By
John Alexander
There are all kinds of keywords being
used by people daily, in their search for information. Most professional search
engine marketers learn early in their career, that all keywords are not the same.
Some keywords are highly competitive while others are less competitive, which
often seems as though fewer people are searching for them. But then there are
some keywords that are really hardly being searched for at all. Some of the most
ideal phrases are those that relate to a product or service but are being fairly
often used by a specific audience of searchers, but at the same time have low
competition.
Let's put it another way. Phrases which have a low number
of competing pages, but also are phrases that are actually being used often by
searchers, represent a nice "window of opportunity." The reason these
keywords are appealing is because you can gain significant advantage (with little
or no competition) while only performing mild optimization.
Result: High
visibility on major search engines without the stress of competing with millions
of pages.
Of course you can go after more competitive phrases once you
know how, but the point is that you have to work a little harder if you are competing
with 40,000,000 pages as opposed to say 400 pages or maybe just 40 pages. In a
minute I'm going to give you 8 tips to help you think more
deeply about your keyword research in Wordtracker.
But
first, for the purposes of this article, I want to talk about some of the tiny
differences in keyword combinations that can make an enormous difference in the
end result. This article focuses on the use of Wordtracker and observes a few
comparisons between phrases to demonstrate some major advantages in just choosing
the best keyword terms.
Rule 1: Wordtracker uses a KEI (Keyword Effectiveness
Index)
A KEI Value of 100 may represent a good keyword phrase.
A
KEI Value of 400 usually represents a much better high use/low competition "window
of opportunity."
The higher the KEI value usually represents a much
bigger window. The assumption is that the higher the KEI the better. But notice
that I use the word "usually." KEI is not perfect, but it is a simple
mathematical equation and it does reveal interesting opportunities. The question
for most people, is how to tap into these high KEI keyword phrases without spending
hours of research. In a minute, we'll talk about the new Wordtracker Academy,
but first let's just give you some sets of examples of phrases and how they stack
up with similar but slightly different phrases.
BIG
differences in little keywords:
1. "Download
Free Knitting Patterns" has a KEI value of 419.0
2. "Easy
Knitting Patterns Free" has a much greater KEI value of 2140.5
------------------
1.
"purchase watercolor paintings" KEI 002.7
(Very weak)
2. "Watercolor prints to Purchase"
KEI 705.0 (Excellent improvement)
3. "watercolor
paintings southwest" KEI 2916.0 (still better yet)
------------------
1.
"dropship affiliates" KEI 256.0 (fair
window)
2. "dropshipping affiliates business"
KEI 512.0 (much better)
3. "dropship affiliates
business" KEI 1600.0 (better still)
-------------------
1.
"sales ability tests" KEI 475.4
2. "sales
management tests" KEI 680.3
3. "sales
competency tests" KEI 1176.0
-------------------
1.
"no soliciting signs" KEI 0.325 (very weak)
2.
"no soliciting signs custom" KEI 4230.0
(much better)
-------------------
These were just a few observations
I made recently on the KEI Observation Deck.
Now what I have not shown
you are the other details such as the compete number or the 24 hour count or how
many times each phrase was searched in the last 60 days. For these details, you
can visit Wordtracker and log in to the members area for yourself.
Do you
ever feel like you are running out of ideas when you are working in Wordtracker?
From my point of view, I think that often, the challenge is that we simply do
not think laterally enough about our visitors.
8
Keyword Research Tips to help you think deeper thoughts and explore those true
niche areas:
1. Why not start at the top,
instead of the middle?
Did you know that in addition to their top 1000
keyword Report in Wordtracker's member area, that you can actually buy a list
of the top 20,000 keywords? For that matter, they sell you the top 100,000 or
top 500,000.
The top 20,000 report sells for just $129 but is worth it's weight
in gold.
http://www.wordtracker.com/reports.html
2.
Wordtracker's recent new design includes a training area.
Did you know
Wordtracker has opened a new training area on their Web site which has tips and
articles and resources that you may not have known about? Watch this area continue
to grow in the future.
http://www.wordtracker.com/academy.html
3.
Magic in 3 minutes - listen to audio tips for free
Have you listened
to my series of Wordtracker Magic audio tips? These are short little 3 minute
recordings where I teach you how to tap into Wordtracker's hottest windows of
opportunity in just minutes. The audio tips are free and you can listen in right
on your computer.
http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/articles/audiomagic.html
4. Behaviors Vs. Keywords
Have you thought
about exploring "search behaviors" instead of just "researching
keywords?" I explain the difference in my e-book Wordtracker Magic at http://www.wordtracker-magic.com
5. Opening up the niche
Just when you
think you're running low on ideas, don't forget to plug that keyword you're investigating
into a tool like http://www.Thesaurus.com and watch for more synonyms you can
explore.
6. Reverse approach
If you feel
challenged because the keyword you're researching has no potential, try a reverse
approach and explore your audience's searching behavior first to see what they
want, then create that quality content that they're looking for. Wordtracker is
a powerful window on the world.
7. Are you mixed
up in a muddle of industry jargon?
Every so often, Wordtracker may reveal
unusual letters, short forms that at first appear like a mess. Realize that many
searchers do search with short forms or even worse. Often they'll search using
their own industry jargon. Why not make the most of it? Use a tool like http://www.acronymfinder.com
to reveal the possible meaning of those nonsense phrases. For example, we all
assume the term SEO means Search Engine Optimizer, right? Did you know it actually
has over 21 different meanings? Try plugging any acronym or short form into acronym
finder and see all of the possibilities. It can be an eye opener.
8.
Observe Those Big differences in little words
Remember that there really
are big differences in little tiny words that make up your keyword phrase. Learn
to explore and dig through Wordtracker's awesome database and follow some of these
tips and you won't need anyone to tell you about it once you strike those golden
search trends. You'll know by the traffic coming to your pages.
Remember
that you can work in Wordtracker for a long time and never discover it all or
see it all. The reason is because their main database of (350 million plus queries)
is being updated every week on a rolling 8 week cycle. In other words, there are
always fresh trends waiting to be discovered, if you'll just change your thinking
to a little wider scope.
You can look up these and other examples on our
KEI Observation Deck, where we post dozens of high KEI observations each week
for examples of what is easily found using Wordtracker's system.
For those
needing extra help to understand how to get the very best out of your keyword
research, be sure to check out the recent area called Wordtracker Academy. It
contains tutorials, articles and other Wordtracker resources.
Wordtracker's
newest User Guide has also been released.
