| |
| |
|
SEO Information |
|
|
|
Wordtracker Wisdom: Common Keyword Questions and Answers
One of my favorite subjects to teach on at our live SEO Mastery Workshops is that of keyword research and the behavior of a specific target audience using my all time favorite research tool, Wordtracker. For those who have not heard of, Wordtracker it is a Web based service that will help you discover which keywords and phrases will be most effective for attracting the right audience to your Web site. Not only that, but the service also tells you how competitive your keywords are (or how many other competing Web pages have been optimized with those keywords in mind) plus how many people have actually searched for those keywords in the past within the last 60 days on the major search engines. Wordtracker can be used for even more powerful things than just "researching keywords." I'll be revealing much more in the future about the impact of researching "visitor behavior" vs. keywords QUESTION: What is one of the more common mistakes made by new SEO students who are just learning how to research keywords? ANSWER: One common error that some people make (both new and experienced) when researching keywords, is they tend to have a lot of preconceived keyword phrases in their minds. While this may not seem like a bad idea, the fact is that people sometimes spend hours, days, and even weeks researching hundreds of keywords only to be disappointed in the end when many of the keywords they've chosen, turn out to not have any real pulling power to attract the right traffic. There are many keywords which are just too competitive or worse, some words are not even being searched for. For success you want a keyword phrase that is at least being used by your target audience and ideally, it'll be a phrase with low competition. Wordtracker has tremendous ability to deliver up extraordinary niche keyword phrases which are in high use by a given target audience and sometimes even with zero competition. I'll be sharing much more about exactly how you can tap into these ideal phrases and how you can do it nearly instantly without spending hours or weeks of research. QUESTION: What do you mean by the term researching the target audience's "behavior?" Is that not what Web analytics software like Webtrends does? ANSWER: No, Web analysis software generally tells you about the behavior of visitors within your Web site after they have found you. I am talking about the importance of researching your ideal target audiences behavior long before they ever find your Web site. Wordtracker has tremendous potential to reveal clues as to what your target audience *really* wants or what they might be looking for. QUESTION: I have searched Wordtracker's report of "most searched for phrases" but I can only find one appropriate keyword phrase? I want more. How do I get more good phrases? ANSWER: Here are just a few quick tips: 1. Take the one phrase or keyword you found and enter it into "Comprehensive Research" and click Proceed. That should bring out a variety of phrases that are related to the same subject. (I'll be sharing much more on this in the future) 2. Apply a little more lateral thinking about who your target audience is and research a little more about how they may be searching. Thinking "outside the box" mixed with Wordtracker's comprehensive search can be powerful. 3. If you can't find enough gold in the top 1000 "most searched for" phrases you are not thinking laterally enough. It is there, we just need practice learning how to tap into it. But for the sake of argument, if you could not find ANY keywords within the top 1000, did you know that you can actually purchase a killer list of the top 20,000 keywords or the top 100,000 keywords. QUESTION: I have done well with my keyword research and Wordtracker has helped me to build some great high performance strategies. However, I want to add more great ideas for content (and sell even more product), but I feel like I have really hit a dead end? I think I've already chosen the best keywords. ANSWER: If at any time you feel that you've hit a dead end, then it's time to stop thinking about your product or service and start using Wordtracker's powerful database to help reveal a new strategy which you could employ. Your focus must be on your target audience's "behavior." Stop thinking in terms of how bad you want to sell the product and start examining how people might be searching for the product. Often you will discover that there can be "multiple target audiences" perfect for your product. You just have not realized it before. I'll guarantee there are many, many, more powerful niche phrases in Wordtracker's database of over 380,000,000 million queries within the last 60 days. To many Webmasters, those powerful killer phrases remain hidden and elusive. QUESTION: Wordtracker has a feature to help me identify the most common spelling errors. How many misspelled words should I include in my keyword Metatag? ANSWER: The best thing here, is not to go wild with misspelled words. The keyword Meta Tag has always been a great place to include 2 or 3 misspelled words. As you may know, the keyword Meta tag is not even that influential anymore, but a couple of researched misspells will not hurt things. TIP: A much more powerful use for an important keyword that you identifyas commonly misspelled, is to try using it in your Google Adwords campaign, if you are running one. QUESTION: Sometimes I just want to check the validity of one keyword phrase without looking at hundreds of other suggestions returned in Wordtracker's results. Is there any way to do this easily? ANSWER: Sure. On the main menu under Item 5. Multiple search, choose the second option down called Exact/Precise Search. Using this option will return details on just the specific keyword phrase you are looking for. QUESTION: I would like to know how Wordtracker is for accuracy? ANSWER: Wordtracker uses results which are extracted from the Meta search engines so they are actually very pure. In other words, these are numbers which are not skewed by the use of automated querying software. QUESTION: Which of the major search engines are best to focus on when doing research. I am assuming it is best to spend time studying Google. ANSWER: I guess it depends on which type of research you are doing. Certainly one of the best search engines to explore for keyword research is MSN. This is not only because a lot of folks are shopping on MSN but because MSN can still be influenced fairly quickly. (Secondary results are coming from Inktomi and for longer 3 or 4 word phrases and you can get real quick exposure by optimizing for results researched in MSN if you use paid inclusion. On the other hand, if you are researching human behavior more than just keywords, I would stay focused on Google simply because you can discover great opportunities in Wordtracker for "behaviorally related" phrases. Let's face it, most folks (including your target audience) are searching on Google right now so it's still one of the "most revealing" places to help you understand what people are doing online. About The Author John Alexander is the Co-Director of Training of Search Engine Workshops http://www.searchengineworkshops.com with Robin Nobles. Together, they teach 2-day beginner, 3-day advanced, and 5-day all-inclusive "hands on" search engine marketing workshops in locations across the globe. John also teaches online search engine marketing courses through http://www.onlinewebtraining.com, and he's a member of Wordtracker's official question support team. john@searchengineworkshops.