Keyword research

[paradox_qu]

When i do keyword research should I be looking at my keywords in quotes or not in quotes? Which one should I weigh more heavily?

[Mike Linley]

Personally I look at without quotes...because most people do NOT look for search terms in quotes..so that is what you need to rank for..I bought into the whole IM only in quotes matters only to find out you dont get the traffic unless you rank for without quotes..good luck! -Mike Linley

[Voasi]

With quotes will bring back results of sites that are specifically targeting that phrase. Try also an allintitle: with your keyword phrase in quotes too to see if people are making web pages on your keywords.

It's a good barometer for how competitive a niche it. In the end, there are a lot of factors that really go into checking the authority and saturation of a vertical.

[Mukul Verma]

I would test both. With quotes you are getting more targeted traffic.

[dadeon]

In quotes = match and is a much more accurate representation of the actual search stats.

It's best practice to look for phrase match, but for long tail you should exclude the quotes otherwise you won't get much results.

this is easy if you use Market Samurai - there's a checkbox that immediately hides is.

[kkchoon]

Keyword Research 101

Many people look at keyword result on broad match, but I seldom use that because it doesn't really tell your actual competitor!

Who is your competitor? Certainly those include their keyword in the title, url and highly optimized it in the content.

That's why initial keyword research, you need to focus on exact match, allintitle / allinurl. For me, I do research based on exact match and allintitle only, just to get some rough ideas about the market.

Exact Match 101

What is exact match? exact match is the keyword exists in the content exactly the same order, and we view it as one unit - "dog training advice" as one big unit.

This result will give you some rough ideas of how many sites contains the keyword, and may compete with your site.

intitle or allintitle match 101

This command will tell you precisely how many websites are optimize for this keyword, and they are direct competitor!

Title is extremely powerful in SEO, if you include the keyword in it, you have more rank power, that's why I view this as my direct competition!

command:

allintitle:yourkeyword
intitle:yourkeyword

Another way to look at the exact match for intitle

intitle:"yourkeyword"
allintitle"yourkeyword"

Guideline for keyword competition

There is no fix guideline here, depending on how much resources you can do to rank for the keywords...

My own criteria to pursuit the keywords for my websites are:

Exact match of 200,000 or less
Intitle match of 50,000 or less

Anyone care to share their criteria for references?

Conclusion

It is all about how you want to get traffic, some people will do more extensive keyword research and aim for a lot of long tail keywords, create tons of contents for those keywords...

This strategy is widely use by article marketer, and they need a little or no backlinks to get laser targeted traffic that convert like crazy!

Other like Adsense publisher would prefer more competitive keywords with tons of search volumes, because Adsense needs massvie traffic...

[Nicholas William]

there's something to this equation that many people dont consider, I'm yet to find it in any matrix either.

Doing competitive research (with or without quotes) is all fine and dandy if you want to rank in the organic results, but for me the red or green flag comes from evaluating the adwords competition! It doesnt matter if your niche has 2,974,022 competing websites when there are only 3 advertisers in adwords! I've been wanting to write a tutorial on this aspect for a while, so I think I'm going to start a new thread now to put my thoughts out there

[Randy Meirndorf]

I always use the quotes, it's a lot more accurate and relevant view of the keywords.

As an example: if you were researching hair products for dogs, without quotes, the serps would show all of the websites with hair and/or products and/or dogs. Whereas with quotes you will get what is referred to as your true competition.

In comparison, the difference would be like going into a hardware store and saying you need a tool. There are tons of tools, but if you tell them you need a screwdriver, your search is heavily narrowed down, and you can see all the direct competition screwing you out of first place!

[Nicholas William]

ditto. I check SERP competition using quotes for my term as broadmatch isn't really indicative if you're using 2 or more terms in your string

[mystarter]

Hi,

Actually, the way of doing keyword research is varies and depends on your needs.

If you are looking for best keywords for your PPC campaign, you should use method A.

If you are looking for best keywords for your article marketing campaign, you should use method B.

If you are looking for best keywords to decide a niche for your site, you should use method C.

Etc..etc..

When come to the criteria, only you know the best and to decide.

Fellow A may choose 200 000 as a safe point but Fellow B may choose 500 000 as safe point. And i may choose 700 000 as safe point.

It is totally different..depends on many factors like your skill and experience, the profitability in that niche, your target, your budget, etc,,etc.

So, basically it's depends on you.

Don't let others decide for you. Instead, use all good information here as your guide.

Cheers..