Welcome to Tuesday Tips!
Today, we begin our journey of exploring 101 Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business with Marketing Strategy #1: Do Your Research.
Keyword Research, that is.
I have a confession to make. I’ve been a bit of a lazy blogger on occasion – and at times, I have written about what I wanted to explore, rather than focusing on what readers are searching for online.
I know better. I would never begin a series of blogs for a client without having a keyword plan in place. Yet, when it came to my own site – I got a little lax.
Sometimes, I got lucky – and got decent search engine results from my efforts.
And sometimes … I didn’t.
However, over the last couple of months I’ve become MUCH more focused in this area – and the results speak for themselves. In August 2009, there were only 9 keyword phrases that delivered traffic to this site (keep in mind, my first blog post on this site was in July). By December, that number had increased to 191 – and many of those had been used multiple times. (For the first 3 days of January – the number is 45).
So, today – I want to share with you my two-step process for finding relevant keywords.
My keyword brainstorming tool of choice is WordTracker’s Free Keyword Tool. For an awesome tutorial on how to use this free resource for ALL of your keyword research, be sure to check out this post. (This post is so good – you may want to bookmark it and refer back to it often. Also, be sure to read all the way through to the comments – about the 3rd comment down, Lynn describes how to analyze your competition – really good stuff!)
Keep in mind, this tool shows the daily search volume for whatever keyword you are researching – so multiplying that number by 30 will give you a rough estimate of monthly search volume.
Once I find a couple of keywords or phrases that catch my interest – I then plug them into Micro Niche Finder. I have owned and used this program for going on a year and really love it. For a one-time investment of $97, (no ongoing subscription costs) this program makes it so easy to target high search volume, low competition keywords with the click of a button. You can set up a search, then minimize the window and go about your business while it sorts through up to 200 keyword phrases for you.
The reason I added the first step to this process is that I find that WordTracker’s free tool is better at identifying longer-tail keyword phrases than Micro Niche Finder. It is really great for brainstorming and helps me plug in ideas I wouldn’t have otherwise considered into Micro Niche Finder.
The actual method you use to find relevant keywords doesn’t matter so much – what matters is that you consciously create content on an ongoing basis that others are actively seeking. It does you no good to rank #1 in Google for a phrase no one is searching. (Like I always tell my clients – it’s kinda like being the best surfer in Kansas, don’t ya think? 
)
Tomorrow, we’ll move on to Wednesdays On Writing – and talk about specific ways to become a better writer and content creator.
Til Next Time,
PS When you purchase Micro Niche Finder – you also get access to their support forum and blog (which offers lots of great ideas on keyword research and niche selection), plus you are also entitled to free lifetime upgrades. This program is continually being tweaked and improved, so you don’t have to worry about it becoming obsolete after buying it.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Angie
Yes, it definitely takes some time to get the hang of it – but is so worth the effort! I just sent screenshots to a client today showing search engine traffic results from less than 6 months of effort on this site.
If you think about it – every single keyword and keyword phrase you use creates one more door into your site – and that door will remain open indefinitely so long as that content is out there. The beauty is that it will only get better with age!
Don’t worry about Micro Niche Finder at this point – the manual process that Lynn describes using Wordtracker’s free search tool obviously works very well, too. I just like the ease and efficiency of using a more robust program like MNF.
I can’t believe that it took me over a year to finally start to understand keyword research. I really enjoy it now but I’m still stumped at how to find the phrases that deliver traffic to my site and blog each month. The same keyword phrases show up every time I search in cpanel (AWstats). Obviously I still have a ton to learn.
I wish the price of Micro Niche Finder wasn’t so steep LOL