I need some keyword advice.

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   susi10posted 10 years ago

   Hi all. I just started this thread because I need some advice on choosing keywords. Sometimes when selecting keywords, I choose the keywords with about 200 global searches a month but not much competition. This is good and I rank very well for those keywords but I feel that I don't get enough traffic from them. Should I start trying to rank for keywords with global searches in the tens of thousands but with higher competition with the likes of ehow and wikihow? Would I be able to rank on the first page for let's say a keyword with 3,000 searches per month with 2 articles from eHow and Wikihow. Thanks for your help!

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      Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Personally, I wouldn't target anything which didn't get at least 5,000 searches a month unless there's another reason for wanting it online.  Most of the phrases I target have 10,000 or more searches a month and some have tens of thousands.

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         susi10posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for your response, Writer Fox.
         I have a PageRank of 3 right now, so would I get on Page 1 or 2 for keywords with about 10,000+ searches?

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            Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            The PageRank of your Hub (not your Profile) is a strong ranking factor but there are 200 factors which Google uses to determine which webpages to rank for each search query.  There is no way of predicting with certainty how a Hub will rank.  Use the best SEO and SEO content writing guidelines, check out the competition, get some backlinks if you can, and see what happens.

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            Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            I think you may be confusing PageRank and where your Hubs rank in search engines. They're two completely different things. 
            
            Also, if you're looking at the 'competition' column in the Google keyword tool, don't.  It tells you how much competition there is for advertising on those keywords.  If competition is high, advertisers will have to pay more for an ad.  So high competition can be good, because it means the ads will be paying more per click - but otherwise, it's not much help to you. It's certainly not telling you how much competition you face from other writers. 
            
            I was always told to go for kewyords with searches of around 2,000 to 4,000 a month.  There are thousands of writers out there, trying to make a living online,  They're all going for the big 10,000+ topics and you'll struggle to compete unless you're good at SEO, backlinking, social networking, and all the rest.  Go for the low-hanging fruit which writers like WriterFox ignore, and you can carve out a nice little niche for yourself.

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               Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               I don't know who gave you this advice, but a keyword phrase with only 4,000 searches a month will yield about 1,320 click throughs if the Hub ranks #1 for the query, which it probably won't.  With a Hubber's ad displayed 60% of the time, it's not even enough to get one CPM payment a month.  Not worth targeting in my book for the time involved.  It takes just as much time to target a phrase which has real monetary potential than one which doesn't.

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                  DrMark1961posted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Okay, but I wrote a hub on a keyword that showed up as 3600 per month, and it now gets about 10,000 page views per month.
                  If I only wrote based on that rule, I would probably have about a dozen hubs.

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                     Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     That Hub is probably ranking for many keyword phrases you didn't purposely target.  That's great. Were you using the new Keyword Planner or the old tool?

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                        DrMark1961posted 10 years agoin reply to this

                        The old tool. The new Keyword tool from Google does not give the same sort of results. What are you using?

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                           Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                           We are all using the new planner now.  It's too much to go into here, but the new planner and the traffic numbers are very different than the old tool.  It would be interesting for you to see what traffic numbers are showing now with the new planner. (Be sure to click on the expanded view, too.)

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                              DrMark1961posted 10 years agoin reply to this

                              It shows up as 880 searches per month, and less if more specific.
                              Based on those numbers, I might not have bothered to write that hub, but the subject interested me so I wanted to look up some more info, and I picked up the images from flickr.

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                              DrMark1961posted 10 years agoin reply to this

                              I also just checked on keyword eye, just to see how it works, and it showed up as 2900 searches per month.
                              (Some of the dog breeds listed are unusual, so maybe Google is driving people there when they search for those breeds.)

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                                 Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                                 You can go to your Webmaster Tools account and find out what search queries are sent to your Hub.

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                                 susi10posted 10 years agoin reply to this

                                 Thanks for your insight, DrMark. I guess what we can all learn from your experience is that a hub could do great even if it has less than a thousand searches on Google.

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                                    DrMark1961posted 10 years agoin reply to this

                                    Most of them do not, but when I am working on a subject like heartworm disease or hip dysplasia/arthritis, I find them a pleasure to put together even if they do not get many page views.
                                    The hubs on dog breeds take longer to put together, but some of them are successful (like the one I mentioned), most of them do okay but not that great.
                                    If you work in an area you are interested in, and do not chase keywords that have a very high number, you will probably write a lot more. Most of them will not have great numbers, but you will rack up good numbers anyway.

