Good article on how to do keyword research

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I am using Google Keyword tool for my keyword research.

Can someone point me to good article on how to do this step by step

WHat I do to get low competition & high volume keywords

1. I login to Google keyword accnt.
2. Type in my search keyword eg. "Cinnamon for weight loss" (without quotes)
3. If competition is low and global search volume is > 1000 I consider it a good keyword for writing a blog post.

Question - should I look for "Exact" searches

I am still not clear on the exact process to get good keywords. Can someone point me to a good article.
#article #good #keyword #research
  • Profile picture of the author panic
    yes switch the option from broad to exact match.

    Low competition means there are not many advertisers bidding on the keyword, it usually means that you will have a low CPC on ads related to your niche.
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  • Profile picture of the author Snowclone
    Well first don't actually use Google's competition metric, that's competition for that keyword within their adwords system, not your competition to rank. Also I would use the Exact and LOCAL over global for a more accurate measure of traffic.

    There are a variety of other tools to use, personally I use SEO MOZ for competition, you can also use things like Market Samurai, wherein they have tons of videos to help get you started step by step.
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    • Profile picture of the author marcp
      Originally Posted by Snowclone View Post

      Well first don't actually use Google's competition metric, that's competition for that keyword within their adwords system, not your competition to rank. Also I would use the Exact and LOCAL over global for a more accurate measure of traffic.

      There are a variety of other tools to use, personally I use SEO MOZ for competition, you can also use things like Market Samurai, wherein they have tons of videos to help get you started step by step.
      Although the competition metric is for AdWords won't the metric show there's money being spent in the niche?
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  • Profile picture of the author vtotheyouknow
    First of all, the competition bar in the keyword tool shows advertiser competition for search network ad placements. It says nothing at all about competitiveness for ranking for that term.

    So once you've found a potentially good keyword, you'll need to do competition analysis by looking at the top couple of results in Google. You'll need to analyze a number of factors to see how easy (or difficult) it would be to actually rank for that keyword.

    Look at things like:

    - is this a top level domain?
    - is the keyword in the title?
    - is the keyword in the URL?
    - is the content when you click-through high quality and informative?
    - is the site as a whole informative?
    - how many "juice" links does the page or domain have?
    - what's the PR?

    ...basically, the ideal situation is that you find a high-volume keyword, with low competitiveness, that also has room to expand. You mentioned "cinnamon for weight loss".

    That could be a good keyword but I probably wouldn't build a whole site around that one topic. I might use the keyword as my main keyword to rank but I'd probably write about other spices/herbs/foods that promote weight loss.

    Which brings me to the last point which is, how do you plan to monetize? Because if you're thinking adsense for instance, you'll need to go and find if there are a lot of advertisers competing for spots in the content network.

    You can go to ezinearticles.com and search for your keyword and see if a lot of relevant ads pop up. (you'll need to do a few searches to retarget ads from whatever you were previously searching). If there aren't many relevant ads that somebody searching for your term would realistically want to click, it's probably not a great keyword.

    So keyword research really has 3 components:

    1. Keyword research
    2. Competition analysis
    3. Monetization potential

    Let me know if you have any questions....and good luck! :-)
    Vic
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    • Profile picture of the author marcp
      Originally Posted by vtotheyouknow View Post

      First of all, the competition bar in the keyword tool shows advertiser competition for search network ad placements. It says nothing at all about competitiveness for ranking for that term.

      So once you've found a potentially good keyword, you'll need to do competition analysis by looking at the top couple of results in Google. You'll need to analyze a number of factors to see how easy (or difficult) it would be to actually rank for that keyword.

      Look at things like:

      - is this a top level domain?
      - is the keyword in the title?
      - is the keyword in the URL?
      - is the content when you click-through high quality and informative?
      - is the site as a whole informative?
      - how many "juice" links does the page or domain have?
      - what's the PR?

      ...basically, the ideal situation is that you find a high-volume keyword, with low competitiveness, that also has room to expand. You mentioned "cinnamon for weight loss".

      That could be a good keyword but I probably wouldn't build a whole site around that one topic. I might use the keyword as my main keyword to rank but I'd probably write about other spices/herbs/foods that promote weight loss.

      Which brings me to the last point which is, how do you plan to monetize? Because if you're thinking adsense for instance, you'll need to go and find if there are a lot of advertisers competing for spots in the content network.

      You can go to ezinearticles.com and search for your keyword and see if a lot of relevant ads pop up. (you'll need to do a few searches to retarget ads from whatever you were previously searching). If there aren't many relevant ads that somebody searching for your term would realistically want to click, it's probably not a great keyword.

      So keyword research really has 3 components:

      1. Keyword research
      2. Competition analysis
      3. Monetization potential

      Let me know if you have any questions....and good luck! :-)
      Vic
      Thanks I know the competition metric in GAKT doesn't imply ranking competitiveness. But wouldn't it tell if money is being spent in the particular keyword? In other words if the metric is High on a particular keyword wouldn't that mean people are spending money in that keyword?
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      • Profile picture of the author vtotheyouknow
        Originally Posted by marcp View Post

        Thanks I know the competition metric in GAKT doesn't imply ranking competitiveness. But wouldn't it tell if money is being spent in the particular keyword? In other words if the metric is High on a particular keyword wouldn't that mean people are spending money in that keyword?
        It would indicate whether or not money is being spent in the search network. But since Adsense ads are displayed in the content network, you'll need a more "on the ground" way to check advertiser volume.

        The best way I've found for doing this is to simply go to EzineArticles.com and type in your keyword and do the search a number of times to update the ads based on your current search (the ads displaying are often holdovers from previous searches you've done).

        So if you see a ton of ads that somebody searching for that keyword would be likely to click, you probably have a winner. But even if the ad seems somewhat relevant, it isn't REALLY relevant (or profitable) unless somebody would actually click it.

        For example, if I search "natural acne treatments" and I see a bunch of ads for pharmaceutical acne medication, then it's KINDA relevant but since I'm looking for natural treatments, I probably wouldn't click.
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  • Profile picture of the author patco
    Well, Market Samurai is much better, but Google Adwords tool still can give you enough information for a simple keyword research. Just be sure to pay more attention to your main keyword (it should NOT have low competition -> for good websites/blogs!) and your secondary keywords (it's normal to have low competition!)
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  • Profile picture of the author Moneymaker2012
    Strange!
    Market Samurai does not make an independent search. It gets all of its data directly from Google.
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    • Profile picture of the author webladder
      I think newer SEO's faily to realize that of the 100's, if not thousands, of "keyword tools" available, the majority of them pull their data directly from Google. Essentially, keyword tools such as those are "GAKWT on steroids." The only difference is they can charge you for the same data that Google gives you for free.

      Keyword research using the GAKWT is only a starting point. It takes digging into the competitors websites and looking at a number of factors as mentioned above, that will help you determine if you can outrank the top 3 positions, or even the top 5.

      Keyword research is not a simple process and requires time and patience. But, once you have that down, it's actually quite fun to uncover those "golden nuggets" you never even knew existed. Just my .02.
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  • Profile picture of the author jonnyrock
    This discussion will really help me a lot. Actually i have some problem about the keyword, thanks a lot for this.
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  • Profile picture of the author JSProjects
    Paul over @ Create A Website | Website Hosting | Domain Names | Wordpress Themes has a great tutorial. (Packerfan here on the forums.)
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