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Legal / Ethical?

by PStu24
4 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi!

I'm brand new to this website (and have only been really "into" this topic for a few weeks... LITTLE big green ) but I want to LEARN about this stuff more than anything. I have been following the WF for a couple of weeks now, and am only now starting to take action. That's why I have some questions now.

One quick thing for now that I searched for in the forums but couldn't seem to find... Is it legal and/or ethical to just go to a major player's website and use the keywords that they are using if you are trying to build a site from scratch? I mean, eventually you may want to carve out your own keywords, but if you just go to one of the top dog's sites (or even a few) and copy some of their keywords, will it work? Or are those words already overcrowded?

Any advice is appreciated!
#ethical #legal
  • Profile picture of the author orvn
    Originally Posted by PStu24 View Post

    Hi!

    I'm brand new to this website (and have only been really "into" this topic for a few weeks... LITTLE big green ) but I want to LEARN about this stuff more than anything. I have been following the WF for a couple of weeks now, and am only now starting to take action. That's why I have some questions now.

    One quick thing for now that I searched for in the forums but couldn't seem to find... Is it legal and/or ethical to just go to a major player's website and use the keywords that they are using if you are trying to build a site from scratch? I mean, eventually you may want to carve out your own keywords, but if you just go to one of the top dog's sites (or even a few) and copy some of their keywords, will it work? Or are those words already overcrowded?

    Any advice is appreciated!
    Hello. Well, first of all, you're only bound to national laws, i.e.- virtually everything is legal.

    There is nothing unethical about borrowing your competitors keywords, but you do not know if they're targeting something good.

    Typically, you're looking for keywords with high search volume and not much strong competition.

    Something like "dog food" would be pointless your first few times around.
    "organic dog food california" might be a much better bet!

    You're aiming for the top of the long tail.
    Signature
    Orun Bhuiyan[@orvn] [linkedin] See what I've been doing lately by visiting my marketing agency's site. SEOcial specializes in content marketing and integrated optimization. We create conversions for businesses by gracefully connecting the realms of design, development and marketing.
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    • Profile picture of the author PStu24
      Sounds great- Thanks!
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      • Profile picture of the author Linda Hepworth
        I agree that what you are doing is fine.
        Yes, paying for Adwords can be expensive. Your other choice is using free traffic. While it does take longer to get started your business will become well established in Google if you use the right tools and training. Adwords is too expensive for my budjet so I have taken the free traffic route.
        I am not sure where you are with keyword research so here is a suggestion I have to get started. To do keyword research go to google and type in the following : google adwords keyword tool. Click on the first link that will take you to the keyword tool.
        Type in the keywords that you found at your competitiors site - one at a time of course. On the right side you will see Sorted By : on the top right. There will be a drop down menu. You will see relevance and can click on the down arrow and see Global Monthly Searches. The Relevance results show what matches most with your keywords that you typed in and the Global Monthly Searches shows what people searched for that month starting with the highest searched results to the lowest.

        You need to sign into Google Adwords to see all of the results. Otherwise you only the first 2 or 3 pages. If you have a Gmail account you will use that log in to see all the pages. You can also see the competition. This tool will help you find out what has high searches and low competition. That's the best place to start if your just starting out.

        Good Luck,
        Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !
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  • Profile picture of the author paulgl
    Originally Posted by PStu24 View Post

    Hi!

    I'm brand new to this website (and have only been really "into" this topic for a few weeks... LITTLE big green ) but I want to LEARN about this stuff more than anything. I have been following the WF for a couple of weeks now, and am only now starting to take action. That's why I have some questions now.

    One quick thing for now that I searched for in the forums but couldn't seem to find... Is it legal and/or ethical to just go to a major player's website and use the keywords that they are using if you are trying to build a site from scratch? I mean, eventually you may want to carve out your own keywords, but if you just go to one of the top dog's sites (or even a few) and copy some of their keywords, will it work? Or are those words already overcrowded?

    Any advice is appreciated!
    I don't get it. Who has a monopoly on certain keywords?
    Why on earth would it be unethical, let alone illegal?
    I regularly compete with amazon, wikipedia, etc. And I love
    every minute of it. Where do people get these ideas from?

    Come on! There's only so many words in the English language.
    What, nobody can make a website due to someone else having
    a website on the same topic? Hardly.

    My gosh people, make websites about stuff you are interested in.

    Why would you not want to compete with the big players?

    Go big or go home.

    Well, I guess there are just a lot of people who are content with
    being small players.

    Paul
    Signature

    If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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