Free SEO Keyword Research Resources Beyond the Basics

1. 76

   Butch Toolposted 9 years ago

   Hello, dear fellows,
   
   I am hoping that someone with more experience may be able to direct me to any free resources that will help me learn how to become an SEO master. Primarily, I want to learn how to do in-depth keyword research to pick great niches to write about that have a high payment on AdSense but low competition for ranking purposes. I currently know the basic concepts of using Google AdWords keyword tools to see suggested keywords, average monthly search volume, and suggested bid amount. However, I am uncertain how to determine what the real competition is like and what my odds of ranking with a high quality article would be. I see a lot of references to paid products that check the page rank or "juice" (not totally sure what this means) of the top 10 or so Google results for a particular keyword, but I would really like to find a free tool to utilize while I am starting to learn. I have also seen suggestions to use allintitle:keyword to judge competition, but I am still not sure how to use this result to determine how hard it would be for me to rank in that category. Sure, it should show those sites more SEO targeted for the niche and reduce the results, but it seems like most people will be searching with a regular search instead. So, doesn't that mean that the results from a regular search should mean far more? I would really appreciate any help I can get with regard to this topic. Please let me know if you have any good free resources.
   
   Thanks,
   Butch Tool

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   1. 78

      LeanManposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Tools in my mind have limited value as they are all based on someones opinion as to what constitutes a good page based on ranks, links and other factors when the best method in my mind is to just go take a look.. No one knows for sure what makes up the 200 plus factors that Google uses to rank a page and it changes all the time - what you can usually easily judge however is if your page is going to be better than what is already out there.....
      If all you are going to do is regurgitate what others have already written then why should your page rank? You have to add more value to the readers than what is already ranking.
      You also have to build trust - so if your competition is already a bunch of well placed trustworthy authority sites then you are going to have to do a ton of work to ever get a chance of ranking. Why should Google place a page from an author on hubpages for instance if they already have a bunch of highly specialized sites ranking. This does not however mean that you can't do it - but it will be extra tough....
      The best way is always in my mind to actually go look at the pages that are there and just decide if you can do better....... and be honest with yourself regarding the answer... If you cannot add anything to what is already being said or say it in a better way then why does the internet need your page?

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   2. 57

      swetasingh513posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Free SEO Keyword Research tool is Google Adword

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2. 76

   Butch Toolposted 9 years ago

   I definitely do want to always provide high quality content. I suppose part of what I need to learn is what pages can be beaten. Say, for example, that the top 10 results for a long tail keyword contain several main brand product pages and a couple pages that are more geographically targeted with the keyword but not a main brand. Will a hubpage be able to beat these? I mean, an article full of content will give a lot more informational value than a product description to sell a product, but will informational content matter when put against actual brand sales pages? I think understanding the competitiveness of pages and how to measure the potential to rank with my own pages is what I really need to find resources to learn. I understand there is probably a pretty huge learning curve to this requiring a lot of learning from experience, but I would really appreciate some kinds of resources to help guide me.

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   1. 78

      LeanManposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Its not just the competitiveness of the page - you have to consider the intent of the person making the search.. Generally when someone types in a product name they are looking to buy it - so google will send the searcher pages where they can buy it not to a gateway page on hubpages or any other site. So think about what the searcher really wants when they use the keywords...

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3. 76

   Butch Toolposted 9 years ago

   I can understand that reasoning. If the keyword includes "buy" or "shop", I would imagine the product pages would definitely be given more of a priority in the results. It seems like it is harder to know for sure when the keyword is just describing the thing in question. Seems like some people could be interested in finding out more about the product on pages that aren't just sales pages. Is it just trial and error and learning from experience that helps you learn whether people are interested in information about a certain keyword or not? If all of the top 10 page results for a keyword term are commercial sales sites, does that mean it is a completely no-go niche to aim for?

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4. 97

   susi10posted 9 years ago

   What a great question!
   
   Probably, the best keyword research guide out there is this, from Brian Dean: http://backlinko.com/keyword-research
   
   I've just written a book on SEO, but that's self promoting isn't it? (It's called "SEO Success", look it up on Amazon).
   