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                              younghopesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                              I am unable to understand the keyword planner, what's the basic way of searching keywords on this.? Please tell

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                                 Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                                 There are many videos on YouTube which explain how to use this.  Go to YouTube and type 'Keyword Planner' in their search box.

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                                    younghopesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                                    Thanks i will do so

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                  Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  You're assuming that you're only going to have one keyword phrase in the Hub, which wouldn't be the case.

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                  susi10posted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  It is still worth targeting in my view, Fox. Coming #1 for a 4,000 word search query would be excellent for my traffic. Let's say I would get 2,000 click-throughs for that ranking. 2,000 / 30 = 67 views a day. Now, that would really drive my traffic up! I just have to find the right phrase to do so.

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               susi10posted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Marisa,
               Thank you for your advice. I have been told by The Keyword Academy that if your website domain has a strong Page Rank, for instance 3 or 4, you will have much better chances of ranking past your competitors in the SERP's. I really don't know if that is very true but Google is changing its algorithms all the time so PR may not be a huge factor any more.

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      Barbara Kayposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I'd try for more than 200 searches for sure. Look at the sites that rank first. Can you beat their content. If they are authority sites, you are going to have a hard time beating them.  Youtube videos are hard to beat too, because Google owns Yahoo.
      
      3000 doesn't sounds alright to me, but I'd like to hear what others are saying about it.

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         Barbara Kayposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I meant Google owns Youtube. I'm surprised no on caught this.

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            susi10posted 10 years agoin reply to this

            I was going to mention it, but it was just a typo so no harm done Barbara. Thanks for your advice, Youtube videos always come out on top no matter what so any topic with a LOT of YouTube Videos should be steered clear from.

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      The Examiner-1posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      susi10,
      I use three+ words, or phrases, instead of single words and I compare at least 3 phrases to see which ranks the highest. Sometimes if I am not sure I test it/them on Google - or more than one search engine. I hope that this helps.

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         susi10posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks The Examiner, that is what I do sometimes as well. For some reason, I am getting some writer's block. I need more ideas, but they just aren't coming. Hopefully, inspiration will strike soon.

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            The Examiner-1posted 10 years agoin reply to this

            susi10,
            How about things like "before clocks there were" or "how the sun kept time".
            Just to get you thinking.

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               susi10posted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks so much for your ideas, you have really got me thinking!
               Hmm...I have some things to write about now. Off I go! Thanks again!

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                  The Examiner-1posted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  You are welcome, glad to help. I wish you good luck.

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      Susana Sposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I'm going to give you another angle. 200 searches per month is very low, but if that phrase is part of cluster of phrases you want to rank for then it can be a useful addition.
      
      What I'm trying to say is, find a topic you want to write on, do the keyword research and competitor research - then if you feel you have a good chance, aim to write at least 5 pages on that topic, with each page focusing on a different phrase - go for a range of traffic potentials including high, medium, and if necessary, low. Then interlink the hubs properly. 
      
      With a little luck you can build up some author authority and subdomain trust with this approach.

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         susi10posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you Susana for sharing your tips. I really appreciate your help. Building a niche of 4 to 5 pages seems like a good idea. I was thinking of building a niche on "sundials" since I am writing a hub on them at the moment. What do you think of that niche?

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            The Examiner-1posted 10 years agoin reply to this

            I do not know about anyone else but I think that this is the right time for it.

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               susi10posted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Really?

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                  The Examiner-1posted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  That was a hint. I was using a keyword. 'Time'.

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   ravenrage07posted 10 years ago

   What I always do is just take the subject matter I am going to write about and type into Google what I would type in for that topic if I was looking. Basically like this. If I'm writing a hub about a video game console I'll Google "Video game Console" and see what the suggestions are. Then I base my title and key wording off of that. Works pretty well I have had about 300 views in the last 30 days (which is a lot for me)

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      younghopesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Ravenrage, evven i do the same thing. i type the word for example "beach wedding hairstyle" in google and see the results but somewhere i read that i should also write-allintitle before this i.e allintitle:"beach wedding hairstyle" and then see the exact results. Is this right?

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