Keyword Research - I still am Confused

[ebleu]

Hey,

As I said in my Introduction Post, I'm here to learn loads about Internet Marketing. And, TBH, I've learn what it actually is, here @ WF.

I learnt quite something here at WF. 99% of topics I read, ask me about using the "Right Keywords".

True, I know, keywords are the ones that people are going to search in google to find our sites.

Now, what I need to know is this:

How do I find the right Keywords?

Let's take the example of my current Web Directory. Here, using a few methods I learnt here, I was able to get my website to #1 on Google for keyword "links guild".

Later, I was being told that, the keyword "links guild", gets very few to zero searches a day. And that was very disappointing. Similarly, I targeted another keyword, "phpLD help" and my site was ranking #3 there. Now, it's missing there. Guess that's a part of the "Google Dance".

So, that keyword was a mishap too.

And I'm terribly confused, as to what I got to do.

So, what i want to know is this. How do I find the Right keyword? How many searches they get / day? Is there a "Free" tool to find this? If so, How do I use that tool?

Let me know this guys, now that both keywords i targeted earlier, were a waste of time.

Thanks in Advance.

-Anirudh.

[evertd]

You can use the google keyword tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) to find information such as how many searches per month, and other keywords you can target. Don't pay too much attention to the competition indicator, as that is targeted at AdWords users.

[paulgl]

Some people do confuse keywords without content.

You can't get blood out of a turnip.

Links guild would be rather pointless, as that's not what the
site is about.

It's a link directory. Where people can add their sites, I assume.

That's what you have to go with. Oh sure, you can play around
with it--webdirectory, add your site, directory, add a link, free
exposure, etc.

I know this is not you, but too many people think they can turn
a hotel site in south africa into a student loan consolidation site.

Keyword research should be done before starting a website.
Afterward, you are what you are. To narrow your site down, you would
really need to do a niche directory.

Paul

[ebleu]

@evertd, I've used that tool before. Trying to research on more keywords.
@Paul, You mean, I need to ditch this Directory and start a niche directory? If so, wouldn't i lose users? And also, what's the best niche you'd suggest me to go into.

[Binggo]

Try keyworddiscovery.com/search.html

[dburk]

Hi Anirudh,

The first thing you need to do is decide what your website is about. You can do keyword research to help pick a topic for a new website. Since you have already built a website, your must have already made the decision of what your website is about. So now you are looking for ways to get targeted traffic to your website, right?

Use the AdWords Keyword Tool, mentioned in the previous post and enter your website address to see which keywords are relevant for your existing website. Be sure to set the match type to exact for accurate numbers.

These keywords will be sorted based on the relevance to your website. Analyze this list to determine which keywords you believe best match the purpose of your website and also have significant search volume. If those keywords are not near the top then you need to make changes to your website content so the keywords you are targeting are highly relevant in the eyes of the search engine.

Now that you have selected your primary keywords and have optimized your page content to match, you need to begin the promoting of your website. Find relevant websites that you can get a link back to your web pages and place your links there using your targeted keywords as the anchor text of your link.

Once you are ranking well for these keywords, with significant search traffic, you will see significant traffic coming from these search engine listings. Don't limit your traffic sources to just search engines. The direct links from related websites can send much more traffic than the search engines alone and there are advertising options as well.

[mlevenhagen]

Great post Don! That's pretty much the gist of it...

It's not all about volume, competition etc... either. You want to make sure the keywords you are targeting have the best chance to take your desired action on your pages (signup to your list, affiliate link, buying something etc).. most relevant.

Every keyword/phrase reacts differently to every single landing page. 5 of us could all build landing pages targeting the same phrase and all 5 will get different results depending how the landing page is built and the actions are pre-sold. So even once you choose a phrase to target, test, test, test!

[Charleskidd]

I agree with mlevenhagen I think you should research and test everything. I think you should use keyword elite 2.0 to find good keywords.

[davis9461]

Originally Posted by ebleu

@evertd, I've used that tool before. Trying to research on more keywords.
@Paul, You mean, I need to ditch this Directory and start a niche directory? If so, wouldn't i lose users? And also, what's the best niche you'd suggest me to go into.

