 Keyword Analysis Part 12 of 12
Hi, glad you’re here! This is the last part in the series that is designed to guide you through finding the best keywords for your small business. If you missed it, here’s the link to start from the beginning and get all the juicy info - Part 1 Keyword Analysis: How Keywords Work.
By now your should have finished your business plan.
If you are just joining us for the first time, first I’m glad you’re here, and you are probably wondering “What business plan?”. Our first series was dedicated to putting together a Simple Business Plan to market your small business online. There is a downloadable kit and a series of 7 articles to walk you through step-by-step. So, go check it out Simple Business Plan: Goals for Your Website.
Now that we’re all the same page, let’s move onto part 12…
The Secret to Web Site Never Ending Traffic
 Keyword research is not a one-time thing. It’s an ongoing process that requires you to continually be on the lookout for new keywords. Keep an eye on the competition, revisit your favorite keyword discovery tool, and read everything you can about your subject, and you’ll have a never-ending supply of keywords you can use to build content, drive traffic, and make sales.
It’s also worth noting here that while there are many tools – Google Keyword Tool, Wordtracker, Market Samurai – you can use to discover and analyze keywords, you should choose one (and only one) and stick with it.
There is a lot of discussion among webmasters that the Google numbers are inflated, and that other tools may present a more realistic view of actual search volumes, but the truth is, none of that matters. Keyword search volume is only important when you’re comparing it to other keywords you’ve researched in the same manner.
Keywords really are the key to a profitable online business, if you just know where to find them, where to use them, and how to tell the search engines what your keywords are about.
The “Secret Sauce” That Separates the Successes from the Failures
“He who fails to plan, plans to fail.” – Proverb
 If you’ve heard the proverb “He who fails to plan, plans to fail,” know that this absolutely applies when it comes to keyword research.
Businesses don’t pop out of the ground overnight. Internet businesses can grow a lot faster than brick and mortar businesses – Which actually makes planning that much more important.
In other businesses, it may be more feasible to correct as you go along. With an internet business, you could lose so much momentum by having to start over again.
Success or failure of a beginning internet marketing business can depend a lot on the keywords you choose.
It’s the foundation for marketing your entire business online.
What are your next steps?
In this keyword analysis series we have reviewed a lot of information about keywords and keyword analysis.
The process of keyword research isn’t difficult, but it does require some specialized knowledge.
For example …
- How do you go about finding out search volume and competition?
- How do you determine if the people coming from your keywords are likely to buy?
- How do you choose keywords that will get you traffic now and also help you build towards a successful larger business later?
And so on and so forth.
Now that you have learn the valuable skill of keyword analysis research, you can properly do your analysis for your business.
Before you finalize your keyword analysis, put your research down for a day or so, then come back to it before making your decision. Remember, this is the foundation that your business is built on. It’s worth spending a little time on it.
Keyword analysis is critical.
Learn the process, do the process and watch your business thrive!
Learn how to build a successful online presence for your small business. Reach your target market and grow your small business. Sign up for the FREE Newsletter and Get Online Marketing Strategies and have all the effective techniques and valuable skills delivered right to your inbox!
Do you need help with your keyword analysis? Let me know if I can help.
Thanks for reading,
Hi! Great to have you here. If you're a service provider who would like to market your business online and don't know where to start, you're in the right place! Best of all, you can have all the information delivered to you Free! Subscribe to the newsletter Online Marketing Strategies; you'll receive step-by-step help to build a profitable online presence for your business. Thanks for visiting! - Theresa
Keyword Analysis Part 11 of 12
Welcome back to our series that is designed to guide you through finding the best keywords for your small business. If you missed it, here’s the link to read Part 1 Keyword Analysis: How Keywords Work.
As we work through this series have your business plan handy, we didn’t just put that together to sound “cool”. I want you to keep it handy and tweak it as you feel the information needs to be updated. If you haven’t had the opportunity to finish it yet, no worries, just do what you can when you can.
