But to distinguish yourself from your competitors, you really need to take keyword research to the next level. That's where advanced keyword research techniques can help separate you from the search engine marketing pack.
How to Conduct Traditional Keyword Research
Before I discuss advanced keyword research, let's start by looking at some of the basic methods of traditional research.
Basic Methods for Researching Keywords
Some of the most popular methods for performing keyword research are also pretty basic and straightforward:
* Brainstorming – think up keywords that your customers would type into search engines to find your company website
* Keyword suggestion tool – you can get keyword suggestion ideas from a variety of free keyword tools on the Web
* Examining competitor sites – by checking a competitor's on-page and off-page optimization efforts, you get a very good idea which keywords they're targeting
The trouble with these approaches is they're each intrinsically flawed.
First, by brainstorming, you're guessing which keywords users will search on to find your site. There's no actual search data to back you up. Secondly, keyword suggestion tools offer lists of keywords, which are based on estimates (not real searches) and available to everyone, so there's no real competitive edge if everyone is using the same keywords. Finally, just because a competitor's keywords are relevant to their website and business, doesn't mean they're relevant to yours. You can't assume what works for one site will automatically work for another.
The Benefits of Advanced Keyword Researching
To gain the upper hand on the competition, you need to go beyond traditional research for keywords. Advanced research methods involve using keyword data from your own website data history and your own search log files. By conducting keyword research in this manner, you're ensuring that your data is:
* Highly Relevant – the keywords users searched on to find your website are related specifically to the services or product your website offers.
* Totally Unique – unlike keyword tool data, your search log files are distinct to your particular website, they're private and available to nobody else. This offers you a big advantage over your competitors.
* Always Fresh – people find your website through new searches every day. This data is collected in your server logs, and gives you a steady stream of fresh and proven keywords to target.
Putting Advanced Keyword Research into Action
So once you've discovered all these new keywords by mining your log files, what next? As you discover new keywords, the next step in the process is to take action by authoring narrowly-focused content around these proven keywords for your website. By doing this, you're ensuring that the content on your website is fresh and supremely relevant to your audience. The result of combining advanced research with relevant content authoring around proven keywords will lead to better rankings in the search engines and more qualified visitors to your site.
Google Keyword Research Search Tool
The following are some of my best trade secrets. Please only use them for Good. This article has been developed as an internet marketing how-to for entrepreneurs and small businesses who make up 95% of businesses, yet are currently underserved by the professional search-marketing industry, and are often poorly self-served due to lack of expertise and time. Let's Begin. A successful internet marketing program almost always beings with Keyword Research. It's important to find out which of your services people are looking for, and in what quantity they are searching for them.
One of the most popular free tools to see how many searches per month there are for your keywords is Yahoo's Search History tool Remember that as Yahoo only holds about 25% of the market share for total searches (Google is about 55% and MSN is about 15%) so the actual number of searches for most terms is really about 4x the numbers you will see. There are many search terms that you can show up for in search engines that are less competitive and costly than others (usually the less obvious terms that people haven't found), although they are just as likely to convert the searcher to a customer of yours. The more of these terms you can find for your keyword list, the better your whole search marketing campaign will be in cost and effectiveness.
While developing your list of terms and search volume, it is important to note that many search volume numbers given are "over the radar" the real quantity of searches is much less. It is important to have accurate numbers so you can proportionately distribute your efforts to showing up for search terms -- rather than spending hours trying to show up for a term that very few people are in reality actually looking for. For more details go to www.forum-marketing-videos.com. To find more accurate data, you can either keep multiple months of data on hand or compare for discrepancies, or you can use MSN Ad Center's daily search volume tool to also see un-natural spikes in search volume. It is also important to note that some terms are "under the radar terms" of Yahoo's Search History tool. Anything under 25 searches per month doesn't show up, and there is often a *huge* potential market under the radar. This is particularly true with local searches -- usually the keyword + major metropolitan area will show up, but adding up all of the other local cities and suburbs is often just as many total searches, and very few people think to try to show up for the individual cities.
Another technique for converting searchers are finding "indirect keywords", where somebody who is searching for one thing, though not what you are offering as a product or service, would still be interested in your product for instance somebody is looking up how to fix a dent in their car themselves, and you can offer them professional dent removal services. One great use of this is running ads for the names of your competitors, and as people look up their services, they will then also be able to see your offerings Next, convert your keyword list into an effective Pay-Per-Click campaign to drive targeted traffic to your website. You should have at least these three subdivisions in your keyword list. If you offer services nation-wide, you can just go ahead and run only national ads using these keyword lists. If you have a local geographic area that you service, more advanced techniques should be used. You should have a generic list of all of the services which you offer -- for example, accounting -- which may include your non-competitor-name "indirect keywords".
If you only serve a local market, these should be put into a geo-targeted campaign to keep people you outside of your market from seeing your ads, clicking them, and costing you money. For more details go to www.internet-marketing-online-goldmine.com. You should have a list of all of the cities you service, multiplied by the services you offer (i.e. Chicago accountant, Naperville Accountant, Elmhurst Accountant, etc.). This should be run as a national or global campaign, using the Ad to disambiguate the location of your offerings from other cities in the world with the same name. You should have list of the names of all of your competitors. This can be run as a geo-targeted ad if you service only a particular area -- especially when you have national companies listed as your competitors.
Both Ken Lyons & Manoj Singh are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Ken Lyons has sinced written about articles on various topics from Marketing, Computers and The Internet and SEO Search Engine Optimization. Ken Lyons is a Marketing Manager for WordStream, Inc. WordStream provides a that mines your site's log files to conduct advance. Ken Lyons's top article generates over 720 views. to your Favourites.
Manoj Singh has sinced written about articles on various topics from Marketing, Travel and Leisure and Vacation. . Manoj Singh's top article generates over 12100 views. to your Favourites.
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