It seems that keyword research is one of those topics that people cannot get enough of and so on the October 04 broadcast of Giant Squid Open Mike on BlogTalk Radio, we revisited how I do keyword research. We only managed to get halfway through my notes, so Part 2 will be broadcast on November 01.
An archive recording is available at Giant Squid Open Mike but I thought it may also be helpful to do a summary, which will also have the links I shared during the broadcast.
Note: if you are completely new to Keyword Research, at the end of this article you will find links to other pages that will tell you exactly how to do it step by step, using screen shots and Case Studies.
So here goes:
We all know that “Content is King”, but if we are not using the same language in our content as the people who are actively searching on the internet for the information we are providing, then how will Google and the other Search Engines know that OUR content is providing the information being searched for?
This simple concept underpins the whole point of Keyword Research.
You can be a brilliant writer who engages your readers
You can make visually appealing lenses on Squidoo and pages on Hubpages and Wizzley
But if you are not using the language of your intended audience – that’s the people who are your target market – then Google and the other Search Engines are not going to find you.
Not only will Keyword Research help you get found, it will also help you to narrow a niche and have even more chance of getting traffic. For example it is a lot easier to compete for “Tiger Tattoos” than it is “tattoos” or get traffic for “things to do with the kids in London” than it is “London”.
How to do Keyword Research?
The tool I use the most is the free Google Keyword Research Tool. I start with an idea and then find the keywords that may help me rank. Sometimes it takes a lot of work to nail a keyword/phrase but I believe it is time well invested, because not only do you get the keyword for the URL and Title but usually more good keywords you can use in the content and when establishing backlinks. I even find that these keywords will act as “write prompts”.
I explain how to use the Google Keyword Tool in my Squidoo Lens: How to Research Keywords, so I will not go into too much detail here. However, here’s a couple of things to watch out for and remember:
Ignore the Competition Column in the Google Tool
Why? Because for reasons I am yet to discover, it gives you an inaccurate assessment of how many pages are competing for that keyword or phrase. Many times I have seen the bar chart indicate that competition is low and when I have checked, the competition has been huge.
How do I check? I take the keyword and type it into a Google Search Box. I also enclose it in ” ” which will give a proper indication of how many sites are ranking for that exact phrase. Even if it is a big number, if the top competing sites do not have the keyword in the URL or title, then you have a chance of competing and even getting above Amazon in the Search Returns.
When you are looking for keywords, one thing I have learned from experience (and it was a very positive experience) is that if you are promoting a specific product, people searching for the product may not be using the exact product name.
I learned this last year when I made a Squidoo page about a product that was due for launch just in time for Christmas Shopping. Back in August 2010 I read an article that a new art and game tablet was going to be produced for use with the Nintendo Wii. The name of the product was the Wii UDraw. Call it a hunch, as at the time I was not planning any pages about electronic toys and games, but I decided to do some keyword research.
My research showed that the majority of people were not searching for the correct name (Wii UDraw) but they were searching for Wii Draw. All my potential competitors, including Amazon, were going after traffic using the correct product name.
I published my page on Squidoo Wii Draw at the beginning of September 2010. I did some backlinking and then forgot about it. At the beginning of November I was checking my Amazon affiliate account and was surprised to see some sales. From that point on, traffic went through the roof and so did the sales. I made it to #1 on Google (and Scroogle) and the keyword has stayed either at the top or near the top ever since. I continue to get sales and am hoping they will pick up even more as we head towards this Christmas.
Analysing the Keyword Research
I use an Excel Spreadsheet to help me analyse my Keyword Research and decide which are the strongest keywords. An example is in the screen shot below – apologies for not showing the actual keywords – it’s for a lens where I have grabbed the URL but it is yet to be published 
Analysing Keyword Research
The Global Search Volume shows total searches for that particular keyword. As I am English, but generally writing for the US Amazon market (and other affiliates), I tend to ignore the results for Local Searches, which in my case would be for the UK.
I then find the number of pages on Google competing for that Search Phrase and enter the number in the “Comp” column.
For the ratio, I divide the number of competing pages by the number of searches. Providing the number of searches is reasonable then anything with a ratio of less than one will make me sit up and take notice. But even higher ratios have potential if the Competition do not have the keyphrase in their URL or title.
In this case I believe all 10 keywords have potential, particularly when publishing on Squidoo, because we benefit due to a boost from Squidoo’s high page rank of 7.
However, my final check is to see if another page on Squidoo has the keyword in the URL.
To give an example: if I am looking at the keyphrase “belly button fluff removal”, I will check to see if any lenses include “bellybuttonfluffremoval” or “belly-button-fluff-removal” in the URL. If they do, then I will look at the lensmaster and the quality of the lens.
If the lensmaster is well respected, the lens is quality and updated regularly then I will look for another keyword. If however, the lens is “light” on content, spam or junk and/or is not updated regularly then I will probably give it a go.