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Drive More Traffic to Your Website With Your Web Page Title! One of the most overlooked, but important components, on your web page is the Meta title. The Meta title is the text or page title found at the top left of your browser window and it is also the title saved when a web site visitor bookmarks your website. Search Engine Traffic Domination - How to Turn the Search Engines into Your 24/7 Salesmen Getting your website returned by the search engines as a high result is a significant goal by most webmasters because higher search results means higher traffic and revenues. However, there are some tips you can utilize to help your website gain better rankings by the search engines and ways to turn the search engines into your 24/7 salesmen. META Tags Explained and How To Use Them For Ranking The META tags are used to provide extra information about a web page. There was once a time where a good search engine ranking could be achieved by simply changing the value of the META tags. Winning the Search Engine Wars! Creating and building effective Search Engine marketing campaigns is like trying to nail jello to the wall! The challenge can be daunting to many, requiring very specialized knowledge of process that must be blended with unique and disparate technology. Here is some insight gained from years of experience providing these services to clients. How to Choose Keywords to Theme Your Pages and Boost Your Traffic One of the most frequent questions I get asked is in the choice of keywords for a new site, specifically secondary keywords.. Do Not Drop Your Web Site Off the Search Engine Cliff If you've been feeling like Tom Cruise climbing up the side of some remote jagged mountain in the blazing hot sun and concerned you're facing "mission impossible", chances are you own a web site.Adding to the intense thrill of web site ownership are keyword comparisons and bidding for good keyword positions in search engines. Top 10 Little Used SEO Strategies There are millions of web sites trying to get listed in the top 20 to 30 spots on the major search engines. That's a lot of competition! So if you're having a hard time getting those spots, maybe you should try some little used but effective seo strategies to get those prized listings. Ten Critical Website and Search Engine Promotion Mistakes When it comes to promoting your website, you might think that anything you can do to get people to your website is worthwhile. However, you should think again because some shady practices will actually hurt you. SEO Expert Guide - Conclusions (part 10/10) As you have seen throughout the guide, search engine optimization (SEO) is a multi-faceted activity. Likely to be time-consuming, it is important that you spend your time wisely. 7 Steps to Highly Relevant, Search Engine Friendly, and People Useful Web Site Content The task is to build a Content Rich Search Friendly and People Friendly Web Site Quickly. These 7 Steps will show you how with about 10 Hours work you can build over 50 pages of rich, Search Engine relevant content for your web SiteStep 1 - What is Your Web Site's Main ThemeThis is a Fairly easy step. You Cannot Hide From the Public Record Search Engines As a search engine optimization specialist, I often run across search engines of different sorts than most people are aware of. This week I stumbled across a free site that is used by journalists to do background checks and fact checking on sources of news stories. Link Building Services In today scenario when we talk about Search Engine Optimization, we also talk about one of the most important aspect of SEO, which is Link Building. But there are different types, aspects and limitations of Link Building, which would be discussed now under1. Breaking the Myth About Page Rank (PR) The most difficult challenge most web designers face is getting traffic to your site. There are plenty of companies who promise to send traffic your way. Introduction to Google Page Rank (PR) For anyone looking to enhance their Google Page Rank (PR) to get a better place in the search results, we now have software that makes finding good links so much easier.In case you didn't know, to get your PR rating up it is essential to have a significant number of good quality links to your site (the techy bit). Optimize Your Site Pt1 Listed here you will find the five of the most important points to remember when optimising your site and individual pages for the search engines.If you optimise your pages by working through these points one by one you will see a significant rise in your search engine rankings. Your Website Title Could Be Costing You Money Nothing could be simpler than the title you give to your web pages right? Unfortunately, the vast majority of the websites I visit these days have absolutely terrible titles that hurt their online business. The title of your website is a very important part of getting good rankings on most of the major search engines. How To Use Google As A Niche Website Builder The popularity of weblogs or blogs has gotten a lot of attention from the media recently. In fact, "blog" was picked as the word of the year by Merriam-Webster, a U. Page Rank - A Quick Overview for Beginners Page Rank (PR) is a specific value for a website page given by Google. It is Google's measure of the importance of a certain site page. Five and a Half Ways to Amp Up Your Search Engine Optimization Statistics show that 85% of pages visited on the Internet come from people who have gotten there from a search engine. Statistically, people look first at the top of the first page of the regular search results, then the bottom, and then they go to the sponsored listings. A Simple White Hat Technique To Get Indexed By Google Everybody knows that getting indexed in Google is getting more and more difficult each day and every body is looking for that edge over the competition.Most "white hat" SEO's frown upon methods like cloaking, blog and ping and other such "black hat" techniques and never had any special technique that they could use to help get their pages indexed better.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