If you are just joining us now, and are wondering “What business plan?”. Our first series was dedicated to putting together a Simple Business Plan to market your small business online. There is a downloadable kit and a series of 7 articles to walk you through step-by-step. So, go check it out.
So, now that we have all taken care of, let’s carry on…
Using Keywords Offsite
Your website is not the only place to use your keywords. Offsite marketing is a huge part of driving traffic, and it’s important to use keywords wherever you can to help the search engines find and rank your site.
We’ve already talked about how Google “reads” the text on your page to determine what the page is about. But there’s an even more important indicator than what you say you’re about, and that’s what other people say you’re about. The way they do that is by linking to your site.
Search engines look at links as a kind of currency. The more links that point to your site from other sites, the richer your site is, and the higher it will rank in the search results. But the number of links doesn’t tell Google what your site is about. For that it looks at anchor text.
Anchor Text Defined
 Anchor text is the visible part of a link. It’s the words that appear on the website, usually in blue and with an underline to indicate it’s a link.
In HTML, anchor text is written like this:
<a href=”http://www.google.com”>World’s Best Search Engine</a>
In this example, the phrase “World’s Best Search Engine” is the anchor text for a link to Google.
As we said above, the anchor text used tells the search engines what Site A thinks Site B is all about. So if Site A links to Google using the anchor text “World’s Best Search Engine,” then that must be what Google is – at least as far as search results are concerned. And if enough sites link to Google with that same keyword, pretty soon Google will be listed at the top of the search results whenever someone types that phrase into a search engine. Even if they type it into Yahoo!
In fact, that’s exactly what happened with Adobe and the keyword phrase “click here.” If you Google that phrase, you will find the download page for Adobe Reader in the number one spot, simply because there are millions of pages that say things like “You must have the free Adobe Acrobat to open this file. Click here to download your copy.” And of course, the anchor text is “click here.” Because of that, Google has decided that’s what Adobe’s download page is about.
That’s a pretty funny story, but it’s a great illustration of the power of anchor text and back links. If you want your site to be found on the Internet for a specific topic, using your keywords as anchor text is the most important thing you can do.
Link Building with Anchor Text
 We’ve already talked about using keywords on your own site, but now I want to cover some ways you can use keywords on other people’s sites to improve your search rankings.
Very few webmasters will respond well if you shoot them an email saying, “Hey, will you link to my site using this keyword?” If you have a website, you might even be getting some emails that say that very thing, and you probably respond the way most webmasters do – by hitting the spam button.
How then, can you get other sites to pass on a little link love to you? Simple. You offer them something of value in return.
And by value, I don’t mean money. I mean content. You can write a guest post for a favorite (and relevant) blog. You can post useful comments on relevant blogs. You can answer questions on niche forums. You can write articles and distribute them via article directories.
When you offer these things to web owners, you often will get to also include a short paragraph about you and your business, and in that short paragraph you can include a link to your site.
For example, if you write a guest post for a popular fashion blog, your closing paragraph (called an author resource box or bio) might look like this:
Mary Marketer is in love with Jimmy Choo, can’t get enough Cosmo, and owns every episode of Sex in the City. Read her rants about the inadequacies in women’s plus size clothing on her blog, Fat Fashionista.
With an author resource box, you get to tell the world a little bit about who you are, what you do, AND you get to use that all important anchor text to link back to your site.
This same tactic works well for article marketing, too. The only difference is, articles are distributed to many directories, and (hopefully) picked up for use on other sites as well.
For blog comments and forum posts, the idea is the same, but the implementation is a little different.
Most forums offer the opportunity to include a “signature” in each of your posts. This is where you’ll write a shorter version of your author resource box, though you’ll still include your keywords as anchor text.
For blog commenting, however, you will generally only be allowed to use your name, or at most, the name of your website. Most bloggers will delete your comment as spam if you try to use keywords here. But that doesn’t mean that blog commenting is useless, just that you don’t get quite as much credit in the search results.
