Search Engine Academy of South Carolina

I have been getting a lot of questions lately about how I process keyword research using Wordtracker.  So I thought I would take a few minutes this morning and detail out step by step exactly how I work through a session of keyword research.

As many of you already know the success of any good optimization plan starts with the research of keywords.  Normally you want to find words or word clusters that will open additional windows into your site while giving your potential visitors exactly what they’re looking for.

Many Web site owners have the mind set that they should only optimize their Web site for the most popular keywords.  Unfortunately this means that they are competing with millions of other sites competing for the same keywords.  Those most common keywords are not the phrases that will bring qualified visitors to your site.  Most times these popular keywords are to general and the competition is way too high.

Let me walk you through the steps of how I approach research when it comes to finding those valuable keywords.

First I think of the most common root word that I know for a fact is going to have a very high number of competing pages.

My session of choice in WT is Keyword Researcher I would much rather know what keywords people are searching on rather than using Keyword Universe where it shows me how keywords are being used on the top 200 Web sites.
 
For example purposes lets’ work on a Web site about “bass fishing.”

The most common and popular root keywords I would start with would be “bass fishing.” Normally I like to start with just one root word but in this case the 2 word phrase bass fishing is more detailed then just fishing so I am starting there. 

I only want my responses to be related to that type of fishing “bass.” In this step I am just looking for a keyword cluster that would have something to do with the overall purpose of my site.  Also at this point I am not concerned with KEI or competing pages I am only looking for a keyword phrase that pertains to my site.

Just so I know what I am up against I make a note of the competition for the most common keywords “bass fishing.”

Just as I suspected those are pretty high numbers to work with and even the most seasoned Professional SEO would not try to compete with that.  Competing pages of 6,530,000 and a KEI of only 0.01. 

As I look through my responses I see these ones:

I found a couple to work through not great numbers but I know our site lists the top bass fishing tournaments around the country including the FLW Series and we also review fishing lures so I write these two phrases down so I can work through them.

Next I would search separately on each of the words above: flw - bass – fishing –handmade – jigs and tournament to see what I come up with.

The first word “flw” did not come up with anything I could use so I moved on to the next.

I try really hard to not get side tracked, you can spend hours in WT and not get anything accomplished so stick to one 3 or 4 keyword phrase at a time and pick that one apart before going on to the next.

As I predicted the words bass and fishing both are too general and are not giving me anything I can use but I don’t give up I still move on and explore each word of the phrase clusters I came up with in the beginning.

My next word was “handmade” which I know from experience I should try both “handmade” as one word and then separate it into two words “hand made.”  It usually gives us completely different results and it did as well this time.

Not wonderful numbers but with 23 people searching on it I know I can optimize a page on our site for hand made fish hooks and actually give our visitors some resources for companies that produce hand made fishing hooks.

Lets’ keep going with our next word which is “jigs.”  Just as before I want to try the word as “jigs” and “jig” it will always give us different results.

Now we are getting somewhere the word “jig” gave us this great result:

I know I can work this type of bass fishing lures into a separate optimized page of our site. But we are not finished yet lets’ look at our last word “tournament” and the plural form “tournaments.”

As you can see above I found a couple different phrases I can work in our site.  I see by my research people are looking for information on tournaments by state.  This could open multiple windows into our site by posting tournament information individually on each state and optimizing each page for that states bass tournaments.  Interesting …something I would not have normally thought of came about by doing a little keyword research.   

Remember don’t get side tracked work on one 3 or 4 word cluster at a time and research each word separately remembering to try variations of the word singular and plural or as one word such as handmade was or separate them into two hand made.

This is how I work through each session of keyword research. The whole process should not take you more than an hour and most times you come up with some great possibilities.

To recap:

1.      Start with your most common root word

2.      Find a couple 3 or 4 words clusters you can pick apart that pertain to your site even if they do not have great numbers

3.      Research each word separately trying both singular and plurals

4.      Remember not to get side tracked stick to one phrase at a time

5.      Be open to discovering new windows into your site

6.      And lastly go optimize the new phrase on your site

If you enjoyed these tips on how to work through a keyword research project you may also enjoy our FREE SEO Tips of the day.  Everyday bright and early in the morning you will receive a tip in your email.  Most of the tips are ones you can apply to your Web site the same day.

Don’t miss out sign up today and start receiving your FREE SEO Tips tomorrow!

http://www.searchengineacademysc.com/seo-tip.htm

If you are not already a subscriber to the Wordtracker program, check it out you may find it is one of the most important tools in your SEO tool box.  WORDTRACKER 

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!