5 Awesome Tools For Keyword Research
I wanted to write this post earlier, but I was not able to write it owing to a mix of my lazy-ness and being bombed with work.
May of you keen keyword-junkies out there may already know about these tools, but nevertheless these are some awesome tools for the tiny little noobs like me out there.
Here’s what we start out with ( bear in mind, these are tools for keyword drilling and research and don’t delve into issues such as keyword density, page flow etc., )
1. Adwords External Keyword Tool
This tool can be called the “big brother” of keyword drilling based on generic ideas.
Its both a great tool for figuring out potential keyword combinations based both on ideas presented and semantic terms.
It also doubles up by showing search traffic for these terms according to G ( Even though I believe most of the data is skewed to a large extent ).
SCORES
Usage - 3/5
Finding New Keywords - 4/5
Finding Search Traffic - 3/5
Total - 10/15
CREDIT: PPC HERO
Keyword Discovery is yet another me-me service which tries to replicate the function of Wordtracker.
But, Keyword Discovery scores a home run when it comes to usability as well as finding regional search data.
If your out trying to figure out the search data for regional terms or optimizing for google.co.uk or .com.au, this is one awesome tool.
SCORES
Usage - 4/5
Finding New Keywords - 3/5
Finding Search Traffic - 2/5
Total - 9/15
3. Wordtracker
I included Wordtracker in this list after much resistance, not because the tool is not perfectly a keyword research tool, but because its more of an antique tool.
Wordtracker hasn’t evolved one bit over the years and still sticks to its basic function of suggesting keywords based on a thesaurus type model and displaying the search data based on meta-crawlers like Dogpile.
The only thing I like with Wordtracker is its keyword basketing system ( almost like an ecommerce site checkout ) and its massive KEI functions.
SCORES
Usage - 2/5
Finding New Keywords - 3/5
Finding Search Traffic - 2/5
Total - 7/15
Google Suggest is NOT EXACTLY a typical keyword research tool, its more of an attempt by google to tweak their search quality.
But, this tool is awesome for finding our longtail keywords!
I had to include this in the list for the amazing arrays of longtails you can optimize for with the help of this tool.
Afterall, longtails are gold!
SCORES
Usage - 4/5
Finding New Keywords - 5/5
Finding Search Traffic - 0/5
Total - 9/15
This is similar in function to Google Suggest, but I put this in the list because there are no tools which analyze search data according to the Yahoo perspective.
Yahoo is after all the second largest search engine in the web and it would be a shame to discount it from proceedings.
SCORES
Usage - 4/5
Finding New Keywords - 3/5
Finding Search Traffic - 0/5
Total - 7/15
I may have missed a couple of tools here and there, but I’ve to a large extent discounted the tools which were released by MSN.
I can guarentee you that these tools are some of the best you’ll find out there and these tools can help you create that foundation for a very successful search engine marketing strategy.
What is CPC?
Cost per Call
CPC or Cost Per Click System is “the amount an advertiser has to pay every time a visitor clicks on his ad.”
It’s a form of Internet Marketing and is also known as Pay Per Click. There is another form to it, and that is the Cost Per Call System, where instead of clicking on an ad, the visitor calls a number provided by the web page.
Though there have been scams, like “Click Fraud”, CPC is still an effective way of Internet Marketing.
Here are some reasons why CPC is effective:
- It boosts your sales.
- The payment is result oriented.
- It’s much quicker than many other means of promoting your site.
- Seasonal Promotion of your prodcuts is made easy.
- Implementation is very simple.
What is a Landing Page?
A Landing Page is “the first page that a visitor comes across after clicking a link”.
There are two types of Landing Pages- Reference(Provides Information) and Transactional(Service or Product Oriented).
A Landing Page forms the most important part of an online business, as the conversion of a prospective client to a client takes place within this page.
Here are four things that you should keep in mind when your building a Landing Page:
- Make sure that the keywords that your using to get the visitors is relevant to the content or service in the page.
- Give as much information as possible, and try and provide unique information.
- Keep it short - Don’t have a long drawn out page, be specific and stick to only one train of thought.
- Don’t add to many images or any kind of audio.
What is Keyword Research?
Keyword research is the process of figuring out target keywords that you want to optimize a page or a website for.
Keyword research is done on the basis of:
- What people are searching for.
- How many results are there for the phrase in the search engines
In other words, keywords are like targets or the foundation of a search engine optimization and marketing campaign.
Four Reasons why having good keywords is important
- With crappy keywords, even if you end up at page #1 there is a high probability that you are not going to get traffic.
- Traffic from irrelevant keywords doesn’t convert as well as traffic from relevant key-phrases.
- Bad keywords can result in a bad search engine optimization campaign.
- If you shoot at keywords which are too competitive or have too few searches, it could be a detrimental effect on the time and money you invest into search engine optimization.
What is a Backlink?
This is how a backlink structure looks like.
A Backlink in simple terms is an “external link that is directed towards your website”.
It is also known as an Inbound Link.
Backlinks are a vital part of Search Engine Algorithms, the more backlinks you have, the more chances you have, of ranking higher.
Backlinks are also indicative of popularity and it also results in more traffic.
