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Category: Keyword Research
Learn about keyword research best practices and how to improve your keyword strategy.
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Google: Is There a Way to Find Your "Unknown Search Terms"
I believe Google stopped reporting search terms for privacy reasons. All my searches show as "unknown". I found a video that showed how to get around this but it's not current. Is there any way to get your Google terms search information? Thanks, Jo-Ann
| VinJGirl0 -
Has the keyword planner search volume metric gone crazy?
I use the search volume found in keyword planner to score and weight my keywords in a similar way as Rand showed us in this WBF. This week I've found that in many cases suddenly the singular and plural version of the keyword have the same search volume. This seems crazy to me as singular and plural is not the same, the intent is different but more importantly they behave very differently from each other when looking at their track record in Adwords (impressions, clicks, conversions, CTR, CVR etc...all different). For example, here's a screenshot of 4 keywords (singular and plural versions of 2 phrases) with search volume captured a couple of months ago. Now here's another screenshot of the same keywords taken from Keyword planner today. Any ideas why this would be happening? Does it makes sense to you? It just seems buggy to me. Thanks!
| E_F0 -
How does Google treat special characters in titles?
Seems like a stupid question, but one that I never really gave much thought about before. How exactly does Google treat special characters in titles? Do they all get seen as spaces? e.g. Does Awesome Product - OptionA/OptionB/OptionC available get seen the same way as **Awesome Product - OptionA, OptionB, **OptionC available ? Or even **Awesome Product - OptionA OptionB **OptionC available ? Or will Google see the first title as **OptionA/OptionB/OptionC **being a whole "keyword" due to there being no space between them? Like I've always just assumed that with apostrophised words will be seen as keyword s. And when using commas, there's always a space after the comma anyway. Are all "special characters" treated the same?
| Ria_0 -
On Google Analytics under search queries, the most popular query is "(not set)", how do I find out what this is?
I am trying to discover what users are searching for and what keywords drive traffic to our site.
| Sable_Group0 -
Any tools to scan URL to identify keyword opportunities
Hi guys, Looking for tools which can scan content and identify keyword opportunities. I know you can use Google Keyword Planner or tools like Semrush. But was wondering what else there is on the market? Specifically looking for tools which can pull relevant keywords by scanning the content, exactly the same as Google Keyword Planner. Cheers.
| jayoliverwright0 -
How can I tell if Google considers two words to mean the same thing
For example, "wives" and "brides" They're often interchangeable, but given context they can still mean fairly different things. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks
| CupidTeam0 -
When is it wrong to use a competitors brand name?
I recently started with a company who've benefited from using a competitors brand name to explain why theirs is superior. They're not wrong and neither have they been derogatory, however they have had significant traffic to their website using the competitors branded search terms. I'm concerned Google will penalise us for this (if so can you point me to case studies/similar examples), or am I worrying unnecessarily?
| LJHopkins0 -
Finding the best of 100's of keywords?
Have an online e-commerce store and need to start on keyword research. There is a round 1000 products, not very many all things considered but a very big job to do manually. Do you know any tools that could speed it up? or Process/method that could help? Thanks
| seoman100 -
What travel keywords to choose? 'flight' or 'airplane ticket'?
I did some keyword research in order to do some onsite optimization on a travel industry-related website. I found 2 kinds of relevant keywords: 'flight'-related keywords (e.g.: flight chicago dallas) 'airplane ticket'-related keywords (e.g.: airplane ticket chicago dallas) Competition is the same on both but the first ones have more volume. So I'm really tempted to go with the 'flight'-related keywords. However the 'airplane ticket'-related keywords also have an interested volume so how should I do my onsite optimization. So each one of this solution do you think is the best: creating one page targeting the 'flight' and 'airplane tickets'-related keywords knowing isn't a good practice targeting two different keywords ? creating two different pages (one targeting 'flight' and the other one targeting 'airplane tickets') but it isn't very relevant for visitors since both pages are proposing the same offer? also it might have some duplicate content issue. creating one page targeting 'flight' and forget about 'airplane tickets' and missing some opportunities ? creating one page targeting 'flight' and adding some 'airplane tickets' keywords in content and hoping to get some 'airplane tickets' keywords traffic ? Thank you in advance for your feedback and sharing your experience in the same kind of issue.
| patricksiki0 -
If I insert a "stop" word into a long tail keyword, will it break it up?
