Warriors: What are your current keyword research techniques?
- SEO |
I know the topic has been covered before, but I want to get the opinions on current keyword research trends from currently active warriors. So, what methods do you use for keyword research and competition analysis?
Here is my method:
Research
I use the Google Adwords Keyword tool and I focus on exact matches. I do not have a specific requirement for minimum searches, I usually just want to see that a term is getting adequate search volume.
In addition to using the Google Adwords Keyword tool, I also browse around ezinearticles.com, yahoo answers, and of course Warrior Forum to see what topics tend to come up over and over again. Often times these are great topics to write an article on.
Competition Analysis
While of course keyword research is important for SEO, you must also be able to analyze your competition. I don't know about you, but I have a simple philosophy: Analyze the first page results on Google, and determine whether or not I can realistically outrank these websites.
I don't use any of the arbitrary figures such as "50,000 or less competition with the keyword in quotes." That used to work for me, but I am now finding this method is not nearly as accurate for analyzing competition as it was just a year or two ago.
In order to analyze my competition I use SeoQuake, which is a plugin for the Firefox web browser. This tool is free, and it has really helped me analyze my competition for several keyword phrases. With this tool you are able to see the domain age, PR, and number of backlinks for a particular website or webpage.
I typically try to find keywords phrases where the competition consists primarily of:
-Newer domains (less than 2 years old)
-PR of 3 or less
-Less than 500 backlinks on each web page.
Of course the quality of the links can make a huge difference, but I just use my parameters as a general guide. I have found that great on-page SEO can really overcome any shortage that you have in backlinks (in some circumstances).
In addition to this, I focus on keyword phrases where a lot of inner pages, articles, and other web 2.0 properties are ranking on the 1st page. If I see a lot of these web pages, then I usually go after the keyword phrase.
While I have some websites ranked on the first page of Google in the search engines, I typically focus on ranking articles on the first page that can drive traffic back to my main website. Often articles from by niche blogs will rank on page 1 using this method, and other times articles I have written and submitted to ezinearticles.com, articlesbase.com, etc. will rank on page #1.
A lot of internet marketers use various keyword research/competition analysis methods to rank on the first page of Google. So, what method(s) do you incorporate into your SEO campaigns?
Here is my method:
Research
I use the Google Adwords Keyword tool and I focus on exact matches. I do not have a specific requirement for minimum searches, I usually just want to see that a term is getting adequate search volume.
In addition to using the Google Adwords Keyword tool, I also browse around ezinearticles.com, yahoo answers, and of course Warrior Forum to see what topics tend to come up over and over again. Often times these are great topics to write an article on.
Competition Analysis
While of course keyword research is important for SEO, you must also be able to analyze your competition. I don't know about you, but I have a simple philosophy: Analyze the first page results on Google, and determine whether or not I can realistically outrank these websites.
I don't use any of the arbitrary figures such as "50,000 or less competition with the keyword in quotes." That used to work for me, but I am now finding this method is not nearly as accurate for analyzing competition as it was just a year or two ago.
In order to analyze my competition I use SeoQuake, which is a plugin for the Firefox web browser. This tool is free, and it has really helped me analyze my competition for several keyword phrases. With this tool you are able to see the domain age, PR, and number of backlinks for a particular website or webpage.
I typically try to find keywords phrases where the competition consists primarily of:
-Newer domains (less than 2 years old)
-PR of 3 or less
-Less than 500 backlinks on each web page.
Of course the quality of the links can make a huge difference, but I just use my parameters as a general guide. I have found that great on-page SEO can really overcome any shortage that you have in backlinks (in some circumstances).
In addition to this, I focus on keyword phrases where a lot of inner pages, articles, and other web 2.0 properties are ranking on the 1st page. If I see a lot of these web pages, then I usually go after the keyword phrase.
While I have some websites ranked on the first page of Google in the search engines, I typically focus on ranking articles on the first page that can drive traffic back to my main website. Often articles from by niche blogs will rank on page 1 using this method, and other times articles I have written and submitted to ezinearticles.com, articlesbase.com, etc. will rank on page #1.
A lot of internet marketers use various keyword research/competition analysis methods to rank on the first page of Google. So, what method(s) do you incorporate into your SEO campaigns?
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