Keyword Research

Using The New Adwords Keyword Planner For Local SEO Keyword Research

Let's face it. Local keyword research hasn't been easy since the Venice update. While we have always been able to use the Google Keyword Tool to find search volumes for keywords with Geo Modifiers such as "City Name + Keyword," we have been lacking some reasonable data regarding keywords that do not already have a Geo Modifier.

The Gap Method - Processizing Keyword Gap Research and Anchor Text Distribution

I have various things I’ve turned into processes here in-house at my company, but today I’m going to talk about my favorite process - the Gap Method. This is the one I use to find keywords driving traffic to the “wrong” content and to identify links and anchor text to push out to our partners.

An Introduction to Keyword Research Using Free Tools

I often find that keyword research is an overlooked part of the SEO process. Many SEOs will tend to stick with using Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool and as a result, they will most likely be targeting the exact same keywords as the competition. The ultimate goal with keyword research is to find those juicy, low-hanging fruit - the long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are sometimes defined as keyword phrases containing multiple words of four or more. However, this is not how I like to define them. For me, the long-tail keywords are those that have lower volumes of traffic and are less competitive to rank for. In other words, they may contain multiple words or they could contain as few as two words.

Using AdWords Data for SEO: Unlocking the Ultimate Keyword Research Treasure Trove (Arrrgh!!)

Ahoy, SEOmoz UGC blog lubbers! Great SEO always starts with great keyword research – unfortunately, getting high-quality, actionable keyword data can sometimes be challenging for seve...

How to Improve Your Rankings with Semantic Keyword Research

Don't forget about semantic keyword research to help you focus your content and and improve your rankings.

How Much Does That Keyword Cost? [TOOL]

More and more, SEOs and small business owners are realizing that you cannot pay the electric bills or rent in rankings, and often times, traffic. Google Analytics or other site analytics packages can tell you your most profitable keyword broken down into a dollar value, however, what if you’re not ranking for the keyword but still want to assign a dollar value to it?

50 of the Most Competitive SEO Keywords!

So recently I was having a chat to some friends involved in the digital space and they had a question: "Hey what do you think are the most competitive SEO term in the Australian SEO market?". Been involved with internet marketing for almost 8 years now I had a good grasp on some of the most difficult terms, I have personally worked in some of the most difficult markets in both Australia and the United States so I thought what better opportunity than to put together some research in this space.

Stop Paying for Stupid Clicks: Negative Keywords for Positive ROI

One of my guilty pleasures is looking through the search query reports (SQR) of an AdWords campaign for the cringe-worthy search queries that led to someone clicking on a PPC ad. Really Google? You felt that goat transportation cost was related to my keyword of freight costs? Or that a babe cam search should show my ad for digital camera? Sadly, these matches and worse can happen if you lack proper negative keywords.

How to Forecast Seasonal Keyword Traffic with Google Insights and Python Scripts

A while back, I went to a Distilled meetup here in NYC. SEER Interactive's Mark Lavoritano did some cool slides on the seasonality of keywords. Basically, his presentation made the point that you should not only think about which keywords you want to rank for but also WHEN they are most valuable.

Be Careful Using AdWords for Keyword Research

For the past decade, most of us in the field of search have relied on Google's AdWords data (either in the public tool, the API or the tools inside AdWords accounts). It's the best source we've got, but many marketers may not realize that sadly, the numbers and queries may not always match up to what's actually happening on Google's search engine. I'll illustrate ...

How to Build an Advanced Keyword Analysis Report in Excel

Analyzing keyword performance, discovering new keyword opportunities, and determining which keywords to focus efforts on can be painstaking when you have thousands of keywords to review. With keyword metrics coming from all over the place (Analytics, Adwords, Webmaster Tools, etc.), it’s challenging to analyze all the data in one place regularly without having to do a decent amount of manual data manipulation. In addition, dependent on your site’s business model, tying revenue metrics to keyword data is a whole other battle.

Advanced SEO Keyword Research Tips and Ideas!

This post is for anyone who is an SEO, Online Marketer, Domain Name Buyer or PPC in general and does keyword research using the Google Keyword Tool. Don't get me wrong -- keyword research is a very important aspect for SEO and if you do not do it correctly you can make a huge mistake by targeting your whole SEO campaign around specific keywords which are not all that correct. Some times the data can leave you a bit angry when you compare it with other real time sources or more accurate PPC data.