Internal Linking
 One final note about link building. Don’t neglect your own site. A page written around one keyword will likely be related to, or mention, another page on your site, so be sure to build links within your own site. And it should go without saying that those links should always be build using keywords as anchor text.
One simple way of keeping track is to maintain a spreadsheet with some basic information for every article or blog post you make, either on your own site or off. For example, make a note of the primary keyword for the post, the title, and the URL. Now, every time you make a new post to your blog, get out your list and use the information to link out to other, older posts and articles. Do this consistently, and it won’t be long until you have a huge network of posts and articles, all connected to each other, and all building on your keyword list.
It’s Homework Time! 
If you haven’t finished your Business Plan, now is a good time to wrap it up. If you have, then your good for today!
When we start building your web site, I’ll show you a two great tools to make internal linking more easier.
The next part of is the last part in the keyword analysis. WOW, you’ll be ready to build your own website next!
Learn how to build a successful online presence for your small business. Reach your target market and grow your small business. Sign up for the FREE Newsletter Online Marketing Strategies and have all the effective strategies and valuable skills delivered right to your inbox!
If you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.
Thanks for reading,
Keyword Analysis Part 10 of 12
Hello! This is the part 10 in the series that is designed to guide you through finding the best keywords for your small business. If you missed it, here’s the link to read Part 1 Keyword Analysis: How Keywords Work, so you can get the series from the beginning.
Remember to have your business plan handy, so you can refer to it and make any additional notes to it. As mentioned before, if you haven’t had the opportunity to finish it yet, no worries, just do what you can when you can.
If you are just joining us for the first time, first I’m glad you’re here, and you are probably wondering “What business plan?”. Our first series was dedicated to putting together a Simple Business Plan to market your small business online. There is a downloadable kit and a series of 7 articles to walk you through step-by-step. So, go check it out here.
Now that we’re all the same page, let’s move onto part 10…
Writing with Keywords
 Once you’ve got all the behind the scenes keyword usage worked out, it’s time to tackle the fun stuff: content. This is where you’re really going to put keywords to work for you.
When you write a blog post or article for your site, the first thing you need to decide on is a topic. A lot of new online business owners get hung up on this part, struggling to find something to write about. But you, with your experience in your market and list of keywords, will never face that problem. Simply get out your list and choose from the dozens of topics you already know will find an audience!
You’ll want to pick from the low-level keywords, so that your topic is as narrow as possible. After all, it would be nearly impossible to write a short post or article about “women’s clothing.” Writing about “flattering styles for pear-shaped women,” though, is simple, because it’s a focused topic. That’s what long-tail keywords are all about. A highly focused topic.
As we talked about earlier, you should try to include your keyword in the title of the article. This lets the search engines – and readers – know what your page is about. Subheadings (remember the <h3> tag?) are also good for keywords, but don’t go overboard.
Your keyword should also appear in the first and last paragraphs. If you can make it sound natural, go ahead and use it more often in the body of your article, but don’t force it. Remember, you’re ultimately writing for humans, and they’ll be quick to surf away if they come across something that reads like this:
When choosing flattering styles for pear-shaped women, it’s important to remember that not all flattering styles for pear-shaped women will be acceptable to all pear-shaped women. For some, the flattering styles for pear-shaped women will include bright colors and bold prints, but for other pear-shaped women, they prefer their flattering styles for pear-shaped women to be more subtle.
Yuck. No one will stick around to read that!
Google and the other search engines are smart. As you saw when we researched keywords, they recognize related words and phrases, so you don’t have to worry about stuffing your exact keyword phrase into every nook and cranny of your article.
Use it a few times, but also use other, related terms. The search engines will know what your page is about, and your human visitors will appreciate that they can read it easily.
Some website owners find it easier to write the content first, then go back and add keywords later. It’s a simple thing to rearrange a sentence or two to include a keyword phrase, so if you find yourself stuck when trying to build an article around a particular phrase, just say what you need to say, and go back and add keywords later.
