Selecting the right keywords to get
visitors to your website is one of the key aspects of Internet marketing.
If not done correctly, you will
waste time, resources and money ranking for search terms that are either too
difficult or do not provide enough quality traffic to generate revenue.
There are a few basic steps you need
to go through when hunting out the keywords you are going to use on your
website.
Today we are going to cover:
- Using Traffic Travis to hunt out good keywords and
avoid the bad ones.
- Selecting the right parameters when picking keywords
(including language and location).
- How to pick a good domain name (if you don't have one
already) based on the keywords you find.
Picking
Good Keywords and Avoiding the Bad Ones
What makes a good keyword good, and
what makes a bad keyword bad?
There are a few criteria that we can
use to find good keywords. These include:
- Low competition
What
defines too much competition? There are no hard and fast rules. But using the
Competition Checker in Traffic Travis will give you a good idea of whether a
keyword has significant competition.
Traffic
Travis uses multiple factors to calculate competition, and provides a
difficulty rating on a scale from "very easy" to "very
difficult."
In this
example, (found using the Traffic Travis Competition Checker, under the SEO
tab) you can see that "dog training" is going to be very difficult to
rank for, while 'problems with training dog' will be much easier.
- High search volume.
There is
no point ranking highly for a keyword if nobody is searching for it. Generally,
the higher the search volume the better.
However,
this needs to be balanced with the level of competition. A good minimum to aim
for is 200 global "exact" searches per month (we will cover what
"exact" keywords are in a moment).
- Relevant to the Website Topic
Most
websites are based on a theme or niche. You want the keywords you are building
your site around to be relevant to the topic.
For
example, if your website is about dog training, then keywords about training
your hamster are going to be of little use.
- Likely to Convert
There is a
big difference between browsers and buyers. You want keywords that attract
buyers (for higher conversion rates) rather than those who are simply browsing
for free information — even though the search volume for buyer keywords is
usually much lower.
An example
of a browsing keyword would be "free dog training tips," compared
with the buyer keyword "best dog training book."
- Competitive Costs Per Click (CPC)
If you are
going to be marketing your website using pay-per-click advertising like Google
AdWords, then you want keywords that won't cost you a fortune to build an ad
campaign on. If your site sells a $30 product, then it's going to be hard to
make money if you are paying $5 a click.
On the
other hand, if you plan on monetizing your site with pay-per-click advertising
like Google AdSense, then you want keywords that command a decent price, since
you will get a portion of that cash.
Using
the Right Search Method for Your Keywords
Traffic Travis features a powerful
keyword research tool that offers different ways of searching for keywords.
From the dashboard, click on
"Research" then "Keywords" to open up the Keyword Analysis.
You can then search for keywords using a "broad," "exact,"
or "phrase" search.
Access this Keyword Match Type' menu
by clicking Advanced Settings from within the Traffic Travis Keyword Tool (see
image below).
"Broad" keywords are not
very specific. If you use this option, Traffic Travis will display keywords
that are loosely related to your initial phrase or word. Searches for these
deliver the widest possible range of results. However, broad keyword searching
can also deliver less-relevant keyword ideas.
"Phrase" searches contain
your initial phrase, but with other possible words included. This brings more
specific and more-targeted results than a broad search.
For example, a search about "dog training" could bring back results
on "dog obedience training" or "dog training for
obedience."
"Exact" keyword searches
contain your initial phrase in its exact order, and are the best for finding
closely related keywords that you might also rank for. Use the Traffic Travis
keyword tool set to "Exact" (like in the picture above) for the most
accurate search volume results and best potential keywords.
Below is an example of
"Exact" keywords found by Traffic Travis for the phrase "dog
training." Notice how they are all highly relevant to the original phrase.
Also notice that "dog training collars" is one of those potential
buyer keywords you should look out for; it has 8,100 global searches per month
(well over our 200 count minimum) and mentions a specific product type.
Read the Google AdWords' guide to keyword matching options
to learn more about broad, phrase, and exact matches and how they relate to
keyword research.
Keyword
Localization
If you are building a site based on
a local business or service, or specific to a particular area (city, region, or
country) then you want to be searching for keywords that are localized.
