Keyword Research « Ferguson SEO Consulting

Five Advanced Keyword Research Tools

(the following is a post by Elisa Gabbert)

Sometimes a basic, free keyword suggestion tool just isn’t enough. If you’re ready to move beyond the limited functionality of most online tools to do more in-depth keyword research for SEO and pay-per-click campaigns, here are five advanced keyword research tools well worth checking out.

SEM Rush

SEMRush: SEMRush is a competitive research tool that’s useful for both SEO and PPC keyword research and analysis. It has several pricing levels; most of the keyword information is available in the free version, but paid versions return more results. SEMRush offers several features that can help you determine the value and competitiveness of keywords:

Keyword Trends, Cost and Volume – SEM Rush scrapes data from Google to tell you the average and current monthly search volume of a keyword, whether the keyword is trending up or down in use, and how competitive it is.
Top Competitors for Your Keywords – You can view a list of the domains that rank for the same keywords as you, and you can also see how much overlap in keywords you have with a given domain.

This data is helpful for determining how you measure up to competitors for your top keywords. If you’re falling behind, you may need to drill down into your keywords and determine where you can increase relevance – potentially by expanding mid- and long-tail keywords. The downside is, all competitive tools have limited use, since what your competitors are doing isn’t necessarily going to work for you.Independent keyword research is crucial for gaining a competitive edge.

Compete

Compete: As the name suggests, Compete is another competitive intelligence tool. A Compete account allows you to compare traffic and engagement metrics for competitive sites as well as analyze competitors’ keyword strategies.

Analytics tools include:

Search Analytics: Find search referrals for a given site or category or enter a keyword to see which sites get traffic from it.
Referral Analytics: Enter a site or category to see which websites send traffic to it and get traffic from it.

How Keywords Affect Your Rankings

We all want to know how keywords affect our rankings, but to find out we’ll need to do a little work. Many say keywords are the key to good search engine rankings, although they aren’t at all the only factor.

If you need a tool to help you decide on your keywords, try Google’s Keyword Suggestion Tool – it allows you to test your keyword rankings by showing you statistics on recent searches for them. It’s a great tool when you have no clue which keyword you should choose, as it can give you a list of terms that were recently searched on.

Keyword Density

Keyword density refers to the number of the keywords contained within your text relative to the amount of text there is. Preferred keyword density ratios vary between search engines, but you should generally try to keep them between two and eight percent (major search engines prefer the lower end). Keyword analysis tools can help to optimize a web page’s keyword density. These tools are good if you’re not sure of what you’re doing, as they’re very intuitive and explain things as you go.

Counting the Keywords

Many SEO experts will tell you that the keyword density of your text isn’t a very important factor, and that you should be careful not to overdo it. So is there a limit? How many times should you use your keywords? SEO experts won’t be able to answer these questions for you, because no-one’s really sure of the answer. The best answer is that it changes regularly, and you can never be sure – you have to experiment to see what works for you.

Location of Keywords

When testing the effects of keyword location, we found that pages with the keywords at the top and bottom of the page ranked higher on Google than pages with the keywords in the middle.

Many other search engines also give keywords more or less weight based on their location, but keep in mind that each search engine’s algorithm is different. Here’s a list of how most search engines prioritize keyword positions, from most to least:

Domain name
Page title
Headings (i.e. H1, H2, etc.)
Body text (the first 2 to 3 KB usually counts more)
Meta tags (especially description)
Links (including keywords in the URL or link text of links to you)
Alt text (the ‘alt’ descriptions for your pictures)

Really, though, keyword density is one of those areas where you’ll have trouble on your hands if you try to second guess the search engines. Be cautious.

R.E. Ferguson April 15, 2010 Keyword Research, SEO keyword density, keyword rankings, seo experts

The Long Tail – What it is and How to Use It

If you’ve studied statistics, you may recall what “Long-Tailed Distribution” is…where the tail of the curve is extremely long when compared to the head of the curve.

The long tail phenomenon explains that if a consumer was given unlimited choices, everything becomes available, which is exactly what happens with the expansion of the Internet. For article marketers, it refers to the distribution of keywords or keyphrases that are used for Internet searches in a particular niche or market.

That means the head of the curve is one broad keyword. It has high content, demand and competition but a low target audience. The middle of the tail, is about a 2 to 3 word keyphrase and will have moderate content, demand and competition as well as a moderate target audience. The Long tail is a 4 or more word keyphrase that has lower content, demand and competition, yet a much higher targeted audience.

That means if you write articles based on the long tail, those articles have a better chance of appearing at the top of search results! Understanding and writing for the long tail is incredibly beneficial and effective because it puts your articles in front of potential customers, subscribers, or clients that are looking for that specific product or service at the exact moment they’re ready to take action.

Don’t just write for the long tail. Our recommendation is to write between 20-30 percent of articles for the head of the tail and 70-80 percent for the mid to long tail. The reason you do this is because you never know when an article will turn into a golden nugget. You want to have as many articles as possible covering a very wide range of keywords or key phrases to maximize your exposure. Writing for the long tail is a great practice to incorporate into your article writing ritual because it allows for you to get your articles higher on search results and in front of people who are ready to take action.

R.E. Ferguson February 11, 2010 Article Marketing, Article Marketing Tools, Keyword Research, SEO long-tail keywords, long-tail marketing

Keyword Optimization

Keyword optimization is also known as the art of choosing the best keywords and key phrases, which are necessary for your website to get higher search engine rankings. Internet marketing tools and methods to help you optimize your website are available from a number of sources including the most popular, Google AdWords, and others like WordTracker and Keyword Discovery. Better search engine optimization is the key to get your site performing where you want it to and getting top rankings. Keyword optimization tools are a quick and easy way to determine the best supply and demand ratio for your keywords, so your time is better spent on optimizing your site. The saying “work smarter not harder” is appropriate when using any website optimization technique.

Keyword optimization improves search engine rankings by accurately describing your content so that visitors can find your site when searching for similar content. By adding finely tuned keywords and keyword phrases to your web pages, you can bring as many relevant visitors to your site as possible. A lightening fast website won’t be successful if no one can find it. It’s important to learn how to use keyword optimization tools, sort keywords by popularity, refine and combine phrases, write a title using top two and three word phrases, write description and keyword Meta tags, and insert other elements and attributes to your site. Once you submit your optimized site to the search engines, you can sit back and check out the number of hits you’re getting. Tagging your pages with the phrases that best match the overall theme of your site will ensure that users will find your site when searching for content like your own. Try to choose popular keywords and phrases, but not words that are too popular.

Keyword optimization guidelines should ultimately include everything you need to know for optimal performance from structuring your account to editing keywords and ad text. Also be sure to include relevant keyword variations including singular and plural versions of specific, relevant two and three word keyword phrases. Once you get your system in place, you’ll be surprised at how quickly your site will jump in rankings. By choosing the right keywords and optimizing your site, your profits will increase in no time, and you’ll be able to apply this new found knowledge to your next internet endeavor, and possibly offer a software product of your own for sale. There are no boundaries to making money online, only the one’s set by you.

R.E. Ferguson June 13, 2009 Keyword Research keyword optimization, optimization