The right way to do keyword research

[DaveKash]

I see so many people today doing keyword research the wrong way when laying their foundations for their website. Lets face it, keyword research is what will make or break your business. So doing it the right way will pay off divedends in the long term.
So when doing your keyword research make sure you do the following:

1: Study the your niche: If you are very knowledgable and have a passion for the topic then you can skip step 1. But it is vitally important to know about the niche you are attacking. In the world of SEO it is critical that you choose a low competiotion niche in contrast to a super competitive one like diet. So make sure you choose something which is specific and targeted. Once you have done that study and research and ask find out

a)Whether there are things to promote

b) How engaging is the audience

c) How many competitiors and how competitive is this niche

2: Use various keyword research tools- I use 3 just to keep things son the safe side. Obviously the Google keyword planner should be your first priority. When doing keyword research make sure you target keywords which are
a) Get at least a 1000 searches a month
b) Are low in competition
c) Have products to promote

Once you have used the Google keyword planner you can then do more research in other keyword planners I usually try to come up with at least 20 keywords I can target and with products related to these keywords.

3. Google search your keywords- Once you have 30 low competition keywords do a google search for these keywords. If a keyword has greater than 3000000 results with multiple websites dedicated to them cross it off your list. Once you have found keywords which are under 3000000 searches with at few websites targeting them, I can then build a page in my website targeting that specific keyword.

Bonus Tip: When creating your page in your website, make sure that you link to your keyword at least 3 times and that your keyword is in the subject.
That is the way I attack my keywords in the right way so that I can start building backlinks.

Hope that helps

 

[elcidofaguy]

Hiya DaveKash, Nice effort - however I disagree with some of it with my view that some of it is out dated or incorrect as follows:

In the world of SEO it is critical that you choose a low competiotion niche in contrast to a super competitive one like diet. So make sure you choose something which is specific and targeted.

One should be careful as to not pick a niche that is too narrow as that will result in little sales/conversions... The danger here is that you put all that time and effort for little gain... I don't believe there is anything wrong with targeting the bigger niches - as those have the greater number of people searching and buying stuff... You may think that it is competitive but that only applies if you are targeting highly competitive keywords... With narrow niches you may not even have that and consequently it is worthless... Choose long tail variations first and build up a semantic relationship based on your root keyword... Besides I also recommend a hybrid approach of using ads which means you can test sales copy, improve conversions as well as make money straight of the bat... In particular adwords as you will see what is working and what is not before spending time and effort to rank on given keywords.

In addition keep in mind Google's biggest algo change is not penguin, panda - but in fact Hummingbird... Hence on-page seo with use of silo's is hugely important and consequently "old school" ideas on keyword research no longer applies... These days its about semantic relationships i.e. LSI keywords... hence build in those silos which really helps G better understand your site...

c) How many competitors and how competitive is this niche

3. Google search your keywords- Once you have 30 low competition keywords do a google search for these keywords. If a keyword has greater than 3000000 results with multiple websites dedicated to them cross it off your list. Once you have found keywords which are under 3000000 searches with at few websites targeting them, I can then build a page in my website targeting that specific keyword.

Only the first page of Google matters!... In fact you should only really be checking the site profiles for the first page, in particular the top 3 sites.. It does not matter if Google shows milllions of sites returned for a given keyword... None of it matters except the top few positions... Just because Google returns 3000000+ - that means nothing...

Bonus Tip: When creating your page in your website, make sure that you link to your keyword at least 3 times and that your keyword is in the subject.

I would not really bother with that or worry too much about it... Instead I would only make sure to use the main keyword once with the rest as variations of the keyword... If the keyword is repeated and it looks natural then thats okay too.. My main focus is actually to write the best possible article. In fact I would use internal links to emphasize the keyword with using silos...

That aside do keep in mind that the keyword planner tool is designed/targeted for adwords.. Therefore I also recommend that you examine Google suggest i.e. type your keyword into search with a letter preceding it or after it and then document the list.. You can also use tools likeubersuggest which do that for you... aim for keywords that people are searching for and quite often you'll find the ones listed in G's auto suggest not shown within the keyword planner tool...

