Keyword Research Part 4

Keywords are vital to your online success. Your goal is to organically (naturally) rank high in Google in and other search engines, so you need to implement certain SEO (search engine optimization) strategies and keywords will play an important role in those.

When you conduct keyword research, you’re doing it to learn how your prospective customer is utilizing search engines to find the information or products that they want. You then take the words (and phrases) and use them on your site, to ensure it’s relevant for your target audience.

In the old days, keywords could be stuffed and hidden all over a website to trick search engines into helping a site rank high. Now that they’ve caught on, you have to use them with a more whitehat approach or risk getting de-indexed in Google and other search giants.

Where do your keywords generally need to be? Don’t discount Meta tags in your HTML code. These are still important, but they may not be the most important tactic to use anymore.

Keyword placement depends on what type of page you’re building. If it’s a web 2.0 property such as a Squidoo lens, Hub Page or Google Knol, then you want a keyword in the URL that you register, in the titles, subtitles and content that you write, and also in any tagging space they give you the opportunity to fill in.

If you’re making a blog post on your blog, then the keyword should be in the URL, too. But you may have to check to ensure that your blog template is using this strategy. Under settings and then permalinks, you’ll be able to set your preferences.

For instance, many blogs default to give your post a number like this: http://www.yourblogname.com/?p=123. You’ll need to choose custom structure and enter this code: /%postname%.html – this will make your blog post URL appear with the title of the post, where your keywords will be, like this: http://www.yourblogname.com/title-of-blog-post

Use keywords within all of your content, especially the first paragraph and preferably in the first sentence, so that the initial snippet Google shows has your keyword included (it will appear bold if the person searching uses this exact keyword in their search).

Experts disagree about what density you have in regards to keywords. Some say 2% and others go as high as 10%. What you really need to do is write both human visitors and search engine spiders alike. That means enough keywords so that the searchbots see your content’s relevancy and not so many that it turns off your reader because it reads awkwardly.

Keyword research Part 3

Many newbie marketers (and even moderate to advanced marketers) have diligently learned to do their keyword research, proudly sharing their experiences of researching, compiling, cleaning and putting their massive lists into action.

But what many don’t know is how to use keywords and phrases that aren’t traditionally thought of in order to help you bring in more targeted traffic for your online marketing campaigns.

Whenever you’re creating your keyword list and before you clean and organize it it, don’t forget about these:

Plurals – if you’re targeting “Internet Marketing guide,” make sure you also include “Internet marketing guides” as the plural version. Many people either do one or the other, but not both.

Misspellings – This can be caused by typos or the fact that the person searching doesn’t know how to properly spell a word, but some keyword tools provide you with spelling errors that you can add to your list.

Here’s the bad news – you have to intentionally go use those spelling errors in your marketing campaigns. If you’re a stickler for proper spelling, this may annoy you, but try to keep your eye on the prize and realize that you’ll be ranking very high and capturing a segment of the population other marketers are ignoring.

Starting With – this is a way of gathering keywords where you’re in charge of what words are chosen and in what order (for example, used cars – making sure used comes first and is paired with the word cars).

For some newbies, they get very frustrated when their search results deliver a variety of words like new cars and used furniture because they didn’t know how to properly filter out these phrases.

Phrase Match – this includes all of the words you put in quotation marks, plus any words before or after the phrase, such as – buy used cars today – (if you put “used cars” in the keyword tool).

Negative Match – this method of searching includes some words and leaves out others. For example, if you type “cars” -“used” it would return keyword phrases with cars in it, but none that have the word used.

Keyword variables help you expand your list and casting a wider net means you capture a bigger percentage of the audience that could be buying your products and services, so it’s always a wise move.

Keyword Research Part 2

Keyword lists can get very messy – especially the larger they get. You’ll want to compile a massive list of keywords for your niche marketing needs, and then organize them so that you can access them and put them to good use whenever you’re working on tasks.

So there are two parts to your keyword maintenance. Well, three if you consider the compilation and gathering portion a part of its own. Once you have the keywords compiled, you want to first clean the list, and then organize it for future use.

Your keywords might be gathered from multiple sources – like your own analytical tool or several free and paid keyword tools. So first, you’ll want to use a keyword cleaning tool to remove duplicates.

Your keyword cleaner can also make your keyword list alphanumeric for you. It can take out numbers and remove bad keywords that aren’t proper for a marketing campaign (such as those that contain the word free). It can also extract any phrases that contain bad words in them.

Alphanumeric keyword lists will help you get rid of anything with a hyphen or other symbol in it. It takes out periods and commas as well. With some keyword search tools, the results will include the search volume. A keyword cleaner removes those for you. Some of the keyword list cleaning tools will remove capitalization, too.

