Once a month Contributing Authors Sharon and Roy Montero answer a
Search Engine Optimization question submitted by one of our newsletter
subscribers. This month's column answers the question,
Keyword Research & Analysis - What Are Your Top 10
Money Words?
All About Keyword Discovery - Part 1
July 2004
Question:
Alice (Seba) asked us if we'd write about "keyword research"
and how to choose the right keywords for SEO? Sort of a "dummies"
crash course ... The basics to get someone who is new to SEO
started on their keyword research.
So this month we'll start a series of articles that will focus on
how to perform keyword research from the ground up.
We'll also unveil a new venture of ours, a "keyword club," which
is a free private email forum. Subscriptions will not be open to
the general public and will be by invitation only. The keyword
club will help you to discover your most profitable keyword
phrases. More about this later.
Answer:
We all know that the key to SEO/SEM success is in-depth keyword research,
right?
In case you missed reading last month's column where we define SEO
and SEM you can click the link below to read it now.
What is SEO and SEM and is There a Difference?
Even though there are literally thousands of articles about
keyword research, it still remains the most difficult aspect about
SEO/SEM and that is why this series of articles will help you to
understand how to research, analyze and discover YOUR most
profitable keywords as well as discovering the easiest keyword
phrases to optimize your pages for.
Let's start with a simple illustration
showing the keyword search frequency of a few keywords. Let's say
that you want to start an online toy store or that you are a
consultant for Discovery Toys.
Here's a quick look at some Wordtracker numbers for some keywords
you will be researching and analyzing. (The number on the right is
the predicted number of daily searches you can expect for the
keyword or keyword phrase Web-wide.)
http://www.google.com/search?q=discovery+toys
Results 1 - 10 of about 726,000
http://www.google.com/search?q=buy+toys
Results 1 - 10 of about 10,100,000
http://www.google.com/search?q=toys
Results 1 - 10 of about 48,400,000
http://www.google.com/search?q=toy
Results 1 - 10 of about 17,200,000
PLEASE NOTE: In upcoming articles we
will further explore and define just what is meant by the term
"keyword search frequency" and we'll teach you how to use tools
like Wordtracker, but for now we'll just show you the simple
Wordtracker chart.
• While the keyword "toys" is frequently
searched for ...
... You may not want to optimize your page for this particular
keyword because chances are that you will probably have a
difficult time competing with the likes of ToysRus.com, KBtoys.com,
DiscoveryToysINC.com, FisherPrice.com, Barbie.com, Lego.com,
Hasbro.com, Mattel.com, HotWheels.com, Leapfrog.com and eToys.com
for a top 10 ranking, but that doesn't mean that you won't be able
to acquire high rankings for other keyword terms that these
companies aren't competing for.
You'll just have to do some real intense and in-depth research to
discover them.
This is what we refer to as "the road least traveled" when
it comes to SEO/SEM in general and keyword research in particular.
Now, the fact that this is the road least traveled is not a bad
thing, oh no, in fact it is a very good thing and filled with
great rewards for those who not only travel on this road but who
also stop to examine it in great detail.
And that is precisely what we will show you how to do in the
coming months, both with our articles and our keyword club.
For now, we invite you to look a bit deeper at some related and
more specific keyword phrases for the general term "toys" at
Yahoo,
AltaVista,
AlltheWeb,
Teoma,
WiseNut, and
Google.
Notice that each of these search engines will provide you with
additional search suggestions found either on the left or on the
right sides of the page.
While not every one of the suggestions made will ultimately lead
to YOUR money words, some may. The money words will become evident
to you in the later stages of our keyword research process, but
initially your goal is to collect as many keyword phrases as
possible and to place them in a list, preferably in a spreadsheet,
but just a simple list that you can save as a text file will do.
Another good place to look for additional search suggestions is in
the meta keywords element of the top pages for the term "toys" and
its related queries. In fact, the following is what you will find
listed in the meta keywords element for the homepage of eToys.com
...
