Keyword Research- Where to Start?

[shepnerd]

OK, I'm finally getting a couple of lead capture sites up and running, now I'm working on ranking them and dont really know where to begin.

My understanding by what I've read and such is that my focus now should be on targeting certain keywords and then writing articles and blogs to target those keywords- right? Adding good content, but have it targeted.

So what tools are the good ones to use in doing that research- how many searches for a phrase and how much competition it has and that sort of thing?

I'm still really trying to get the basics down first- is it as simple as seeing an opportunity for Georgia Life Insurance, Diabetic Life Insurance, and so on and then writing a blog or article on whatever Life insurance that mentions whatever Life Insurance a million times, or is there more to it than that?

I've done more than a little reading on things, and this site has been a great resource, but I still haven't found much of a step by step process that I understand.

Can anyone point me in the right direction with this stuff? I thought I read a really good how-to on here a while back, but couldn't find it when I just searched.

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

You may want to focus on "long tail" phrases first.

 

[Guest]

SEO is just another marketing campaign. You need to treat it like one. You should have short and long term goals for what you want to accomplish or else you can end up spending a lot of time, money, and effort that just does not convert to very much as far a results. Asking for a 10-step how-to-guide probably wont help you out that much either. It is more complex than "do this" and
"do that" and you get rankings.

Keywords are your starting point. They should be what what your site is about. Now you have a few ways to pick keywords depending on your goals. There are many ways to pick keywords but here are 2 examples.

-If you have multiple sites you want rank, you should definitely make sure the domains you have are optimized for ranking multiple low domain authority websites and that you have enough of them to become profitable. I think this is the harder way long term because you need a new domain and website each time you want to target other keywords (unless you are national or target multiple individual cities under the same keyword). This can produce quick but limited results.

-If you want to focus on one site focus on a few keywords to your homepage (less can actually be better). I like to have a mix of some really competitive and moderately competitive keywords to start. When building links, it is important to also focus on branded anchor text like http://www.yourwebsite.sux and yourwebsite. This is the long term method where your goal is to build a high domain authority for your site. With a higher authority it becomes easier to rank for more competitive terms.

There are plenty of ways to chose keywords and I extremely over simplified each scenario. Strategy plays a big part in the success of any marketing campaign. Find out what you want to accomplish with your site/sites first because it will have an influence on your keywords.

 

[YouGotMyMoney]

OK, I'm finally getting a couple of lead capture sites up and running, now I'm working on ranking them and dont really know where to begin.

I recommend a tool/subscription service called Ahrefs.com, I think it's $80/mo now for the basic package, and you only really need it for one month. 1) You can put in the top competitors for your niche in their and get all the kw's they rank in the top 100 for. 2) Also you can see what kind of link building the competition is doing.

Like Chumps said, work on Long Tail , to build up the big keywords and so you can get traffic in the meantime. Also remember that if you can get 100 keywords that only get 10 searches a month , and your #1 for all 100 terms, your still getting 1000 visitors a month. Thought my advice for low volume keywords, to use automated link building, so you can spend your time/money on the bigger keywords that will offer more ROI for your efforts.

About blogging/......most people dont know what they are talking about when they tell you to blog...

you have a site, let's say with 20 articles, that may be all you need for your targeted keywords.....like let's say diabetes life insurance for example, you dont need more content to rank for related terms, for long tail terms related to the kw, you can just add them to your link building rotation instead of adding more blog post articles on your site. Then if you want, you could add 5-10 150-200 word short blog posts per main article on your site, to pump up the link juice. but anyway thats off on a tangent now....ADD ill tell ya

step 1 got your site....done
step 2 add your main articles....
step 3 link building
step 4 link building
step 5 link building

some good links.......Ezine/Go Articles type article sites packages you can get usually about 10 backlinks for around $20 incl. the article being written from seo forums classified sections..

High PR Manual Blog Comments......the Ezine and Manual Blog comments, you would want to reserve for big keywords.

