SEO | Keyword Selection & Difficulty

Keyword Selection & Difficulty

April 28, 2008 By: Justin | 6 comments

Before we even get started on SEO, you need to have a basic concept of keywords. A keyword is a single word or keyword phrase (multiple words) that are used when searching. They are the words you type into Google.

For example, my keywords are
Nashville SEO
Nashville Web Design
Nashville Online Marketing

[Update: Have changed keyword focus to SEO]

Understanding which words are searched is important for SEO, because you want to know what people actually search and how much they search it. When you do SEO, you target specific keywords (and related keywords).

And I know that my keywords do not follow all the guidelines in this post. Why? We’ll this is a local niche focused blog and has a different purpose than most blogs. I want to be the #1 guy in my town for these keywords, it will eventually help prove a lot on my resume. I want to be the guy who ranks #1 for these terms, then when I go for a job, and they ask “why you”… well… I obviously can rank higher than them… enough said. So, here is one more plug for Nashville Online Marketing.

To understand why we focus on keywords, check my last tutorial about Google’s algorithm. That algorithm calculates authority for a specific keyword.

From my last post:

Keyword Authority = 0.6*X1 + 0.3*X2 +0.1*X3

When Google looks at your site, it will calculate this authority for each keyword your site is related to (or uses). It will check how much of each factor X1,X2,X3 your site has and give it an authority score for a keyword.

So you need to pick good keywords, because you do not want to have authority for a keyword that doesn’t get searched often.

The Secret to SEO Success

….is long tail keywords.

Internet marketers are successful because they target the right keywords. Right out of the gate targeting a word like Credit Card is HORRIBLE. DO NOT DO THIS WHEN YOU FIRST START!!! If you target that keyword, you WILL fail if you are new. (there, I warned you)

So, what are Long Tail Keywords?

Long tail keywords are niche / focused key phrases that are related to major keywords but are more focused (and usually have less searches and competition)

Here is an example,

  • Major KW: Credit Card
  • More focused: Student Credit Card
  • Even more focused: Student Visa Credit Card
  • Ultra focused: No Interest Student Visa Credit Card

The difficulty for the major KW is high, but decreases as you get more focused. You can design sites/pages on focused keywords.

For now, trust me. You want long tails! GO WITH LONG TAIL KEYWORDS!!!!

How Do You Find Keywords

There are a lot of paid services, but for now, keep to the free stuff while you’re learning. There are a lot of Free Keyword Tools that can be used to research your keywords.

The Keyword Slection Process

1) Brainstorm for Keywords

Grab a notepad to take notes.

You can find keywords anywhere. Look around your desk. Walk around your house. Take a drive. Write down things.

Then, for each thing, think of potential phrases your would use to search for these.

2) Find Keyword Suggestions

Use the possible keywords you developed and type them into Google suggest. This will suggest other search phrases associated with your search terms.

Take note of these.

3) Check Keyword Search Volume

Find out what terms are actually searched. This is a good time to open notepad, type in your list of keywords.

All give ESTIMATED search volume! None are 100% exact, and numbers may vary. They do give you a good estimate of volume though.

What are you looking for?

You want something with 100-200 searches on Wordtracker as a general estimate, and these can go as high as you want. Understand that higher search terms usually have: more competition, more SEO’s working them, and harder to rank for (Google more likely to sandbox you too).

Next to your keyword list, take note of search volume next to it.

4) Check Keyword Difficulty

Now you want to see how hard your keywords are.

Use two tools

  1. SEO Chat Keyword Difficulty
  2. SEO Logs Keyword Difficulty

Each of these have their instructions, but they basically judge a keyword on 0 to 100 scale. The lower the number, the easier.

Basic Guide for Difficulty

Those who are new, attack keywords around 50%.
If new, do not attack anything 70% to 80% and up.

Take note of the KW difficulty next to your keyword and search volume.

For example, the difficulty of my keywords

  • Nashville SEO - 40.96
  • Nashville Web Design - 41.06
  • Nashville Online Marketing - 44.81

A quick KW calculation to determine your best keywords.

For each keyword,

Good KW Ratio = Search Volume / Difficulty Score

This higher the value of this ratio, the better the keyword. You want a high search volume to difficulty ratio!

So, take your list of keywords, and reduce it down to your best keywords [high search, low difficulty, high ratio]

Now we’re ready to move forward with our basic research.

5) Find Keyword Competition Volume

Go to google, and for each keyword do two things:

  1. Search: keyword phrase
  2. Search: “keyword phrase”

Each will give you an idea of the amount of competition you have, you’re looking for less than 1,000,000 if you are new. Use the quoted “keyword phrase” to have a more accurate idea of your direct competition who uses your keyword exactly. Here you are looking for a lower amount of competition. The less competition, the easier the keyword is to dominate. Again, reduce your list again. Compare everything from before, and compare it against its competition. Pick the best matches.