Why look for another keyword?
If a lens is ranking well for that keyphrase and has been around for awhile, then Google will give that lens more authority than a newsly published lens. You could be wasting your time.
In the next Giant Squid Open Mike Broadcast on November 01, we will continue with keywords and Backlinking with a view to moving onto converting traffic into sales, either towards the end of that programme, if we have time, or on Tuesday December 01.
Giant Squid Open Mike broadcasts on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 5pm Eastern.
Links to more help about Keyword Research
How to do Keyword Reseach
An Introduction to Keyword Research
Learn Squidoo: Step by Step
About AJ
Thank you for this helpful and informative article!
I heard somewhere that the competition bar on Google’s keyword represents how much competition there is for advertisers, not for websites. For example, the keyword ‘youtube’ shows very low competition; but that’s because there’s very few people are advertising ‘youtube’, and as a result very little competition for advertisers; not because there’s very little compeition for other webpages.
It is true that the Adwords Keyword Tool is made for advertisers, not publishers. And it is only a guide. The other thing to keep in mind is that the long tail keywords are less competitive than single words.
Related to this, I have a question about the global search volumes and competition. Are these results that the spreadsheet is showing in quotes (exact match) or broad (both in the GKWT and the actual Google results). I’m always confused as to which ones to use.
I tend to use the Broad Match in the Google Search Tool, because not only will it show the results for the phrases I add in the search box, but it will also give me ideas for pages on related topics or for keywords that are better than the ones I am searching on.
Hm, haven’t thought of it that way. I was always trying to go for exact match comp.with less than 30k (approx. anyway). With broad match however I have no longer a point of reference as to what lowest numbers to aim for since there are millions of pages out there…
But for me what I go for is the ratio of competing pages to number of searches. The number of competing pages needs to be compared to the number of searches. 30k competing pages may seem like a good number to compete with, but if the number of searches is only, say 250, then you may compete for the keyword but you wont get decent traffic.
There’s also another factor – I am currently #1 on Google for a keyphrase that has 49,500 searches a month and 5,410,000 pages on Google competing for that phrase. 5.41 million would seem almost impossible competition BUT, no one else is actually using that keyphrase in their URL or Page Title – including Amazon. So I rank higher than Amazon for the product.
OMG I went over most of my lenses and except about 2, all have a much higher ratio than the suggested one. No wonder I’ve been struggling to get traffic and sales to these keywords.
So now when I did new searches, I’ve basically taken the BROAD match for the searches in the Keyword tool and the EXACT number of webpage results (in quotes) when looking for competition. Hope I did it right.
Just found one keyword with 135,000 broad match searches and when I put it on exact there were only 22, lol. But the ratio is great! That’s such a different way to think about keywords that I’ve learned and did before…wow…
“Because for reasons I am yet to discover, it gives you an inaccurate assessment of how many pages are competing for that keyword or phrase. Many times I have seen the bar chart indicate that competition is low and when I have checked, the competition has been huge.”
I didn’t understand this either, but then somewhere, I finally read that the “competition” column is the competition between Google Adwords advertisers competing for ad space for that keyword. So it’s not relevant AT ALL to the number of competing websites, because it’s not measuring websites at all, but rather how many Adsense members are running ads for that keyword. The keyword research tool is within the Adsense toolbox, made for Adsense advertisers.
So I’ve found the Google Keyword Research Tool can give me a start in my keyword research, but then I use the Market Samurai software to give me the competing website info. I use the broad match to generate keyword ideas, then I switch to the “exact” match when I’m determining if there is enough traffic to go ahead with the keyword phrase. Sometimes the broad match looks great, but the exact match looks terrible. I’ve found that I do better when I think I have a good traffic / low competition phrase on exact match.
Thanks for this KIm, another responder has said the same thing about the “Competition” column on the Google Keyword Tool, which is very useful to know.
And yes, I also use Market Samurai, but until anyone understands the basics of keyword research, then the great tools offered by MS could be a tad overwhelming
Wow thanks AJ, major lightbulb moment going in my head right now about proper keyword research. No wonder I’m on the first page of Google for some keywords and I hardly get any traffic.
So glad the article has helped
Hi AJ.
I always follow you and some few others giants on Squidoo. I learned a lot since I joined Squidoo (still learning).
One thing that most people get confused too, is the competition column on google keyword tool.
This column does not have anything to do with the competition on websites or webpages on the actual results displayed by google when doing a search.
That column is the competition to bid money on the adds everyone sees when doing a search.
So, if I wanna do a add using adwords, I need to check that column to see if I need to bid 2 or 3 dollars per click on that particular keyword or if the competition is low I can bid something like 10cent per click.
In terms of SEO, this column should be ignored. To find the competition of a particular keyword or phrase, we need to use the search box on google.
Hope it gets clear.
Loved to hear your voice on the radio.
Best of luck to you and your work.
Regards,
Thank you Carlos