Identifying and choosing Keywords

[nicsonian]

How do you go about choosing your keywords or keyword phrases?

What are the best tools to ease the process?

Sorry if this has been covered in a previous post (I searched and couldn't see anything relevant)!

 

[JElder]

Google Keyword tool - part of Adwords - is pretty powerful. Point it at your site, or your biggest competitors.

Look at big competitors with good rankings. What are they doing for H1 tags and page titles?

Depending on the industry, google trends can also be useful.

 

[searchsouth]

Agree with the above on the Google Keyword tool, which is an excellent starting point.

Do you do any PPC? If so, the data that you build up as a result of your own campaigns will be best of all.

 

[nicsonian]

Do you do any PPC? If so, the data that you build up as a result of your own campaigns will be best of all.

I'm not currently proposing any PPC for this site. However, I've done a lot of PPC with some of my other sites, so I'm familiar with the adwords tool.

As for PPC what do you think the lowest budget can be without being a waste of time? How low do people keep their bids?

In the past I sponsored the phrase "Plastering course", with a bid limit of 50p per click. I spent about 60k per year on the campaign and it returned me at least 4 times that in sales of the products I was selling as they were reasonably high value.

However, the site I'm working on now will have much lower value conversions and I'm more interested in traffic stats to sell advertising to potential advertisers. So I don't think PPC is necessarily the best direction??? Am I wrong?

 

[nicsonian]

My apologes...I have only just seen the other post 'PPC on a shoestring' and understand that there is some crossover in subject matter.

However, I'd still be interested in opinions??

Thanks

 

[ScottB]

If you want to work some magic on a spreadsheet you can take Adwords keyword research data and merge it with your Google analytics data and Google webmaster tools data (and if you have a rank checker throw that in there too).

Get yourself a nifty breakdown of rankings, bounce rates, search volumes, impressions, whatever. Helps prioritise targets and plan to expand your website.

Scott

 

[Alby10]

As mentioned, The Google Adwords tool is a useful starting point, but make sure when looking at search volumes you use the exact option, as this gives a more realistic idea of search volumes, rather than phrase or broad match.

 

[nicsonian]

So its looking like the Google Adwords tool is the only way forward. Thanks

 

[Deleted member 120695]

A few good tools (Some have already been mentioned) :

Google Keytracker which can be accessed via adwords.
Wordtracker's free keyword research tool.
Google suggestions / trends can give good ideas.
Market Samurai has a free trial and gives you good keyword suggestions.
Also check your website (Google analytics) to see what keywords are currently giving you traffic as well as checking what keywords successful competitors are optimizing for.

I hope this helps!

 

[nicsonian]

A few good tools (Some have already been mentioned) :

Google Keytracker which can be accessed via adwords.
Wordtracker's free keyword research tool.
Google suggestions / trends can give good ideas.
Market Samurai has a free trial and gives you good keyword suggestions.
Also check your website (Google analytics) to see what keywords are currently giving you traffic as well as checking what keywords successful competitors are optimizing for.

I'd not heard of these, but will certainly check them out! Thanks

 

[Andrew Baker]

If you want to work some magic on a spreadsheet you can take Adwords keyword research data and merge it with your Google analytics data and Google webmaster tools data (and if you have a rank checker throw that in there too).

Get yourself a nifty breakdown of rankings, bounce rates, search volumes, impressions, whatever. Helps prioritise targets and plan to expand your website.

Scott

Nothing like putting in a shift with excel and some vlookups

Great advice...

 

So its looking like the Google Adwords tool is the only way forward. Thanks

Many pro's use http://www.keyworddiscovery.co.uk

Earl

 

[Andrew Baker]

If you want to work some magic on a spreadsheet you can take Adwords keyword research data and merge it with your Google analytics data and Google webmaster tools data (and if you have a rank checker throw that in there too).

Get yourself a nifty breakdown of rankings, bounce rates, search volumes, impressions, whatever. Helps prioritise targets and plan to expand your website.

Scott

I think this is great advice, sometimes automated tools removes the most important part of this process... going with your gut instinct.

At the end of the day it's going to be a human that clicks through to your site and hopefully converts, not some bot...

In addition to the data Scott mentions above I also pull in my search query reports from AdWords (along with the associated CTR & conversion metrics).

I also tie up the Analytics site usage data and with a few vlookup functions not only can you find the volume keywords but the converting or high potential keywords.

Another advantage of doing this is actually validating Google AdWords Keyword Tool search volume estimations by comparing your actual AdWord keyword impressions for the month.

I've seen the odd discrepancy but I must admit on the whole the KW tool has been there or there abouts.

 

[kaido]

i have used workd tracker toold which provides more details than the free google tool.

they offer a 7 day free trial, you may want to take advantage of this.

there are others like keyword spy etc

many offer free trail.

check them out and see what suits

 

[jhardy2008]

Good Adwords External Keyword Tool is best for keywords selection.

 

[nicsonian]

Thank you all for some very helpful advice. I'm going to have a bash at putting together a spreadsheet (Something I seem to be doing more and more for my sites) and try using some of the tools you've all suggested. Cheers

 

[Chloe Taylor]

Search for the keywords having less competition with more global searches.... Thats the key behind selecting keywords.

 

[everything_webby]

Search for the keywords having less competition with more global searches.... Thats the key behind selecting keywords.

How many global searches would you look for at a minimum for an exact match?

 

[termsandconditions]

How many global searches would you look for at a minimum for an exact match?

Only examine global searches if you can serve a global market or have a globally relevant product. Market Samurai lets you choose your market and encourages you to filter your keyword search by:

i). Local Search numbers (their default is a minimum of 50 per day)
ii) Competition
iii) Phrase to Broad ratio (their default minimum is 15%)

I think they still do a 30 day free trial.

Best Regards