   To summarise on keyword research, find keywords that get decent search volume and have little competition in the Google rankings. Then, you've got yourself a real winner.

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   1. 86

      TIMETRAVELER2posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      You might also want to check out an article by Writer Fox that deals exclusively with how to best use SEO techniques.  You can find it on his profile page.

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5. 76

   Butch Toolposted 9 years ago

   Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I will definitely check them out. I am working my computer's memory like crazy from opening up so many different tabs to check various resources. A lot of sites I find end up being nothing but pages that funnel you into buying products (SEO guides and services) without really giving you any detailed information. It is super hard to find detailed, free information that is actually useful. Here's a specific question that would be quite useful: what is the expected page rank and page authority of a well-written hubpage with a strong usage of researched keywords? Knowing the level of rating that is attainable would really help when comparing competitors for a given keyword (I have now installed some toolbars for Firefox that allow me to see the page rank and page authority of sites). If the page rank usually doesn't surpass a 2-3 for hubpages, then I imagine it would be wise to only target keywords where there are sites with page ranks of 0-2 in the top 10 google search results. Does this sound like a solid guideline? If there are 2-3 sites in the last 10 results for a given keyword with a page level of 2, is that a good term to design a hubpage around?

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   1. 78

      LeanManposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      The pagerank that you will see is VERY out of date and does not reflect the actual pagerank that is used by Google....
      Page rank is reflective of the links coming into the page and not a direct measure of the quality of the page itself.
      Relying on pagerank or any other numeric measure of a page is flawed...

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      1. 76

         Butch Toolposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Do you feel that page authority, number of back-links, and other such metrics are all not valuable in modern day keyword competition research and analysis, or are you just referencing the page rank brand of metrics in certain research toolbars in particular? Do you base your strategy on manually viewing the content of the top 10 sites for a keyword instead of using any type of metrics? I feel like there must be a huge learning curve for figuring out how to manually rate pages in this manner.

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         1. 97

            susi10posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I still think PageRank is important when measuring the competition of sites in the rankings. Sites with a low PR usually are easier to surpass in the rankings and sites with a high PR (4,5,6) are a lot more difficult, if not impossible to surpass.
            
            I don't think that measuring PageRank of sites is a flawed method. If their content wasn't good, they wouldn't be getting all those links in the first place. And since Google got rid of the sites that were buying links from link farms and buying spamming software, I think that PR is the most relevant metric still.
            
            It's what made Google what it is today.

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            1. 76

               Butch Toolposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks for your input. I feel that having some numbers to compare sites in some way is going to inevitably be more valuable than not having any data. I am curious as to how someone goes about assessing competition if they don't use any metrics at all.

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         2. 76

            Paul Maplesdenposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Many of those areas *are* still important, but the algorithm mix for Google is being updated all of the time. I expect that we'll see several more changes when 'Mobile optimized search' hits in April.
            
            According to the yearly SearchMetrics report  - http://www.searchmetrics.com/knowledge- … g-factors/ - (which looks at hundreds of thousands of webpages and search queries), the main factors that influence placement on search results pages are (in descending order):
            
            - Click through rate (how likely a user is to click on your result)
            - Relevant terms (keywords) on website
            - Number of backlinks
            - Quality of backlinks
            - % 'nofollow' backlinks

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            1. 76

               Butch Toolposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Thank you for the great information. I totally understand the first four methods with regard to providing the searcher with the desired results. However, what is the thought process behind them using the % of "nofollow" backlinks? Do they think that natural link building will inevitably show up in "nofollow" forums a certain amount vs. other locations? It seems like that could really vary via topic.

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6. 60

   jootavootafanposted 8 years ago

   there are multiple keyword research tool as a free such as google keyword planner tool which is provide actual data regarding keywords.  i will prefer to use google keyword planner tool for keyword research for basic.

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7. 58

   Asher143posted 8 years ago

   Well GKP always provide you with a dull list of keywords, the very same list it provides to your competitors.
   One tick is there you can do to get traffic and ranking higher. Hacking GKP to know the underground keywords for which your competitor is ranking on top of search results. You should put web link of your competitor's site and let keyword planner give you a unique list of potential keywords. Using these keywords will really help you to rank and get the reasonable amount of traffic.

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