Keyword selection process and tools - #seopodcast 121

Hi, and welcome to the SEO Podcast, Unknown Secrets of Internet Marketing. First time, got it right then, Tom. Boom, yes, it's a good day. Maybe it's because we start so early. So unbelievably early, 9.15, normally. Central Standard Time. My name is Chris Burris, owner of VWebStyle. I'm Charles Lewis, your internet marketing specialist. Welcome to another fun-filled edition of the SEO Podcast, Unknown Secrets of Internet Marketing. This is podcast number 121. 121? Yeah, 121. That's why I feel so balanced already. Got that nice balance. The tip from the last podcast is on my office desk. It's really good. I can't remember. Yeah, I see you're trying to pull it, or you can't pull it. Yeah, I was hoping I could get it. Anyway. I'll go post that later. We'll post that on our Facebook page. By the way, you can find our Facebook page, facebook.com slash eWebStyle. Twitter page, twitter.com slash eWebStyle. YouTube page, youtube.com slash eWebStyle. And our email is podcast at e-webStyle.com. What can you do on our website that's kind of fun and exciting? You can go to our website and fill out an analysis. First thing you can do. Fill out that analysis. It'll come to us. I'll personally analyze your website, or Chris may do it. And I will tell you what's right with it, what's wrong with it, how you can improve it. And then give it back to you in a form of a video that you can retain and use it to keep updating your website. The only thing I ask is that if we do it, because it is free, that you shout back at us, let us know what you thought about it. Did it work for you? And keep us informed. Okay, so normally we talk about reviews that we have. And I came in this morning and I was excited as hell because I literally read four reviews last night that new reviews on iTunes. And I came in this morning, pull up iTunes. No reviews. Shout out to the SEO kid. He's watching

right now. What do we shout out? Oh, punch in the face. Punch in the face to the SEO kid. He's watching right now because he said he did a review. And so we can't find a review. We was going to punch in the face and read the review, but for some reason iTunes is not showing it. It's making me a little suspect here because the first three podcasts, when you search for SEO and then... Yeah, Aaron's watching. So he's the one who brought up product placement. So, yeah, Coke this time. And so I totally lost my train of thought. By God. My bad. Like, woo! You're talking about the reviews. Oh, yeah. So all the reviews that are above us, you go to iTunes, search SEO, click on show all podcasts, and we're usually like fourth or fifth. You go look at the podcasts that are ahead of us, their reviews suck, and they're brutally bad, or the podcasts aren't even broadcast anymore. They're old and outdated. Yeah. Yeah, so now... Still stagnant and stiff. Ooh, yeah. So now I'm thinking, why is iTunes keeping us in position four or five, and now our reviews have disappeared? By the way... Is this personal? Come on, Apple. Don't act like that. Look, I'm a MacBook user. I'm an iPod user. You know, come on. We won't talk about phones. He is a MacBook user and an iPod user. I'm an Android user for my phone. Yeah, like, tech is like drugs. I'm an Android user. Yeah. Shoot me up. And you're looking to upgrade the phone, right? Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to upgrade. All right, so we got a little bit of news. Do not forget, I have to write this down because I forget to mention it to you. We are your friendly, local, neighborhood, top position... Snatchers. Snatchers, where our mantra is, don't be a douche. It's not a good look. So here's... I just saw this article, and I thought just the title of it was awesome. Why Windows 08 is not an

iOS copycat. Why Windows 08 is not an iOS copycat. Like, you have to write an article about the fact that the Microsoft product is not a copy of the Apple's operating system. I just... I didn't even bother to read it. I thought it was just a great title. We do have a link to a periodic table of HTML5 elements on our Facebook page. It's pretty cool. It pulls it up and kind of breaks it down into, you know, what aspects are key. You know, body tags, HTML tags, header tags, and then a lot of other ones behind it. So in kind of parallel news, I thought this was pretty interesting. Flash, the Flash world is about to get a little bit lonelier. Here's the quote from the article. This is from technology news, tech news world. Adobe is putting on a brave face in the wake of Microsoft's announcement Tuesday that the Metro version... By the way, what is Metro version? Is that like, is that like Metro sexual or like it's just dressed up? It's not actually better, it's dressed better. Yeah. That the Metro version of Internet Explorer in Windows 8... Oh, here we go. The one intended for tablets. Somehow that's Metro. We'll eschew plug-ins like Flash and instead use HTML5. So that periodic chart just got a little bit more important. And it makes you wonder, where's Flash headed? Well, yeah. I mean, it's a good time to, you know, Adobe was almost blank stare-ish today because of that. Yeah. You know, the whole, you know, you have to... Technology is about advancing with the times, right? And as a, with Flash being one of your core components in regards to interactive web design and different applications and even social gaming, you know, they got to step it up. Well, I think what they really need to do is figure out how to use, to create a production platform for HTML5, right? You know, HTML5 has the video components that you need to replace Flash that we, the Flash of yesteryear.