Web 2.0 Blog posts, u can get these done for about $1.00 per property including the content.

High PR Blog Posts

Press Releases, pretty cheap now, you can get them done for around $200 including PRWEB.

 

[Guest]

I recommend a tool/subscription service called Ahrefs.com, I think it's $80/mo now for the basic package, and you only really need it for one month. 1) You can put in the top competitors for your niche in their and get all the kw's they rank in the top 100 for. 2) Also you can see what kind of link building the competition is doing.

There are plenty of free tools. If you have a credit card SEOmoz.org is top quality and the provide 1 month free. Just cancel before the month and they don't charge.

Also remember that if you can get 100 keywords that only get 10 searches a month , and your #1 for all 100 terms, your still getting 1000 visitors a month.

Even #1 only gets on average somewhere around 30% of the clicks.

About blogging/......most people dont know what they are talking about when they tell you to blog...

you have a site, let's say with 20 articles, that may be all you need for your targeted keywords.....like let's say diabetes life insurance for example, you dont need more content to rank for related terms, for long tail terms related to the kw, you can just add them to your link building rotation instead of adding more blog post articles on your site. Then if you want, you could add 5-10 150-200 word short blog posts per main article on your site, to pump up the link juice. but anyway thats off on a tangent now....ADD ill tell ya

what you are describing is a method for article marketing. The real benefits to blogging are
1. more indexed pages (helps build authority)
2. ranking your posts for keywords
3. people scraping your blog with a back link to your website.
4. people paying $200 for a back link in a post you came up with in 2 hours.

step 1 got your site....done
step 2 add your main articles....
step 3 link building
step 4 link building
step 5 link building

You forgot step pick your keywords

some good links.......Ezine/Go Articles type article sites packages you can get usually about 10 backlinks for around $20 incl. the article being written from seo forums classified sections..

You pay for Ezine? posting content is free once approved.

 

[YouGotMyMoney]

You pay for Ezine? posting content is free once approved.

I dont have time to write the content or keep track of when the article is approved, so I outsource it.

 

[Guest]

I dont have time to write the content or keep track of when the article is approved, so I outsource it.

Now I get you. I do the same thing $5/ 500 word articles on elance go straight to ezine.

 

[MartinFortKnox]

A good tool is Market Samurai to do keyword research, But unless you are looking to do multiple niches, it wont be the best investment for you. the ahref website seems like a good deal.

Keep your content above 200 words per post. Add at least one picture and/or video to each post. Search engines like that.

Due to the Google Penguin update don't target your main keyword too often. Ideally no more than 30% of your links should be your main keyword. You should make about 30-40% of your links general keywords like "click here" or "for more information" or "visit this site".

Sites like Odesk, Elance, Rentacoder (Vworker), are great ways to outsource this stuff and not have to worry about. Link building and content creation can all be done overseas very affordably. The Phillipines is ideal, they have some of the best grasp of the English language compared to many other outsourcing countries. Good luck.

 

[YouGotMyMoney]

Now I get you. I do the same thing $5/ 500 word articles on elance go straight to ezine.

Yes that's part of it, I actually meant I don't have time to write the content or outsource it and then keep track of Ezine submission status, so I outsource the whole thing.
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There are plenty of free tools. If you have a credit card SEOmoz.org is top quality and the provide 1 month free. Just cancel before the month and they don't charge.

SeoMoz? I know u like it, but it's not good for kw research and is passable for link metrics.
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A good tool is Market Samurai to do keyword research, But unless you are looking to do multiple niches, it wont be the best investment for you. the ahref website seems like a good deal.

When was the last time u used MS? Does it still work? Ive been using traffic travis free version , just to check on page seo competition for top 10 SERPS, like kw in title tage/h1 h2 tags etc.

 

[bear bryants hat]

I tried market samurai two weeks ago.
I couldn't get anything on it to work. All it did was freeze up my computer.