I'm in the legal industry, and a lot of the long tail keywords I'm finding are search queries that are pinpointed for my location. As a result, I come up with [subject] + [location] as good keywords... for example: "subpoena duces tecum new york." (basically it's a subpoena, just the fancy name). However, I have no clue how to use something like this in a sentence....if I say "subpoena duces tecum IN new york" does the "in" break up the keyword, or is "in" just a stop word that doesn't affect the keyword? Countless examples of similar keywords "Car accident new york" etc. Thanks!
| cgs2303 -
What is the ideal keyword difficulty percentage?
I am trying to establish my best keywords using the keyword difficulty tool. So if I want to come up with the best keywords, should I use the ones that come in at 50%??
| mmookie0 -
Keyword Themes - What's in a theme?
I recently read the Moz guide for "How To Rank - 25 Step SEO Master Blue Print" and had a question on keyword themes. What is considered a theme? Is there a recommended number of keywords in a theme? For example, if my site is for listing and selling cars, would the following terms fit within the same "car" theme or should the terms be broken out by "cars general" / "car locations" / "car types"? Cars Cars for sale in new york Ford Explorer for sale
| Emily_A0 -
Is my SEO company a scam?
Hello, I am rather new to online marketing and because of this employ an SEO company to help with improving my ranking. They have now been working with me for around 6 months and I have not seen an increase in the traffic to my site - in fact it is at it all time low. Yesterday I only had 4 visitors for example. They keep ensuring me it will take time, and show me reports on how my keywords are ranking, and some appear to be doing okay, but I would have thought traffic would have improved by now. Why I am a little suspicious of this company is they only seem to be doing back linking. They have done very little, if anything, with on-page optimisation, so much so that I tried to do this all myself following Moz guidelines etc. But even this has seen very little improvement. I would have thought that as a paid SEO company, they may see that something is clearly not working. Perhaps the wrong keywords? Suggest a different tactic? I write blogs posts, am social media active but feeling very discourage with it all as seeing very little results. I continuously hear about scams and get new emails every day saying "we have analysed your site and all these things are wrong... pay us $XXX and we will get you traffic" but who can you trust and how can you find an affordable way to gain traffic as a very small business. Would be great to get feedback from anyone who may know what is going on. Thanks Astrid
| Lilala_Kids0 -
Multilingual keyword research
Does anyone have any experience in multilingual SEO? We are looking for software that conducts research for GEO Locations such as UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan & India. Writing content for each of these countries is difficult unless we speak their language, we could look at outsourcing the translation but conducting keyword research for each location is almost impossible.
| Jseddon920 -
Keyword Difficulty Score Assesment
What is a good keyword difficulty score to pursue when deciding which keywords to try and rank on? I'm in a very competitive field and I am currently in the process of doing keyword research to look for the low hanging fruit.
| 13375auc30 -
Tool for wildcard keyword suggestions
Like others, I have also been oblivious to the options which were uncovered in this article, using stars or underscores to uncover more keywords suggestions. However, I am trying to find a way to avoid the manual labour. Did any of you find a successful tool that automatically adds all the possible combinations of these wildcards to give a comprehensive lists of suggestions? I am looking for a tool that also included my country (.nl).
| Entertainment0 -
Using roman numbers in Page title
Hi, We are working on a site with lots of Acts and Rules (mostly legal stuff). The Acts are differentiated by Roman numbers like rule-VIII and Form-XX etc. I want to know if I should keep the page title same or change them to English numericals like rule-8 and Form-20 Thanks
| sayeed0 -
Similar Several Articles or One Article
I have a Q&A project having content of many different topics.
| kitoks
My question: writing several articles on the same topic will up my rank? For example I work on keyword "Rhassoul clay". So if I write 5 topics about rhassoul clay (400 words) will it be a plus for my webpage or not? Or it is better to write one article with 400 x 5 = 2000 words instead of splitting it into 5 articles?0 -
'And' vs '&'
Hi everyone This question has been running through my mind since a few days now. Does Google recognise 'and' / '&' as the same? Say for example my website url is: appleandorange.com and my keyword for my company is Apple & Orange. If i Focus on Apple & Orange for on-page SEO will google also recognise apple and orange ? Or will I have to on-page SEO seperately for Apple and orange? So for instance if I keep focusing on Apple & Orange will my website appleandorange.com appear on google? Thanks in advance
| u_rauf920 -
How Do You Find the Total Search Volume for an Industry?
