see the search results are about the same but the competition is quite a bit higher which means that it probably is a great niche as buyers are paying for it as a keyword. 6)Now I know I can use BOTH phrases as people search for both of them...one is just way more targeted...meaning that the traffic you can generate with that keyword will be people that are searching for exactly the info you are presenting. 7)Plus there are a whole string of keywords there for you to use to build a website with, if you are wanting to write about "parenting teenagers"... Note: There is a whole ton of further market research you can do if you want to BEFORE building anything but I have seen people research something to death and then never DO anything with it. Here is my advice if you are a newbie and are wanting to get your feet wet without spending money just yet.. Just to get familiar with the whole online marketing thing - building pages or blogs, etc.... pick a niche that you would be comfortable writing about WITHOUT having to do tons of research. Do your keyword research and set up a blog, using your MAIN KEYWORD as the name of your blog.... have your main page on your blog be focused around that keyword, using it is the title, first few sentences, and a form of it scattered throughout the post. Then pick choose the next best keyword and start writing great posts on your topic. This will get you familiar with writing content on the internet - adding pictures, etc... As you go along you will start learning all kinds of things - like how to add affiliate links, adsense etc... but NONE of that benefits you at all, if you don't know how to use keywords. Sooner or later, you WILL purchase some sort of tool to help you and for most of us, it is in the form of some ebook or guide. I have no idea where I would be now, if I had NOT invested in something to help me.... and yeah, I have used a variety of programs. But the whole point is to GET STARTED - you will learn more by DOING than any other way that I know of. And don't kid yourself - success did NOT happen for any of the gurus overnight either. They were just busy DOING and LEARNING, when things just clicked and came together for them... I'll try to add more later but Cheers for now!
This is an excellent thread and one I wish I had ran across when I first got started. Keyword research is the key to building a successful site and with all the tools available, it's not as hard as it used to be. Wordtracker also offers a free tool that can help somewhat in keyword research.
Great summary! I totally agree that when we progress to higher level of skills and knowledge in certain area, we tend to forget about the very first important things for those who are just beginners because they became obvious for us I use Market Samurai to research keywords and analyze competition and it is one of the best tools I have used due to its complexity! But I rather choose phrases with less than 30.000 competing websites and I make sure the competition is not too strong. Thanks to it, plus of course building backlinks the website can rank high even within weeks.
mountainmom5: But the whole point is to GET STARTED - you will learn more by DOING than any other way that I know of. And don't kid yourself - success did NOT happen for any of the gurus overnight either. They were just busy DOING and LEARNING, when things just clicked and came together for them... Get busy "DOING" can't be emphasized enough. And to add to that doing it consistently. Way to many people are succeeding at various levels in marketing a variety of things online. I continue to see the barrier of success once a person is engaged in a business being the failure to get busy "DOING" consistently. Earmark your Home Business Time and work it like a job so you can have the financial flexibility and freedom you desire from your home business in a manner in which a job could never do.
mountainmom5: I mostly use the free google keyword tool which you can find at: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal Yes, google keyword tool is a great tool. Learn how to analyze keywords using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. In addition, you can use the Macro Function in Microsoft Excel to sort through keywords suggested by google keyword tool in a number of ways to find keywords that are high in search volume and low in competition.
Wow! I was just thinking about this and it is so true that many who are new to this really don't grasp keyword research. I still consider myself very green in all of this and I have been at it for a while. When you say strength I am not sure I am interpreting this right, but I assume you mean the competition and what they have out there. I always just Google my keyword and check on the variations and what is out there on the topic. If I am writing an article, I want my title to grab attention more than what is already there. If I Googled "Texting a Girl" there are tons of variations of this. Texting a girl, the rules for texting a girl, texting a girl you like etc... I may incorporate 2 keywords into one article such as "Texting a girl to make her smile". I have texting a girl, and make a girl smile all in one. The title is more catchy as well. If this is stupid, someone please tell me. I am a bum marketer to the core.
