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Category: Keyword Research

Learn about keyword research best practices and how to improve your keyword strategy.

  • DeptAgency


    As I do a lot of keyword research for my clients, I've found the SEOmoz Keyword Difficulty tool a great way to dig deeper in the competitive data for important keywords, whenever I am at the point of choosing between a smaller number of keywords. However, in some cases I would rather have a quick idea of how competitive a large list of keywords is (for example 1000+). As the Keyword Difficulty tool has a limit of 5 per run and 300 per day, I am looking for a technique or tool to run a list of keywords and get an idea of competitiveness for each keyword. Thanks for any suggestions!

    | DeptAgency
    0
  • vibelingo


    I recently checked rank-tracking of a client's search-phrases. In Google UK variations of 2 almost identical search phrases dropped 30 places for one of these and jumped 30 places for the other. The only difference between the 2 phrases being the site's location (city) was placed first in phrase A and last in Phrase B. There were no technical or content changes on-site- How can this be?

    | vibelingo
    0
  • AkshayaPatra


    I have generated more than 1000 quality keywords For my Foundation, now i am very much  worried how would some on separate the  keywords in to conversion keywords, Targeted Keywords, High priority Keywords. how would you justify that the keyword which are short listed will be the best keywords for website promotions??

    | AkshayaPatra
    0
  • Hakkasan


    I'm assuming this is a common problem in ecommerce sites. Lets say we have a "sleeping bags" which has all types of sleeping bags on it. Then build a brand page "The North Face" with a subpage for The North Face sleeping bags. Is it possible to target the sleeping bags page for "sleeping bags" while targeting the branded sleeping bag page for "The North Face sleeping bag"? how would you suggest doing this while avoiding keyword cannibalization?

    | Hakkasan
    0
  • crvw


    I typically append &pws=0 to my Google queries when I'm gathering results to share with a client. I recently sat in on another digital marketing firms presentation to the client, and they made a big deal about how their search engineers had conducted all the searched by "painstaking logging out of google, using a fresh browser, etc..."  In my mind I was thinking that it was either a search engineer wasting time, or some hyperbole to impress the client. But I didn't really know for sure.  Is &pws=0 actually equivellent to using a completely annonymous browser.  For fun, I ran some queries under incognito on chrome running off a thumbdrive, and compared them to &PWS=0 results from my everday browswer while logged into google. I couldn't see any difference, but in my quick informal test, I also didn't find any difference between a personal SERP and a &PWS=0 SERP, so maybe I just didn't try the right query. Any thoughts?

    | crvw
    0
  • stephenfishman


    What is the best way to handle keywords like "switchplate covers"? The key word may be seen as either a 2 or 3 word phrase, depending how you handle the compound term: "switch plate" or "switchplate" In google KW it shows different results for switch plate vs switchplate as well as using cover vs covers. I've tried using all the variations in my descriptions, titles and H2s  but I think this is diluting them all.  Can anyone show me best practice guidelenes or examples of good solutions to these kinds of compound key words? Thanks Handcrafter

    | stephenfishman
    0
  • MikeQ-BACC


    Hi there, I work on a site that has regular blog and article posts (or at least, we're shooting for regular), and I'm trying to work on a fluid approach for keyword analysis and optimization. I am wondering...is it best to research new keywords for each new post? I am unsure of what the effect is of optimizing multiple pages for the same keyword. I've been using the SEOmoz report card tool to grade my on page optimization, and I noticed one of the criteria was to avoid self cannibalization. Will I be competing against myself if I optimize multiple pages for the same keyword? I'm worried about what will happen in a month or two when I run out of common keywords and have to start optimizing our latest posts around really obscure keywords. Am I thinking about this the right way? Thanks!

    | MikeQ-BACC
    0
  • alholliman


    Hello, I've been using the above more and more - with some great results. I have just run a report for a brand term and that brand has the new style sitelinks - 12 in total. So the output from the Keyword Difficulty Tool is focussed solely on the main url and then 9 sitelinks, rather than 10 different domains. Is there anyway around this?  What do people think I should do? Is it: a) ok to use the output or b) because the output is skewed to one domain is the data not robust enough or... c) something else?? Thanks Alex

    | alholliman
    0
  • seoug_2005


    Google shows "searches related to keyword" at the bottom of the SERPs for some queries. On what basis does Google shows this ? search volume ?

