The New Approach to Keyword Research & Allocation

Keyword research has always been an integral part of SEO and digital marketing. The process is usually pretty basic – find the keywords that have high traffic, relate to your business and low competition if possible.

Expert SEO’ers will have a more in-depth approach but the above is quite common.

The approach below simplifies the process so anyone can conduct keyword research like a pro.

Let’s introduce Gavin…

Gavin (who is completely made up) owns a resort in Port Douglas, Australia. He advertises his rooms as hotel-style accommodation that is perfect for families. It is also on the cheaper side when compared to other resorts in town.

Gavin completed some KW research for his website, coming up with the list below:

1. Accommodation Port Douglas
2. Hotels Port Douglas
3. Resort Port Douglas
4. Hotel accommodation Port Douglas

It’s basic, but that’s what Gavin wants to rank for. After a few months he’s not getting any love. The competition is tough and Gavin’s new site just can’t get the traction it needs. Those in the know will identify that he isn’t targeting any long-tail variations.

But how does he select them?

Lucky we’re here to make it simple, providing him with Base, Secondary & Supporting keywords.

Step 1 – What are Gavin’s customers searching for?

Gavin’s potential customers are searching for accommodation in Port Douglas. That is the purpose of their search.

As a result, we can come up with his Base keywords, which are commonly used for Research. When searched, either individually or together, you know the person is looking for information on the given subject i.e. accommodation/hotels/resorts in Port Douglas

BASE KEYWORDS

• Accommodation
• Hotels
• Resorts
• Port Douglas

Someone inexperienced in SEO would split accommodation/hotels/resorts up into their own pages.  It’s a common mistake. There is no need to split them up because they are essentially the same keyword.

How do you find out if two words are considered the same I hear you ask? Do a search and you will find out:

Even though the search is for hotels, accommodation is still highlighted in the SERPs. Same same, but different! Creating a new page just to house the resort keywords and a new page to house the hotel keywords isn’t necessary.

These Base keywords will form a foundation for Gavin’s website. They’ll feature on the homepage and throughout the site, simply because that is the purpose of his site’s existence.

Step 2 – Who are Gavin’s customers searching for?

We know they want accommodation, but who is it for? Gavin knows families love his hotel, but he also has a lot of couples stay with him and doesn’t want to shut them out. He also just put the finishing touches on a special secluded honeymoon suite and wants to get that up and going.

This brings us to our Secondary keywords. These are the things that people will add to their Base keywords to identify to Gavin exactly what they are looking for. They are also known as Shopping keywords, because the searcher has narrowed their search and is more likely to buy.

SECONDARY KEYWORDS

• Family
• Couples
• Honeymoon

The keywords above outline which internal pages we are going to target. Remember how Base keywords feature throughout the site? Secondary keywords are added to these to form the focus for the internal pages.

Gavin has pages for both his single bedroom and two bedroom rooms. He has also decided to create a new page for his swanky honeymoon suite:

The base keywords still feature, just with a Secondary keyword attached. That defines to Google what the specific page is about. They know Gavin’s site offers accommodation in Port Douglas, but wouldn’t have a clue what type of people to send where if the internal pages aren’t targeted correctly.

The result? People won’t just end up on a generic homepage and have to navigate their own way around. They will be provided with the information they want after just one click, and Gavin will be more likely to get a booking.

Step 3 – What are Gavin’s customers’ requirements?

These are the money makers. This list of Supporting keywords outlines exactly what people want. They are also referred to as Buying keywords. If someone searching using these terms and your site provides the goods, it’s a safe bet to say that they’ll have their credit card ready to go. For Gavin they would be:

SUPPORTING KEYWORDS

• Cheap
• Budget
• Affordable
• Close to
• Near
• Retreat
• Getaway
• Secluded
• CBD
• Last minute
• Deals

You take this list and scatter them to the appropriate areas.

‘Cheap/Budget/Affordable’ keywords would go to the homepage because that is the biggest selling point and underlying factor of Gavin’s resort.

They can also feature on the internal 1 bedroom and 2 bedroom pages.

They shouldn’t feature on the honeymoon page – no one wants to admit they are looking for cheap honeymoon accommodation, even if that is their intention. Featuring those types of keywords on the page will scare people off.

‘Secluded’ and ‘Getaway’ are good additions to the honeymoon page, as they accurately identify what the room is suited to.

What are you left with? A comprehensive list of relevant keywords targeted correctly!

This process should be in your mind every time you conduct keyword research. Simply typing what you think is best into the Google Keyword Tool and pulling out clusters is a caveman-like approach.

Your website should be your inspiration for keyword research:

Remember – Keywords don’t pick their Pages, Pages pick their keywords.

Thinking about what your target audience wants for each specific page is the key. You’re attempting to answer their search query with information on your page – if the page doesn’t answer the query, the keywords shouldn’t be targeted there.

The above may seem elementary for some, but it’s a simple way to get your keyword research correct first time. From beginner to expert, keep this 3-step process in mind!

Source: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/the-new-approach-to-keyword-research-allocation/44446/

Find New Keywords: Simplifying Keyword Research

In December, we rolled out branded keyword rules and metrics to campaigns to help you segment your branded traffic. Now, we’re excited to introduce a companion feature to make your keyword research easier: Find New Keywords. With this feature, you can view keywords sending you organic search traffic, filter on your brand rules, and determine if you want to track them in your campaign.

First, the basics.

You’ll discover the Find New Keywords feature in a tab under your Manage Keywords section. (This feature requires that you connect your campaign to Google Analytics, so if you’re not connected to GA, you’ll find instructions on how to do this on the Find New Keywords tab.)

But wait, where did the Manage Brand Rules page go?!  We’ve moved your brand rules page into a tab under Manage Keywords, as well, so you can easily move among these sections as you manage your keywords.

Now, on to the hunt for new keywords!

1. View the top 200 keywords sending you traffic that you’re not currently tracking.

Why stop at 200? We want to make it easier for you to add the keywords that may be most interesting to track because they are branded terms or common words heavily associated by searchers with your site. After that, you can go straight to GA to manually grab more terms. If we see high demand for showing more keywords, we’ll consider showing more terms in the future (so let us know what you think!).

2. Decide which keywords are candidates for tracking.
We show you a number of factors:

• Keyword’s position or “rank” in your current list of 200 keywords sending you organic search traffic.
• Keyword’s traffic from the last week and last four weeks.
• Branded vs, non-branded keyword filters, based on your brand rules.
• Quick access to a full keyword analysis for keyword difficulty and full SERP analysis.

3. Add keywords of interest to your managed keywords list. 
With some information in hand about the keyword’s relationship to your brand, traffic, difficulty, and SERP analysis details, you’re on your way to finding some keywords of interest to track.

One thing to note: If you are tracking all 200 (which we don’t necessarily recommend–please make your choices carefully), you’ll see a message telling you to check later for new keywords that have moved up the list.

Source: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/find-new-keywords-simplifying-keyword-research