Anyone can choose related keywords to rank their websites for. However, it’s the crafty webmaster you never know how to locate multiple keyword goldmines one of the thousands of possibilities available.
A very common approach is called the “long tail”. In this approach you decide to go after three word + phrases hoping of getting less competition. The major problem with this particular approach is that there is a second facet of it that most people neglect. The second and most important part of the “long tail” approach is the fact that with longer, more targeted phrases you're more likely to directly meet the requirements from the user. While that might seem obvious, many people ignore or poorly execute it. That’s simply because they don’t comprehend the importance of their client’s purchase cycle as it pertains to search engines like google.
The acquisition Cycle:
The very first thing you must know before beginning market and keyword research may be the “Purchase Cycle”. Its main steps are:
Attention > Interest > Desire > and Action.
Finding a lot of low competing yet high converting keywords is actually understanding your customer’s buying habits. When they are within the action stage you will want to be there with them.
Allow me to give you a few examples. Let’s imagine you are a new Real Estate Agent within the crowded but profitable La Real estate market. You have had a site up for almost Six months, have done just a little SEO but have gotten almost no traffic and not just one lead from your site. The issue is more than likely the phrases you are going after. Everyone is going to be competing within the SERP’s for obvious terms like “Los Angeles Real Estate”. Now there is nothing wrong with competing for top phrases, however this guide is about training you to look at the areas your competition has ignored, and therefore are after the buying cycle. Trust me, great opportunities are available in each and every market.
Think Like Your Customer
Imagine yourself as a customer who is using Google to locate or sell real estate in La. An average search might have to go something like this.
Search Term: 1 “Real estate” (hmm too broad that which was I thinking?)
Search Term: 2 “Los Angeles real estate” (Several options maybe I want a nearby agent?)
Search phrase: 3 “Real estate agent in Los Angeles” BINGO!!! If you are a real estate agent in La this should be your many keyword goldmines.
Now allow me to demonstrate how the competition for rankings in the search engines has diminished as the customer got more and more refined using their search. I want you to determine just how ripe the opportunity happens when you realize the process your customers undergo.
To obtain a good feel for the amount of competition for a phrase one simple but very important SEO factor may be the Title tag. Using Google we can easily see how many sites possess the exact search term we're using, as the title tag for their website. This can be a great initial gauge from the competition you will face.
The command I use in Google is intitle:"real estate" (returns results with the exact phrase "real estate" in the title tag).
Diminished Competition
intitle:"real estate" Over 59 Million Pages Retuned
intitle:"Los Angeles real estate" Down to 25,000 Pages Returned
intitle:"Real estate agent in Los Angeles" 57 Results and only 7 Domains listed!!!
This high conversion keyword is just a slave to awaiting you “our new real estate agent” to position for it. If you do the correct SEO work and point a few quality links towards the page then you should begin to determine highly qualified traffic.
Let me provide you with yet another example and then we will move ahead. Let’s say you sell high-end condos directly on the beach in Hawaii, which by the way is where I call home (Its OK to feel sorry for me). Your competition for the condo market in The hawaiian islands are very stiff and then any little edge you will get is very helpful. Again all you've got to complete is understand how a potential customer searches and know your own product to find those keyword gems.
Results:
Search 1: “Hawaii Condos” intitle - 11,100 pages
Search 2: “Hawaii Condo Rental” intitle - 147 pages (Great action phrase)
Search 3: “Hawaii beachfront condo” intitle - 0 pages!!!
I could literally go on and on finding great marketing opportunities for these two markets. I promise you if you take the time you will find these all-too-easy keyword treasures in your market as well. Now let’s take what we have learned to a higher level with action phrases.
Make Use Of Action Words
Ok let’s say you sell the latest PC video cards at low prices. You have done your homework and understand that many consumers do extensive research on specific video cards to obtain the one that’s ideal for them. They then lookup the specific model of the recording card they want when they are in “purchase mode”.
A well known video card series at this time is Nvidia’s Geforce 6800. However, whenever you do an intitle: explore Google you receive over 40,000 results for “Nvidia Geforce 6800”. This is when Action words come in handy. Some good action words are Buy, Lowest price, Purchase, Free freight etc. Many of these words are used once the customer is in the purchasing phase, which is exactly if you want them to find you.
intitle:"Buy nvidia geforce 6800" 3 sites!!!
intitle:"Purchase nvidia geforce 6800" 0 sites!!!
intitle:"Lowest price nvidia geforce 6800" 0 sites!!!
You get the idea. Now you comprehend the concept I can suggest a few keyword research tools.
Now let’s put you on a road to find 20 to 40 money keywords you are not currently using
Keyword Research Steps:
Step 1 - Logs: One great asset that you may not be utilizing is the weblogs. It is best to mine your weblogs for niche keywords and key phrases and use them like a basis for what type of searches your users are typing into search engines. If you have not done this before it can be highly informative. You will not only understand your audience better - additionally, you will obtain a great variety of keyword “goldmines” that you can then use for the organice SEO campaign. I suggest carrying this out monthly or every fourteen days if you can spare the time.
Step 2 - Competition: Your competitors could be a great supply of keyword research. Check the keywords in their Title, meta tags, and the body text to ascertain if you find whatever you might have missed.
Step three - Keyword Tools: Three free tools that you ought to check out are SEO Books online keyword tool http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/ and http://www.goodkeywords.com/ which is a free desktop download that runs from Yahoo data and http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/ which queries both Yahoo and http://www.wordtracker.com/ (A top tool in case your paying) . All of these tools are very handy but for the price…who can complain?
A word towards the wise, these tools should simply be used as guides. They're heavily biased to PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising and therefore are subject to distortion because of automated queries.
What is important to look out for with any tool that utilizes Yahoo is that it doesn't separate plurals. It shows Condo and Condos because the same results. Then when you do your quest be sure to browse the Word Tracker tool over at digital point since the MSN version will highlight the way a phrase does for singular versus a plural version. While search engines continue to be ironing out the way they handle plural searches its highly important that you select the right one. Sometimes you may choose to go after a less used plural or singular version of the keyword because it has less competition.
Bonus 1: Don’t ignore hyphenated or potentially hyphenated words.
If you are looking in a term like “increase online traffic" don’t forget hyphenated versions of the same phrase. According to Word Tracker "increase on-line traffic" is looked for 186 times each day on MSN alone. The non hyphenated version has over 1,000 pages listed for an intitle: search on Google. While the hyphenated version only has 21 sites listed.
Bonus 2: Use slang or insider terminology when and where it seems sensible. One great illustration of that's locally within Hawaii. Locals call the main island of Hawaii the “Big Island” A term like “big island real estate” is typed in a few thousand times monthly. But based on Google only one site has the phrase within their title!!!
Bonus 3: People often type keyword phrases as you word. So instead of typing in “Hawaii Condos”, they’ll type in “hawaiicondos”. Then engines serve spun sentences for these 2 phrases, and guess what - the kwkw version is usually a LOT less competitive!
I have to point out that just because you discover great keywords that others are not using in their title tags does not mean just put in a new title and rank. In some instances which will actually happen but in most you will have to do a sufficient job with your on-page SEO and acquire several relevant links. In any case you'll be putting yourself inside a great position to achieve success with minimal competition and maximum return on investment.
Hopefully I have helped to obtain the mind churning concerning the endless possibilities in your local market. If you adopt these measures you should be in a position to quickly generate an excellent new listing of keywords for the site to dominate the “Action” phase from the purchase cycle. Once you place your website after the purchase cycle and away from the hordes of competition it is extremely simple to strike keyword Gold.
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