7 Overlooked Sources of Keyword Data

Keyword Research is an obvious first step in researching a niche for yourself or for a client. Keywords, and their results, make up the terrain of search marketing – and knowing the terrain (and who else is playing in it) helps us navigate up the mountain (and determine when the mountain is maybe too crowded to climb). Google’s AdWords Keywords tool isn’t a bad place to start, but if you’re operating in a competitive niche there isn’t much of an advantage there – even my grandma uses it (not really, my grandma still has a rotary phone, but you get the idea). Your real advantage comes from looking in places where your competitors aren’t to identify “under the radar” keywords. Here are 10 sources of keyword data that are often overlooked in the course of everyday keyword research. 1) Misspelling

Go Always One Directory Level Up in the URL with Uppity

Uppity is a FireFox extension that allows to go up one directory level in the URL of a webpage. This way it allows to do “reversed” browsing: from the deep page to the home page. How can this tool turn

Think of New Client Meetings Like a First Date

I recently had a meeting with a potential new client who operates a high-end dating service similar to Bravo TV’s The Millionaire Matchmaker .  It was one of those meetings where everything clicked.  I was just as fascinated to learn about her business as she was to learn about SEO and Internet marketing strategies.  The conversation flowed—it was more of a dance, really.  And then she stopped me in my tracks by saying, “Oh my gosh, this is just like a great first date!” I was a bit taken back at first.  I’ve been out of the dating pool for a while, so I thought I’d better ask the professional matchmaker what she meant.  As it turns out, it was a compliment (not a line that I had crossed).  She summed up her feelings about our meeting in two words: Excitement and trust. Now think back to some first dates you’ve had.  I’ll bet that most started with a good deal of excitement, but a first date can’t be great until trust is established.  Without trust there’s no cutting loose, no real connection, and no potential of a future relationship. So what’s this got to do with new client meetings? A first meeting with a potential client is no different than a first date. Well, of course there are differences (thankfully), but the same rules apply.  In fact, my own “first meeting mantra” has been a big factor in the growth and success of my consulting business.  A lot of people go for the whole enchilada in the first meeting—the business equivalent of taking a girl to dinner on the first date with the hopes that she goes home with you that night.  Sure, it happens sometimes, but expecting to close the deal in your first meeting is an unrealistic goal that will set you up for failure.  I like to think of the first client meeting as a two-step conversion process: the first goal is to establish trust and then get them excited about working with you. Five Ways to Establish

5 Google Wave Search Tips for Research, Trends & Tracking

Google Wave was officially launched in beta a couple of weeks ago and already plenty of people realize its potential usefulness. I guess most of people reading SEJ have joined the party so far (tip: I got my invite by asking on Twitter, you can do the same if you haven’t yet), so I decided to start sharing my tips on how to get the most of Google Wave. Today’s post is about using Google Wave for finding discussions related to your topic to gather more information, get inspired and track trends: 1. Public Wave Search

Run On-Page SEO and Design Diagnostics with SEJ Tools

Sometimes SEO issues are just obvious and you are well-aware of them, sometimes you need to dig a bit deeper to find them. In any case, I usually recommend to try a couple of on-page diagnostics tools to find them all; besides, those tools usually score your on-page SEO status and this motivates you to go ahead and work on this (this is actually the best thing about using the tools). SEJ tools offer each user to run an on-page report as one of the first steps of working on the site. The feature is called ” Design Analyzer ” and it hides behind the RESEARCH tab. Just go ahead and provide your website URL and you will be generated the report containing the following: 1. Semantic Structure: This section analyzes the page header order with some recommendation on how to use headers correctly: Using a lower level header element before a higher level header element — before an . Starting a Web page with a header element other than an and/or not including an header element. Skipping header elements — jumping from to in your Web page 2. Lynx text browser view : for you to clearly see your on-page issues; 3. Page content analysis (how much text content your page has) 4. Obsolete and Deprecated HTML usage: Here you will find an overview of outdated HTML code you page code contains. The use of these HTML elements usually makes your Web pages larger (which increases download time), and they are no longer used in modern Web design. For optimal Web design and search engine results, we recommend only using a combination of validated XHTML and CSS — where all styles have been stripped from the XHTML and placed in the CSS. Note: If you would like to know more about deprecated HTML, please refer to this list and notes . 5. Page download time How long does it take to load your page as well the break down to the size of: Page HTML; All the page images; CSS; Scripts; Flash. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Run On-Page SEO and Design Diagnostics with SEJ

WPP + Google Marketing Research Program

The Internet, World Wide Web and Google were borne out of research programs. Recognizing the value basic research can produce, WPP and Google have launched a marketing research program in conjunction with major universities to fund academic research in the field of online marketing. Having spent the last ten years researching the field of online marketing while also personally applying , testing, proving and disproving my findings, I was excited to learn what academia may have discovered. I was pleasantly surprised to learn the WPP Google Marketing Research program winners appear to have begun fielding some of the general questions I have been contemplating over the last four years while fleshing out and writing my book – For Sale By Google. After listening to the WPP + Google award winners’ responses, I am satisfied with the progress my own personal Google Marketing Research program ie., my upcoming book For Sale By Google has already achieved by comparison.

Link:
WPP + Google Marketing Research Program

How to Track Competitor Search Engine Rankings with SEJ Tools

SEJ tools have a very handy SERPs tracking option that allows you to track rankings of multiple keyword sets in Google, Yahoo! and Bing. But beside just monitoring your keyword positions, the utility gives you one more really useful option: compare your rankings with your closest competitors. Here’s a quick how-to: 1. Start by adding the keywords to the tracker: there are several ways to do that: Add keywords manually: go SERPs > Keywords and add one keyword per line or upload a CSV file; Analyze your on-page keywords and generate keyword suggestions from there: go RESEARCH > Research Assistant , provide your URL and let the tool extract keyword from the page. Now just select those you find useful enough and add them to the tracker; Analyze your domain rankings: go RESEARCH > Research Assistant , provide your domain and let the tool check your current rankings. Choose the words you want to track and / or improve rankings and add them to the tracker: 2. Once the list of the words to track is more or less complete, add your competitor(s) you want to compare: go SERPs > Competitors and add your competitor. Now, go SERPs > SERP tracker and enjoy a handy interface that will allow to easily compare your rankings: Enjoy! Try 30 Day Free Trial of SEJ Tools with No Credit Card needed to Sign Up … You’ll LOVE SEJ tools ! Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . How to Track Competitor Search Engine Rankings with SEJ