Using Funky Keywords
As competition for good keywords increases, and as searchers get savvier, webmasters are beginning to find themselves in a tough spot. You probably noticed it yourself, and in the last few paragraphs you’ve been thinking, “Well, that’s all find and good. You’ve got good solid keywords that lend themselves to natural language. But you should see MINE!”
If your keyword list includes things like “women’s clothing retail” and “women’s clothing plus size,” you’re not alone. Searchers know they don’t have to enter a phrase into a search engine as it would be used in real life (though some do – we’ll talk about that in a bit). Instead, they enter words that go together, but not always in that order. Like “ladies fashion online shopping.” How are you supposed to write about that without sounding like you put your text in a blender?
The key to the creative use of odd keywords is punctuation.
The first thing you need to know is that Google doesn’t see punctuation. It doesn’t recognize the end of a sentence, a parenthetical aside, or even a paragraph break. To the Google-bot, your page is one long string of text.
That means it’s a simple thing to get those odd-sounding phrases into your content without too much trouble, if you can learn to think outside the sentence. Here’s an example using “ladies fashion online shopping.”
When searching for bargains in ladies fashion, online shopping is often the first choice. The stores are always open, the selection is fantastic, and you never have to search endlessly for a parking space. Christmas buying rush? Not online. A quick Internet search will turn up dozens, maybe hundreds of shops all catering to those looking for the hottest deals in ladies fashion.
Online shopping does have a downside, though. You can’t try anything on first!
You can see where I’ve bolded the keywords in the example above. The text – while not award-winning prose – is readable, doesn’t sound stilted or “spun,” and most of all, points out to the search engines exactly what the page is about.
This trick works with heading tags, too. You can use hyphens or colons to the same effect, like this:
Find the Hottest Deals in Ladies Fashion: Online Shopping Secrets of the Pros
Yes, it takes a little more creativity to write that way, but once you start thinking outside the customary writing constraints, you’ll get the hang of it.
It’s Homework Time
Now, grab a piece of paper and your favorite pen and begin writing down article topics for your business based around the keyword list you decided on in part 9. This is a brainstorming sessions, don’t erase anything.
For more topic ideas think about conversations you’ve had with clients. What are some of the questions you hear over and over? Write them down, these are the foundation for great articles. What are some other questions you get from clients? Write those down too.
We’re working on setting you up as an authority in your market and to help establish that you need to share what you know and what your experience has taught you.
Now that you have a list of topics write a few paragraphs in this format:
- tell them what your going to tell them
- tell them
- tell them what you just told them
A nice beginning, middle, and end about the topic. If you get stuck, pretend the client is right in front of you and have a conversation (don’t worry, no one’s looking ). Shoot for 300 words. No, 300 words is really not that much.
If you feel comfortable enough, use the computer. If you can write fast, use a notepad…whatever works best for you.
In the next part of the keyword analysis series we’re going to talk about using your keywords outside of your website. If you haven’t had a chance to read How to Use SEO Like a Superstar, it will be a good foundation to the next part of the keyword analysis series.
Learn how to build a successful online presence for your small business. Reach your target market and grow your small business. Sign up for the Free Newsletter and have all the effective strategies and valuable skills delivered right to your inbox!
If you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below, I’d love to hear your ideas.
Thanks for reading,
Theresa
Keyword Analysis Part 9 of 12
Hi! This is the part nine in the series that is designed to guide you through finding the best keywords for your small business. We’re almost done with this series so if you need to catch up, here’s the link to read Part 1 Keyword Analysis: How Keywords Work, so you can get the series from the beginning.
Remember, have your business plan handy, so you can refer to it and make any additional notes to it. As mentioned before, if you haven’t had the opportunity to finish it yet, no worries, just do what you can when you can.
If you are here for the first time…I’m glad you’re here! To give you a heads up as to what’s been going on around here; our first series was all about putting together a Simple Business Plan to market your small business online. There is a downloadable kit and a series of 7 articles to walk you through step-by-step. So, go check it out here.