EBLEU,
I agree that you should use the Google Adwords Tool. However, you need to know what you are going to be marketing or selling. To find out if there is any money to be made you need to research your niche with the Google Adwords Tool. Enter your keywords in and see how much global and local search volume are in each. Also, for a newbie, it would be very difficult to dominate and make money in a market that has hundreds of thousands of competitors. Try to narrow your niche. Your goal is to get targeted traffic with the right key words. Example: If you are looking for computers, you would have to narrow it down to a type and model of a computer. Being specific and narrowing your niche is key to get qualified buyers!

[jasonmorgan]

looks like smarter people beat me to the answer

anyway...

I really like Free Keyword Suggestion, Research & Analysis Tools: Seo Book.com for basic keyword research.

Type in your keywords and it's going to give you a rough estimate of the number of searches per day.

Click on the links they give you for each SE and it'll take you right to the search results and you can check the top 10 for yourself.

There are additional links for adwords, trends and stuff when your ready to take the next step.

Why do I like this method? It's free. It's easy to understand for a newbie. Has links to all of the other fun keyword tools. Did I mention it's free?

[kkchoon]

Proper keyword research is the life and blood for any online business! Using adwords and organic search all rely on keyword research to tap into search traffic and convert them into profits!

Key is finding low competition keywords with high search volume! How to determine the competitiveness of a keyword? There are 2 ways:

1. You can put your keyword into Google and look for the number of pages, that's a reference and relative way, not 100% accurate but work for most long tail keywords.

2. You can pull up top 10 websites in your niche, and start from the bottom one, do yahoo explorer search for that site, see how many backlinks it has and what is their on page optimization factor, you can use market samurai + Quirk search (firefox plugin) for this purpose.

If your competitor has 1000 links on page 1 #10, you probably won't start to rank until you have 1000 links! It all depends on how good is your links and how many you have it!

You can find more about keyword research information here.

I love article marketing, and it gets me tons of traffic and sales, you should try it!

[josephajain]

Don't worry.It keeps fluctuating and it will take time to settle down for a particular keyword...

[HCLee]

Keep to a small niche compared to a bigger one so that your website contents can be more focused on more related and relevant topics. It is easier to build contents too and good for adsense potential growth with more related ads showing on your website.

[dvduval]

How long have you been working on these keywords?
As a general rule, I find that keyword rankings start to "stick" in about 3-6 months.
One key phrase that relates to phpLD that is new and popular is "phpLD Widgets". That is one you might want to try to target.

[vekro]

search on google for a keyword searching tool and you will know that how many time a keyword search in google

[ebleu]

After long procrastination, and confusion, I've managed to decide my keywords. All of them have good competition and search value. Adwords helped a lot.

My website niche is Web Directory.Is adding META keywords all about in, On Page SEO? Any tips on how I can make my home page, Links Guild Web Directory, have better chances of ranking for my keywords.

Thanks

[kkchoon]

Few tips here:

1. Do proper on page optimization - put your keyword in the title, first, middle and last paragraphs.

2. Do off page optimization - Get tons of links from different sources, use the correct keyword as hyperlink back to your site.

Continue to do more backlinks until your site get promoted!

You might want to try Angela's backlink

[ebleu]

Thanks Kkchoon. I'm already using Angela's links. Thanks for the on-page seo tip.

I'd work on it soon.

Cheers,

[alizia]

i am using keyworddiscovery dot com i think you will like this website

[Mary42]

Advanced Keyword Research is the process of determining the actual search terms (words and phrases) that people use in Search Engines when conducting a search and then compiling them into a list for use on web pages
Keyword research is done to find out keyword popularity for relevant keywords with the intent of targeting for better Search Engine rankings.

[kochi97]

Hi Guys,
We all know keywords are our main thing. But the question is how do you get the right keywords. Here is my way of doing things. I take the short version of my keyword and do a keyword search at Google free Keyword Tool. And then from the search results I take the long ones and I generate contents based on those long keywords. I hope that might help some of us.
Thanks
Kamrul