Keyword Research Tips to improve Your Online Traffic

Are you having a hard time finding out which keywords to target for your SEO and PPC campaigns?

Let me show you 5 Keyword Research Tips that will end your Keyword research problems.

1. Swipe your Competitor’s Keyword Research

Why not let your “established” and “authority” competitors do the keyword research for you?

You can ethically “swipe” your competitor’s keywords by using these Google’s Free Keyword Tool.

Use Google Keyword Tool

Here’s what you need to do.

List at least 5 top competitors that are ranking in the top results for your targeted terms or niche.

Let me use “Keyword Research Tips” as an example of a keyword/keyword theme that I would like to target.

I will then Paste the Top 5 URLs that are ranking for this term in Google Keyword Tool’s Website Box

Change your location and language based on your targeted demographic. Choose Global and English if you are targeting a worldwide audience.

Choose exact match or phrase match as keyword match types. I prefer to use phrase matches because it can help me find “hidden long tail keywords” later on.

The great thing about this strategy is that you’ll immediately see the search volumes for the keywords you’ve chosen.

Select keywords that you think will be relevant to your niche and group them together to create tightly themed set of keywords.

2. Find hidden long tail keywords in the phrase-match/exact match difference

This strategy can help you uncover hidden long tail keywords that might be less competitive than most keywords.

The secret here is the difference between Phrase Match and Exact Match Search volumes.

Google Keyword Tool usually shows the Phrase match and Exact match search volumes, but they seldom release related long tail keywords to target for your SEO and PPC campaigns.

Basically, you’ll need to find the phrase match and exact match search volume of a particular keyword.

If there’s a huge difference between the search volumes, then you have a winning keyword.

Try to find the “missing long tail keywords” through Google instant searches or try some PPC advertising to drive some impressions and clicks which will help you identify these “hidden keyword opportunities”.

Here’s an example of what I mean:

 SEO Tools (in Google Global Search)

“seo tools” (phrase match) = 90,500

[seo tools] (exact match) = 33,100

“SEO Tools” Phrase Match/Exact Match Difference = 57,400

SEO Services (in Google Global Search)

“seo services” (phrase match) = 246,000

[seo services] (exact match) = 49,500

“SEO Services” Phrase Match/Exact Match Difference = 196,500

Obviously the bigger opportunity lies in optimizing for the term “SEO Services” since it has 196,500 hidden long tail keywords.

These hidden long tail keywords includes:

“seo services canada”

“seo services toronto”

and more

The idea here is to find keywords that have huge differences between the search volumes of the phrase and exact match and create content around those keywords.

3. Blog on upcoming events and product launches

Monitor competitor product releases, industry updates and industry news.

If you can rank and optimize for keywords that are not being searched today, but will be highly searched in the future, then you’re in a great position to generate tons of traffic for that search term.

Here are just a few examples:

Date Based Searches

Black Friday 2013

Boxing Day 2013

Product launches

[Product name] launch

[Product name] review

[Product name] information

Basically, this strategy relies on anticipating keywords that will be highly searched in the future. These keywords are easier to rank in the search engines because no one is still optimizing for these terms.

4. Add geo-targeted search terms to your Keywords for Local Search

If you are promoting a local business, or you offer products and services to a local demographic, adding geo-location keywords for search can help you rank a lot faster than regular keywords.

Here’s another example.

If you want to optimize for “Seo Services” it might take you several months, or even years to outrank your competition.

Instead try adding geo locations to your keywords:

 “Seo services Canada”

“Seo services Toronto”

These keywords might have less search volumes, but they are highly targeted and more likely to convert than the Fat Head keywords.

5. Mine your existing Google Analytics Data for Long Tail Keywords that you might have missed

Do you know that you can find tons of keyword research data from your existing Google Analytics data? Of course this will only work for old websites with some organic or paid search traffic before. Using Google Analytics Regular Filters you can create a list of long tail keywords.