Now that’s all taken care of, let’s dive into part 9…
How To Organize Your Keyword List
As you’re assembling your keyword list, it’s a good idea to keep them in a spreadsheet or other software that allows for easy shuffling and sorting. It’s worth mentioning here that there are paid keyword analysis research tools that will do this part for you, sorting your keywords according to number of searches, buying words versus information words, and relative competition. Google “keyword tools” or visit forums dedicated to search engine optimization to find the best available tools.
If you use a free tool, you’ll need to manually assemble your list. The information you want to include with your list is the keyword itself, the number of searches performed, the relative competition (use a scale of 1 to 10, or whatever makes sense to you), and the intent of the searcher for each phrase (buy versus information).
Next, go through your list and see if you can discern any patterns. You’ll probably spot one or two primary words that will define your entire business. These will be high level, one or two word combinations, like “weight loss” or “dog training.” These keywords will be the number one keyword for your entire site.
You’ll probably also find several secondary phrases. These will be longer, and more specific than the primary phrase. Look for phrases like “dog crate training” and “exercises for weight loss.” These keywords will represent the categories on your site.
For example, if your primary keyword is “plus size clothing” then your categories might include “plus size blouses” and “plus size lingerie.”
Finally, you’ll begin to see the lowest level of keywords – the post or article level phrases. Sticking with our plus size example, you might see phrases like “plus size baby-doll gowns” or “plus size blue silk button-down blouse.” These low-level phrases are the ones you will actually build your content around, whether your content is blog posts, videos, or physical products.
Remember, these low-level keywords will have far fewer searches than the high level phrases, but the conversion rate, or number of buyers versus browsers, improves as your keywords become more specific.
A good example of this is actual product number keywords, like “Olympus E30 12.3MP Digital SLR,” which would tend to convert extremely well. People who are conducting this kind of focused search are very close to a buying decision, so even though there aren’t many searches, the ones who are searching are looking to buy.
Using Keywords Effectively
First, we’ll take a look at the big picture: site organization. We’ve already talked a bit about the difference between high level and low level keywords, now let’s take a look at the actual site structure. You might find it helpful to use a mindmap ( I like MindeNode and there’s free version) or other graphical software to visualize your site.
Start with your primary keyword at the top. This is the page from which all other pages will branch. If you can imagine an organizational chart for a company, with the CEO at the top, the company officers beneath him, then middle managers, and then supervisors, that’s what your keyword chart will look like.
To go back to our plus size store example, you might have something like this:
1. Plus Size Clothing
a. Plus Size Blouses
b. Plus Size Bottoms
i. Plus Size Capris
1. Adi Designs Women’s Plus Size Striped Dress
Capris
2. Women’s Plus Size Merona Brown Cargo Pants
ii. Plus Size Shorts
iii. Plus Size Pants
Using Keywords on your Website
Now that you see how the site is structured around keywords, let’s take a look at where your keywords are used within the site for maximum value. (This information is mostly for background, so you know the the important parts of site structure. If you use a platform like WordPress for your site this “behind the scenes” stuff is pretty easy – and we’ll be going over it anyway.)
The most important tag on your website is the title tag. That’s where the search engine spiders look when they want a quick overview of what your site is all about. It’s also the clickable part of a site’s listing in Google, and the text that appears across the top of your browser window when you’re looking at a website.
To use your keywords in your title tag, place them in the header portion of your site’s code, like this: <title>Women’s Plus Size Clothing</title>. Depending on the platform your site is built on, you may need to edit the source code directly, or you may be able to use a plugin, such as All in One SEO for WordPress.
It’s important to note here that keyword stuffing in your title tag (or anywhere else) can be detrimental to your search engine optimization plans. Try to avoid writing title tags that say things like “plus size clothing for women, women’s plus size clothing, plus size fashions, women’s clothing retail” because the search engines, and your human readers, will see it for what it is – an attempt to get the most mileage out of the title tag.
Instead, craft a useful, descriptive title tag that makes sense to all your readers – both human and bot.
