The Art Of Keyword Research

Finding the right keywords to use leads to good SEO. At SMX Advanced session “Keyword Research Artistry” the panel offered tips on effectively leveraging keywords.

Coverage of SMX Advanced continues at Murdok Videos. Stay with Murdok for more updates and videos from the event this week.

Christine
Churchill

Christine Churchill, President, KeyRelevance, said site search needs to be added to any site to help with keyword research. Tie in site search to Google Analytics.

“The economy has dramatically changed the online keyword space,” said Churchill.

Churchill recommended the following keyword trend tools:

Google Trends
Google Insights (this tool goes below the fold)
Google Hot Trends – reflects what keywords are searched on a specific day
Yahoo Buzz – great brainstorming tool
Facebook Lexicon

“I don’t use one particular tool, but it depends on what stage of the keyword process I’m in,” said Churchill.

Twitter Keyword Tools

Not a lot of tools yet but she predicts there will be more in the future.

Twitter Search – provides real time search results and trending topics
Twitscoop – shows trending topics in real time
TweetVolume – allows head to head comparisons
siteVolume – looks at 5 different social media sites and visually tracks how often words appear in each site.

Other Twitter tools:

TweetBeep
Twhirl
Tweetdecks

Wikipedia Tools:

Wikirank – shows popular trends on Wikipedia
Wikipedia Article Stats
EyePlorer – visual

“Don’t use tools in isolation.” Use them in way that you get the best benefits.

Remember:

Look beyond basic tools
Look for trends in keyword usage, because much has changed in the past year

Gab Goldberg, Owner, SEO ROI Services, said to find user-generated content sites with deep content.

Recommends:

SEOmoz’s Term Extractor Tool

The “hidden market” for keywords:

Compete.com
SpyFu

Go directly to bloggers, indirect competitors, and nonprofits and bargain or trade. Some people give away data just look at what’s popular.

Taylor Pratt, Search Marketing Specialist, nFusion, said “You are not alone in keyword research.” Many companies are doing it as well.

1. Start with right ingredients
   Search volume
   Relevance
   Competition
2. Use right cookware
   Ravem SEO Tools
   Google Adwords Tool
   Google Suggest
   SEOBook
3. Check the Oven: Analytics
   Long tail organic and paid keywords
   Internal search
   Referrals
   Top content
4. Who’s at the table?
   Yahoo! Answers
   LinkedIn
   Facebook Groups
   Twitter
   Forums
   Product reviews
   (all these give first-hand information)
5. Kitchen Help: Customers and Employees
   Customer service employees
   Administrative employees
   Contact us forms
   Tech support
   User tests
   “Don’t overlook the people that deal directly with the customers.”
6. Did it taste all right?
   PPC testing: conversions, micro conversions, bounce rates, time on site, and page views

Murdok anchor/reporter Abby Johnson contributed to this report.