Keyword Research

[Chris Norman]

Hi Gang,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I have read several times about doing "keyword research" for my blog. Exactly what is that? My understanding which is near nothing was that I write articles/posts that implement my niche keyword. Now it seems that I should expand keywords as I write more articles/posts. How does this work? Any examples? I don't quiet get it but hear so much about keyword research. Help!!

Thanks to all and take good care, Chris

[MaryGallagher]

http://www.seofaststart.com/ This guide that Lynn recommends is the best place to start. (I kiddingly call it the bible of SEO. It's not hard to follow.)

When you have one keyword, it usually is too broad for getting the targeted reader you want to come to your website. Selecting the keywords and phrases that will attract those readers you want to come to your site, read your stuff, and buy what you offer, is what you will learn here as you ask the questions while learning and practicing what you learn.

Lynn will often supply links here in the forum and on the webinars that directly answer your questions so don't hesitate to ask.

Hope that helps, Chris.

Best for now,
Mary

[Lynn Terry]

Hi Chris,

Definitely start with SEO Fast Start - it answers your question in detail.

It's a free guide, by the way.

You blog or site is going to be 'tiered'. The main page is optimized for the most general keyword phrase, your categories a little more specific (2-3 word phrases), and your pages or posts should be optimized for longtail keyword phrases (3+ word phrases).

As just one example, this post on my blog is optimized for the longtail keyword phrase "starting a free online business":

http://www.clicknewz.com/1679/starti...line-business/

If you go to Google, you'll see that post ranks #1 for that search query:

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=start...nline+business

It also ranks #1 for free online business:

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=free+online+business

(results may vary by location)


So the main page of my blog is optimized for "Internet Marketing Blog" (pretty general) and each post is optimized for a very specific longtail phrase. I find these phrases by doing keyword research, which also helps me to come up with new content ideas every week.

[jkgourmet]

Lynn, questions:

1. Is there a higher value placed on the LTKW because you have them in the title of your post (which is the same as a page, right?)?

2. I noticed you use A LOT of internal links. This also helps with SEO, correct?

3. If you were to use these same LTKW (or just a couple of them) on another post (page), would that also help with SEO ranking?

[Lynn Terry]

Yes, with WordPress the post title becomes the Title Tag for the page. You'll notice that if you view those posts on my blog, that the title of the post shows up in the Title Bar of the browser window.

The Title Tag and the anchor text of your incoming links are two of the most important elements of your overall SEO strategy.

I often write in series, with each post in the series targeting the same primary keyword phrase, to achieve double listings in the Google search results - so yes again.

This is a crap example because I added "clicknewz" to the search query to show you how it works, but notice the double listing here:

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=click...e+money+online

The search phrase is "ways to make money online" but I don't have a strong link reputation for that phrase, for that series of posts - so I had to dilute the query to show you the example.

[Chris Norman]

Thanks guys!

What are "long tail" keywords?

Thanks, Chris

[jkgourmet]

Yes, with WordPress the post title becomes the Title Tag for the page. You'll notice that if you view those posts on my blog, that the title of the post shows up in the Title Bar of the browser window.

The Title Tag and the anchor text of your incoming links are two of the most important elements of your overall SEO strategy.

Does the Title Tag HAVE to be the same as the actual post in your blog? I mean, sometimes I use titles for the posts that are cute for the readers - and those don't add value for SEO. Can I edit the title tag to use those key words that I'm targeting in the body of the post? Would that make any difference at all?

I often write in series, with each post in the series targeting the same primary keyword phrase, to achieve double listings in the Google search results - so yes again.

The search phrase is "ways to make money online" but I don't have a strong link reputation for that phrase, for that series of posts - so I had to dilute the query to show you the example.

That's because your reputation is a good one - most of the folks that get attention from this search phrase are scammers, crooks and worse.