6) Evaluate Top Keyword Competition

Now, competition analysis can get much more complicated than this, but for now, this will give you a basic idea.

For each keyword you have left, compare the top 5 guys listed for each keyword.

Use dnscoop. This tool will tell you the age, the PR, alexa (traffic), and number of links according to yahoo.

I will cover this more in depth later, but for now:

  • Older sites are harder to beat.
  • Higher PR sites are harder to beat.
  • Alexa gives an idea of their traffic
  • The higher the number of links, the harder (the MAJOR factor)

This gives you a basic gauge of what you need to beat.

Next, give each site a visual inspection. You’ll need to review their on site SEO. And you can judge them on that. After we cover on site SEO, we will return to this topic.

Conclusion

Now you’ve selected high search keywords, with low difficulty. Reduced that listed by looking at your competition numbers, then reducing it by looking at each of your competitions stats. You should now have a series of keywords 2-3 for the over site that you’ll be targeting. And then, you’ll return to your keyword research and find even longer tail keywords for sub pages. Now that you have a basic idea, we’ll move forward to on site SEO.

By the way, if you’re in Nashville, and in need of Search Engine Optimization, than feel free to contact us. Did you like that shameless plug + page SEO?

Post is part of our Search Engine Optimization Guide, that teaches basic SEO

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • bodytext
  • del.icio.us
  • De.lirio.us
  • Fark
  • Reddit
  • description
  • Simpy
  • Slashdot
  • Sphinn
  • Spurl
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • YahooMyWeb

Filed Under Keywords, SEO, SEO Lessons, Search Engines |

Tagged With , , , ,

Related Posts

Long Tail Keywords
Learn about the basics of The Long Tail theory and how The Long Tail can be applied to keyword research. Long tail keyword research can be used to locate untapped
Free Keyword Research Tools
(I made a video recently on this, but the sound on it was horrible) Keywords are the words users enter when performing a search. Understanding how people search and what phrases
Dominate Your Competition, Not Google
Check out the Search Engine Optimization guide. So far I’ve talked about SEO basics, on site SEO, SEO design, keyword selection and keyword research, and about identifying long tails. Now
How To Get Links With Article Marketing
The most important part of SEO and the part people have the hardest time with is getting links. Everyone always asks how to get links to their site that will
Search Engine Optimization Guide
Guide to basic SEO. Archive of post from SEO Zombie that covers SEO basics. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web

Comments

6 Comments »

Comment by sally
2008-04-28 09:07:13

Thanks for the article, it is very informative.

So search volume information is must for keyword search.

So if a keyword doesn’t have search volume that means i need to omit those keyword.?

the search volume number varies from word tracker to keyword discovery. And there is no common thing to find out search volume. Keyword discovery gives searches happened in last 12 months where as WT gives on different base. Then on which i need to reply upon?I need to stick to one tool, is it so?

sorry i have many doubts when it comes to keyword research.

Reply to this comment
Comment by Justin
2008-04-28 09:14:27

Well, it depends on why you’re doing the SEO. Almost always search volume would be a must.

Why would you target a keyword without traffic? For what purpose? Seems to defeat the point of SEO to target a search that nobody searches.

So yes, search volume is a must.

The free tools are not 100% accurate, but are estimates. The paid tools are more accurate. The free tools are best for keyword suggestions and to compare volume. They may not be exact, but you’ll know Credit Cards gets more than Student Credit Cards.

Better tools (paid tools) usually deal with larger data sources and cross link information, etc. So some tools are more accurate. I don’t suggest software here (since its not the focus of this blog), but I have read good things about Wordze.

I hope that helps. =)

Reply to this comment
Comment by sally
2008-04-29 07:31:46

yes…

Many keywords i felt, they are important but there is no search volume for it at all.

May be i should look for some paid keyword tool.

Thank you.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Reply here
 
 
 
Comment by Dave
2008-07-16 04:57:04

Google now has actual values in their adwords tool. Highly accurate results from the search engine you care most about!

I’ve also tried wordtracker and wordze and I much preferred wordze. Though with the new google tool you could omit either starting out. The best benefit that wordze has going is the fact that wordtracker has a free tool, so you can cross check wordze results with wordtracker, but not the other way around.

Dave

Reply to this comment
Comment by Justin
2008-07-17 04:50:49

Yeah I’ve heard some good things about wordze, but haven’t used it myself. I made a post about the adwords change when it happened. Its a really nice change. I need to edit this post and update it.

Reply to this comment
 
 
Name (required)
E-mail (required - never shown publicly)
URI
Subscribe to comments via email
Your Comment (smaller size | larger size)
You may use <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> in your comment.

Trackback responses to this post