Keyword selection basics
It just struck me that all of my blathering about keywords and their importance might not be very clear to some folks.
I posted a rather long story about keywords and the way to select the right keywords for your niche over on the syndk8 blog site.
The story is aimed at those who may be rather new to the keyword generation subject. It covers a lot of the basics and a few advanced keyword selection tactics.
If you want to read up on how to select keywords, or if you want to get a little refresher on keywords generation, go read Good keywords are the key to marketing success.
~dink
Comment by nekokumi
Great article.
Comment by perkiset
I think the previous commenter is a spam bro.
Comment by Dink
Ya. He’s a spammer too. He’s real enough tho. See his comments in an earlier post. Thanks for looking after me. Need all the help I can get.
Comment by perkiset
I have my methods, but am curious about how you’d tackle WH longtails for off the beaten path niches. Any thoughts?
Comment by Dink
Greetz Perk. I trust PinkHat is doing well. ??
Wow. You sure know how to put a spammer on the spot.
WH longtails off the beaten path. Worthy of an entire post, but I’ll get started here.
**Standard Disclaimer: The views you are about to read do not necessarily represent those held by the vast majority of SEO’s, but they are mine.**
Your question is best paraphrased as an enima wrapped in a pairoboxes. The enima being the search results pages, the first box is the searcher, and the second box is the content writer.
The search engines try to do their best to return relevant results for a particular search term. The searcher may, or may not, have a clue of how to search. Us content meisters (usually) don’t have a clue as to how either of the other two parties operate.
My method(s) for any WH operation are a hell of a lot more difficult than any BH operation I’ve ever done. Keywords included.
I spend a lot of time just thinking about the item(s). What I have. What someone might search for. What an engine might index. How I can influence the engine. How I can influence the searcher. Things like that and more.
Then I use a tablet and my handy-dandy ballpoint pen. I make a list of the product benefits, the features, the price, the shipping, and anything else that I think has a shot at becoming a key phrase. Often this list goes way out in left field, but can produce some interesting things to consider.
I then start to pair up product name + benefits. Product name + features. Product categories ++ both the above. Similar products ++ the above. Misspellings of all the above. And so on.
If this is not a new site, I’ll study my server logs to get some idea of what terms a searcher has used in the past. There are some bizarre terms that have been used to find some of my sites. Lots of bizarre people out there, too.
By the time I have completed this step, I generally have 3-4 legal size pages full of ideas. I highlite the terms that are even remotely possible and plunk them into my fav keyword tool. I don’t get too carried away with the results, or lack thereof, at this point. Just trying to get a feel for what has been searched for in the past.
Then using the stemming options and dig features, I begin to compile a short list of terms that may bring traffic. A few years ago I would go to my adwords account and enter every one of the terms as keywords and put up a bunch of ads at minimum bids. If they produced any hits I would expand pages on the site to accomodate the phrase(s), or write a new page that included the phrase(s).
I stopped my adwords addiction, so that’s not an option any longer. Now I just write more pages or edit existing pages as best I can to get the phrases in place.
Something that all of us should consider is the fact that both the engines and the searcher have us by the balls. We can only guess what the searcher will type into the search box, and we only hope we put our content in place where the engine will believe it is relevant to the, unknown, query.
Which brings up another problem: the major engines report that as many as 30-40% of all daily querys have never been seen before. The results provided by all of the keyword tools are at least a month behind, and we don’t have much assurance that a set of queries today will be repeated again.
Geez. I’m beginning to bore myself with this tripe! Can’t even imagine your pain.
One last thought on keyword discovery….finding similar, related, or the exact product, offered by someone else can lead to a set of phrases. A search of the serps can produce a number of sites that can be mined for phrases. Mind you, they may be full of shit too.
One way that I have found phrases that I would never dream of is to look for similar product pages that have open stats available. If they are getting hits for off-the-wall terms, then you can optimize for them. **Note: I’m not advocating breaking and entering, hacking, cracking, or otherwise getting into another website. You, on the other hand, may have different ideas.**
Now then, all that said, if you are trying to find keywords for your hand-raised, Arizona bred, sardines in pickled herring sauce, for a left-handed chef in Des Moines…you’re shit outa luck cowboy. That dog won’t hunt. rofl
Comment by perkiset
Actually, there is a huge market for hand-raised, Arizona bred, sardines in pickled herring sauce, for a left-handed chefs in Des Moines. And plenty room to grow, let me tell you.
All that being said, my only response to your post is Nicely Done and Bummer. Looks like we do about the same drill cap’n. Hoping you had the magic sauce I was missing. You mean I’ve gotta WORK?
Comment by Dink
>>You mean I’ve gotta WORK?<<
Ya, you got it skippy. And, as you know, work it is. The secret sauce seems to be locked up in a mason jar and is kept on Funky & Vagnalls back porch.
Lots of room in sardines, huh?
::whistles as he goes to fire up Wordze…..hmmmm