    | seoug_2005
    0
  • judd_trifectainteractive.com


    Is "Austin Plumbers" much different than "Plumbers Austin" in the eyes of the search engine and best practices? I would think that Plumbers Austin would have more search volume. But Austin Plumbers is easier to work in to sentences in the body. Does Google sees them as the same? Is it ok to use Plumbers Austin in the title tag and use Austin Plumbers in the body or should I choose one target phrase and stick with just that? If so should the city name come first or last?

    | judd_trifectainteractive.com
    1
  • seanmccauley


    It often the case that a page of serps will show up very similar title tags eg  Cheap Widgets | Widgetsrus.com format, written partly for humans and partly for SEO.. Although against Googles best practice and indeed a violation of their adwords policy would using in CAPS in title tags reduce ranking (whilst increasing visibility and CTR)?

    | seanmccauley
    0
  • pwpaneuro


    Hi everybody! Say you have a domain like stocktips.com - how long would you estimate it'll take to rank for it's name? Thank you, Alex

    | pwpaneuro
    0
  • hawkvt1


    Does Google always return the results of a search query in a broad based fashion if the searcher does not use brackets or quote marks?  Or, do they display the older domains of sites with authority under the broad based parameters and newer sites only if there is a possible exact match? How does Google decide which type of search results to display? Thanks for any insight. I

    | hawkvt1
    0
  • billnet


    I have a large list of URL's that need to be checked for a specific keyword. I've been doing them one at a time and it's painful. Is there a web based tool out there that can search many different URL's at once?

    | billnet
    0
  • leaseman


    My question seems basic in nature but some recent keyword research has caused me to re-think broad vs. exact match. I was taught to focus on exact match for the short term and broad match for the long term prospects of a keyword. Today I was researching a niche of keyword phrases where the local search volume (broad) was, for example 33,000. The local search volume (exact) was only 500. What I know about broad vs. exact doesn't help me to determine if this keyword is worth going after. The keyword difficulty score by the way was 35% Yes, I do know that I will probably go after this keyword anyway but to refine my question, how do I get an idea of how "big" this keyword is? Is it more on the broad or more on the exact match of things? How do I determine the various derivatives of the phrase that occur under the broad match?

    | leaseman
    0
  • Cut2SizeMetals


    One of my keywords shows "Not in the top 50" when it is clearly ranking number 1 on the SERP.  I am not logged in, and I searched from outside my local area to eliminate geolocated results.  Others show a rank of 7 (actually 4) and 48 (actually 20).  Any ideas?

    | Cut2SizeMetals
    0
  • TheSquareFoot


    Does google view phrases with "in" in then as different keywords than the same phrase without an "in"? For example: is "great restaurants in chicago" the same keyword as "great restaurants chicago"? Whenever I do research on two phrases like this, they always come up with the same search volume.

    | TheSquareFoot
    0
  • kchandler


    I have a client that has been optimizing for "print and apply" for the past 5 months. Yesterday they decided it was more grammatically correct to use "print-and-apply." There question to me was "is this going to effect our SEO?" So... I checked the difficulty using the keyword analysis tool, both keywords had the same broad/exact adwords traffic as well as difficulty percentage. When reviewing the top 25 listings for each keyword it looks like the same sites rank in the SERPs between 1-8 and then after that it is completely different. So, is there a better keyword to target? Are these two keywords different enough to truly have separate search results?
    The top 8 results didn't even target "print-and-apply" in there content or title tags... Thanks for the input/discussion - Kyle

    | kchandler
    0
  • kylesuss


    So I have created a page for the term "denver buick" but the next largest search term is for "buick denver." Should I create another page focusing on this keyword, or optimize one page for both? It's hard to come up with unique content since they are the basically the same term. But most importantly, if I make this new page, how do I incorporate it into the site architecture? Thanks!

    | kylesuss
    0
  • ibex


    For example "Dog-Leashes" Is that bad if I'm targeting dog leashes as my keywords.

