How to Do Keyword Research
Continuation of Lesson 5 from You Can Make Money
Writing
We just covered how to do keyword research, but there is a
better way that I'll show you now. First though, I want to repeat
that the best site in the world might not be discovered if it
doesn't have decent keywords. Until search engines are a lot
smarter, fishing enthusiasts searching for "fishing,"
won't find your site on "angling." Now, how do you
find keywords that will get you that traffic from searches?
As I pointed out, many optimization experts advise comparing
demand to supply to find good keywords, but my experience is
that many of my pages with "good ratio" keywords never
show up in search engine results. Others that I shouldn't be
able to compete with, are right there on the first page of results.
Now get this: I have pages that show on the first page of
results for a given keyword - even though there are many millions
of pages in those results. Clearly it isn't just quantity, but
the quality of the competition that is crucial. Those supply/demand
ratios just don't give you all the information you need. When
you are ready for a better way to do your keyword research, try
this...
1. Collect Search Statistics
Use the tools previously mentioned to see how much traffic
a keyword phrase has and to get ideas for other possible keyword
phrases. Make a list of words and phrase with decent demand.
For my own sites, I usually won't optimize a page for a keyword
with less than a couple hundred monthly searches. This is the
same procedure outlined earlier in this lesson, but now we do
something more...
2. Install a Google Toolbar on Your Browser
Get it at http://toolbar.google.com. Play with the options
to find the one that allows you to see the "PageRank"
of any web page. "PR," as it is often referred to,
is a ranking between 0 and 10 that Google uses to help determine
which sites show up in the search results. Note the ranking of
your own pages, which tells you (roughly) how well you can compete
against other pages for given terms, assuming you're doing okay
with your on-page optimization (more about that in a coming lesson).
The existing PR of your pages tells you roughly what PR you
can develop for any new pages you make. A PageRank of three (PR3)
on several of your site's internal pages suggests that you can
develop the same (within a few months) on new pages you put up.
Generally you do this by internally linking to the new pages,
especially from the homepage and site map, as well as from any
other relevant pages, and sometimes directly from the articles
you distribute in directories.
Google delivers most of the search traffic in the world, so
this ranking matters. Place well in Google search results and
you'll probably do well in others. In any case it won't matter
if you do - Google really is the biggest.
3. Check Your Competition
Search your potential keywords one by one in Google. Then
click through to the pages in the first ten results, and note
the PageRank score of each. This is shown on your Google Toolbar
as a white (PR0) or green bar (PR1 to PR 9), and if you hover
over that you get a number.
If several pages have a page rank that is lower than that
of your existing pages, you can probably compete on that keyword
phrase with a new page. You also might be able to compete against
pages of equal PageRank. Now let's look at an example of the
process...
You're considering a page to target the keyword, "archery,"
and the first ten results have a PageRank of 4 or higher. If
your own pages are PageRank 3, you almost certainly can't compete.
But maybe "archery techniques" shows results with a
PageRank of 3 or less, so you make that your keyword. In this
case you're optimizing for "archery" anyhow, since
it is contained in your keyword, so if by some chance you can
compete for that one, you're good.
In doing your research you'll find keywords with 4,000 searches
per month, and 4,000,000 results, which would be a bad choice
by the old demand/supply formula. But if the first ten search
results include several pages with PageRanks of 2 and 3, you'll
know you have a chance to get some of that traffic.
What if you find others with 30,000 searches and 10,000 results?
It's a dream come true according to the old demand/supply wisdom,
but if the search results for these keyword phrases are all pages
with PageRank 5 or higher you'll likely waste your time writing
that page or article. Demand/supply ratios are not all that matters.
The method here is how to do keyword research a better way.
It may take only a few days for your new pages to get indexed
by the search engines, by the way, but it can be months before
they do well in the search results. Google in particular seems
to only ascribe importance (as measured by PageRank) to new pages
after several months or more, so allow for some time before you
expect to see results.
Search engines are very unpredictable as well. Some pages
that you never expected to do well may be on the first page of
results, while others that should easily compete are on page
ten - essentially invisible. The strategy here improves the odds,
but don't believe anyone who says they can guarantee top placement
in search engine results. Create enough pages the right way and
some of them will place well - also true for articles you write
and distribute.
This may be repetitive, but here's an outline of this better
way to do keyword research:
1. Choose a subject.
2. List some likely keywords.
3. Use a keyword research tool to get find related phrases.
4. Make a list of potential keywords and their monthly traffic.
5. Eliminate those without sufficient traffic.
6. Note the PR of each for the first ten results in Google.
7. Target keywords you can compete for the traffic from.
8. Write! (And then repeat this process again and again.)
The method here is primarily about targeting the best keywords
on the pages of your sites, but it is still relevant to article
writing. And although I'll target "tough" keywords
with articles (you never know how well a directory or a site
that uses the article can compete), if I have a choice for an
article between keywords with roughly the same number of searches,
I'll choose the one which has lower PageRank pages in the search
results - just to be safe.
The book continues here... Article
Titles
Note: This is part of the book, You Can Make Money
Writing. There are links to all the all the lessons/chapters
on the home page.
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