A 3-Step Process for Painless Keyword Research

A 3-Step Process for Painless Keyword Research

Reader Comments (41)

  1. Hi Beth,

    Thanks for the great tips. I’ve found one useful tool that can help with #3 on the list that’s been a big help in broadening the search engine, keyword appeal for any content I’m working on and it just happens to old technology.

    And that’s your run of the mill Thesaurus. It’s been a great help in finding terms that helps improve things before hitting the publish button.

    And I’ve also found http://www.quintura.com extremely helpful in finding semantic phrases in my keyword research also.

  2. This is a great, important post. Keyword research is the cornerstone of search marketing and critical to success for Internet marketing in general. When doing keyword research, factor in relevancy as it relates to commercial intent. If ROI (Return on Investment) is key, then focus on high commercial intent keywords/phrases (e.g. Samsung Galaxy Discount) versus navigational (Apple Store) or informational (population of Albany NY). Though commercial intent search volume is much less today for transactional queries relative to informational and navigational, that is where the conversions come from, and not just the organic traffic like your SEO agency will tell you, but from paid search as well. Thanks for sharing on this very important topic (@eBizROI).

  3. Beth,

    I haven’t written anything formal about Scribe yet but I have to say that I bought the Scribe two months ago and I absolutely LOVE IT… v4 was an incredible upgrade in my opinion and I’m extremely happy with the service.

    Thanks

    Ryan H.

  4. I just want to warn people to not get too hung up on search volume. That’s a problem I see a lot of site owners make and it usually means they don’t get much traction so they get frustrated. Yes, keyword A might get 10 million searches but that doesn’t mean it’s the best keyword for you or your content. Obviously you don’t want to go after keywords with no search volume either so it’s important to always look for that sweet spot in the middle.

  5. You had me at “painless”! But seriously, I’m so looking forward to future posts in this series, because it’s always good to examine one’s own keyword research processes, and assess whether it’s time to make a change. Growth, growth, growth. Especially if others are doing it more efficiently…

    Cheers,
    Sarah Bauer
    Navigator Multimedia

  6. Hi Beth/CopyBlogger Team,
    First of all I want to say thank you for the incredible post and keyword research ideas you guys shared. 2nd problem is that your site is not working in many areas of the world, saying “Site is Under Construction” I received many comments on Twitter and Google+, can you guys please fix this issue?

  7. Hi Beth – very helpful article. I’d like to read the series. I read Part 1, but I don’t see links to Parts 2 and 3. Where would I find them? Thanks again!

  8. Thanks for the tips. I am using google keywords with the seomoz keyword tools. It seems to be working, but I’ve found that the keywords I am using aren’t as searched as I thought or people are just skimming over my link on the search results. Hmm… I’ll keep plugging away

    • William, if you’re using the Google Keyword Tool, make sure you look at the Exact Match type for your keyword and also look in the column “Local Monthly Searches”.

      That will give you the best indication for the actual amount of people using your keyword term. The broad match might show 6,000, but it’s entirely possible your exact match is 91.

        • William, I would look at your page titles and descriptions (as they are appearing on the search engine results pages). Are they compelling and interesting for the searcher? Do they match well with the search terms? You may need to tweak the titles and descriptions so they better address the needs of the searcher.

  9. Thank you for writing great article, I am commenting while I watching the video of Scribe V4 demo.
    I noticed Scribe release long time ago, but I didn’t have money to purchase. Maybe soon I will give it a try to test how powerful Scribe is.

  10. Keyword research can take a lot of time on Google Adwords. I seem to spend a lot of time trying out words, getting surprised either how few searches they get or how much competition they have.

  11. The low competition in the google Adwords tool is actually NOT what you say it is. Competition is in how many advertisers are bidding on those words not the competition of other websites. So actually, your more lucrative keywords will have high competition. For example, “best basketball hoop” probably has high competition while “best basketball” has low competition. As you can see the person searching for “best basketball hoop” is more likely to spend money. There’s other things you need to consider, which I won’t go into but I wanted people to know that because I made the same mistake.

  12. Hi Beth! Thanks for a really helpful post! My question is: what to do if the niche I’m blogging in doesn’t have many keywords with over (or even close to) 100,000 monthly global searches. My niche is sustainable fashion and I’ve tried everything from eco fashion, ethical fashion, organic, fair trade, green living, etc. I’m having a hard time finding keywords that fit your criteria. Should I give up on the blog and find a better niche, or keep plugging?

    Thanks!
    Ariel

  13. Nice! I must agree though – I hate data mining, so I need to do it in small chunks rather than dive in for a five hour session. There are some thorough suggestions in this article, although I would hope for a Scribe alternative for those of us who do not have WordPress as a platform

  14. I really think focusing on big time keywords while not forgeting about long tails is a win win. Some of my long tails bring in (almost) as much traffic as the bigger keywords but they also convert 6-7 times better.

  15. Thank you for this. You’ve given me some great step by steps. I’m a creative writer and SEO etc. has alway been a bit of a creative killer for me.

  16. Thanks fora great post!

    I run an accountancy business based in the UK and we only seek to convert businesses local to us, which means that the number of searches is somewhat lower than the numbers you are stating in your article, if we are just looking geographically for our areas.

    Can you offer any advice for our keyword research etc. in regard to this?

    Many thanks

    Paul

  17. Hi Paul – You can filter your Google Keyword Tool results, and just look for searches done in the UK. I would take that step first, and see what results you can get.

    Then you can also look for information about how many people are searching for your keyword + (your area). It might be too few to be significant to Google, but you could still optimize for hyperlocal markets, and pick up some good traffic that way!

  18. Amazing post Beth. Indeed, long tail keywords aren’t exactly “fun” but with a dedicated approach and some research, one can definitely mine some gold and attract an untapped market with qualified buyers!

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