Currently my company is working on trying to find the total search volume (read: search potential) for our industry, but aren't sure how best to go about it. Obviously GWT data and Keyword Planner data came to mind, but those are not all encompassing (at least we don't think they are) -- GWT only has data for terms you rank for and the Keyword Planner only gives you volume if you already know the queries. Is there some quick and easy way to go about finding this that we haven't thought of? One thing to note is that our business is nationwide, meaning that all our terms will have a geo-identifier associated with them for each location i.e. [city] + search term -- this just makes things even more complicated. Any advice on to approach would be much appreciated!
| sparefoot0 -
How many redirects on a redirect can you have?
Since 2007 the best keywords for a good rank in seo have changed. In some cases we have changed urls to maintain a good ranking. That was 2 years ago ... and now we see we need to upgrade the keyword phrase we use and are thinking about changing the urls once again to keep our ranking. It seems absurd to have a redirect for your redirected page. Are there different ways to approach updating your keyword phrases without the 301 redirect? For example, it has been 2 years since we did a 301 redirect on a group of our pages. Are we better off having the original url deleted (which has been up since '07) or is it better to redirect the original page and the redirected page to the newest page? We already incorporate the updated keyword phrase changes into our titles, images and body copy to reflect the changes. Thanks
| Manifestation0 -
Does Using Brand/Company Name in Title on Multiple Pages Cause Cannibalization
I'm trying to rank for brand-name related keywords for a website. Most of the titles on the site include the page topic followed by the brand-name separated by bars or dashes (ex: title= widget | My Brand). Is this creating cannibalization for the brand-related terms? I was wondering if it was better to leave the brand out of the title all together except on a dedicated page. However, due to the nature of the business I work for there are multiple recognized iterations of the name including acronyms and long-form and short-form versions and creating content for each targeted iteration seems superfluous.
| BiskEd1 -
Setting Up a Keyword Matrix
Greetings MOZ community!! My real estate web site contains about 500 pages with perhaps 70 pages targeting low volume, somewhat valuable but not very competitive keywords. Three to four URLs target very competitive terms. The following terms are among the most valuable: New York City office space,
| Kingalan1
New York office space,
Manhattan office space,
NYC office space Such variants as: Office space in New York City,
Office space in New York,
Office space in Manhattan,
Office space in NYC
ETCETERA convert really well How would I match different terms to different URLs? For example I have just re-written the following two critical URLs: www.nyc-officespace-leader.com (home page)
http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/commercial-space/office-space (product page) Would it make sense to use "Manhattan office space" and variants on the home page while excluding "New York City office space" variants? At the same time I would use "New York City office space" variants on the "office-space" product page while excluding all mention of "Manhattan office space". Is this logical and does it conform to SEO best practices? For the "NYC office space" terms I would add them to http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/listings. This URL has almost no text but a strong potential to rent because of a high number of incoming internal links. Is this approach sensible? In general what measures should I take to prevent URLs from competing for the same keywords? Also, is there a software package or tools that I can use to come up with keyword variants? As a non SEO professional, can I create my own keyword matrix or is this really in the realm of a professional SEO consultant? Thanks, Alan0 -
Include Location in Keywords?
I understand Google's local search automatically searches keywords with the location you are searching from. For example if I'm searching from Calgary and query "best shoe repair", Google knows I'm searching from Calgary and presents Calgary based results. I'm using Google's new Keyword Planner tool which allows for city based search results, meaning I don't have to include "Calgary" in the keywords I submit. The question I have is should I be attaching "Calgary" to my keywords for on-page optimization, and why or why not? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
| reidsteven750 -
Keywords with no search volume
Hi there! What are your thoughts on optimizing pages for keywords that have no search volume (using the Keyword Planner)? I'm not sure it should be done, since optimizing for keywords that no one searches for is kind of useless, right? Or should I do it hoping that sometime in the future the keyword will have a surge on searches? Thanks!
| sararufo0 -
How can improve my keywords ranking?
My keywords are not in top in 50.So, what kind of activity we do to get in top in 50 rank?
| surabhi60 -
Reverse rankings check
Usually, we will have a set of keywords of which we check rankings for a designated website... however, is there a tool that is able to find all the keywords a website is currently ranking on the top page of Google for?
| Gavo0 -
Which keywords are sending traffic to my site?
I want to know Which keywords are sending traffic to my site? What type of strategies behind this ?
| surabhi60 -
What kind of SEO keywords should a recruitment company use?
