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Keyword Research Mistakes To Avoid |
By:
Jeff Alderson |
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Keyword Research Mistakes To Avoid
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.
Perhaps the biggest mistake many make is failing to use keywords at all. The truth is keywords are very powerful and vital to success. They help websites obtain traffic, which can lead to revenue. They can also assist in focusing a site's theme. While it's not always necessary to hire an expensive firm to select the best keywords going, having keywords included in the mix 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.
Another issue that crops up a lot is the use of only a single keyword or phrase on a site or page. The truth is it is simply much smarter to select a theme and then choose multiple words and phrases to support it. This works to boost latent semantic indexing, too. Picking niche phrases can be done with a little help from WordNet and other similar tools.
Relying solely on the Keyword Effectiveness Index, or KEI, is also not a great idea. This is the ratio of the number of times a keyword gets searched to the number of sites that rank for the word. This is used to gauge how much competition exists in a particular area. KEI is useful, but you also want to find out how SEO strong the top few sites in a niche happen to be. There are other tools that you can use for checking out competition levels. SEO for Firefox or SeoQuake are good ones to test out.
Failure to use keyword management tools can also be a rather big mistake. Those who are really into keyword research can rapidly come up with thousands of keywords. A tool like Ad Word Analyzer can very much help with sorting, filtering, and analyzing the results.
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.
The art of keyword selection is one that is important to a site's overall chances for success. Finding the most effective keywords does take time and patience, but it isn't an exact science.
About the author: Jeff Alderson specializes in boosting traffic and profits. He is also the inventor of numerous PPC and SEO tools. Jeff suggests using a keyword generator like Ad Word Analyzer to find keywords for your website. This article is available as a unique content article with free reprint rights.
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Article Source: http://www.statssheet.com/articles/article54470.html |
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