How do you research keywords?

1. 84

   Jonathan Wylieposted 10 years ago

   What are your strategies for finding good keywords for articles, and what factors do you associate with a good keyword or keyword phrase?

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   1. 71

      literalposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Sometimes the keyword that you use in the topic is naturally used in text.  You have to be careful you don't do an overkill with that keyword, the search engines won't rank you favourably.

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2. 94

   jansharesposted 10 years ago

   How does the average searcher talk? What are the simplest words a searcher puts into a search engine?
   
   I am not the best person to impart knowledge about how to do keywords but that's how I do it. When I answer those two questions, I use those words naturally within the text and subtitles. That is my rough understanding of how it works.
   Many of my hubs don't do well (short articles or poem hubs) because I find it hard to achieve with those types of hubs. So I play with the titles and sometimes it helps. One day I'll figure out how to use the new Google keyword thingy but not pressed right now.

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3. 39

   Writer Foxposted 10 years ago

   If you want Google to send traffic to your Hubs, you have to use the Google AdWords Keyword Planner to discover the search terms people use on that search engine.  Guessing doesn't work.
   
   There are a ton of articles on how to use the Planner.  Here is a good one to read first:
   http://searchengineland.com/how-to-use- … rds-157123
   
   After you've decided which keyword terms to use, you have to put them in the right places, including your title, Description Tag (summary on HubPages), Alt Image Tags (photo captions on HubPages) and within your text.

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   1. 94

      jansharesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I miss the old one.

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      1. 39

         Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         This one is really so much better!  You just have to spend the time to learn how to use it.

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         1. 94

            jansharesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            I know. It's just so hard to take the time to sit down, read, comprehend, and apply when I'm spread all over the place. I know I'll get to it, whenever. I guess if my livelihood depended on it, I'd get to steppin' and stop whining. I still enjoy just writing hub articles cold turkey and figuring it out. Thanks for the suggestions. Your the best.

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   2. 84

      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I'm not sure I agree, for two reasons.
      
      One is that newbies usually misunderstand how to use the Adwords tool - and probably even more so now, in its new format.  In particular they misinterpret the competition column.  The result is that most newbies spend hours working on the worst possible keywords instead of the best ones!
      
      The other reason is that some of my highest-trafficked Hubs are on topics I never expected to do well.   Adwords tells you what advertisers are paying for, it doesn't tell you anything about what the latest trend is - it's always a bit behind the eight ball.  I know one very successful Hubber who used to get her keywords by hanging around WalMart and listening to what people were saying!

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      1. 94

         jansharesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         There you go.

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      2. 39

         Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Anyone can learn to use the Keyword Planner; it's not rocket science.  And there are many tutorials about its use and videos on YouTube.
         
         The keyword planner shows search volume for the past 12 months with only a 30-day delay.  The 12-month screen shows the current trend and seasonal trends.  The Planner also shows what advertisers are bidding, which will affect the CPM earnings for your Hub.

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      3. 91

         Will Apseposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         'I know one very successful Hubber who used to get her keywords by hanging around WalMart and listening to what people were saying!'
         
         This is a ref to Nelle Hoxie who produced thousands of affiliate pages, made money briefly, and was wiped out by Panda and its aftermath.
         
         She is now a Bubbler.
         
         I doubt if a very high proportion of her keywords ever came from eavesdropping. I suspect SEO software that could churn them out by the score.

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         1. 84

            Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            How many times do I have to repeat this.  Nelle Hoxie produced sales Hubs but they were over 1,000 words in length and not keyword-stuffed.  Did you ever bother to read any?   She's a good writer and provided genuinely useful information for people trying to decide what to buy.  She was not "wiped out by Panda" - there was simply no way she could meet the deadline to revise all her Hubs, and HubPages refused to give her extra time to do so (in spite of featuring her as our best-ever Hubber shortly before!!), so she deleted them.  So we'll never know whether she would have been wiped out or not.
            
            OK so you disagree with the use of large numbers of Amazon ads, but there is no need to insult a good writer who couldn't write a spammy article if she tried.  Did you ever actually read one of her Hubs?

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            1. 91

               Will Apseposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               I don't have anything against Nelle. We are all trying to make a living.
               
               It is the strange fantasies that adhere to her time here that I find hard to understand.
               
               The reality is that she made her calculations and, at the time, quantity looked like a good bet. By quantity, I mean huge numbers of pages each with huge numbers of affiliate ads.
               
               In all, she produced or commissioned around 3 thousand pages but then got caught out by Panda and the new demands for improved 'quality' demanded by HP.
               
               Her story is a great learning experience if you want to make money online.
               
               I am as puzzled by the fact that she could not adapt to the new post Panda world here (she tried hard, apparently) as I am by the lingering reverence for an online strategy that is no longer viable.

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               1. 84

                  Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  OK, then stop holding her up as the worst demon spammer in history.  That's the impression people would get from the way you describe her. 
                  
                  And I have no idea why you refer to "reverence".  Have you ever looked at my Hubs?  You seem to imagine I'm advocating spammy Hubs too.  I'm not, I'm just trying to keep a sense of proportion - whereas you seem determined to cast all affiliate advertising as the work of the devil.

