15 Comments on Finding the right keywords using an online keyword research tool

odchudzanie on Thu, 16th Jul 2009 4:02 am


I would agree that the keywords are the most important factor in making Your site more popular. this version 3 of Brainstorm It! looks like something interesting, maybe I would take a look on it.
odchudzanie´s last blog ..Jak? diet? wybra??

John Dilbeck on Thu, 16th Jul 2009 2:10 pm


Good afternoon, Odchudzanie.

Welcome to our discussions.

I agree that determining the right keywords and using them well is an important skill for any online marketer to develop — especially if you want your website to be easily found.

As with any other tool, it isn’t magic, but it does provide a good way to do your research quickly and well.

For the main two keyword phrases I targeted yesterday for this post, it’s ranking on page one of Google’s search results today.

As an aside…

This is not directed in any way at you, Odchudzanie. I just wanted to mention it while I was thinking about it.

I must have done something right. I also got more spam comments on this post than I have on any other single post in a long time.

…end the aside.

Thanks again, for your comment.

Act on your dream!

JD

Juergen on Thu, 16th Jul 2009 4:59 pm


You say you find a website in Google for a keyword with this keyword not contained, only similar words? It’s hard to belive. Di you check if some bad techniques are used?
I think I will do a try for this…
Juergen´s last blog ..Der Weg zum günstigen Girokonto

John Dilbeck on Mon, 20th Jul 2009 12:39 am


Good morning, Juergen.

Welcome to our discussions. I’m sorry for the delay in responding; I just now saw your comment.

No, I’m not saying that I can find a website on Google for a keyword that the site does not contain.

What I’m talking about is determining before writing a page what the best mix of keywords will be so that I stand the best chance of being found. I do the research before I write the page.

When doing this research using Site Build It’s Brainstorm It tool, there are two approaches: vertical and lateral.

Many online keyword research tools offer vertical brainstorming tools.

When you enter a word, the system looks for other keyword phrases that contain that word, but that’s only part of the process for finding just the right keyword phrases to use.

Many times, people search for things using terms I’d never think of.

So, it makes sense, in some cases, to do more research and look for those other words I am not aware of at the time. That’s the purpose of a lateral search.

When I perform a lateral search using Brainstorm It, I enter the word or phrase that I’m interested in researching and the system then does a search on Google for the phrase I entered.

Then it gets interesting.

Brainstorm It looks at the top sites returned by the Google search. I’m not sure, but I think it looks at 100 sites. It then analyzes their keywords, does whatever processing it does, and then returns hundreds of new keyword phrases that do not contain the phrase I entered, but which are found on those other sites that ranked highly for the phrase I did enter.

Most of these new phrases are totally irrelevant to what I am wanting to write about, so I just go through and delete them.

Sometimes, but not always, this leaves me with a group of keywords or phrases that look promising. When this happens, I do new vertical research on the most promising phrases that Brainstorm It has helped me find.

Does that clear it up any more?

Brainstorm It does in a matter of minutes what it would take me days to do, if I had to do it all manually — which is something I used to do before Site Build It provided me with this outstanding tool for keyword research.

Thanks for your comment.

Act on your dream!

JD

Apparel UK on Tue, 21st Jul 2009 2:34 am


As a newbie here i found your post very informative and knowledgeable. I think the keyword is a first identity of your site.If you have appropriate keyword for your site so you can easily promote your site.

Mitch on Fri, 24th Jul 2009 10:16 pm


Hey John,

A quick question. You’re doing keyword research for what? No, I don’t want to know what words you’re searching for. I guess I’m asking are you looking for keywords because you want to build a site around those words, or you have a topic already in mind and you want to learn how to enhance it based on your keyword research?
Mitch´s last blog ..Do You Still Have The Thrill To Blog?

Danny on Sat, 25th Jul 2009 8:47 am


Keyword research is important trust me if you get the wrong keyword you would wasting your important time away. But more importantly is also to be able to rank well for the ‘money’ keywords.

If nobody is reaching you through your keywords, it is equally bad.
Danny´s last blog ..Coupon HostGator: Special HostGator Discount Coupons

John Dilbeck on Sat, 25th Jul 2009 11:12 am


Good morning, Mitch.