So, you know, if Adobe, you want to stay on top of that market, and you probably do, you've got great placement, just come out with a development environment so that you can develop great applications and, you know, great visual effects with HTML5, you know, as the result. That's, you know, they started that like three years ago, probably. Hopefully. Yeah, and then I saw this one. Microsoft has announced that they have user adaptive search. This is kind of just a parallel to, like, Google's, the fact that they know what you're searching, they show you what they think you're interested in seeing. Yeah, similar to probably the related searches on the Bing search results page. Yep, exactly. And then this is one other thing. Dean Calhoun, our boy Dean Calhoun, punch in the face to you. Thanks for always contributing. He actually put a link to a blog, an article on our Facebook page. It was, he said, this blog, apparently, this article was apparently written for you guys. It's how to create a blog that punches people in the face. Wow. Wow. So, I mean, that could, that could say, that could have our name on it. Yeah. So, that's it. That's our news. That's, that's our, like I said, we're, hopefully next time we'll have our four reviews. You know, typically when we don't have a review, I tattoo a tear on my face. Oh, you, yeah. Then I came in today and I erased one. Because, like, four in a row is worth erasing one. And then they were gone. So, like, I added three. Yeah, I was going to say, so do you add three? Okay, cool. All right, well, last week we talked about, we talked about keyword research. You know, why you should do it. We gave some tools away from doing it. So, today I wanted to kind of continue on that trend and really talk about process. The process for even doing keyword research. Like, what should you be doing? How do you do it? And, of course, this

is a topic that we could probably do eight podcasts on. So, we're not going to do that. I'll probably cover some SEO keyword research today, maybe PPC keyword research next time. And then, that horse is dead. And so, but one of the things that I... By the way, just before we get started, I know we talked about keywords last time. Just to reiterate, you know, a lot of people say content is king. There's certainly validity to that. A lot of people talk about linked use and PR and the importance of those things. We've talked about, you know, there's so many aspects of SEO. All of your aspects of SEO are totally wasted if you are focusing on the wrong keywords. You know, if your goal is to just get in the first page of Google, frankly, it's easy. We've done it. Go Google blue one-armed widget. You'll find us. I think you'll probably find top three pages are related to us somehow. Now, getting on the first page is easy. Getting on the first page for terms that are relevant to you and terms that turn into business for you. Yeah, terms that convert. Terms that convert, you know, it's, well, frankly, it's easy. Also, for us, you know, follow the rules that we have in this podcast. And it's a little bit more difficult. So, frankly, if you're brand new to SEO and you got your page immediately on the first page of Google, you really might want to visit the keywords that you're using. Yeah. Because there should be some challenges for a newbie in getting some words that have a decent ROI onto the first page of Google. You're going to have to stop drinking Coke products on the air. Yeah. Because it creates gas. Yeah. And so I'm over here holding bilchers because I don't want to just ruin it for everybody who's watching. Yeah, isn't there some way they do? They have to have an on-air way to, like, turn it off. Turn it back on. Hey, hit us up

and let us know what you think of our new mics. These are our wireless mics. You will notice the nice lapel mics. Actually, go to our Facebook page. We've got some good pictures of the mics in action last time. Thanks to Nick for taking those for us and getting those on. And there's a little video, actually, so you can see a behind-the-scenes video in HD. I should have put the unboxing video up. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, of our mic, yeah. When they came in. That would have been awesome. So, like people say in real estate, location, location, location. What we say in Internet marketing is keywords, keywords, keywords. Exactly. So, when doing keyword research, you know, one of the things you want to do first is at least start a baseless. Start a baseless, something small. I mean, depending on the size of your site and who your target is, your baseless should probably contain in between 10 and 15 phrases. And to be all honest, three or four of those should probably be highly competitive. And the other ones should be long-tail phrases that convert well. And I would start with those bass and then spin off from there. Some of the things you would, how do you get that baseless? Right, I got some notes on my Android. Android, Coke, man, you need to start paying us. I'm great. But anyway. And, oh, by the way, I do want to mention this. One of the reviews that I read last night that has mysteriously disappeared, Apple, we expect a return. Remember we had, where are my links at? Right? Because Google, like, our links just disappeared one day. Where are my links? Where are my reviews at? Really. Like, where are my reviews at? Because I read them. I have a witness. My wife heard me read them and actually laughed once or twice. So, we want our reviews back. One of those reviews was from the hair product, Google analysis. Oh, really? She wanted to post a dietitual review? Yeah, yeah. So,

