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www.seoresearchlabs.comkeyword research – live online training – private coaching & consulting
Going Beyond Wordtracker
Dan Thies, SEO Research Labs
www.seoresearchlabs.comkeyword research – live online training – private coaching & consulting
A (little) about me...
• 7 years of SEO experience, +2-3 years of spam• Published “SEO Fast Start” in 2001• Started SEO Research Labs in Jan. 2003• Author, SitePoint Search Engine Marketing Kit
• www.seoresearchlabs.com/kit
www.seoresearchlabs.comkeyword research – live online training – private coaching & consulting
Topics For Today
• Rank Checking & Skewed Results• Competition
– Total matches vs. competing pages
– Accidental vs. intentional competition
• Relevance & Weighted Popularity• The PPC Metric
– Search Term Targeting Studies
www.seoresearchlabs.comkeyword research – live online training – private coaching & consulting
• Which is more likely?
– 12 people searched for a barber shop in the Wallingford district in Seattle
– Someone who owns a barbershop in Wallingford has downloaded rank checking software
• A complex search term is rarely used more often than a simpler search term.
www.seoresearchlabs.comkeyword research – live online training – private coaching & consulting
Who’s Your Competition?• 749,000 pages containing the phrase “barber shop”
• 2,960 pages containing “barber shop” in the title AND links
• 5,810 pages containing “barber shop” in the page title
www.seoresearchlabs.comkeyword research – live online training – private coaching & consulting
Examining Top Ranked Pages
• Are they related to your page?– How many out of the top 10 are similar sites?
• Are they optimized?– Keywords in title, headings, body text, links.
• Are they well linked?– Directory listings, vertical/topical links, total links,
Google “toolbar PageRank”
www.seoresearchlabs.comkeyword research – live online training – private coaching & consulting
Evaluating Relevance• What Does It Mean?
– Some terms have multiple meanings
– Some are looking to buy, others for information
– Be careful with generic search terms!
• Example: “brake repair”– By itself, likely a search for information
– With a location, likely a search for services
www.seoresearchlabs.comkeyword research – live online training – private coaching & consulting
What Does “Barber Shop” Mean?
This DVD? Their upcoming CD?
Or does someone need a shave?
www.seoresearchlabs.comkeyword research – live online training – private coaching & consulting
Travel Agents, Calm Down…
www.seoresearchlabs.comkeyword research – live online training – private coaching & consulting
Evaluating Relevance• What % of searchers want what you have?
– Use your judgment, dig into the numbers, or test.
• Weighted Popularity Formula– # of searches x relevance % = weighted popularity– 1000 searches/day x 50% relevant = 500
• Quality traffic depends on relevance• Consider relevance from both sides
www.seoresearchlabs.comkeyword research – live online training – private coaching & consulting
Doing The Math
www.seoresearchlabs.comkeyword research – live online training – private coaching & consulting
The “PPC Metric”• A search term is competitive, or will be soon, if there is
competition for paid listings• PPC bids can define the value of a top ranking.• “Free” organic listings can be more costly than paid listings.• Click-through rate on paid listings is a key indicator of
relevance – very helpful with generic terms!• If competitors’ bids are below average for the market, there’s
a reason! • Bids will gravitate toward break-even.
Beware of “free” keyword research offers from PPC engines – their goal is to increase your spend and overall competition, not your profit.
www.seoresearchlabs.comkeyword research – live online training – private coaching & consulting
Search Term Targeting Study • Write a basic descriptive ad
• Minimize the hype to get the truth
• Test the ad’s performance against your “candidate” search terms – “keyword research” was not our best target!
• Bonus: search counts from Google– Use local targeting for local counts
www.seoresearchlabs.comkeyword research – live online training – private coaching & consulting
Entry & Landing Pages• Map SEO & content strategy to the visitor
– Where do you want to take them?– Don’t optimize home page for sub-page terms!
• Yes, I know it might be “easier…”• But it’s a BAD PLAN.
– Your Goal = Get the visitor closer to THEIR goal
• PPC Landing Pages– Segment the audience– Track mini-conversions– Clear intent makes it easy to make landing pages– Examples: electric scooters, mortgage rates
www.seoresearchlabs.comkeyword research – live online training – private coaching & consulting
Keyword Modifiers
www.seoresearchlabs.comkeyword research – live online training – private coaching & consulting
Keyword Modifiers
• 8539 for “web hosting,” an additional 12,281 with modifiers… and that’s just the top 30 or so
• The tail is bigger than the head…• 200 million searches a day on Google – half
are brand new?• Teoma interview – 80% of searches are non-
commercial… (no ads triggered)
www.seoresearchlabs.comkeyword research – live online training – private coaching & consulting
Contact InformationDan Thies, [email protected]
Free 75-Minute Video on Keyword Strategy:
www.seoresearchlabs.com/keywordvideo