An Ingenious Way to Use Wordtracker . . . that's actually easier too! (Part 2)

By Robin Nobles
Posted Wednesday, June 30, 2004

(Continued from Part 1)

Now, let's look at a "new" way to use Wordtracker, John's step-
by-step approach:

To write this article, I came up with a real-life example and I
started at step #1, just like you will do with your own site.

Let's say that your client sells aromatherapy supplies over the
Internet. Your first step is to try to determine the target
audience. Who would be buying aromatherapy supplies? One target
audience would be people with stress in their lives who want to
use aromatherapy as a way of relaxing. So, let's try that angle
and see what we come up with.

* Go to Comprehensive Search at Wordtracker
(http://www.wordtracker.com) and type in "relaxation." Click
Proceed.

* Scroll toward the bottom of the page and click on "Check boxes
off."

* Scroll back to the top, and look at the various choices.
Remember that the "Predict" column is the predicted traffic you
could expect to get for each of those keyword choices from all of
the major engines and directories in one day.

* Begin marking keyword ideas, all the while thinking of a
strategy to pull in traffic for your client's site through the
target audience.

* Scroll back to the bottom of the page and click on "Option 2:
Competitive Search."

* Choose MSN and Google, since those two engines have the
potential of bringing in a lot of traffic to most Web sites. Of
course, you can choose any two engines or directories that you'd
like. Click Proceed.

* What did we find? "Relaxation" and associated words were not
good choices, because the KEI in comparison to the projected
traffic was too low. Targeting those keywords just wouldn't have
been worth the effort for such a low amount of traffic. Keep in
mind that this is a real-life example, so this is certainly
something that could happen to you when doing this strategy
yourself.

* So, we went back to the drawing board and tried "aromatherapy."
Again, not a good example.

* Then, we tried "massage." After all, aromatherapy oils are used
when giving massages, and people who are interested in massages
would be a perfect target audience for aromatherapy supplies.

* After studying the Wordtracker results for the MSN and Google
search engines for words that include "massage," we picked the
third result, "Techniques of Massage," because it's an excellent
and appropriate angle for our client. The #1 result in MSN has a
KEI of 3696, but it wouldn't work with our client's site. You
have to be sure to choose keyword phrases that are appropriate
for your particular client's site.

At MSN, "Techniques of Massage" has a KEI of 255. Within a 24-
hour period, if your site was placed well in the MSN engine, you
could expect to get 90 visitors from MSN alone. What is your
competition? 1954.

"Techniques of Massage" in Google has a KEI of 900, 165 potential
visitors through Google alone in a 24-hour period, and
competition of only 555.

Remember that a "good" KEI is anything over 100, and an
"excellent" KEI is anything over 400.

Let's be honest here. You could manage a top 10 for this keyword
phrase with your eyes closed (and your computer turned off).

So, for our aromatherapy client, we could create a page on the
various techniques of massage, including (of course) her oils and
aromatherapy products. We would spend time on the page and give
it true value to both the engines and the target audience. And,
we would subtly add graphics and link text that points to the
client's products in various areas of the page.

John gave another example

He says, "If you're selling 'digital cameras,' don't optimize for
'digital cameras.' Did you know that everyone is searching for
'Digital Cameras Review'? Build a page offering reviews of
digital cameras, which has a KEI that just blew me away."

Another effective strategy: Top Reports

Besides Comprehensive Search, John also likes to look at the top
reports for high performance keywords or topics that are related
to his client.

John explains, "I'll review the Long Term Reports, which are the
top 1000 keywords over the past 24 hours. Then, I cut and paste
any topics related to my client into Comprehensive Search to get
streams of currently 'hot topics.' I define a hot topic as a
popular topic in high demand, which may also have lists of
related keywords phrases also in high demand."

What happens if you can't find a hot topic that relates to your
site in the top 1000?

John answers, "Many people do not know that Wordtracker offers
extensive top word reports beyond the database. All you have to
do is ask, and they'll sell you:

* The Top 20,000 words $99

* The Top 100,000 words $500

* The Top 500,000 words $2000"

Additional suggestions

* When John goes to Comprehensive Search, he doesn't put in a
huge list of keyword phrases. He types in one single word, then
lets Comprehensive Search do the rest. This allows him to come up
with ideas and angles that he would have never considered before.

* Like John, spend a lot of time thinking of your target
audience. Who are you trying to sell the products or services to?
There may be several target audiences, as in the case of our
aromatherapy example. If so, go after keyword choices to target
each of those audiences.

* Don't be afraid to let your creativity take hold. If your first
few choices don't work, continue trying. Using Comprehensive
Search, it doesn't take long to go back through the system with a
different keyword idea. Keep going back until you find a
possibility that might work for your site or the site of a
client.

* Be sure to give the surfer what they're looking for when they
choose your site from the search results. If you promised them
"techniques of massage," then be sure to give them good, solid
content in that area, including related links. Weave your
products and services throughout the page as you can. But, don't
ever try to trick a surfer.

* If you get stuck and just can't find a keyword phrase with a
high KEI and a low level of competition that will work for you,
take a slightly different approach. Instead of trying to bring in
a large amount of traffic through one single window, try creating
several windows and bring in a little traffic through each one.
Though more time consuming, this strategy can be equally
effective in the long run.

* If you aren't already a member of Wordtracker
(http://www.wordtracker.com), sign up for the free trial and test
the system out for yourself. Pricing is very reasonable,
depending on your needs. For example, you can use the service for
a week for $19.94, and many other plans are available.

The bottom line is this: if you are serious about your Web site,
you've got to be serious about keyword choice. If you're serious
about keyword choice, Wordtracker is a "must have" service for
you.

About the Author
Robin Nobles is the Director of Training of the Academy of Web
Specialists (http://www.academywebspecialists.com), where she has
trained several thousand people in her online courses in search
engine marketing strategies (http://www.onlinewebtraining.com).
She also teaches 3-day "hands on" search engine marketing
workshops in locations across the globe with Search Engine
Workshops (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com).