we have another. Punch in the face to, oh, I'm sorry. I can't think of your name right now. Style, innovative. Style illusions. Style illusions. Style illusions dot com. So, she wrote a review that's disappeared. That's what's up. She wrote the review because she received a copy of the video we did of her website analysis, which is going to be a podcast soon. That's going to be our Unknown Secrets of CIVO Website Analysis. CIVO, of course, stands for Search Engine Visitor Optimization. So, look for that coming soon. And, you know, I was excited that she actually hit us up. It's kind of this cross-promotion between the other podcast we're working on and this particular podcast. So, thank you out there, Style Illusions. Yeah, so we're talking about a base list, right? And so, the thing is, how do you determine what keywords should go in that base list? I mean, from a novice perspective, it's easy to just think that, you know, I do plumbing in Houston, and so I should target Houston Plumber, right? Which is one of the most competitive key phrases out, and it may not be the best target for what you want to do. Instead, you probably want to focus on some of the services you offer. For example, if you did, you know, water heater repair or, you know, faucet maintenance or something of that nature, then you would want to target Houston Water Heater Repair or Houston Water Heater Replacement. These are those long-tail phrases that tend to have more value. And then even when we talked about terms that convert, let's think about what type of water heater repair you do, right? Maybe you do tankless water heater repair, and then in this case, you add tankless to your phrase. It's going to be easier to rank for it, and whoever searches that is more likely to be in a purchasing decision and not simply window shopping or doing some research and things like that. Gas water heater, electric water heater repair. Exactly. And so, and then also

talk to your clients. If you've got clients coming in and they happen to find you online, ask them what they searched or listen to the language they use when you're dealing with them. They'll give you keys as to what they would search for. And, of course, you know, use your analytics. Yeah. Analytics will tell you which keywords brought people to the site, when they searched, and everything else. If you're doing pay-per-click, it's a great way to figure out what words you should be probably optimizing for. If they cost a lot, the high-value word, and it tends to generate conversions, then you definitely want to consider optimizing for their word. One caution about using analytics, if you're just using existing Google Analytics on your existing site, which hasn't been keyword optimized, you'll be getting traffic most likely from terms that aren't actually your target terms. Exactly. So just don't use the terms that give you traffic to kind of base your focus on. Just think about are those terms the terms that people who are ultimately going to purchase from me, are those the terms that those kinds of people would use? Yeah. So, secondly, I'll talk about expanding that list. Once you get this final list of keywords, you know, what do you do with it? Expand it. But when I say expand, I mean spin off some different phrases. What I like to do is I'm best friends with the Google Keyword Tool, especially when I'm logged in. It just gives me great results. And so I'll usually open up a spreadsheet. And one way you can find this, even if you don't have an AdWords account, you can just Google Keyword Selector Tool. The external Keyword Tool, yeah. And that'll give you a lot of information. What it doesn't give you, though, is it doesn't give you estimated cost per click. Yeah. You've got to be signed in for that. It doesn't give you estimated CPC, and it only gives you 50 results. But if you're signed in, you get the CPC, and

you get, you know, all of the results. More results than you want. So, yeah, exactly, because most of them, yeah. But anyway, so I use that tool, and I'll go in and I'll put each keyword in there, and then kind of scroll down the list, which ones that it may come up with that I haven't thought of. Right. Select those, put those on a separate column on the spreadsheet. Right. Another tool that I've been using lately is Google Instant. Oh, yeah. You know, put the keyword in Google and look at the instant results. It'll tell you things that people have been searching before. Yep. Most popular terms. I mean, things that people have been searching before. Yeah. You know, so there's apparently people looking for these sort of phrases, so take those. And the same thing with Yahoo. Yahoo has, it's called Yahoo Search Assistant. Same thing, and it was actually out before Google Instant, but same exact concept. Right. You type phrases, and then the box pops open, and it gives you suggestions. So I'll do those, compare those with the terms that I got from the Google Keyword Tool and the terms I've already came up with, and then start narrowing my list down. That's how you expand your keyword list. Last thing I put on here is organize the list. Now that you have this keyword list, what do you do with it? You know, in regards to optimizing your site, one of the things I put was look at your site map. Right. You know, figure out what pages on the site you have and which one of these pages you'll be optimizing for. For example, we talked about the water heaters. Yeah. You have to determine those services. That really says, that speaks about target a particular page or a particular, potentially group of keywords, if it's highly competitive for a particular keyword. This is a little different than just a specific landing page. Yeah, a lot different. Yeah, maybe you've got a five-page website and it doesn't have any

