Watch Out For Common Keyword Mistakes
By: Jeff Alderson
It would be nice if keyword research was an exact science, but it’s not. Contrary to what marketing firms selling the latest, greatest and most expensive selection tools will tell you, this type of research is more of a form of art.
Science or not, keyword selection can be absolutely vital for a site’s success. Considering this, it is important to choose good ones. There are some very common pitfalls webmasters run into when selecting words. Understanding what they are can help you avoid making them, too.
The biggest keyword related mistake, hands down, is failing to see how important they are. It’s a simple fact that keywords are very powerful marketing tools. They help sites earn traffic, ranking and even revenue. They can even help focus the entire theme of a site. Although hiring an expensive firm isn’t required to see results, selecting goods keywords is important.
The research process itself tends to stymie some. The biggest pitfall here is incorrect use of keyword research tools. For example, many believe keyword counts revealed by these tools are accurate. The truth is they are just estimates. Tools that can help you see these estimates are useful, but they don’t reflect the total number of searches from all major search engines. It is possible to compensate by using several tools for research. Programs like Ad Word Analyzer, and Wordtracker are both great. And you will find unique keywords with each, so your list will be more complete.
Using no keywords isn’t a good idea, but neither is using only a single word or phrase. The best strategy is to pick a theme and then choose words and phrases that build on that theme. This enables sites to work better with latent semantic indexing. WordNet can be very useful for selecting the right niche phrases to build a site around.
The Keyword Effectiveness Index or KEI ratio tends to be over relied on by many. This ratio is the number of times a keyword searched in relation to the number of sites that happen to rank for that word. This can help publishers get a handle on the competition. This is important, but not nearly as much as the SEO strength of the top contenders for the particular keyword. Checking SEO strength can really better reveal the competition. SeoQuake and SEO for Firefox can help here.
Webmasters who really get the power of keywords often box themselves in with too much research. The mistake these folks make is failing to use keyword management tools to direct their efforts. Spreadsheets can help, but tools like Ad Word Analyzer can be much more valuable. They can sort, filter, and even list related keywords you never would have come up with on your own.
Another pitfall is poorly timed research. If, for example, keywords are desired for a seasonal promotion, it’s wise to choose them closer to the season. Programs like Wordtracker only store date for 90 days. This means research won’t be reflective of the terms that are needed if the “season” in question has passed.
Two other big hurdles that a lot of webmasters fumble on include selecting keywords by big price alone and even failing to implement new keywords after conducting research. Greed often comes into play when selecting keywords for a site. The fact is the lower paying keywords can pay out more over the long run since these niche and long-tail keywords don’t have as much competition. They can even generate more traffic over the long haul, too.
Keyword selection is an art form that can deliver some major perks to a site. Although finding the right keywords to use can take time and effort, the payoff can be big in terms of visitors and even revenue.
About the Author
About the author: Jeff Alderson specializes in boosting traffic and profits. He is also the inventor of numerous PPC and SEO software. Jeff suggests using a keyword generator like Ad Word Analyzer to find keywords for your site.
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