From the "Keyword Match
Type" menu under Advanced Settings in the Keyword Research Tool, you can
pick keywords by country and language too (see image below).
For example, if you have a website
called "Dog Training in California" it would make sense to search for
keywords related to dog training coming only from American search engine users.
Traffic Travis allows you to select keywords based on location and language.
For those of you building a website
in a language other than English, make sure you tell Traffic Travis what
language you want keywords for.
Picking
A Domain Name Based On Your Keywords
Now that you know how to pick
keywords, it is important to build those keywords into your site. Picking a
domain name (e.g., www.example.com ) with your main keyword phrase is one way
to increase your chance of ranking well in the search engines.
There are two schools of thought
about domain names and keywords:
- Exact Match Domain:
If you are using this method, ideally you want to pick a domain name that
is an exact match for the keyword you are targeting.
Example:
If your keyword is "dog training collar," then you would want to
purchase the domain "www.dogtrainingcollar.com."
The
problem with this method is that in 2012 Google made its "Exact Match
Domain," aka EMD, update to the ranking algorithms. It was in response to
low-quality sites ranking at the top of the search results just because they
had acquired the domain that matched their keyword exactly.
Later,
Google slowly dialed back this penalty and many quality EMD sites regained
their rankings. So, this method still works but just know going in that this is
something on Google's radar.
- Branded Domain:
With this method, you want to pick a domain name that reflects the name of
your site/business. You can still include keywords, but they shouldn't be
exactly the same.
Example:
If your keyword was "dog training collar," you would look for a
domain along the lines of "www.fidosdogtraining.com"
or "www.thedogtrainingcollarguy.com."
You still
get exposure to the keywords, but you avoid over optimization, which can lead
to a Google penalty (we'll explain more later).
- Things to Avoid: When
picking a domain name, do your best to avoid dashes between the words.
Tacking on meaningless numbers or letters before and after the keyword is
another thing you shouldn't attempt.
Traffic
Travis Domain Finder
Traffic Travis has a domain finder
tool that enables you to look up domain names based on your keywords. You can
instantly see whether the .com, .net, or .org domain name extensions are
available to buy.
To do this, access the Domains tool
from the Research panel of Traffic Travis, and then add keywords you want to
consider domain names for.
You can access the Domains tool from
the Research panel of Traffic Travis. You can even shortlist and purchase
domains from within Traffic Travis — this is a very useful time-saving feature.
You may also notice that Traffic
Travis only offers to show .com, .net, or .org domain names. These top-level
domains (TLDs) are the best for getting high search engine rankings, especially
if your site is aimed at a global or US-based market.
Traffic
Travis Keyword Research FAQs
Here are the answers to the most
common questions or problems that people experience when researching keywords
with Traffic Travis:
- "I can't find any data when searching for
keywords.": Make
sure you are connected to the Internet, and that you have logged in with a
Google account when prompted by the keyword tool. To return results for
the keyword tool, you also need to have Internet Explorer 7 (or above)
installed on your computer (and not have the plugin "Google
Frame" for IE7 installed).
- "Google keeps blocking me. What can I do?": If you are being blocked by Google you will probably
need to wait an hour or so before searching again from within Traffic
Travis. You should also set up some proxies if possible. Another
thing that might help is increasing the Timer Delay from (File >
Program Options > Internet). This will slow down your searches a bit
and reduce your chance of being blocked.
Recap
For example, a search about "dog training" could bring back results on "dog obedience training" or "dog training for obedience."
To recap, today we have covered:
- The difference between buyer and browsing keywords.
- Using Traffic Travis to find keyword ideas.
- The difference between "broad," "exact," and "phrase" match keywords.
- Localizing keywords to a particular language or location.
- How to pick a domain name based on your keywords.
In the next newsletter, we'll take a
look at optimizing your website content for high search engine rankings.
In the meantime, have a go with the
Traffic Travis keyword research tool and find some great keyword ideas for your
website!
Wishing you every success, till next
time,
Traffic Travis
Traffic Travis
Did
you know?
The professional edition of Traffic
Travis can find keywords 10 times faster than the free version.
With the free version, you are
limited to five keywords per search using the keyword tool (and 200 results per
search). Professional lets you enter up to 200 "seed" keywords at a
time, and gives you up to 2,000 results per search.