relevant content to, let's do Houston Lighting Installer. So you actually need to make a page for Houston Lighting Installer. And kind of the old school landing page concept was, let's just make this page, it'll link to the rest of my site, but the rest of my site won't link to it. That causes some problems, actually, because it affects your actual ranking of that page. Google gives you a relevancy ranking, which can affect the cost of your pay-per-click. You end up paying more if Google doesn't see that page as highly valuable to the Google user in general. Yeah, your quality score. Yeah, your quality score. So what we tend to do is take those five pages, and let's just assume that's what we're working with, and choose one of those pages and say, we're going to take this page or actually add another page to your website. So now instead of a five-page website, you have a six-page website. It's integrated into the website entirely. In fact, there are internal in-text links and the rest of the site linking there, let's say Houston Lighting Installation, and link to that page. Now it's more relevant, and it's going to do better on pay-per-click. So it's a landing page, but it's actually part of the website. It's not just an old school landing page with no target. Yeah, one of the things you said that I also had on here was how you group those keywords. Right. So using the water heater repair, we may, on your sitemap, you may have a page dedicated to water heater repair. When you go through your keyword list and you realize, okay, on this page, you know, you really don't want to target more than two or three phrases per page. One, really, if you have that many pages and that much content, but usually two or three. And so, you know, if we had a water heater repair page, then on that page we'd target, you know, with probably H1 for tankless water heaters, right, repair, and then, you know,

200, 300 words with that phrase. And then another header tag, probably an H2 with gas water heater repair, you know. And so that page will be optimized for tankless water heater repair, water heater repair itself, because water heater repair is inside the phrase tankless water heater repair, you know, and the same thing for gas. And so definitely, once you get your keywords, figure out which pages on your site you want to optimize for. That'll also help you determine if you need more content, if you need to create more pages, which kind of, you know, is one of the benefits we talked about at that presentation we had. Right. Punch in the face, the action coach. Yeah, action coach, Bart DeHune. Thank you. One of the benefits to having a company, right, that does your internet marketing and your website. Right. Is the fact that if you tell us you want to target these terms and we're building your site, then we have the authority to go in and create the additional pages you may need, rather than just optimizing the current site you already have, and we don't have too much control over what goes on a page and how it lands and everything else. Exactly. So that's the most important part I have right here for keyword research for SEO. We'll cover pay-per-click next time. Yeah, I think that's a great list. Again, keywords, keywords, keywords. I don't know if this went long. I didn't notice what time we started, so I don't know if this is a short podcast, long podcast. It is a great podcast. You had to do the whole thing for that? Oh, yeah. You can't, without your ninja stance, you can't be great podcast. You can't say great without... No blank stare, man. No blank stare. No blank stare? I'm pretty sure there's tons out there. I've just been extremely busy and hadn't had time to find any blank stare. Don't hone in on a particular blank stare. All right. Well, you guys, you know, sorry. No charge this

time. No blank stare today. For the lack of blank stare. I don't know how that works. You guys have been listening to the most popular SEO podcast on iTunes. That is because of you guys. You, you, and you over there. And, you know, we've got people around the world. So if you're in another part of the world, hit us up. Let us know what's going on there. Let us know how you, you know, how you appreciate our podcast. Maybe even how you found our podcast. If it's a, if it's a little different process for somebody else, for, you know, somebody in another part of the world. And, and, you know, hit us on Facebook. Hit us on Twitter. The way you write a review, and this is what we really appreciate. Go to iTunes. What is it? Create an account. Write a review. Three steps, three minutes, and take care of it. And if you want to maximize that time, get us, get on Facebook and let us know that you submitted a review with your domain name, your website, so that we can give you a little bit of link love. Link love. So, uh. Let me work on this song. Yeah. Link love. Link love. That's, yeah. An R&B SEO rapper. Like a smooth. Yeah. Yeah. Um, actually, and thanks to you, Chuck, you actually did a little SEO live, SEO rap on, uh, on Wednesday at our event with the Action Coach. So, uh, you knocked it out of the park. Everyone loved it. It was, yeah, it was awesome. But of course. All right. Thank you guys for tuning in. Until the next podcast, my name's Chris Burris. I'm Charles Lewis. Bye-bye for now.