SEO Training – Keyword Research

Posted by Pixelhead

Tools You Will Need

Google Adsense Keyword Tool
Excel or some other spread sheet software

SEO Training – Keyword Research Video

SEO Video Content

Keyword research – Do it!

Use the Free Google adsense keyword tool

There are many keyword tools such as Keyword Discovery, Wordtracker and Keyword Spy, but for this series, which is being done for the beginner, the Google Keyword tool will be fine.

First, look at your site, and ask yourself – generally speaking what is it about? Looking at Mybarebags.com, I see that cloth bags are being sold here. So “cloth bags” is what I put into the Keyword tool. I might also look around the site and take note of any other keywords that might apply. On some sites, depending upon the site, I might actually go through each page and see what keywords apply to each individual page…if the site owner wants the entire site optimized…

This gives me a good starting point. Now, I am not going to spend hours upon hours on the keyword research, but suffice it to say, the more Keyword research you do, the more likely you are to find words and phrases that have a good amount of traffic, but have very little competition.

When I start a campaign, I need to limit the number of phrases that I am focusing on. If I have a choice between words, I like three word phrases the best, as they tend to be more specific. For example, “bags” is a very general keyword, “cloth bags” is a little more specific, but “cloth shopping bags” is even more specific. Sure “bags” will bring a whole lot more traffic if and when I rank for it, but for a site that sells cloth shopping bags, it might not be the best phrase to go after. Traffic that is searching for the term “cloth shopping bags” is going to bring a lot more qualified traffic to the site that is more likely to convert into sales.

After I put the initial word into the Keyword tool, I look at the other phrases that show up(see Google Adsense Keyword Tool – Cloth Bags pic) as related keywords. You have to know your site and your products, to know which words will apply.

If you go to the bottom of the Keyword tool page, you can click the csv for excel button, which will give you a nice “read only” spread sheet. You can then copy and paste the best phrases into a new spread sheet that will contain only the phrases you want to consider. Keep looking through your site and the keyword tool until you get a list of at least 10-20 keyword phrases.

Next we need to prioritize our words, this is done by looking at the competition, which will be the next post in the series.

SEO Training Series Posts include:

My Keyword list for Mybarebags.com will be posted in the SEO Training Group. Please let me know if you would like to be part of the group or you can join by using the form below.

Subscribe to SEO Training

Email:

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*This post was changed after publishing. The second half, Prioritizing Keywords will be put up as a separate blog post so that information overload does not occur.

Written by Pixelhead on February 11th, 2009 with comments disabled.
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29 comments

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Paul
#1. February 12th, 2009, at 5:13 PM.

Thanks for the tips! Another good keyword tool that I use is SEO Book’s

Allan McDougall
#2. February 12th, 2009, at 6:00 PM.

Hey Adam,

I’ve been rocking busy but I plan to get caught up on this next week–Reading Week (maybe they call it Spring Break down there in the US?!) Anyway, more later for sure,
Al

Pixelhead
#3. February 12th, 2009, at 6:49 PM.

Thanks Paul, I Googled “SEO Books Keyword tool” and came to a page with a keyword tool that is powered by Wordtracker. Below that box however, are two other Keyword tools that I have not seen- the Keyword List Generator and the Keyword List Cleaner…looks like I’ll need to experiment with those two now.

Allan, enjoy your break from school.

Dara
#4. February 12th, 2009, at 8:25 PM.

Thanks for the tips; I haven’t tried that keyword tool yet. I think I’ll experiment with it a bit now.

PS3
#5. February 12th, 2009, at 9:23 PM.

Thanks for the tips! How accurate is the Google Keyword tool? I’ve found it to be not very accurate.

Wayne
#6. February 13th, 2009, at 5:10 AM.

Can’t wait to see the next post. I’m currently using the adwords tool regularly and love it now that i figured out how to apply the keywords and make it all work. lol

iPod Charger
#7. February 13th, 2009, at 12:43 PM.

I really like the funda to search the keywords

Sharon Murphy
#8. February 13th, 2009, at 9:20 PM.

I’ve used the keyword tool alot and it works well if you pick keywords that have 200 searches or so and the go to google and type in your keyword without quotes and if it is less than 300,000 competition then
that keyword is a keeper and you’ll probably get pg 1 on google more easily with that one!

shop-bright
#9. February 14th, 2009, at 1:11 PM.

I agree SEO Book is very good, good tips here. Waiting for the next post now.

Pixelhead
#10. February 14th, 2009, at 3:52 PM.

Dara, let us know your thoughts on the keyword tool.

PS3, I heard that some people divide the number on the Google Keyword tool by 30%. I just use it for a general idea about keywords and for suggestions of other words.

Wayne, I published the next post in the series in the Google Group, and will publish it here next week. Sign up for the free group and you get access ahead of everyone that doesn’t sign up.

Ipod Charger, what is funda?

Sharon, thanks for the tip.

Shop-bright, check the reply to Wayne above. I have never read the SEO Book, but Aaron Wall is a legend in the SEO field.