    | ibex
    0
  • Bill4Time


    So say for instance you rank well in "online medical billing software." Does that help or influence your rank for derivatives of it (eg: "medical billing," "billing software," or "online medical billing")?

    | Bill4Time
    0
  • Kp222


    I use "nested" for lack of a better term; what I mean is keyword phrases that contain other keyword phrases. For example, if I have a page that is extremely well optimized (on-page) for the phrase "old silver coins", is that page by default also extremely well optimized (on-page) for the phrase "silver coins"? Or does google understand that I am optimizing for the longer phrase "old silver coins" and somehow exclude me from contention for the sub-phrase "silver coins"? I understand that this gets more complicated when talking about backlinks (off-page), but the same general question remains. If I am getting good backlinks for "old silver coins", am I also getting good backlinks for "silver coins" at the same time? I do understand that "silver coins" may be more competitive than "old silver coins" and so my page may not rank the same for the two phrases. But I am really curious if there is some kind of multiplier effect with nested keyword phrases like the example I have provided, or whether google somehow only credits for the full phrase and not for any sub-phrases contained therein. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!  (And sorry if this has been addressed already. I have looked around the site and have googled this question, but haven't found anything useful yet.) Thanks. BONUS QUESTION: Are the answers to my questions above exactly the same when discussing singular versus plural keywords ("coins" versus "coin")? After all, that is a "nested case just like my examples above. On the other hand, I can see there being some special treatment of singular and plural.

    | Kp222
    1
  • kylesuss


    Is it hard to get a page to rank for a particular term if the majority of the anchor text pointing to that page is different from your chosen term?

    | kylesuss
    0
  • mikecorso


    I'm working on a landing page for a client (music instrument rentals) and want to optimize for terms related to: music instrument rentals in San Francisco music instrument rentals in Seattle music instrument rentals in  St. Louis music instrument rentals in Minneapolis/St. Paul How can I find the most popular terms based on a variation of the main term (music instrument rentals) and geo area? In other words, maybe 'Where to get Instrument rentals in San Francisco' is best? Thanks for your input! Mike Corso

    | mikecorso
    0
  • BedeFahey


    Does anyone recommend a particular keyword research tool or tools for geographically modified keywords? i.e. Web DesignerF Fargo. I often find that searches focused on services in the area we serve does not get the traffic volume Google's keyword tool needs to provide me with a number. I know the traffic is there, because I see it coming in via analytics. Thoughts? Recommendations?

    | BedeFahey
    0
  • nicole.healthline


    When I try to ascertain search volume for the the words "pills" "drugs" and "medicine" it is showing "-"  for all types of search volume, including phrase, exact, and broad. Why is this?

    | nicole.healthline
    0
  • jimlast


    I have a client who is a small, local business that isn't interested in competing outside of their market. Let's use a Toyota dealership in Anytown USA as an example. Which method makes more sense? A: Optimize for keywords like "toyota", "used cars", etc. and hope the search engines show the site to local users? Or B: Optimize for keywords like "toyota anytown" and "used cars anytown" and take localization out of the equation? Kind of a newbie trying to figure out how best to approach SEO for sites that are highly geographic.

    | jimlast
    0
  • summitliveevents


    Is there a way to put in a list of targeted keywords and see what the top 5 sites on Google are?  There are several competitor tools in SEOmoz but I can't find anything that would allow you to do that.  I have a list of 40 or so keywords that I would like to check what sites are in the top 3 positions on Google for each of the keywords. Thanks in advance

    | summitliveevents
    0
  • jest


    http://imgur.com/6uidr Is this any good for keyword research? I see they use some weird metric and I'm not sure whether those are relevant at all, plus it's really hard to do a bulk research. Let me know what you think.

    | jest
    0
  • azguy


    Okay, there are so many keyword tools out there, and I would like to know the one that is most accurate for search volume.

    | azguy
    0
  • CertifiedSEO


    Google Adwords Keyword tool Local Monthly searches covers all US and it is misleading for local/regional companies. is there any tool and method you could recommend to find out State Level (for example Virginia) local monthly search volume for Keyword research. I think the methods of Keyword Research for National and Local (state level) level should be different. what do you think?

