Search Engine Optimisation Training Course

Lesson No.2 - Do Your Keyword Research Homework

by Bruce Gow Search Engine Guy Pty Ltd
http://www.searchengine-guy.com.au

Once you have worked out which niche to develop, its now time to build your keyword list.  Once you KNOW what people are actively searching for every day to get to your products or services, you have a target to aim towards.  A lot of people go down the wrong track, thinking that they already know instinctively what people would be searching for and are in fact dead wrong.

Selection of the correct keywords is the core of an effective SEO campaign, and you need to get it right from the start.

Keyword Research Methods

• Google AdWords Keywords Tool Free keyword research tool, my personal favourite
• Keyword Spy This is a great tool to find out which keywords your competitors are using, so that you can use them too.  Its worth the small sign up and could earn you thousands of dollars in previously undiscovered keywords, both in Google Adwords and organic results. 
• KeywordDiscovery.com Free tool with Australian Results and SEO Packages
• Wordtracker Keyword Tool Keywords with a high search volume and a low level of competition can bring search marketers quick profits. Wordtracker now helps you find these moneymaking keywords quicker, easier and more effectively than ever before

In order to better organize our keyword list work, I strongly suggest you to use Microsoft Excel and set a template design like this:

Google AdWords Keywords Tool
Ok, so let’s get started with the Google AdWords Keywords Tool we used in our first lesson to analyze the viability of our niche.
Repeat the same search process as we did the last time, but this time using your “definite” niche search term.
By now, you should see 2 lists of keywords populated for you by Google:

Keywords related to terms(s) entered & additional keywords to consider at the bottom of this list

At the bottom of each list, there’s a link for you to download the keywords list, click on “CSV(for Excel)”
 

Depending on your browser, a popup alert will ask you whether you want to “save” or “open” the file. So I will open the file.

Once opened in Excel, the list I just downloaded looks like this:

We don’t actually need all the information that is there, so let’s refine the list to fit our needs.
• Delete the “Advertiser Competition” and “Global Monthly Search Volume” columns.

• Can you see how some search results return a volume of “-1”? These are the same results we saw in the Google Adwords Keywords Tool that didn’t have sufficient search data. They are currently useless for us, so delete them too.

• Ok, now just copy and paste those data onto your Keyword Research Spreadsheet.

Repeat the same process for both lists of keywords populated by Google.
 

In order to expand our keyword list beyond Google, we are also going to use a keyword tool called Wordtracker.

Wordtracker Keyword Tool

Yes, Wordtracker offers both free and paid tools, but for this example, we’ll use the free tool.  The paid for tool has a lot more functionality and is worth the spend for anyone that is really serious about performing well in SEO. "Keywords with a high search volume and a low level of competition can bring search marketers quick profits. Wordtracker now helps you find these moneymaking keywords quicker, easier and more effectively than ever before." See great article by Mike Mindel here: http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/finding-profitable-keywords-just-got-easier 

Type the search term you want to analyze in the search box and click “Hit me” button.

You should then see a list of keywords populated as well as search volume information. Now, keep note that Wordtracker gives daily search volume information and not monthly like Google; also they are using different data sources from a range of search engines,  so the results are different.

Currently, we are just going to overlook the search volume, and copy and paste the keywords they suggest us onto our list.

This first level of data should be sufficient for the moment.

Now, for all your keywords in your list, you have the keyword name and search volume, I want you to go to Google and search for each of those terms, and add the result volume to your data list as per the template I gave you.

Congratulations, you just have completed the basics of a keyword list building.

Automated Keyword List Building With Paid Software
This kind of software cost money at first, but they really are worth it as huge time savers. Personally I use Keyword Elite .

Let me show you how much easier the work is with this keyword software.

• Type the Niche I want to build a keyword list for (here “Pest Control”), then select where I want it to find the keywords from, as well as how many keyword I want to have in my suggested list (up to 10,000 keywords!), then all I need to do is click “OK”.

• Once my keyword list is populated, I send them to another project which will then collect all the data for me, such as search volume, result volume, Search/Result ratio, KEI, etc…

• Done, there’s my keyword list. That was easy!

There’s other software like that out on the market, but I’m not familiar with them, Keyword Elite is the one I use and recommend for the people who intend to purchase such kind of software.

Exercise
Well I guess it’s pretty obvious, today you’ll have to build a keyword list for your site. Try to collect at least 100-200 keywords. I know it’s not difficult but time consuming, but this task is very important you mustn’t skip it as we’ll be using this list throughout this entire course!

1.   Learn How to Sort Out the Competition
2.   Do Your Keyword Research Homework
3.   Refining Your Keywords
4.   Evaluating Ranking Difficulty
5.   Mapping Your Site Structure
6.   Understanding Links & PageRank
7.   Sculpting Your Site Structure
8.   Cascading Style Sheet Design
9.   Using Wordpress for SEO
10. Setting up Your Analytics
11. Engineering the Title Tag
12. Optimising The Content
13. Optimising The Description Tag
14. Building Internal Links
15. SEO & Images
16. OnPage Analysis Using IBP
17. Link Building 101
18. Beating Your Competition
19. Building External Links
20. Using Structured SEO

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