I am relatively new to the world of SEO and have been given responsibility to improve SEO rankings for our company website (which is full of jobs). We are London based digital media recruiters and work in a number of niche industries. Should job titles be the keywords I try and optimise, as opposed to keywords such as 'digital media recruitment london', 'London digital marketing jobs', 'digital media recruiters in london' etc? Today I have signed up for a month's trial on Moz Pro so am hoping this will provide me with a lot of help as I start creating an SEO strategy, Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
| SumoAlice0 -
Which page is currently ranking the best for a particular keyword?
Hi Guys! I have approx. 50 keywords that I'm tracking for a website that has about 80 pages. I am wondering is there any way that I can find out which page on the site is currently ranking best for each of the keywords on my list? Ideally I would like to export the entire list with the keyword in the first column and the page that ranks best on the website for each given keyword, in the second column. Apologies if the wording of this post is confusing - I am not quite sure how to make it clearer. The aim of my task is to determine which keywords should be allocated to each page on the site so I need to work out which keywords are working already for certain pages so that I don't take those efforts away from the well-optimised pages. Many thanks! Meaghan
| StoryScout0 -
How to fix Overly Dynamic Urls
it looks like MOZ is showing one I have an Overly Dynamic Url. I use Volusion. The url is http://www.bestfitbybrazil.com/NEW-ARRIVALS-s/1931.htm?searching=Y&sort=4&cat=1931&show=300&page=1 How do i get rid of this? Its not even a page. its a query. the page part is as follows http://www.bestfitbybrazil.com/NEW-ARRIVALS-s/1931.htm. Everything after is some kind of query. Do I need to enter the entire link as a dissallow in robot text or contact volusion? Not sure how much help they would be since MOZ is showing this
| DrMcCoy0 -
Should I make a blog post or landing page to rank?
Hi, I have some keywords (2-5 words) which I would like to rank for (and use them for AdWords campaigns). Also, I have some great and helpful content for those user queries to share. Now what is the better strategy?: Create a blog post for AdWords and later SEO rankings? Create a landing page for AdWords and later SEO rankings? Would love to here your thoughts and experiences on this issue... Best, Robin
| soralsokal0 -
Keywords with and without diacritics
Hi, I am trying to make my site to appear in the search results even the searched term have or have not been wrote with diacritics for example: "șarpe" or "sarpe". The language is Romanian. If I seach for "Românul cu maşină, marea victimă" or "Romanul cu masina, marea victima" the first result for both searches is the same. I don't see anything special on their html code and I am wondering how do they did it. Regards, Bogdan
| RIAdig0 -
Precise or longer title for service page?
i am a little confused as to how should i create my META TITLE and on page h1 title
| sagive
for a service page... Say that page offers "web marketing" service... i know or think i know that precise title ranks higher
on the search results but its less appealing Meta title example:
web marketing | company name On page title:
Web marketing Now, the more compelling title would be of-course longer but less focused 1. Do you think i can test it without hurting my positions permanently?
i have query (i see the stats on Google webmaster tools) that
i get 20,000 views monthly but only 1% clicks... 2. how would you build a title for such a page (meta and onpage)? Would really appreciate your professional view Best regards, Sagive SEO.0 -
What is the best way to do a one time rankings check of 10000+ keywords
Title pretty much sums it up. At the pricing moz offers this is not practical. Even at their highest tier i would only get 3700 keywords, so it would take several months to get the results.
| adriandg0 -
Cheap/ Discount/ Value/ Sale Keywords
Hi, Does anyone have any experience in targeting cheap/discount/value etc keywords in an SEO campaign? I'm interested to find out: How Google perceives these keywords, as the search results are only very slightly different if you search with or without a 'cheap' keyword. Whether Google differentiates between 'cheap synonyms ie 'cheap' and 'affordable'. There are far higher searches for 'cheap' but affordable is much more user- and conversion-friendly. Thanks, Karen
| Digirank0 -
KWs w/ no bids on Google AdWords
When using the Google Keyword Planner to research KWs, is it a correct assumption that if the KW doesn't have a suggested bid, there's probably not going to be a real impact in optimizing for it? Hypothetically, if I saw a high-volume, low-competition KW w/out a suggested bid I'd feel differently, but I'm just seeing it happen with low volume and competition. Thanks,
| SSFCU
Sarah0 -
Is KEI metric still commonly used by SEOs
I'd like to ask about the KEI, is it used by now? and is it really matters ? I guess # of results by Google is not a good metric to decide if the keyword is good or not? I'd really appreciate your inputs
| Yaddly0 -
Keyword ranking by word order
If we have a keyword with 2 words like "SSL Audit". Will it rank in the same position the other way "Audit SSL" ?
| Cistrust.com0 -
How to finalize the keywords for SEO?