There are several layers involved in keyword research as I use it on my blogs and sites.

I didn’t always know this, so some of my older sites don’t reflect any of this.

I guess I’m asking are you looking for keywords because you want to build a site around those words, or you have a topic already in mind and you want to learn how to enhance it based on your keyword research?

Yes, I want to have several core keywords that I build a site around, but that isn’t the most important consideration for me, so some of my primary keywords would not be considered good ones to build a site around by most people.

If I had a different personality, then I would do exactly that. I would identify a particular topic that looks like a lot of people are wanting more information — and are willing and able to spend money related to it. Then, I would build a site of maybe a couple of hundred pages around that particular topic.

But, even though that’s a good model for building a profitable site, it’s not how I approach it. I’m just not able to concentrate on one topic like that and build a site, unless I have a real ongoing interest in the subject.

(Unfortunately, as we’ve discussed in the past, I just don’t have a passion for writing about the in-demand topics that earn the most money.)

So, I tend to build more general sites and concentrate on particular topics in sections of the site. It has worked well for me in the past, but, as the search engine algorithms get more sophisticated, it may not work as well in the future.

Even more important than keywords for an entire site are the phrases I choose to use when I write sections and individual pages of a site.

When I’m doing the original research, I look for good phrases to build an entire site around. So that’s a “yes” to the first part of your question.

(I try to find the best phrases I can, even if they are not as popular as other topics would be. In other cases, I set out to build a new brand that has hardly any demand or supply, and that can take years to pay off. Murphy Gold comes immediately to mind.)

Once the site is started, then the second part of your question becomes most important. So, yes, I want to enhance a particular topic by making it easier for people to find it.

The way one approaches a particular topic and the choice of words in that article can make a big difference in how easily it is found by real people searching on the Internet.

The great majority of my traffic comes from those people who are searching for information.

Once you learn how to research and find the real phrases people are using to find what you want to write about, you may find yourself amazed at the differences. Sometimes people actually use the words I would use, but — more often — they approach it from an entirely different direction.

So, I want to identify a few phrases that lots of people are searching for related to that topic as well as identifying which of those phrases has the least competition from other websites.

By identifying a few phrases with high demand and low supply, I can give my article, blog post, or web page its best chance of being found reliably over time.

I don’t do this for every blog post. Some are entirely “off the cuff.”

However, I do a lot of research before writing important pages on my static sites. It’s not unusual for me to write an article (or page or blog post) and then research it for a few hours. Then, I use the results of what I’ve just learned and rewrite the article before posting it to my site.

What I’m not doing is finding a topic with a lot of demand and little competition and then building a small site around it. Your “quit smoking” site comes to mind. I’ve done that in the past and find that I just don’t have the passion or interest to keep them updated as necessary.

I’m not saying it’s a bad idea at all, just saying that it’s not what I choose to do.

That’s one of the reasons I’m seeing more of my business moving away from the affiliate marketing model. More and more webmasters and bloggers are getting much more sophisticated in these things than they were just a few years ago, and that’s making it even harder to earn a decent income from lots of small sites that earn a few dollars each per month.

But, even on the sites where I’m getting paid in advance to help local businesses get found on the Internet, presenting their information in a way that they are more likely to be found by people searching for what they offer is a key to successfully promoting them. Keyword research is a very important part of that process.

Did that answer your question?

Act on your dream!

JD

John Dilbeck on Sat, 25th Jul 2009 11:35 am


Even in that long comment I just posted, I forgot to mention something that is very important regarding keywords.

Most of my research is done to find ways to lead people from the general to the specific.

For example, have you ever tried to make it easy for people to find an auto parts store, women’s clothing store, or a family restaurant, especially when their competition is ranked highly by the search engines?

If the person searching already knows where they want to go, they’ll type in the name of the business and find them, hopefully, that way.

But, that’s a small subset of the people who are looking for what these businesses offer.

What I want to do is write the pages in such a way that people who are searching for general information can easily find a specific business and go to a site with more information about them.