You can organize your keyword lists with a tool, too. If you’re using Pay Per Click search engine marketing, you can use exact or broad match keywords. Let the tool take a single list and deliver the extra results fully formatted for you so you can just cut and paste it into action.

You may want to group your keywords with modifying words like “best” or “buy.” Some list cleaning tools will help clump those particular words that you specify into groups for specific niche marketing campaigns you plan to launch.

Depending on the niche, you may want to organize your keyword list into group according to age, gender or location. Depending on the list cleaning tool you use, it can do all of the work for you.

Some keyword list cleaning tools use a tree-like branch function to organize your keywords and phrases. For example, let’s say you had a pet website. It could group the keywords according to animals first (birds, cats, dogs) and then branch out within each keyword for more precise phrase (buy a bird bath, cat clawing toys, dog training guide).

You can even use multiple keyword list cleaning tools if you find certain aspects you like among many of them. Organization will help you dominate in a niche easier than if you randomly pick and choose a word or phrase to use in your online campaigns.

Welcome to the first in a short series of posts regarding the most important weapon of your online business, your keywords. Stay tuned for more or sign up for my newsletter and get them delivered to your inbox.

Keywords are not a one size fits all. You have two very different types of keywords – broad and longtail – and they can both help your site achieve authority in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Broad keywords are very generic in nature. They tend to get more overall searches but it’s harder to rank high for those keywords due to the larger base of competitors. A good example of a broad keyword would be “dog.”

Longtail keywords are more focused and narrow. They have more words attached to them. Because fewer websites are trying to rank for those longer keyword phrases, you have an easier time ranking higher than your competition. A good example of a long tail keyword phrase would be “best dog training guide.”

For the very best results, you’ll want to use both types in your content creation. Sometimes you’ll be forced to use one over another, and sometimes you’ll choose to on purpose.

For example, when registering a domain or a web 2.0 property, you may not be able to find a URL available with a broad keyword. You may be forced to go down your keyword list and find the first available URL, which could be grouped in the longtail category.

In some instances, you’re going to want to shoot to the top of the SERP rankings, so you’ll go after a longtail keyword on purpose, whether it’s for a web 2.0 property or your own domain.

Here’s how many marketers think about the value of longtail keywords: while the longtail versions may get fewer searches individually, if you rank high for a large volume of longtail keyword phrases, you could effectively dominate in a niche where your competitor has only worked on ranking well for a couple of broad keyword phrases.

Consumers tend to type in longtail keyword phrases whenever they’re in a buying mood. Using our previous example, someone who wants to spend money on a dog training guide would go with the longer version.

A person who just types in dog could be looking for a pet, facts about a dog, pictures of dogs, or even using random slang to describe an unsavory cad who mistreats his girlfriend. You just don’t know, so the volume of traffic may not even be from prospective buyers, making their visit virtually worthless.

Decided I just had to post these two videos for you to watch, won’t help restore your site or get your epn account back but will make you laugh till your eyes pop out!!

Google Slap

EBAY

Enjoy!

How Will Social Networking Evolve in the Year 2010?

The year 2009 was the year of slaps, smack and strict rules in the world of web 2.0. Social networking sites saw a mammoth rise in membership by marketers, followed by a surge of spammers and eventually got punished by Google for their leniency.

So their slap by the search engines is being passed down to you. Everyone has tightened their belts, restricted certain content, lessened the number of links you can use – and implemented any other rule to prevent Google from doling out the same harsh punishment in the future.

Social networking was once a way for peers to share information and opinions – it’s so much more than that now. It paved the way for marketers to immerse themselves in communities where targeted consumers were lurking, converting peer traffic into click-throughs and sales.

It probably would have been smooth sailing if everyone had done his or her part to provide great content and keep topics above the board. But it’s inevitable that when a good thing surfaces (like web 2.0), spammers and seedy characters will suck it dry of any opportunity it possesses.

Certain social networking sites such as Squidoo, Ezine Articles, Google Knol and Hub Pages have already learned their lesson when it comes to cracking down on spammers and unsavory marketing tactics.

The year 2010 promises the evolution of more niche-specific social networks for people – along with some broad web 2.0 creations that cater to many niche groups. It will be your job to infiltrate these membership areas in a way that helps the community with true value so that you’re branded as trustworthy and not a leech of their online society.

It’s estimated that blatant advertising on social networking sites (like Facebook for example) will reach a whopping $2 billion in the year 2010. So marketers may not have to be as stealth in their promotions as they once were, if they’re willing to pay for the right to be there.

Social networking will also play an important role in on-the-go advertising. Mobile Messaging will evolve into a new sort of social marketing. You’ll be able to designate ad groups that are shown to people while they’re away from, their computer, reaching them on their cell phones.

People are already social networking from their cells – logging into Facebook, Tweeting about their everyday actions. You’ll become part of the common mass marketing strategy already being tested in many markets today.