Hi, I use the following method for keyword research: Create a long raw list of keywords. Use Google AdWords Keyword tool to find monthly searches. Find raw competition. Find direct competition (via allinanchor: search operator) Calculate KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) Calculate KOI (Keyword Opportunity Index) Is there any other (better) way to execute the keyword research? Or is finalizing/selecting the keywords only on the basis of monthly searches sufficient? In short, how to select the best keywords from a long list? Thanks & Regards
| IM_Learner0 -
Google recommended dropdown in search bar
When Google drops down and tries to predict what you're searching for, are the terms in order of popularity from the top down?
| SSFCU0 -
Google trends quota's limit?
Hi Mozers, I've a problem with Google trends tool : after 5 searches, I reach the "quota limit". Have you the same issue? Do you use other tools "similar" to Google trends? SEMrush,...? Thank you for answers Regards, Jonathan
| JonathanLeplang0 -
Keyword research tools
So I went to a panel a while back that said Wordtracker is basically useless. I'm not using it as an end-all, be-all, but more for insights and context. Do you agree with that statement? The hosting company provides a keyword research tool, so I wasn't sure how seriously to take it. Have you guys been using Bing for the search data previously provided by Google's Keyword Research Tool? Do you find that to be a viable resource? Thanks.
| SSFCU0 -
What tools can show me seasonal peaks in search volume?
HI, I am wanting to see when search volume "peaks" for specific keywords. Is there a good way to view search volume over an historical timeline? See the best month, weeks? Thanks! Kevin
| yandl0 -
Why does this keyword have much greater volume in Bing Keyword Research Tool than Google AdWords Keyword Planner?
I'm using the Google AdWords keyword planner and Bing Webmaster Keyword Research tool. For both, I'm trying to get accurate search volume for the exact term "advertising sales". Over the last thirty days, Bing reports a volume of 5,988. Google's average monthly search volume is 880. Given the market share Google has, I would expect a much higher volume, especially when compared to Bing. Can you offer some ideas of why this might be happening?
| Kevin_P0 -
How do I find out what low-volume keywords are best to target?
Since many of our products and services are purpose-built for a niche community, I find that many of the keywords I am researching are all low-volume. Data on the Keyword Difficulty Tool show '0' under Bing Search Volume (exact match). I know what my competitors are targeting based on their title tags and web content, but I'm not sure if they did their keyword research homework, so I don't want to assume. Is there any other way to determine which keywords I should be targeting?
| ULCRobotics0 -
What is the best tool for finding what people are using as search phrases for my product
what is the best tool for finding what people are using as search phrases for my product? i used to use the google adwords keyword suggestion tool but that tool is gone now. Is the google keyword planner now the best tool to use? Thanks, Ron
| Ron101 -
Price Comparison Website And Keywords
I run a price comparison website for a small niche at http://cdkeyprices.com I am targeting keywords for the specific products I am comparing the price/merchants on. On a typical page I would have a price column, product name, the merchant and a buy button. Buy button is affiliate linked to the merchant. The product name in the product column is the name from the actual website I am tracking. As such, my keyword was appearing sometimes up the 30 times. I've took it down some months ago but was wondering if this was a bad move. I was concerned Google would think I was stuffing the keyword. I've only just gotten into SEO the past few months so was not able to see any changes. Should i put the product column back up or would it be considered over optimization?
| MrPenguin0 -
Filler words like "for" in keyword phrase
Hey, I wonder what the effect of filler words like "on" or "for" is when I try to rank for a certain phrase. Here is an example, lets say i try to rank for "best apps iphone" but the grammatically correct usage in the headline or text is "best apps for iphone". Is there any difference or should I use the exact keyword without "for"? Thanks!
| SebastianKnopp0 -
How to get search volume in Google's keyword planner
I want to know the search volume for ~1000 keywords that I discovered via ubersuggest. Yesterday I could have done this in 5 minutes, but I can't seem to get it to work in the new Google tool and would love some advice. When I either upload or copy and paste my list into the tool I can get it to give me search ideas with volume, but it has all the keywords I am uploading as 0 search volume (when I know that is not true and some of them have thousands of searches). I've tried "entering keywords to see how they perform" and also "searching for keyword ideas" (the second just because the first didn't try after my 10 tries) Any ideas about what I am doing wrong?
| theLotter
Or is this a bug other people have been experiencing?0
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