The goal is to remind customers who haven’t been there lately to come and visit them again, but — even more importantly — it is to inform people who have never heard of that business nor shopped with them before that they are a source of whatever that searcher is looking for.

Of course, I want people to find a business by searching for their name, but the bigger task is to make that business findable for general questions and searches.

The same thing applies for affiliate marketing. It’s not only important to rank well for specific topics, it’s vitally important to rank well for general searches that can lead someone to the merchants we represent.

Act on your dream!

JD

John Dilbeck on Sat, 25th Jul 2009 11:39 am


Good morning, A.UK.,

Welcome to our discussions.

I don’t think it’s just having a particular keyword for a site that is the important consideration. In my opinion, it’s finding and using the best keyword phrases on almost every page or post that is even more important that the site’s keyword.

Thanks for your comment.

Act on your dream!

JD

John Dilbeck on Sat, 25th Jul 2009 11:43 am


Good morning, Danny.

Welcome to our discussions.

I don’t mean to be dense, but what do you mean by “money” keywords?

Thanks for your comment.

Act on your dream!

JD

Mitch on Sat, 25th Jul 2009 3:49 pm


Hi John,

Actually, I know something about keywords and the like, but as you know, when it comes to blogging, I haven’t done as much with them. With my websites I have, but I’ll admit that I haven’t spent as much time looking up keywords, instead concentrating on whatever my topic was and working it in that fashion.
Mitch´s last blog ..A Bad Day In The Life Of A Diabetic

John Dilbeck on Sun, 26th Jul 2009 10:58 am


Good morning, Mitch.

I understand what you’re saying and I think you’ve identified an important difference between building websites and blogging.

I don’t know how many people would agree, but I know that I spend much more time preparing a static site and researching keywords and information before adding or updating a page than I do when I’m blogging.

I believe that blogging lends itself to doing just what you said, concentrating on the topic and getting it online.

Now, I’m not saying that I’m right about all of this. Who knows? For some things it may be a waste of time to bother with researching keywords and rewriting articles before posting them. I don’t really know what’s best for all of us. Sometimes I barely have a clue about what’s best for me.

For me, though, I feel like I get better results in terms of money in my pocket when I use a tool like Site Build It‘s Brainstorm It keyword research features to help me optimize a page so it is more likely to be found by the people who are looking for it.

It’s also a question of time and energy. Sometimes we don’t have enough of either to do a thorough job when something needs to be done.

And, there’s also a matter of priorities. Where I enjoy researching all these things, many people would find them to be quite boring. So, spending a few hours doing the research may not be nearly as important as spending those hours with friends or family doing other things.

We all do what we feel is best with our limited time and resources.

Act on your dream!

JD

Mieszkania Szczecin on Tue, 11th Aug 2009 2:46 am


Right keywords is just one of the elements needed to succeed and that is fully understandable. I would treat to your older post about a fact that blogs are failing more frequently than restaurants. It is easy to predict that activity like blogging will fail a lot because almost everyone who blog is an amateur (in writing, marketing or site developing). I know that nowadays we have many professionals blogging that came along with the money that could be earned from keeping a blog. The people who just want to share some thoughts are still the main part of bloggers and they do not always care about profits or pagerank. They don’t about a thing like keyword and there is nothing wrong about that. Maybe their blog will become known among many people in some other ways? I don’t know is it possible with so many marketing methods around but it would be very positive for me to see a blog made just for the whole idea of blogging.
Mieszkania Szczecin´s last blog ..Mieszkanie 4-pokojowe w Gryfinie

John Dilbeck on Tue, 11th Aug 2009 11:26 pm


Good evening, Mieszkania.

You make some good points.

I agree that a lot of blogs are written for purely personal reasons and I’m all for that. Some of my earliest blogging attempts were just to write what was on my mind.

Now, however, I make my living from blogging and building websites, so that was the background for the posts I wrote. On this blog, I’m always thinking about affiliate marketing and producing income through my online marketing activities.

When I’m trying to earn a living, I want every honest advantage I can get, and choosing the best keywords in order to get found on the search engines is a very important part of that strategy.

Act on your dream!

JD