    | CertifiedSEO
    0
  • DiamondJewelryEmpire


    Hi everyone so it's time for a refresh. I want to improve my rank for couple of terms on one page, so whats you recommend me. Currently I am thinking to go with option 1 and be as much specific to my main keyword, but at the same time I am not sure if I'll be able to link well for my 2nd keywords. Option 1 Term 1, Term 2, Term 3 - they are more or less related Tittle: Term 1 and Term 2 and Term 3 Keywords: term 1, term 2, term 3 Meta description: Term 1, la lalal mama term 2, ta da da lalaaas term 3 or Option 2 Tittle: Term 1 Keywords: term 1, term 2, term 3 Meta description: Term 1, la lalal mama term 2, ta da da lalaaas term 3

    | DiamondJewelryEmpire
    0
  • rball1


    Let's say I sell widgets: plastic widgets, paper widgets, brass widgets and steel widgets. These are in order by how popular they are but none is so popular to really stand on it's own. When writing general content about widgets, lets say for the main Widgets page, would you write: 1. "We sell plastic, paper, brass and steel widgets." -or- 2. "We sell plastic widgets, paper widgets, brass widgets and steel widgets." I understand I can have specific pages for Plastic Widgets, Paper Widgets, etc., but like I said this would be for a main category page, maybe even for a quick "this is what we do" opening paragraph on the homepage. Is it better to be concise like in example 1? Or to individually call out each type like in example 2? I'm looking for SEO insight and the customer experience viewpoint as well.

    | rball1
    0
  • adriandg


    For example, we all know that there is a ranking boost to having a domain name: http://bluewidgets.com when someone searches for "blue widgets". But would the domain name http://widgetsblue.com also get a bonus in the serp for "blue widgets" ?

    | adriandg
    0
  • kylesuss


    We are located in Denver, Colorado. I want the majority of the site to be focused on Denver keyword terms but I also think we should branch out to other cities around Denver, as well as around the keyword "Colorado." What's an appropriate way to do this? I've seen site that have a page for every city in the area but it looks terrible and doesn't really fit into the site. How do I cross link to these new city pages (I don't want them in the main navigation)?

    | kylesuss
    0
  • ydop


    Is there a tool to measure what keywords are bringing in clients?  For instance, there is a keyword phrase with a high volume of searches so naturally I am inclined to include this phrase in my title tag.  However, it does not seem like a search phrase that a potential client would use.  Is there a tool to see what phrases actual clients are using?

    | ydop
    0
  • Tendea


    Hey there SEO Mozzers, I'm new to the SEO Moz community and would genuinely appreicate any advice/input on this topic. I'm part of the online marketing team for a UK-based site called Tendea.co.uk. We operate an introductory platform for enabling the connection between parents and families seeking care services (childcare, pet care, senior care, home & garden care, etc.) and individuals providing care services (babysitters, nannies, pet sitters, housekeepers, etc.).  To take a US site for comparison, the services are very similar to those offered by Care.com I'm currently having a bit of difficulty as to what very broad, umbrella keywords we should be targeting for the homepage, primarily in the meta title/description.  We've started with keywords such as "care, family services, care services, and family care", but I think these terms are almost too generic and aren't necessarily terms we really want to be ranking for.  I suggested to our in-house SEO team that we just target some of our strongest keywords from each of the individual care categories for the homepage (babysitter, pet sitter, housekeeper, caregiver, etc.).  They were against this idea, though, as we have separate subfolders that target the individual care categories and their specific keywords (tendea.co.uk/childcare, /pet-care, /elderly-care, etc.)  Essentially the argeument is that we don't want to be targeting these terms on the homepage and on a separate subfolder page, as then the two pages would be competing for each other's keywords.  Instead we're being encouraged to find some sort of umbrella terms to target for the home page that can encompass all of the care categories. For comparison's sake, I took a look at Care.com's meta data and it targets all their specific keywords for the various care categories "Babysitters, nannies, Child Care & Senior Home care - Care.com".  Is this the right kind of strategy to take, or do you guys have any suggestions for much broader, umbrella keywords to target on our homepage?  Thanks in advance for your input! -Mike

    | Tendea
    0
  • jclubb


    Am starting a company and in the process of developing the website. I would like to get a head start on content and want to know the best way to choose keywords and tips on how to write optimized content.

