(Lots of background and tips are in the previous post!)
Use Google AdWords’ Keyword Tool to get the inside scoop on how many times your keywords are searched, globally and locally.
Go to: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and type in your narrowed keywords, one at a time.
How do Your Keywords Stand Up Against the Competition?
Google’s Keyword Tool results will also give you a simple indicator of competition (low, medium and high) as well as local search trends, among other interesting indicators. It will even sort results by traffic and other meaningful ways … it’s a fabulous tool!
Repeat your keyword search until you’re satisfied that you have identified at least six great long tail keywords. Repeat this for each website page, each blog post, each article, press release, etc.
If you want to take this research to the next level, try these two things:
- Find your competition and check out their keywords. Jump onto a competitors’ site, click on “View”, then from the dropdown, click on “Source”. Now scroll through the mumbo jumbo (HTML) until you find the keywords imbedded into their site code. These are likely the keywords for which they are optimizing. And they very likely optimize each page for different keywords (as they should!)
- Use Google’s free Traffic Estimator tool to find out how much traffic your chosen keywords probably get: https://adwords.google.com/select/TrafficEstimatorSandbox
Don’t be Fooled
Google has an auto-fill feature on the toolbar. When you begin to type your phrase, the drop-down suggestions reveal Google’s most searched terms. But remember, they are usually not long tail, specific enough to get you ranked for first page. Use Google AdWords’ Keyword Tool to test that!
Once you master this skill and art, it will become second-nature, and your traffic will SOAR!
What keyword research tips work best for you?
——————
For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.
.. _____ ..
ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:
Ms. Chapman’s new book, How to Make Money Online With Social Media: A Step-by-Step Guide for Entrepreneurs will be available in bookstores and online November 24, 2010. With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com
Every time I fill in the Captcha code on the adwords keyword site, another captcha box comes up. I am filling them all in correctly, but they keep coming, and I can’t use the keyword tool. I found this site and did everything it says (except disabling my internet security) and it still keeps doing the same thing.
http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=14776
I even tried on two other computers that have different security, plus the google uk site, and still the same thing. Do you know what’s wrong? Or why you wouldn’t be able to use any security in order to use the keywork tool? This just started happening a couple days ago, before that it worked fine.
Gaby-That’s a new one on me. It sounds like a technical glitch. I was on the site for about 4 hours on Sunday, and used the code about 5 times (if left for a length of time, it requires you to re-up.) It worked perfectly for me.
Does anyone else have any ideas?
Thanks for your comment and interest in this blog!
Lisa Chapman
Seriously? It really is good to find someone at last start covering this stuff, but I am still not really sure how much I agree with you on it all. I subscribed to your rss though and will continue following your writing and maybe down the road I can chime in again in far more detail. Cheers for posting though!