Selecting Keywords

[serpy]

I appreciate your patience as I try and absorb as much information as I can on SEO in general and selecting the proper keywords.

What I do understand:

You obviously want to select keywords that the visitor is most likely to type in a search engine to locate a company or person's website. You can find keywords that have been used and their frequency with tools like Overture's Keyword Suggestion tool.


Now my question:

Lets say "blue widgets" was used 14,000 times and has 1,000,000 results in a google search. Now lets say "best blue widgets" was used 10,000 times and has only 500,000 results in a google search.

Would it not be better to choose "best blue widgets"? My thinking on this is yes, although it was used 4,000 times less in a search it only has a fraction of SERP so it would be easier to make it to the top rank.

Your thoughts?

[rustybrick]

You can target both...

Widgets Category
-- Blue Widgets Sub Category
---- Best Blue Widgets Sub Sub Category

Why limit yourself?

Which is best, requires testing for that specific product and industry.

[serpy]

So in order to target both you would alternate the use of the keywords in your anchor text that you are placing on well chosen sites?

[rustybrick]

If it is about linkage, then you need to know which is your best ROI.

It is a lot like PPC, where you need to test.

Only issue, is that organic is slow.

Lots of people test ROI with PPC and then apply it to SEO.

[serpy]

I wish organic was a lot faster but then again I am sure we all do :)

So I need to start a PPC campaign using what I believe to be the best keywords and then use the ROI calculation to see which is a better investment.

My goal is to be come efficient and knowledgable enough to become a SEO specialist. When you approach a customer with the PPC campaign method how do the normally react? Is there a common length of time to run the testing?

[Enlightened]

Hi there

No you don't need to run a PPC to test ROI

You would build two pages, one for blue widgets one for buy blue widgets. SEO both the same and then see which converts best. This is one way you can determine ROI without PPC

That being said SEO will garner at best 70% of the searchs and PPC the other 30% so why target traffic from one but not the other? Go for both.

Next new sites, unless very popular, have a lag on Google, sort of a quality control check... which I know will set off others who read this, but thats basically what it boils down to.

So while waiting for free results, and to help make the site popular its best to start with PPC campaogn, drive traffic, measure, test, split test, work on the seo, once organic results start kicking in you can chop the PPC spend or drop it altogether.

Your choice ;)

Peace

[Thomas Schulz]

I agree, target both if possible. There are some cases where it may not be feasible to create pages tailored for each specific search phrase variation, but still... And until then, use PPC for all sorts of testing and coverage.

[hiredesigner]

Yes, keyword having less competition will be more beneficial. So go for Best Blue Widgets. But dont ignore Blue Widgets.

[TitanEnterprises]

It is my understanding that by choosing the kw with less competition it should be easier for you to actually compete in the higher rankings ( to start ) I agree though that both should be targeted. It really is just a time thing if you were to do everything the right way then targeting both would be more beneficial than targeting only one.

[stevewaganer]

using less competitive keyword as your targeted keyword ll be beneficial to achieve ranking for your site in SERP.after getting ranking for less competitive you can use higher competitive keyword.

[AbhishekSingh]

My suggestion - Always start with 'Best Blue Widgets' ( keyword having less competition ) and when your site attain good position on it then start working on 'Blue widgets' ( more competitive keywords )

[onlyyouforever.com]

How i choice the keywords "Blue widgets" ?

[AbhishekSingh]

How i choice the keywords "Blue widgets" ?

For that you need to use keyword research tool like Wordtracker, Overture, google suggestion tool, Nichebot tool

[alvis]

For that you need to use keyword research tool like Wordtracker, Overture, google suggestion tool, Nichebot tool

dont forget VRE toolbar

[rajatgarg]

Just a simple note, usually keywords with less competition have less traffic too.

So, you should always be looking for keywords that have at least that much traffic that can sustain your bread and butter

rajat garg

[Ghoumokoo]

Do you think we need to focus 100% of on targeted keyword? More I thing about my website more I think to use only specific keyword. I tried first to position my website in general cookware but it doesn’t work, not for free anyway. So I need some advice to build a targeted keyword strategy? How can we find keyword reach by customer?

[aira]

You should do some site analysis first before getting into the KW selection part. Know your target market well to help you decide on which KWs are good to use. Use KW suggestion tools to know the stats of your possible KWs then choose the best KWs that describes your site as a whole. I highly recommend Google Suggests for this

[Ghoumokoo]

Do you have a link for a free KW sugestion tools and also to check the number of back links?

[pdfmania]

I prefer to optimize for "best blue widgets" since less competitor but small different amount of searches than "blue widgets"... after it get to the top i will optimize for "blue widgets" more than the first kw

[onlydo]

i also agree that target both will be benefit for you but you have to use the less competive keyword as your top one

[carrot]

Yes it would be faster to do it that way with the one site and I would suggest doing both as well.