With regards to backlinks - these days you dont actually have to build that many...You just need a few from sites which G trusts and has given some recognition of authority... Hence not from sites where you create an account and upload content - but from sites which are ranking and has traffic... I would aim for either guest postings or PBNs for that....

Hope that helps too...

Cheers,

Sid

 

[SEOPub]

I see so many people today doing keyword research the wrong way when laying their foundations for their website. Lets face it, keyword research is what will make or break your business. So doing it the right way will pay off divedends in the long term.
So when doing your keyword research make sure you do the following:

1: Study the your niche: If you are very knowledgable and have a passion for the topic then you can skip step 1. But it is vitally important to know about the niche you are attacking. In the world of SEO it is critical that you choose a low competiotion niche in contrast to a super competitive one like diet. So make sure you choose something which is specific and targeted. Once you have done that study and research and ask find out

a)Whether there are things to promote

b) How engaging is the audience

c) How many competitiors and how competitive is this niche

2: Use various keyword research tools- I use 3 just to keep things son the safe side. Obviously the Google keyword planner should be your first priority. When doing keyword research make sure you target keywords which are
a) Get at least a 1000 searches a month
b) Are low in competition
c) Have products to promote

Once you have used the Google keyword planner you can then do more research in other keyword planners I usually try to come up with at least 20 keywords I can target and with products related to these keywords.

3. Google search your keywords- Once you have 30 low competition keywords do a google search for these keywords. If a keyword has greater than 3000000 results with multiple websites dedicated to them cross it off your list. Once you have found keywords which are under 3000000 searches with at few websites targeting them, I can then build a page in my website targeting that specific keyword.

Bonus Tip: When creating your page in your website, make sure that you link to your keyword at least 3 times and that your keyword is in the subject.
That is the way I attack my keywords in the right way so that I can start building backlinks.

Hope that helps

A lot of horrible advice in here.

I hate when I see people say only go for keywords with XXXX searches per month. That is a dumb idea. It depends what you are selling. If I am selling something that makes me $5000 per sale, I'll go for keywords that only get 10 searches a month. I only need one sale to have a decent month. On the other hand, if I am using AdSense to monetize my site, I'm going to need a lot more visitors to make it profitable.

Whenever you see someone say only go for keywords with a certain number of results in Google's index, run away. This is such a stupid myth that just will not die. Who cares how many results there are? That makes zero difference. Your competition is the top 3. That is it. If you can beat any or all of them, then number 4 through 8 billion do not matter.

This is the kind of BS that newbies get fed over and over by wannabe gurus. It infuriates me when I see this kind of junk.

 

[ericplotz1]

I see so many people today doing keyword research the wrong way when laying their foundations for their website. Lets face it, keyword research is what will make or break your business. So doing it the right way will pay off divedends in the long term.
So when doing your keyword research make sure you do the following:

I really have to agree with SEOPub. There was a ton of garbage in the OP. I do not want our forum looked at as though we post junk threads and this is the epitome of junk.

Where in the world did you get these facts?

The bonus tip, is the biggest laugh on here mate.

When creating your page in your website, make sure that you link to your keyword at least 3 times and that your keyword is in the subject.

Are you implying you anchor your keyword 3 times? To what ratio?

I don't anchor my keyword. I stick to the generic text like "click here" and sometime will anchor LSI. I think anchoring keywords are bad news, simply because there are so many ridiculous posts on the web just like the OP.

So in a nutshell your advice is to:

1. Pick a niche. Gee thanks for that brilliant tip
2. Use keyword tools For the sake of making a thread that actually assist someon (since that is the point anyway) how about including some SEO tools that you use and maybe how to use them. Fact is you probably ONLY use KW Planner and cant use it properly.
3. Check SERPs SEOPub hit the nail. Doesnt matter what the monthly searches are, it matters what you are selling.

I think overall youre fishing for followers, and you are going to get slaughtered doing it this way.