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Article:
Wordtracker Wisdom: Common keyword questions and Answers by: John Alexander One of my favorite subjects to teach on at our live SEO Mastery Workshops is that of keyword research and the behavior of a specific target audience using my all time favorite research tool, Wordtracker. For those who have not heard of, Wordtracker it is a Web based service that will help you discover which keywords and phrases will be most effective for attracting the right audience to your Web site. Not only that, but the service also tells you how competitive your keywords are (or how many other competing Web pages have been optimized with those keywords in mind) plus how many people have actually searched for those keywords in the past within the last 60 days on the major search engines. Wordtracker can be used for even more powerful things than just 'researching keywords.' I'll be revealing much more in the future about the impact of researching 'visitor behavior' vs. keywords QUESTION: What is one of the more common mistakes made by new SEO students who are just learning how to research keywords? ANSWER: One common error that some people make (both new and experienced) when researching keywords, is they tend to have a lot of preconceived keyword phrases in their minds. While this may not seem like a bad idea, the fact is that people sometimes spend hours, days, and even weeks researching hundreds of keywords only to be disappointed in the end when many of the keywords they've chosen, turn out to not have any real pulling power to attract the right traffic. There are many keywords which are just too competitive or worse, some words are not even being searched for. For success you want a keyword phrase that is at least being used by your target audience and ideally, it'll be a phrase with low competition. Wordtracker has tremendous ability to deliver up extraordinary niche keyword phrases which are in high use by a given target audience and sometimes even with zero competition. I'll be sharing much more about exactly how you can tap into these ideal phrases and how you can do it nearly instantly without spending hours or weeks of research. QUESTION: What do you mean by the term researching the target audience's 'behavior?' Is that not what Web analytics software like Webtrends does? ANSWER: No, Web analysis software generally tells you about the behavior of visitors within your Web site after they have found you. I am talking about the importance of researching your ideal target audiences behavior long before they ever find your Web site. Wordtracker has tremendous potential to reveal clues as to what your target audience *really* wants or what they might be looking for. QUESTION: I have searched Wordtracker's report of 'most searched for phrases' but I can only find one appropriate keyword phrase? I want more. How do I get more good phrases? ANSWER: Here are just a few quick tips: 1. Take the one phrase or keyword you found and enter it into 'Comprehensive Research' and click Proceed. That should bring out a variety of phrases that are related to the same subject. (I'll be sharing much more on this in the future) 2. Apply a little more lateral thinking about who your target audience is and research a little more about how they may be searching. Thinking 'outside the box' mixed with Wordtracker's comprehensive search can be powerful. 3. If you can't find enough gold in the top 1000 'most searched for' phrases you are not thinking laterally enough. It is there, we just need practice learning how to tap into it. But for the sake of argument, if you could not find ANY keywords within the top '1000
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