| Your keyword research will ultimately dictate how | | | | Search Overture's tool for "fly fishing reel". Here |
| (and if) visitors find your site. | | | | are the top 3 results that I get:fly fishing reel |
| Your job in this stage of the site building process | | | | 5179fly fishing rods and reel 377saltwater fly |
| is to find out the exact phrases that people type | | | | fishing reel 126 |
| into the search engines, when they are looking for | | | | Overture data is measured over the previous |
| information or products relating to your niche. | | | | month. To get comparable data at Wordtracker, I |
| Example. Your website is about fly fishing. On it, | | | | found out how many times Wordtracker |
| you promote fishing tackle, rods, reels etc etc. If | | | | estimates the phrase is searched for at Google in |
| I was a fly fisherman looking to buy a reel, what | | | | 24 hours, and multiplied by 30. |
| am I going to type into Google to find relevant | | | | Here is what Wordtracker returns for those top |
| sites where I might buy a reel? After all, that is | | | | 3 Overture phrases (Google searches per |
| what you need to know as the webmaster | | | | month):fly fishing reels 390fly fishing rods and |
| behind a fly fishing site. | | | | reels 60saltwater fly fishing reels 120 |
| I might type in any of the following:fly fishing | | | | For the phrase "fly fishing reel", Overture says it |
| reelbuy fly fishing reelfly fishing reel reviewand so | | | | was searched for 5179 times in January, whereas |
| on. | | | | Wordtracker puts that figure closer to 390. |
| However, just because you think of a phrase | | | | For the phrase "fly fishing rods and reels", |
| related to this niche, does not mean that anyone | | | | Overture says 377, Wordtracker says 60. |
| is actually searching for that phrase. That is where | | | | For the phrase "seawater fly fishing reels", |
| keyword research tools come in. Not only will | | | | Overture says 126, Wordtracker says 120. |
| your research highlight phrases that are actually | | | | Go on, try it yourself |
| being searched for, it will also find a lot more | | | | Not convinced? What I suggest you do, is try this |
| phrases than you could realistically come up with | | | | experiment with several different phrases.e.g. My |
| yourself, and in a fraction of the time. | | | | old search on Overture for "pheromone" suggests |
| How many "fly fishing reel" related phrases can | | | | that the phrase pheromone was searched for |
| you think of? 5? 10 at a push? | | | | 54,905 times last month. |
| Well, I just checked at Wordtracker, and in | | | | Wordtracker estimates that at Google |
| seconds, it returned 68 phrases that people are | | | | pheromone was searched for 5940 times in a |
| actually looking for. This is pure gold! | | | | month. |
| Wordtracker also provides me with essential data, | | | | Which do I rely on? Wordtracker of course. |
| like how many people are looking for each phrase, | | | | While the two measurements cannot really be |
| and how many competing web pages there are | | | | directly compared (as they provide search |
| for each term. | | | | information based on different engines), I have |
| I have 100% faith in the data returned from | | | | found that the number reported by Wordtracker |
| Wordtracker based on the results I have seen | | | | do correlate very well with the traffic I receive |
| from various keywords I have targeted over the | | | | when I get a #1 in Google. |
| years. I cannot say the same for other keyword | | | | So where does this leave all the keyword tools |
| tools which use Overture's Suggestion tool for | | | | that are available? |
| "demand" data, so before going with a free | | | | Here is some advice on Choosing a Keyword |
| keyword research tool, read the following true | | | | Research Tool. |
| story:. | | | | If you find a keyword tool that looks promising, |
| "A couple of years ago, I carried out keyword | | | | ask yourself: |
| research for a web page I was creating about | | | | 1. Does this tool also provide supply and demand |
| pheromones. I was going to send my traffic to a | | | | figures for each phrase? |
| merchants site and get commission on any sale | | | | Without supply and demand, the phrases are |
| generated. Using the Overture tool, I found 4 or 5 | | | | useless, because there is no way of choosing the |
| terms with reportedly 47000 + searches in | | | | highest demand, lowest competition phrases from |
| recent weeks.... and that is just at Overture. | | | | the list. Many of the phrases may have hundreds |
| I thought, hey, great. There should be several | | | | of thousands of competing pages in Google. If |
| times this many searches originating from Google. | | | | you don't have these figures, how can you be |
| I created a couple of pages and optimized them. I | | | | accurately target phrases? |
| got #1 position on MSN, and later, #1 on Google | | | | If supply and demand is supplied, the next |
| too for some of my chosen terms. | | | | question to ask is: |
| When I saw my rankings, I could see the $$$ | | | | 2. Where does the demand data come from? |
| signs in front of my eyes. Two days later I had | | | | You can quickly check this by running a search in |
| received just 6 visitors to my top ranking pages. | | | | the tool, and at Overture, and comparing the |
| My millions were melting away before my eyes. | | | | numbers. If demand figures are the same, you |
| I checked on WordTracker and found that in the | | | | know the demand was retrieved from Overture. |
| last month, there has only been 41 searches for | | | | If the data comes from Overture, would you |
| my main keyword according to Wordtracker (1 | | | | trust it? |
| or 2 searches a day)". | | | | I have not yet found a tool as good or as |
| Let's just take a quick example - you can try it | | | | accurate as Wordtracker for keyword research. |
| yourself if you want. | | | | |