Heading tags are the next most important use for your keywords, and just like your site structure, they have a hierarchy. Tags are denoted in HTML by the use of the greater-than (>) and less-than (<) symbols, like this: <h1>. The <h1> tag is the top level, and is generally reserved for the site name. The <h2> tag is used for post or article titles, and <h3> and lower are used for subheadings within an article.
You’ll usually notice that the text inside heading tags is larger, bolder, or a different color from the surrounding text. That doesn’t have any bearing on the effectiveness of your keywords, it’s just for human eyes. The important part is what’s going on in the source code, where the tags themselves live.
To use heading tags, you simply surround your keyword with the appropriate opening and closing tag, like this: <h1>top-level keyword</h1>. That tells the search engines that your “top-level keyword” is what your site is all about.
Another important tag is the meta-description tag. This appears in your site’s header, with the title tag, and tells searchers what your page is about. While using keywords here doesn’t have a direct bearing on your search engine placement, it can make the difference between a searcher clicking on your site or the next one in line.
Imagine you’ve searched for “WordPress title tag plugin” to find a way to easily change the title tags on your site. In the search results you see these two site descriptions:
Website Number One
you can create relevant alt and title tags automatically for all images. … http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/img- title-removal/ …
Website Number Two
Using a WordPress title tag plugin can really reduce the amount of time you spend coding your site.
The description for the first site was sucked from the page by Google, and is based on the keyword you searched for. Somewhere on that site Google found the words you looked for, and constructed a description to match. It’s not very descriptive, and of little use when it comes to figuring out what the page is really about.
The description for the second page was hand-crafted by the site owner. It makes sense, is a complete thought, and clearly indicates what the page is about.
Which one would you be more likely to click?
Image tags, specifically the <alt> attribute, are often overlooked as a valuable use of keywords. It’s too bad, too, because the search engines index these tags just like they do the text on the page, so there’s a lot of room for savvy site owners to improve their rankings just by taking a few seconds to include the <alt> attribute whenever they add a picture to a page.
If you’ve ever noticed images showing up in the search results when you look for information in Google, the <alt> attribute is why. While your image might not make sense to a searcher, especially if it’s a picture of your dog that you just added to a blog post for color, sometimes it will. In the case of an e-commerce site, for example, using the <alt> attribute for product pictures is essential.
It’s Homework Time
Okey-dokey, we’re in the home stretch. Yeah! Get your keyword list and apply the concepts from the How To Organize Your Keyword List and Using Keywords Effectively section above. If you need to go back and do the initial research it OK, sometimes a keyword or two might not seem quite right. Download the MindeNode tool to help you or do it in “outline” form – whatever works for you.
In the next part of the keyword analysis series we’re going to talk about writing great articles for your site.
Learn how to successfully market your business online.
Grow your business by reaching your target market.
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If you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.
Thanks for reading,
Keyword Analysis Part 8 of 12
Hello! This is the part 8 in the series that is designed to guide you through finding the best keywords for your small business. If you missed it, here’s the link to read Part 1 Keyword Analysis: How Keywords Work, so you can get the series from the beginning.
Remember to have your business plan handy, so you can refer to it and make any additional notes to it. As mentioned before, if you haven’t had the opportunity to finish it yet, no worries, just do what you can when you can.
If you are just joining us for the first time, first I’m glad you’re here, and you are probably wondering “What business plan?”. Our first series was dedicated to putting together a Simple Business Plan to market your small business online. There is a downloadable kit and a series of 7 articles to walk you through step-by-step. So, go check it out here.
Now that we’re all the same page, let’s move onto part 8…
Learning from the Competition to Find Great Keywords
So far we’ve talked about analyzing the competition. Now let’s look at how we can learn from the competition.
 When you did your initial keyword analysis research, chances are you came across words and phrases you never would have considered. People speak differently, so it’s reasonable to assume they use different words and phrases to search the Internet as well. In the American Midwest, a sandwich built on a large bun is called a sub. On the East Coast, that same sandwich is a hoagie. If you’ve never visited the East Coast, you might not even realize that word exists, but good keyword analysis research will tell you.
