Keyword research – do not depend on your assumptions alone
Do you know your keywords? Most people assume that they have a good handle on what their target audience searches for, and that this is enough for keyword research. Sometimes it may be true, but every now and then even the most ardent experts make mistakes in keyword selection. Let's look at some of the biggest mistakes that online marketers are making when it comes to keyword research.
The first mistake many people make is using general keywords rather than specific ones, such as "art supplies," which only gets about 4 million monthly searches. This mistake can be avoided by using phrases such as "painting oil" or "watercolor pencil sharpener. This can increase your search traffic tenfold!
Another common mistake is thinking that you know what people search for. Rather than taking it for granted that a person searching for "art supplies" is looking for oil painting supplies, you should think about the psychology behind this query. What if someone is searching for art supplies to make a collage or craft? In this case, you would be targeting the wrong type of audience and keyword research would need to be adjusted to reflect this.
A third common mistake when doing keyword research is using only your assumptions and not conducting any real research into what your audience really wants. The best way to conduct keyword research is to use tools that help you target your audience and see what words they're using. You should also carry out focus groups or surveys with your audience and see what keywords would be relevant to them.
A fourth mistake is thinking that each keyword alone will lead you to success. Most people assume that a phrase like "art supplies" won't get them enough traffic on its own, but will if they add extra keywords. While this can be the case, it's still no guarantee that the site will be successful. You have to look at a keyword phrase holistically to see how it can potentially bring people to your site.
The fifth mistake is not being able to measure the success of your keyword phrases. This mistake is often made by people who don't have any idea how they are doing with regards to their income and marketing. Before you rush off to buy a tool that quantifies the traffic keywords you've selected, it's important to go back and see if your results are consistent with what you want. Knowing what your site is bringing in will allow you to make adjustments as necessary in order for it to be a success.
In conclusion, understand what your audience really wants before being too confident about a certain keyword phrase or term. Before you get too confident, be sure to use tools that help you quantify your results. Watch out for common mistakes, and remember that there is no magic keyword or term that will bring instant success. Only time will tell if it's a long-term success or an immediate piece of failure.
Keyword research articles and much more can be found at wordtracker.com
Category: Keyword Research, Online Marketing - Google Adwords Related Articles: The 5 Most Effective Keyword Research Tools for Your Web Site The 4 Most Powerful Keyword Research Tools for Your Web Site How to Choose a Free Keyword Tool for Google Adwords Ads How to Create a Sustainable Online Business with an Online Store and Blog Wordtracker.com
Category: Keyword Research, Online Marketing - Google Adwords, SEO Keywords Tags: keyword research, online marketing, google adwords Author: Amanda L. Chan Publish Date: June 16, 2012 Copyrighted © All Rights Reserved. You may freely republish this article provided the text, links and author bio remain intact.
Author Bio : Amanda Chan is a writer for Wordtracker.com – an online marketing keyword tracking tool that helps search marketers and webmasters to find new website traffic by monitoring the keywords people are using to find their sites. The company was founded in 1997 and has grown over the past decade into a leading industry provider of keyword tracking tools and services for search engine optimization companies worldwide.
Category: Keyword Research, Online Marketing - Google Adwords Tags: keyword research, online marketing, google adwords Author: Keyword Discovery Publish Date: May 5, 2011 Copyrighted © All Rights Reserved. You may freely republish this article provided the text, links and author bio remain intact.
Keyword Discovery: Free Keyword Tool for Successful Search Engine Optimization
Keyword Discovery is a free keyword tool which enables users to collect keyword ideas and suggestions from Google Suggest and gather competitive intelligence through its search volume data estimates. Based on a unique patent pending algorithm on the back-end of this private tracker, it provides extensive lists of related keywords sorted by their popularity (or strength).
Some of our major features include:
Current Ranking for each keyword (up to 100 of the most related keywords)
Volume Estimation for each keyword (this is a unique feature; i.e. it uses Google's Adwords API to estimate the monthly search volume for each keyword)
Suggested Bid per Click based on your landing page quality, relevance and match type in Google Adwords and MSN adCenter.
Keyword Research Tool: Search Engine Optimization users can find an exhaustive list of related keywords with this tool. It provides comprehensive metrics that enable users to quickly see how competitive a market is or how much traffic is being driven by certain keywords.
Keyword Discovery is currently incorporated with Bing, Yahoo and Yelp. We provide results from these search engines as well as Google Suggest and our proprietary search volume estimation tool.
Try it now! http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search-engine-optimization-keywords/
Category: Keyword Research, Online Marketing - Google Adwords Tags: keyword research, online marketing, google adwords Author: Keyword Discovery Publish Date: February 17, 2012 Copyrighted © All Rights Reserved. You may freely republish this article provided the text, links and author bio remain intact.
Conclusion
Google Adwords has seen a shifting landscape since their initial creation and thus their keyword selection requirements have also evolved. The reason being is that with each passing year, Google's ad network becomes more dominant in the search engine results page (SERP). With this dominance comes the need for Adwords advertisers to maintain a healthy amount of traffic to their sites. Keyword selection become exponentially important with regards to Adwords campaigns.
With so many options to select from, there will always be a good portion of users who are unsure about which term should be selected for obtaining more traffic.