Here are some ways by which you can acquire backlinks for your site
- By submitting your site to web directories.
- By submitting your site to social bookmarking sites.
- By being active in forums that are related to your niche.
- By socializing with bloggers related to your niche and making them link out to you.
- By writing content and copy on your site and providing value which will influence users to link out to you.
What is Keyword Density?
Keyword Density is the term given to “the measure of how many times a keyword or a keyword phrase appears on a page,in comparison with other words that appear on the page”.
Keyword Density is an important part of search algorithm and pages with a certain keyword density index are rewarded with better rankings.
The whole concept of keyword density has undergone a sea-change because of issues concerning keyword stuffing which have resulted in search engines tightening the belts on too many occurances of phrases in a particular page.
Here are a few things you need to keep in mind with respect to Keyword Density:
- Make sure that you mention the keywords in the copy just enough so that its human readable and acceptable.
- Make sure that the keywords are not mentioned too many times in the copy.
- Ensure that there is a decent occurrence of keyphrases and keywords in the page, so its not necessary you avoid putting keywords in where necessary just to avoid search engine filters.
- Most importantly, write content for the users and not for the search engines.
Vertical Thinking - Content and Long Tails
IMAGE CREDIT: LAEVEN
I love thinking vertically, a lot.
And, this little post made me thing vertically on the topic of long-tails and the relation it had with fresh content on a page.
Now, lets do some introspection.
How does a user land up into your page for a long tail?
Is it because of the title, meta or in-bound links?
I don’t think so! Its all about what’s on the page.
Assume that your getting 1500 visitors to a page from 750 different long-tails, its not because your “trying” to rank for all 750 of these keywords i.e your not optimizing your titles, or building in-bound links with anchors of these 750 keywords to get ranked for them.
It would also not be technically feasible, to do so - you can’t effectively “optimize” for long tails in the conventional way - you need to work around it and think.
I ran a small research, with long tails and how pages were ACTUALLY ranking for them, and here’s something interesting that I found.
I ran a Google search for the keyphrase “cadillac escalade wheels rim red and white”.
And, here’s what I found.
Now, if you look at result #2 and analyze it, you will figure these thing out:
I - Result #2 does not have all the long-tail keywords in the title.
II - Result #2 does not have any in-bound links pointing to the URL with the anchor “cadillac escalade wheels rim red and white”.
So, what’s making it rank there?
Pure Content! Look at the page in question and you will see that its a keyword rich content mine.
So, for actually ranking for these long tail keywords, all that you need is relevant and keyword rich content.
So, there are the analogies broken and here’s what no guru will tell you about ranking for long-tails.
#1 - Build Keyword Rich Content.
#2 - Build even more keyword rich content.
#3 - Create specifics about whatever your selling in a page ( tables maybe? )
#4 - Get the page indexed and get it a few generic links.
What are Link Farms?
Link Farms are sites which link to every other site in the same network.
A link farm is categorized by a large number of links being given out from it, and its primary motive is to manipulate search engine rankings.
Link Farms are based on the theory that popular search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN base their rankings partly on the basis of in-bound links from external sources and link popularity.
Links Farms were initially developed to increase the Page Rank and in-bound links of all the sites participating in the network, but were later forced to evolve due to issues of fairness and manipulation of these link farms.
Five Reasons why you shouldn’t acquire a link from a link farm:
- Links from link farms are usually junk and are of little or no value.
- Your site may get penalized or blacklisted for participating in link farm mechanisms.
- Links farms link out to many other sites, so obviously they are being seen as SPAM by users and search engines.
- Link Farms may be penalized themselves, resulting in these links being of no value.
- You may get reported by someone for acquiring links from a link farm or, linking out to one.
What is Link Spamming?
Link Spamming is the process of spamming other web-sites or web sources with the goal of acquiring backward links.
It might be otherwise defined as the process of trying to “acquire links from a source which is not relevant and which doesn’t want to link out”.
Otherwise, it is the process of over-acquiring links from a particular source in order to increase search rankings without taking into account relevancy factors.
Link Spamming results in the acquisition of links which are of low value and less authority.
Five Reasons why you shouldn’t involve yourself in link spamming:
- The links acquired from link spamming are of low quality, and won’t help too much with Search Engine Rankings.
- Link Spamming can be reported by a webmaster or a website owner and you can get penalized for it.
- Google will eventually catch up with link spamming techniques and link spammers and devalue such links.
- Link Spamming creates a bad example - its almost like your setting a bad precedent.
- You are providing bait for others to spam your site by spamming theirs.
What is Link Popularity?
IMAGE COURTESY: CUSTOMER MAGNETISM
Link Popularity is defined as the “popularity of your web-site in terms of in-bound links and the number of resources over the web pointing to your website”.
Link Popularity is different from what we would normally claim to be link building, because it is more of a direct result of link building.
The Link Popularity of your site is determined not just by the sheet “number” of sites pointing to yours, but rather by the intrinsic value of these sources according to Google.
Link Popularity and Page Rank
Link Popularity and Page Rank are completely different factors, since Page Rank is more of a number or scale rather than a clear representation of the “popularity” of your website over the web.
Page Rank is often confused with Link Popularity for the wrong reasons.