The Meta Keywords Element
For eToys.com
<META NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="Toys, Christmas Toys, Birthday
Toys, Buy Toys, Online Toys, Kids Toys, Games, Hot Toys">
::: How To View The Source Code :::
To view the source code of a Web page just click "View" from
the toolbar (located at the top of your browser) and then
click "Source" (for MSIE) or "Page Source" (for Netscape).
|
For those of you interested in following along with us in this
series of articles and/or interested in joining us and your peers
in our new and upcoming keyword club, we'd advise you to create a
list of at least 200 keyword phrases that are related to your
primary keyword or primary keyword phrase and to have your list
ready by the end of the month so that you can move on to the next
phase.
Just use the resources we've just mentioned and you shouldn't have
any problem coming up with a list of 200 keyword phrases. For
those who are really challenged to go for it ... We'd advise you
to come up with a list of 500 or more.
Then to make this series as interactive as possible, we'd love to
use keywords that any of you would like to send us to possibly use
as examples.
These examples would be used in this series of articles and/or for
the keyword club and if we use your keywords we'll also include
your name and Website URL.
Keep in mind that if you would like to learn how to do in-depth
keyword research, keyword analysis and keyword discovery by
subscribing to our upcoming keyword club, that you will need to be
interactive. This simply means that you are willing to FIRST help
your peers by providing the club with some keyword research for a
certain business or industry. Upon completion of your keyword
research, it will now be your turn to be provided with the results
for the keyword research done by your peers in your business or
industry.
Please send us your top 10 or 20 keyword phrases and include your
full name and Website URL if you would like to be one of the first
to be invited into the keyword club.
Please email your information to us by
clicking this link and put ...
[ IBMoms Keyword Research ]
... In the subject line, thank you!
More to come in next month's column, so be sure to stay tuned.
::: IN SUMMARY :::
This month we start a multipart article that will help you to
understand just how important it is to spend a lot of time
discovering your most profitable keyword phrases to use. Since
keyword research, keyword analysis and keyword discovery are the
FOUNDATION of your first (or next or ANY) SEO/SEM campaign, it
makes sense to use your most profitable keywords right from the
beginning.
If you don't INVEST the necessary amount of time needed to
discover those keyword phrases that we refer to as your money
words you'll soon be asking a question like this one.
This is Typical of a
Frequently Asked Question About Keyword Research
I have no idea what keywords to use. I have done the entire
research thing such as what keywords people are searching for
versus how many sites those words are competing with. I chose
them carefully and I optimized the pages as well as I could
without being too spammy.
I'm still not even ranking for those keywords I selected. Do I
need to get spammy or do I need to choose new keywords?
I looked into hiring someone to help me optimize my site but
so far they all want about $1000 and all I need is someone to
just point me in the proper direction and then I can take it
from there. And I sure don't need to pay that much for
something I can do myself if I just knew where to start.
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In next month's article we will also let you know how you can
invest your time and energy into a new venture that we are
starting and how you can subscribe and participate in our keyword
club, a "by invitation only" email forum where you and your peers
can perform actual case studies to discover YOUR money words.
Alice Seba's newsletter subscribers (that's you, by the way) are
going to be the first ones to receive an invitation to the keyword
club. Shortly thereafter other popular publications' subscribers
will be receiving their invitations to join, so be sure to read
next month's newsletter early so that you can be one of the first
to subscribe.
_______________
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Click here to ask your SEO Questions
© 2004 This article was written exclusively for Internet Based Moms™
and may not be
re-published or copied without permission from Internet Based Moms™,
except to print one copy for personal use. Any questions regarding
use of this article should be directed to
Linda.
Comments and general questions about the article's content can be
directed to the authors.
_______________
More Search Engine Information:
Highly Recommended!
Check
Aaron Wall's SEO Book. Aaron's book
doesn't leave any stones unturned. He covers
everything you need to know about getting traffic to
your website and legitimately ranking well with the
search engines. His book covers all the nitty
gritty details in an easy-to-understand way.
