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
-
How granular should I get with Keyword research?
I'm doing KW research for a new business. My understanding from KW research guides: Use tools to create a list of thousands of keywords Analyze difficulty and search volume Reduce your list and do on page optimization for your select KWs My dilemma with this approach is that it seems "keyword based" rather than "intent" or "category" based. e.g. Let's say I have a grocery store. Ignoring SEO, I know that these are my main categories: Produce Meat Dairy Canned Goods Baked Goods In other words, the above categories are the general "intents" and "categories" that I'd really want to rank for. Keyword tool shows that they have high volume and high difficulty. Let's say that after doing keyword research, I discover "Low Fat Chicken Breasts" and "Turkey Sausage" and "Cheap Meat Wholesale" have decent search volume and low competition. I don't quite understand how I'm supposed to utilize these fringe keywords in my on page SEO plan because it doesn't make sense as a human to categorize my site that way. Not sure if this is clear. Basically I'm trying to figure out if I should really be getting this granular on keywords to help guide my store categories or if I should just be picking broader terms.
Keyword Research | | clarasboutiqueusa0 -
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 -
Keyword analysis tool
Is it not working? I have not been able to use it for the past 2 or so days.
Keyword Research | | JohnWalker0 -
Keywords + Country?
Hey guys, Let's say that I'm doing on-site SEO for a website that sells football shirts. This website targets 5 different countries. We only have a .com domain and no other country specific domains will be added at this point. When I choose the keywords, do I opt for product name + country or only product name? football shirts france or football shirts? Some info: Countries have been added in the title of the pages. Countries appear in the footer. Thank You.
Keyword Research | | BruLee0 -
Bulk keyword competition tool?
The SEOmoz Keyword Difficulty tool is great, but the 5 keyword limit is too small. I need a tool that will allow checking the organic competition level of 100's of keywords (to help in selecting blog topics). Anyone know of such a tool?
Keyword Research | | AdamThompson1 -
Comprehensive Keyword Research Report?
I'd like to provide a keyword research report to a client, that includes all of the keywords we're targeting, organized nicely along with relevant data for each (keyword difficulty, search volume, etc.). Is there a way to do this other than running an individual report for each keyword? I'd like to avoid sending them a 50 page document showing all of the keyword research 😉 Thanks for any help! Josh
Keyword Research | | JoshTurner0 -
Keyword variations
I have a question about keyword variations. To be specific, let's say "blue upside down cars" has low competition but fairly low traffic. However, the shortened variation "upside down cars" has low competition but extremely high traffic. Can I double my bet by going ahead and using "blue upside down cars" whereby in some instances Google would refer traffic based on the entire keyword, but it would also refer traffic based on the the last part of the keyword which has the higher traffic ("upside down cars"). In this case, we would optimize around "blue upside down cars" with hopes of getting traffic for both keywords (the long tail and longer tail). Is there any reason not to pursue this strategy? I hope I made sense!
Keyword Research | | amandahx20