    | jclubb
    0
  • sarenausa


    Dear all, I need to produce around 100 articles. I came across several tools which replace some of the words with synonyms. 1- How many words does it need to replace out of 100 words? 2- Which tools do you recommend? 3- Human re writers seems to use the same tools. Which human re writer company  do you suggest? 4- Is there any content writing company you suggest? Thanks in advance

    | sarenausa
    0
  • kylesuss


    We carry two brands, Buick & GMC. All of the most trafficked keywords that I'm finding in my research are structured like this: buick denver buick service gmc denver gmc service How should I approach this situation so that I'm optimizing for both brands?

    | kylesuss
    0
  • increation


    Hi, Just wondering if anyone knows if there is a keyword research tool available that breaks down search volumes by region. For example, how many searches there are in London/South East for the keyword "cars". All the tools I have seen only go down to country level. Are there any that go down to region/city level? Thanks for your help. Mik

    | increation
    0
  • jheaslip


    Just wondering if anyone has checked out http://touchkeyword.com and what your you guys think about it. Cheers

    | jheaslip
    0
  • augustos


    Hello Guys, I want to focus in one keyword for google.de: "iphone klingelton" keyword competitive seomoz: 35% We want to pick a domain name exact match: www.iphone-klingelton.de And focus ON-PAGE SEO. U guys have any advice for me to how to improve this page? We have this 2 similar pages: http://www.mediavideoconverter.de/iphone-ringtone-maker.html http://www.mediavideoconverter.de/iphone-ringtone-maker-for-mac.html Thanks in advance.

    | augustos
    0
  • razasaeed


    We were ranking no 1 on couple of keywords in our countries local Google Search but from last 3-4 days we have dropped to 2-3 though we havent made any changes. Any suggestion? http://www.pakwheels.com Google: www.google.com.pk Keywords: Used Cars Cars for sale

    | razasaeed
    0
  • jcarter


    In my google webmaster tools the most significant keyword google attaches to my site is word 'VAT' as in, Value Added Tax. Followed by Basket. I can see why this is, as the word VAT and Basket is on every product page, but it really is not a keyword I want to target. Does this have any negative effect on other keywords I am targeting? What should I do about  this? Here is the site: https://www.loveelectronics.co.uk

    | jcarter
    0
  • seanmccauley


    We have been having some modest success with Google Shopping results in the UK. However we are yet to understand exactly what makes one brand more likely to rank over another. We need to understand which factors are at play and just how best keywords can be optomised?

    | seanmccauley
    0
  • Exp


    Hi all, i am a starting out SEO. I have recently been browsing our keyword rankings report and noticed that we are very low down on some quite key search terms. I therefor want to focus over the next few weeks, on bringing us up the rankings for these specific terms. Apologies if this is a very basic one, but**,.... I dont know where to start!** I would be very interested if anyone can give me some advice on a plan of action. What actions should be in my action plan? For example, if i wanted to improve our rankings on the following: English school in malta Learning english in malta English classes in malta

    | Exp
    0
  • azguy


    I apologize for the dumb question, but in the SEOmoz toolbar, where is the page rank feature? I see page and root domain, but don't see the page rank. Sorry

    | azguy
    0
  • Promoteam


    Hi ! I just finish reading this post here and i want to know if it affect a page that already come to the first position ? If my actual keyword rank first and for example, i dont have any other keyword in my page title ect, how does it help the page ? Does it just gonna grab another frequent keyword who come back alot in the text or something ? ty

    | Promoteam
    0
  • Ykone


    I have a list of about 500 keywords, and I want to know the search volume for each one, such that I can select a list of 200 keywords with the most search volume. If I have all my keywords in SEOMoz (or in an excel file), is there a way to run this as a batch request instead of using the SEOMoz keyword research tool to test each one one-by-one? If this is going to require a dev to work on it, any estimates on how many hours this would take a backend dev to put in place would be appreciated!

    | Ykone
    0

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