You can filter keywords with 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or more keywords in the search phrase. This will help you find content ideas, keywords opportunities that you might want to include in your next blog post.

 I’ve created a Google Analytics Dashboard to help you find these keywords quickly. Make sure you’re signed in to Google Analytics and Click here to Copy my SEO Dashboard. And there you have it, 5 Unconventional Keyword Research Tips that can help solve your Keyword research problems.

5 Things you need to be familiar About AdWords’ New Keyword Planner

Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool has been the normal for AdWords keyword research for over a decade, but there’s a new sheriff in town: the AdWords Keyword Planner. This new keyword tool combines the functionality of the existing Google Keyword Tool as well as AdWords Traffic Estimator into a single integrated workflow to help advertisers find new keywords for their PPC campaigns.

My understanding is that the new Keyword Planner will ultimately replace the Google Keyword Tool and Traffic Estimator, so if you currently use either of these tools in your search marketing efforts, be they organic or paid, here’s what you need to be familiar with about the new tool.

1. Keyword Planner Is a Playground for Keyword Discovery

AdWords Keyword Planner works like a standard keyword research tool but with more bells and whistles. Features include:

Keyword search options: You can look for new keywords to add to your campaigns based on the product or service you’re marketing, your landing page URL, your product category or all of the above.

Keyword statistics and performance estimates: Specify targeting options (such as country, language and search network) to get more precise estimates on PPC results for each keyword.

Keyword filters: You can narrow your keyword list based on criteria like average CPC and monthly search volume. You can also comprise or exclude keywords containing specific terms and exclude keywords that are already in your AdWords account.

Group view and list view: Keyword Planner can either show your keywords as a list, as in the old keyword tool, or you can also see them grouped into niches by relevance.

These new features make Keyword Planner more robust than the old Google Keyword Tool. Here’s what it looks like!

2. Keyword Planner is a PPC Campaign Creation Wizard That Maintains State

A key technical difference between Keyword Planner vs. the Google Keyword Tool is that it’s designed to be a “wizard” for creating AdWords campaigns. The Keyword Planner walks you throughout several steps including: 

• Choose how you desire to get your keywords.
• Pick keywords and/or keyword groupings to add into your “Keyword Plan”
• Get bid and budget estimates for the keywords you picked
• Export your data

 Thus, your “Keyword Plan” can be viewed as like having a keyword shopping cart. It maintains state so that you can take the keywords you picked in the keyword picking stage, and then do more work on it later in the traffic and bids estimation stage. This is better than having separate tools for doing Keyword Suggestion and Traffic Estimation because previously you had to export from one tool and import into the next – the new process flow is more seamless.

So, even if you leave the tool, then come back a day later, it remembers the keywords you picked from your last session, as shown here:

3. You Can generate Campaigns Based On Your Own Keyword List

If you already have a keyword list from another tool, previous research, your own analytics, etc., you can upload your custom list into the Keyword Planner interface and do all the same keyword researching tasks like organizing keywords, get estimates, filtering keywords (etc.) – all based on the list of keywords that you provided.

4. Keyword Planner Has a New Keyword Mash-Up Capability

Another new feature that wasn’t obtainable in the old Keyword Tool is the ability to mash up and multiply keyword lists. For example, let’s say you own a chain of car dealerships. You could mash up a list of keywords related to the cars you sell (Honda Accord, Honda CRV, etc.) with a list of all the town and city names near your dealerships to get a single joint list. You can then get estimates on those new keywords.

5. The New Keyword Planner is obtainable Now, But Only if You’re Lucky!

Like what you see? Check your AdWords account under the tools tab, and you may have access. Currently, Keyword Planner is in limited beta – I guess that it’s live in around 1% of AdWords accounts out there today. However, Google says they will be rolling out the tool to more accounts soon, so keep your eyes peeled.

While you’re waiting, if you’re into advanced long tail keyword research, keyword grouping and discovering keyword niches – be sure to check out my free Keyword Tool, Keyword Niche Finder and Keyword Grouping tools!