Why Keywords Have Less and Less To Do With Search (Engines)

Admit it; when someone says 'keyword research' you think of Google, SEO, and AdWords, right?

That's fine, but it doesn't stop there. In fact,  keyword research starts with these things, but it doesn't end there. Just because you've found ten long tail keyword phrases that ought to pull in 1,000 high quality, converting customers to your web site, it's not the end of the story.

It will be useful to create content around those keyword phrases, yes.

But they're also useful for so many other parts of the online marketing process:

• Twitter hash tags;
• Category labels;
• Email subject headings;
• etc.

What keyword research shows is what's on people's minds. Since you're targeting your market with the research activities (or ought to be!) the keyword phrases tell you what's on your customers' minds.

That's important - and an illustration of exactly how important it is can be found on a recent 4 Hour Work Week blog entry (How to Create a $4,000 Per Month Muse), under the heading for Day 2.

(If you go over there to read the article, that's fine, but make sure you come back!)

On Day 2 of the 5 day mentorship program, Noah Kagan points out that in contacting your market, you should deliver your message through multiple channels:

• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Email
• Twitter

Reasons for this are diverse, but it could just be that people get busy and like to be reminded that they've received an email, been contacted on LinkedIn or Facebook, and so on.

Sage advice. But what about the keyword research?

It's important because it ensures that your message is consistent, and that you are using keywords that are likely something that your prospect was already thinking about - after all, they came from the market.

There's an added bonus - some of these contact methods (i.e. Twitter) become publicly searchable. When that happens, if you're using keywords, the Tweet (or whatever) will be found, and interested parties can find you, and that's what marketing (even search engine marketing) is all about.

Keyword Fishing : Tip for Keyword Research and Analysis

Money Fishing (via SXC)

Keyword Fishing is a technique that is designed to take all of the content that is being created and extract keywords from it that relate to your keyword research project.

It is powerful because it takes its cue from actual keyword data and content producers reactions to that data.

The first thing that you can do is turn Google's AdWords lens on yourself and analyze your own content in the quest for new keyword trends.

If you look low down the list of suggested keywords for your content (using the Google Keyword Planner, for example) you will usually find some long-tail keyword phrases that throw up new keyword pairs that you haven't though of.

There is always the danger that this is a self-referential technique, though, with search lists become more and more narrow as the keyword gene pool is exhausted. To avoid this, it pays to expand the content set to fresh sources of keyword inspiration.

Choosing a Keyword Fishing Source

Whether you want to get a fresh keyword perspective on your niche, or are doing some deep research for an SEO client, it is important to pick sources that reflect the content consumers. These are usually (and in keyword research and keyword cracker terms, exclusively) search users.

So, to get a good feel for their opinion, it is important to use consumer generated content to generate lists of keywords that diligent filtering can pare down to a set of useful phrases.

Such content includes:

• other people's blogs;
• comments pages from (open) forums;
• consumer reviews;
• services like Yahoo Answers.

There are more, but these should be a good starting point.

Other good sources include Google News results, Bing News results (which now includes Twitter/Facebook) according to C|Net, and even Twitter feeds, providing that the correct filtering has been applied.

How Keyword Fishing Works

Actually doing the fishing is extremely easy. Once the source URL has been identified (and it can be a base URL, or a landing page) an appropriate analysis tool is used to extract the keywords. There are several paid tools out there like SEM Rush and Keyword Spy, but beginners can just use the Google Keyword Planner.

(Keyword Planner has replaced the old AdWords Keyword Tool, and I still have mixed feelings about it!)

The first step is to put the URL into the Google Keyword Planner, in the box labelled 'Your Landing

Google Keyword Planner Options (screenshot)

Page', as shown in the image on the left.

It's important to note that this can be any URL, and that the other two boxes should remain empty unless you have a very good reason to fill them out.

You can use your usual targeting and result list customization options, remembering that your mileage will vary if you limit the result set too much.

After clicking the Get Ideas button, you will be presented with the usual list from which you can pick the keyword phrases that best match your current needs.

How you choose to filter to get the best keywords for your purpose depends whether your focus is traffic, traffic acquisition cost (against value) or ratio of buyers to browsers.