Google’s keyword tool will clue you in to lots of variations of your keyword, and if you keep digging deeper with each promising phrase, you’ll find even more useful words. But there’s another way to find out what the best keywords are for your niche.
In Google’s keyword tool, you can enter a website’s URL rather than a keyword, and find out exactly what Google thinks that page is about. You’ll see some familiar choices, but chances are you’ll find a few gems you hadn’t thought of. Do this for your biggest competitors, and you’ll fill out your keyword list nicely.
Another way to check out the competition is by using the Site Information Tool at http://www.wmtips.com/tools/info/. Enter the site’s URL and click “go” and everything you need to know about that site will appear on your screen, including the top ranking keywords in Google – and where the page fits in the search results – and the keywords the site owner or programmer entered into the keyword meta-tag. Now, the keyword meta-tag is just about useless today in terms of gaining traffic (more on that later), but it can help you figure out what keywords are good to use, based on what your competitors are doing.
Spying on Yourself
 Spying on your competition is good, but if you already have a site, it pays to spy on yourself, too. And Google is just the tool you need to get the job done.
You’ll need to have Google Analytics set up for your site, and while doing that is outside the scope of this report, it’s pretty easy to do. Once you’ve got a little piece of code installed on your site, Google will begin tracking all kinds of interesting facts and figures about your visitors.
You’ll find out:
- where they come from,
- how long they stay,
- the pages they visit,
- where they click when they’re on the site, and
- what page they exit from.
Most importantly for this discussion, you’ll find out what keyword they typed into Google to find your site.
Now, some of the keywords you find here will be completely useless as anything but funny Twitter quips, but some of them will offer genuine insight into your readers needs. Pick out those gems and add them to your keyword list, because after all, if you’ve been found for that keyword once, you’ll be found again. And next time you’ll be ready.
Types of Keywords
Not all keywords are created equal. In fact, we can break our keyword list into two distinct groups: buying words and information words.
As you might imagine, buying keywords are where you’ll make your money. That’s not saying there’s no use for informational keywords, because providing information for free to your audience is a great way to drive traffic, but buying keywords are where the money is.
Buying keywords look like this:
- Hand dyed sock yarn
- Claudia hand painted yarns
- Knitting yarns online
- Discount sock yarn
- Wholesale knitting yarn
- Knitting yarn shop online
You can see that these phrases clearly indicate an intent to buy. When someone searches for discount, wholesale, retail, or shop, they are looking to buy something. Likewise when they search for a specific brand or model number.
On the other hand, people looking for information are using terms like:
- How to dye sock yarn
- Free sock patterns
- Sweater knitting tips
- Download knitting needle gauge
These terms are all focused on getting something for free, whether it’s information or an actual item (like a sock pattern). While there is value in using these search terms, the people who are finding your site via these keywords are not at the buying stage yet. Treat them well, give them the information they’re seeking, and they may turn into a loyal customer, though, so don’t discount them completely.
Stop Words and Plurals
Unfortunately, Google does see stop words and plurals, so you can’t add words or letters to your keyword without changing it in Google’s eyes. For example, “ladies fashion online shopping” is not the same as “ladies fashions online shopping” or “ladies fashion online shop” or even “shopping online for ladies fashion.”
Those phrases are all related, but still different as far as search goes. You can try it out for yourself by Googling those three phrases. You’ll see that you get three different – though similar – sets of search results.
It’s Homework Time
We’re getting close to the end of our Keyword Analysis series, so it’s time to start getting your keyword list together. Start by picking the keyword tool you feel comfortable with: Wordtracker, Market Samurai, or Google AdWords Keyword Tool. Narrow your list to 10 keywords. As a refresher to what terms your list should include, review the second article in this Keyword Analysis series. Take a look at the different related terms that also appear, these might be real good keywords for your business.
Remember, to help you organize the terms and search numbers make a table and enter the terms on the left. Across the top make columns for Board, Phrase, And Exact Match numbers.
In the next part of the keyword analysis series we’re going to talk about organizing your keyword list.
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