What is the best tool or method to locate good keywords?
-
Hi to all,
So as I am working towards the best possible site that I can build, what is the best tool or method to find keywords that people would search for that may line up with my website?
I have starting using google keyword research tool, or at least I think that is what its called. Also I am using moz, but it shows bing result for traffic.
So I guess backing up, do you usually find the keywords with the largest traffic estimates, and then work those words into your web pages?
I know to build for people first, then search engines etc. But just curious what you do or use to get an idea on what keywords are popular.
Thank You
-
Thank you for your help. I greatly appreciate it
-
In addition to what has already been mentioned I look at Google trends and once the site is up and running, I use the webmaster tools>search traffic>search queries.
Many businesses will encounter seasonal variations in the product and service required. This will also need to be planned for and considered in content copy. Google trends can help identify these fluctuations and hot/cold spots.
-
Hi yes it is just for me . I just want to make sure I am using the best tools that I can.
-
Hi,
You haven't said if the site is for you or a client, but I usually ask the client for a list of keywords for their industry. Interestingly, these aren't necessarily the best keywords to use, as either some really obvious ones get left off, or they are so into "industry speak" that they forget what the ordinary man on the street would use to find them.
from there I would put that list of words into the google keywords planner tool. https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner
You could do with giving us more info though. Is this site local, or national, or international? That will determine how you use the tool.
Regardless, put in the keywords and "search for new key words and ad group ideas". From there you hopefully will end up with approx 800 keywords to start to work on. You can usually cut this down in half immediately as many of those words will be of little value.
As an alternative, go find your competitors web pages and see what keywords they are using (sometimes if they are dumb enough, they will have written them into the site - inspect the back end of the code by right clicking on the page and view page source).
Last thing I will say is if this don't scrimp on time allotted to keyword research. It's absolutely imperative that you get this right at this stage, as it will set the direction for how the website will look, and how you will run the site. My opinion is that the best keyword research brings the best results. I usually spend a couple of days (16 - 20 hours) at least before embarking on a new site.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
I understand it's been asked before, however moz staff is telling me keyword's capitalization is treated as a separate keyword.
So there I was looking through my rankings like every other day, when I see a lowercase and uppercase version of a keyword. Most times I see this, I see them with the same rankings, and even researched this about 5 months ago, when I came to the conclusion that google treats them the same way. However, this day I saw them as different ranks, same keyword, only capitalized 1st letter of the 2 word keyword. I asked moz staff about this, as I felt it was an error. But was met with the answer that google does indeed treat these keywords differently. My line of thought was that the rank checker didn't check both the lowercase and uppercase keyword at the same time, and SERPs happened to change when the second word was checked for rank, returning a different rank. So now, I am in doubt again, as to uppercase and lowercase keywords being different or the same in google's eyes? I honestly don't know why a uppercase keyword would have different motive from searcher than a lowercase when many time not, searchers can't even spell the keyword correctly.
Keyword Research | | Deacyde0 -
How to use long tail keyword?
Hi I read in most of the SEO blogs that using longtail keywords can help us in our search rankings. But how can we actually get a traffic from longtail keyword if that particular longtail keyword is not having any search volume. For example, if I wanted to rank for the keyword "SEO" which has a huge search volume of 5,500 per month and if I wanted to concentrate on one of its longtail keyword "SEO basics for beginners" which has average search volume of only 40 per month, how can it help me?
Keyword Research | | sandeep.clickdesk0 -
E-Commerce keyword question
We sell ItemA. One of the phrases that brings people to our site is "ItemA for sale". Should I just try to target "ItemA" or should I try to get "for sale" in there? I have seen a few other variations such as "on clearance" or "to purchase" as well. Can I just focus on "ItemA" or do I need all of those variants as well?
Keyword Research | | EcommerceSite0 -
Keyword research
i am trying to figure out what would be good keywords to optimize for an orthodontist. i looked up the keywords "his city + orthodontist" or " his city + braces" and the google adword tool tells me there are no monthly searches for those terms. i am not sure what i can optimize for if no one is searching for the most obvious keywords.
Keyword Research | | dad7more0 -
Ranking Reports for New Keywords
I added new keywords to my campaign. They do appear in my ranking report. But I am not getting any ranking data on the new keywords. It looks like they are yet to be crawled. For my initial set of keywords, i see the specific rankings in each search engine and for some it says "not in the top 50." For the new ones all I see are zeros. Will the ranking data eventually appear?
Keyword Research | | dseevers0 -
Do you use broad match or exact match on Adwords Keyword Tool when doing keyword research?
I wasn't sure whether to classify this as a discussion or a question. I'd love "the right answer" but I'm not sure if we're going to get one... Let's try. When you use the Adwords Keyword Tool for doing keyword research, do you use the numbers from "broad match" or "exact match" when comparing relative search volume of keywords? (And yes, I know the numbers need to be taken with a grain of salt, but when it comes down to it, you're using the numbers to compare and come to conclusions regarding the best keyword to use - so which match type gives you the data you're looking for?) To be a little more specific - when you select "exact match" for, let's say the keyword "baking supplies", is that telling you how many people searched for that phrase within quotes <"baking supplies">, or how many people searched for only <baking supplies="">, as opposed to that word within a phrase <baking supplies="" stores="">or with the words reversed <supplies baking="">?</supplies></baking></baking> Based on some keyword research we had done a year ago where any phrase reversals like <water bottles="">and <bottles water="">were coming out with the exact same numbers, even when it wasn't so intuitive that there would be the same search volume, we came to the conclusion - with the tentative suggestion of the SEOMoz staff on the old Q & A - that broad match would include all instances of the keywords in reverse order, so if you wanted to know how many people were searching for <water bottles="">only, you needed to use exact match. </water></bottles></water> That's what we did for about a year (I also think I saw Rand mention that somewhere in a presentation slide recently, although I could be mistaken and I don't recall exactly where it was to check it up) and then based on a recent forum discussion I had where someone was questioning that premise, I did another check with two KW reversals and while <water bottles="">and <bottles water="">still give the same number, <baking supplies="">and <supplies baking="">do not. </supplies></baking></bottles></water> So I'm left with a big question here as to what the best policy is. Google Adwords Help is very vague on what the match type means in the tool (it seems to be talking about only your settings for your campaigns). So - any input after this long saga? Thanks!
Keyword Research | | debi_zyx0 -
Keywords for multi service business?
New to this so bear with, I am a TV aerial, satellite, CCTV, Door entry, Access Control, Telephone repair engineer. I have one seperate page for each of the installations I carry out as well as the basic home, about, areas, faqs and so on. My question is do i have one key phrase for each of the services i cover or do i just relate all the keywords from that service into the keywords tag ie, META name=keywords content="Digial aerials Stockport,digital aerials Manchester,aerials Stockport,aerials Manchester,aerial repairs Stockport,aerial repairs Manchester,digital,aerial,tv,tv aerials Manchester,tv aerials Stockport,arials,arial,aerial installer,aerial installations,aeril installation,Stockport,Manchester ,"> That is what i have fro Tv aerial installation, Should i make landing pages for each phrase for each service or stick to one page? www.redvalecommunications.co.uk is the site if you want to take a look thanks in advance
Keyword Research | | redvalecomms0 -
Evaluating Competition of a Keyword
I'm curious about how others evaluate the competition of keywords when putting together an SEO program: Do you place any faith in the competition listing in the Google Keyword Tool? Do you find value in SEOmoz's Keyword Difficulty tool? What other tactics or processes do you perform?
Keyword Research | | EricVallee340