Gosh, when I first started out, I was so mesmerized with the whole "find the right keywords and you are in!" phrase, that I used to research for hours on end and days on end. I almost think it was an addiction! LOL! Now, with the 2 tools that I use, I am a pro! I wished that there was a way to get paid for finding great keywords for other marketers..... Now, I am trying to concentrate on perfecting article writing. I've written almost 100 articles but it seems that it gets more difficult. My problem is that I'm spreading myself too thin on several sites and realize that I should just concentrate on one. Get it up and running strong and then rinse and repeat with another site, and then another. So, to add to the ever important messages above, to be like Nike and "Just do it", you really should concentrate on one thing at a time until you have it perfected...... like your first website, before moving on to the next. As far as teaching a newbie about IM, one should practice on a spouse or friend that has no clue of what verbiage IM entails and have them stop you when you say something that flies over their head. The thing is that the IM vocabulary becomes second nature to us after so long, we just assume the student understands. Heck, I can't figure out why someone doesn't know what "monetizing" or "social bookmarking" or "RSS aggregators" mean!!!!
Although the algorithms that the main search engines use are unknown to the large public, it is a demonstrated fact that keywords play an important part in the indexing of your web site, as well as in the rankings with the search results. As has been said before, quality traffic to your website can be generated in a number of ways, most of which are probably unknown to marketers who have little experience with search engine optimization projects. Still, everyone knows that good keywords are vital to online marketing campaigns, not necessarily in terms of boosting rankings and visibility, but more in terms of what you could be missing out on should you not have such targeted keywords.
Very informative thread! Keywords can be considered the basic building blocks of online marketing. Just about every aspect of promotion and advertising relies on targeted keywords to attract the most qualified prospect. Understanding how to use the various tools available to gather the appropriate data, and then interpreting that data to design a marketing strategy, is critical to the quality of results you get. mountainmom5: And don't kid yourself - success did NOT happen for any of the gurus overnight either. They were just busy DOING and LEARNING, when things just clicked and came together for them. And you can be sure they made several mistakes along the way until they managed to figure things out. That's another way of saying: "They hung in there!" Hermas
Hi I am new here, but I have been researching keywords and if someone would be so kind to tell me what they think of just going to the end of the search results to find the amount of competing websites instead of taking notice of what keyword research tools tell us. The reason I ask is I found a great keyword but it had 29,000,000 competing results in google and about the same in market samurai but going to the end of the search results the actual amount was only 560. I have done this now with all of the keywords with high competiting sites and the results are not what google or market samurai are saying, but are much less. Denise
hello everyone....i am a newbie to IM and also new to this forum... grt thread going on ...... traffic is life and blood of internet marketing....without traffic our site is nothing...its like even though i serve yummy pizzas yet no one is out there to buy one....its like having a shop in a desert... and keyword research is vital to generate traffic... Can the experts in IM at this forum guide me whether there is any long tail keyword left in the internet marketing niche ??? .....i think all are already taken...
aniket Its not so, there are lots of long tail keyword still available to use, you need to research it. And in terms of keyword research no internet marketer would tell you this or that keyword is less competitive, the reason, instead of telling you they would like to optimize those keywords. so you have to invest your mind, your creativity for finding less competitive keywords.
It's cool as all knows that keyword Research is very important to promote a website and This needs a very intelligent research and you have posted very important information related to this.
Thanks for the great advice! I however have never had any luck with keywords research I must have spent weeks finding the right ones, I used market samurai which supposedly filters your keywords untill you end up with gold nuggets! Well now I have most of those gold nuggets indexed in Google's top 10 search results, yet almost all sales I have ever made have come from words searched for that are in my sites body/content! Anyone else noticing this?
For keyword research I do use Keyword Elite II and I did also use I when that was available. Keyword elite has many great features such as Keyword sludge, Market research, adwords time machine, and search engine dominator + more. It still gets updates. The latest was just now. I can build the keyword list and see every data I need including searches and phrases and what not. How hard is it to rank and who is in top 10 and why? A paid tool that I can warmly recommend to anyone who is trying to do keyword research online.
I personaly like using jaaxy.com , it is simple, easy and fast and it even ranks your results by giving it a green, yellow or red light. The red one is the most difficult to rank for but of course it doesn't mean it is impossible