Goran
#11. February 19th, 2009, at 4:41 PM.

Nice video enhanced post! I also use the Google Tool quite often, and I like your tutorial! And thanks for your tip, Sharon, I will definitely give it a go the next time I’m doing some keyword research.

Cynthia Wunsch
#12. February 19th, 2009, at 8:51 PM.

Anthony Delgado has a keyword tool that incorporates wordtracker results, google results, and the alexa ranking of the site.

http://need-extra-cash.net/2008/01/anthonys-keyword-ranking-tool/

This may help as well.

Affordable Electronics
#13. February 21st, 2009, at 10:51 PM.

Great tips, not that sure on the use of the Google keyword tool because I don’t think it is that accurate, but you know best.

brock @ mma gear
#14. February 23rd, 2009, at 11:32 PM.

These are excellent tips, and the video is a nice touch as well. Keyword research is one of the most important SEO elements. Thanks for this post!

Pixelhead
#15. February 24th, 2009, at 3:10 PM.

Goran, thanks for stopping by..let us know how you make out with Sharon’s advice.

Cynthia, thanks for the resource…I be checking it out.

Affordable Electronics, it isn’t the best, it is free and where I am recommending beginners start.

Brock, glad you appreciated it..hope it helps with your marketing efforts.

Everyone– the next post will be coming out sometime today and will be a basic post on on-page, and will be the last post in the SEO Training series.

Domain Flipping
#16. February 25th, 2009, at 11:44 AM.

I use a different version of google keyword tool at http://www.google.com/sktool/#keywords. I submit a query and then download the top 800 queries returned and then cut the list down using excel, seems to work pretty well. I also use wordtracker but ofcourse its an extra monthly expense, about $69 or so. Wordtracker gives results across 3 engines with a little extra info as far as competition for keywords and phrases.

Pixelhead
#17. February 25th, 2009, at 3:48 PM.

Domain Flipping, thanks for the tip about the Google keyword tool, I’ll will check it out…I like Wordtracker as well, and may start using it again, we recently switched to Keyworddiscovery, but may switch back…but for the purposes of this series, I was focusing on free tools…arrivederci amico…

Tampa Florida
#18. February 25th, 2009, at 9:31 PM.

I use the google keyword tool but am tempted to try wordtracker out, I don’t know how much better that tool will be compared to google.

Truby
#19. March 5th, 2009, at 8:48 PM.

Some keyword tool aren’t reliable at all. Remember, they are constantly reporting past information, but the market changes so much sometimes…nothing is 100 percent. The tip that you’ve given are great…thank you.

Keyword
#20. March 6th, 2009, at 9:32 PM.

A lot of Good information from the video. I use Google’s Tool when looking for Keywords to use.

Arshad
#21. March 11th, 2009, at 12:57 PM.

Google kwt has dome miracles to my blogs.Wish they gave us more long tail keywords.

ut mortgage
#22. March 31st, 2009, at 11:36 AM.

Wordtracker gives results across 3 engines with a little extra info as far as competition for keywords and phrases!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Web design
#23. April 30th, 2009, at 11:29 AM.

Keyword search is very essential in the internet..No matter how good you are or how good content your write. Without Proper Keyword Research you are not going to succeed. Google’s Success is also because of Keyword Research. I got lot of information about keywrod search.

Good.

The Software
#24. June 8th, 2009, at 10:14 AM.

Hey,

I enjoyed watching the video. You provide a lot of good and useful information. Thank you!

Respectfully,
Jeremy

HSA Insurance
#25. June 18th, 2009, at 9:00 AM.

Good tricks for keyword research. Keyword selection is a most important part of optimization. Thanks for information.

vijay
#26. December 15th, 2009, at 8:22 AM.

I just watched the video, its good about adwords keyword tool usage.

Keith @ Superior Fence Products
#27. December 15th, 2009, at 9:52 PM.

I like to use Google’s keyword tool to research keywords and there search volume. After getting a good list together I also export to Excel (or another spreadsheet) and then copy all the keywords into Rank Checker (by seobook.com, is a free plugin for firefox) to see where I rank for each term on the top three search engines. I then export that info back to the same spreadsheet and whalah! I have the keyword, search volume, and where my site ranks for the term. Then I reorder the list according to highest search volume, print it out and analyze from previous reports to see if I am gaining ground on my best keywords.

If I could only develop a tool that did all that in one step it would simplify the process, but I only do this once or maybe twice a month as a continuous keyword research process.

The initial keyword research is important when developing your site, but I believe you must continue to research and analyze how you are ranking for those keywords in order to see where you can improve you SEO techniques.

Rodrigo
#28. February 9th, 2010, at 12:48 AM.

Hi. Great post!
I always use the Google Insights together the Google AdManager.
This is a good technical to finde excelents key words!

There is a good tool named Micro Niche Find, that is very good do search news keywords.

See you!

real estate building
#29. February 11th, 2010, at 9:52 AM.

I published the next post in the series in the Google Group, and will publish it here next week. Sign up for the free group and you get access ahead of everyone that doesn’t sign up.