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                  1. 91

                     Will Apseposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     I make money from affiliate pages because I note the failures and I note the fantasists, and I do not follow either.
                     
                     It is interesting that Len Cannon had something to say recently about eBay.
                     
                     Len actually knows how to make money, too. But of course, he was drowned out by the forum 'experts' who will never make money in any circumstances.
                     
                     Depressing.

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                     1. 84

                        Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                        The trouble is, when you offer advice to newbies, it always comes over as, "don't use affiliate ads, or the sky will fall in!".   Which always strikes me as crazy, because as you say, you do use affiliate ads yourself.

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                        1. 91

                           Will Apseposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                           What I say, consistently, is that there is a lot of money to be made using affiliate ads but you need to exercise great care in their use.
                           
                           Obviously, very few people understand this which absolutely amazes me.
                           
                           It would be wonderful if people with little practical know how stopped pretending to be experts in this forum.

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            2. 39

               Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Nelle did use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool (now known as the Keyword Planner) and probably other keyword tools to write her Hubs.  In December 2009, she had written 251 Hubs and had been on HP for nine months. She said in an interview at that time: "I don’t use keyword tools to decide on niches, I do use them to write effective sales copy." And this is what most good writers who use SEO do: first decide on a topic/subject, then find keywords.  See her interview on the HP blog from the first month she reached $1,000 on HP:
               
               http://blog.hubpages.com/2009/12/nelle- … -per-month
               
               Nelle stayed on HP until August, 2013 – well past the first release of the Google Panda algorithm which was in February, 2011 (see my Hub for info on this). Her success never came back after Panda. At one time, she had over 3,500 Hubs and claimed to make over $5,000 a month from them.  She says that she deleted all of her HP accounts not because she wasn't given enough time to make changes, but because she didn't want to make any more changes.  That's quite different from what you said.
               
               Nelle states that one of her main reasons for leaving HP was because of the revenue from 'Related Searches' AdSense ads on Hubs which is not being shared with Hubbers. She no longer wanted to share her content without a fair return of shared revenue.
               
               http://www.bubblews.com/news/927140-i-h … es-account

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4. 73

   FatFreddysCatposted 10 years ago

   I wouldn't know a good keyword from a hole in the ground. I just write about what I wanna write about and throw it out there.

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5. 53

   janderson99posted 10 years ago

   Jaaxy(dot)com is probably the best one. Keyword Research is far from an exact science and the predicted traffic and competition are the best possible scenario. Depends on host's authority.

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   1. 91

      Will Apseposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      There are hundreds of ways of finding keywords. Understanding a particular niche is the most valuable approach. Work out what readers want before they know themselves.
      
      Stuff like Jaaxy and the Adwords tool are only useful as a guestimate of likely traffic for keywords that have already caught your eye. Or for arriving at a related keyword.

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6. 69

   brakel2posted 10 years ago

   I also started using Jaaxy. Keyword Planner may help if your brain is top notch, but it requires time and study. I too like the old one. I hate to pay money for a keyword tool, and I used up my free ones. Keyword Planner requires learning step by step. I will learn it eventually. Never give up.

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7. 53

   janderson99posted 10 years ago

   For a relatively simple but effective keyword search:
   
   1. Use the autosuggest tool on Google to find a long-tail keyword phrase that is listed. This has two advantages: The phrase is listed because it is popular, and many people will use the suggestion as a short-cut to doing the search.
   
   2. Install the mozbar addon for Mozilla and Chrome - This shows Page Authority and Number of links for pages listed on Google SERPS - this is a good indication of the competition for the phrase.
   
   Example - working through "Green Tea" to narrow down to a longtail expression shows
   
   "green tea extract health benefits" is listed
   
   Jaaxy ranks "green tea extract benefits" as Good (green light) - 233 pages with the exact term - SEO power 84 out of 100. There are 9000 searches a month and the top listed page on Google can expect 1600 views per month.
   
   You can get similar information by having mozbar installed and conducting the following searches.
   
   If you go for "green tea extract health benefits" you may rank for "green tea extract benefits" but you may get No 1 spot for "green tea extract health benefits"
   
   Conducting special Google search for the term "green tea extract health benefits" (in quotes for exact)
   
   "green tea extract health benefits"
   
   68,000 pages, but apart from Amazon other competition is very low.
   
   allintitle:"green tea extract health benefits" (finds pages with the exact phrase in the title)
   310 pages - Top 3 => Page Authority very low; links average 0 => low competition
   
   allinurl:"green tea extract health benefits" (finds pages with the exact phrase in the URL)
   193 pages - Top 3 => Page Authority very low; links average 0 => low competition
   
   This site makes it easier to do allintitle and other similar searches
   http://www.gofindniches.com/autotool.html

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   1. 69

      brakel2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the suggestions, and I may become expert some day. I am slow learner, but once I get it my brain keeps it forever lol.

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   2. 91

      Will Apseposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Frankly, if you want to do real competition analysis you need to read (or at least skim) the articles on the first page of search.
      
      If the subject has been covered definitively a hundred times and there is nothing that you can offer that is fresh or new, forget it.
      
      Churning out the same info on HP is just another form of spam, likely to hurt your account and the site.

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