Keyword Research
8 February 2010
Keyword Research-Factors to consider
When doing a keyword research, there are quite a few factors that need particular attention and that are often underestimated. Below are some examples:
- Seasonality
If you base your keywords research only from local search from the previous month, you may be risking basing your research on misleading sets of data. The reason behind this is that search patterns naturally change throughout the year and there a broad range of keywords that might be affected by seasonality factors. Imagine you are a company that sells sports merchandise and that wants to identify which Australian sport is the most popular and searched. If the company decides to run a search in May, it will probably think that rugby is the most searched term - see below.
A good way to evaluate seasonality factors is to use Google Insights (as shown in the example above) and the new Google Keyword tool. This tool is only available through your Google Adwords account. The difference between this and the keyword tool available to public search results, is that this(logged in version) gives you the ability to see traffic data month by month. The representation of the above data in the keyword tool will be as follows:
This shows you in details how the distribution of searches varies throughout the year.
- Search volumes predictions
Search volume predictions can affect your keyword research. For example, in the information technology industry, new terminologies are constantly being created and others becoming obsolete. Volume predictions can sometimes be identified by global search volumes and global search trends. An indication of how search volumes may vary can be obtained with the tools mentioned above (Google Insights and keyword tool).
See below some example of terms that show increase in Google trends, and have high search volumes worldwide but not yet in Australia:
Google Insights worldwide results for "cloud computing"
Google traffic results for "cloud computing" in Australia
Google Insights results for "mobile seo" worldwide
Google Traffic results Australia for the keyword "mobile seo"
Keep in consideration the global trends especially in similar markets; this might give you an indication on how search trends will develop in the near feature.
- British and American spelling dilemma
In the English language, there are a variety of terms that vary according to the British or American spelling. Surprisingly enough there are quite a lot of words that have American spelling but that are highly searched in the Australian market.
See some of the example below:
It is important to not underestimate search volumes around the spelling variation of search terms as they may be commonly used in other markets. Similarly other words belonging to other languages such as French or Spanish might suffer from the same dilemma.
Posted by Raffaella Bronzi on 8 February 2010 at 11:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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21 January 2010
The Zone of Acceptance
One of the most successful ways we use search engine optimisation to improve pages here at Bruce Clay is by providing content recommendations for each keyword. We do this quite a lot, and are pleasantly surprised by how this procedure can dramatically improve rankings.
Photo by Iain Farrell via Creative Commons |
What we try do is locate the most 'imperfect' web pages associated with the keywords we are trying to target. We then modify the pages we are trying to optimise to make them resemble the least imperfect pages we found in the first step (in terms of keyword densities and other factors).
But what I've grown to wonder is 'why does this work?' And why does one keyword recommend a spam like density and for another barely a mention on the page.
The answer has to do with what the search engine believes to be natural, and consequently the sites that lie within their zone of acceptance.
The search engine is not an expert and has no worldly experience, but the purpose of a query is to return the best sites for a particular topic. To work out who are the best sites, it makes an approximation of who the experts are, and in turns looks at its most comprehensive resource to help with the decision. This resource is its index. Making the decision of who are the best sites is based on the population within the index.
The belief is, like much of the Internet, that trust can be placed within the wisdom of the crowds. The population knows who the experts are. If a site does not match that of the general population, then it cannot be an expert. The search engines looks for common characteristics among the index, these commonalities determine the better sites and therefore the zone of acceptance.
Google's 'did you mean' option is a simple example of how this works. A misspelled search query asks Google for an answer outside the majority of the population. It sees an unnatural anomaly and looks elsewhere for what it perceives to be natural. Hence the 'did you mean'.
A site ranking for 'Sydney cricket tickets' will contain vastly different information to a site ranking for 'Sydney cricket'. The purchasing website contains a system for visitors to enter their details and buy the tickets. The research website presents a long article detailing all there is to know of Sydney cricket. So you can see how each themed site and (the keywords they ranked for) would naturally have two contrasting content specifications. The search engines know what is appropriate for each keyword.
The great advantage that our toolset offers is a quickly generated measurement of what a natural looking page is. By applying some math to the top ranking sites, a recommendation is given. So for example, one recommendation is to write the body of content with x amount of words that includes the keyword x amount of times. This is the zone of acceptance. This is what the search engine believes to be a natural fit. We know this because these figures come from the top ranking sites. By giving the content writers a natural target that the search engines are looking for, your chances of improved rankings and SEO effect are increased.
Posted by Matthew Geale on 21 January 2010 at 3:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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3 April 2009
Hitwise, Michael Wamsley on Keyword Research, SMX Sydney
Michael is the MD for Hitwise, one of the pre-eminent competitive intelligence providers in Australia. Michael will be elaborating on one of the most vital topics in SEM; Keyword research.
Search engines account for 10% of all website traffic in Australia. Google has a market share of around 83% in Australia. Facebook is the top brand searched for, while 'games' is the most searched generic term. Best case scenario for keyword research is when there is a high correlation between website terms and customer terms.
Elements to consider when trying to find the right keywords:
- Consider multiple angles
- Build the most comprehensive list from internal and external sources
- Conduct a GAP analysis
- Evaluate how effective terms are in driving traffic to your site
- Consider the Luntz factor (what you think people are searching for as opposed to what people are actually searching for)
- Consider seasonality when evaluating terms i.e. Christmas, Mother's Day etc.
- Be cognizant of changing market forces, changing behaviors and booking cycles
- Create a keyword value chart to find your longtail terms
- Avoid general terms - the more targeted the term the higher the ROI
- Put yourself in the customer's shoes when seeking keywords
- Target local markets
- Check out your competition
- Look for variations i.e. misspellings, plurals and synonyms
- Understand who is leveraging misspellings of your brand in the search engines
- In Australia it is possible to protect your brand
- Add descriptive and action words to your keywords
Ultimately its all about relevance, poor keywords reduce ROI, have a poor quality score and can effect brand reputation. Test, test, test and refine your keywords to unitl they are optimal.
Posted by Marc Elison on 3 April 2009 at 12:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Marc Elison
Kate Gamble
Martin Orliac
