New Yahoo Clues Search Keyword Tool

Came across the blog post on a fun new Yahoo search keyword tool today called Yahoo Clues. Put quite simple, the new tool gives you insight into the types of people searching for specific keyword phrases and shows related terms based on those searches and searchers. The video below will introduce to Yahoo clues and how to use it. It also gives some examples that highlight some interesting uses for Yahoo! Clues as well.

Do You Suffer From Main Keyword Tunnel Vision?

I helped a reader out today by looking at a few of his sites for him to point him in a better direction. He suffers from what so many of us have suffered from at one time or another and that is keyword tunnel vision as I like to call it. Keyword tunnel vision is when you focus too much on just one or too keyword phrases or just a small sampling of keywords as targets that you fail to reach just over your head and grab the easy low hanging fruit or complimentary keywords one would expect to also find on site.

Now by no means does this mean that you should not have a few primary keyword targets that have good search numbers and hopefully low competition, but do not let it end there. The more you target, the more you have out there that are likely to hit. The wider the site, the larger the funnel. Does this mean that five page sites or even one page sites can't earn well? Absolutely not, but the newer you are in this business, the wider you ought to be and the larger the cast net you should have. The better you get at keyword research, the better you will get at building narrower sites. Been there, done that and you will too. Don't get caught up in the old method of just targeting one phrase per page. Have a main target along with a few complimentary sub targets. Use common sense when deciding if it fits on the page, not search engine sense. Stay away from keyword tunnel vision as it will blind you.

Don't Stop Panning Once You Find Gold

I surely was not alive then, but I am pretty sure when the California Gold Rush started and forty-niners were panning for gold, that they did not stop panning or switch locations once they found a nugget. They probably panned even faster and had the woman, children and family dog panning in close proximity. Surely where there was one gold nugget, more was close by. The same goes with niche site building.

I am blessed with a love for stats and gifted at reading them. I devote most of my Friday every week to pouring through stats. When I see a new site or an old site strike a gold nugget, I am quickly on top it. This is easily spotted by a huge uptick in sales in the niche or a new niche that is finally seeding well and developing strong organic traffic.

I try to dig fast to see what is being bought, the demographics behind the visitor and where they came from. I will then create more content or blog post on whatever site it is as well as increasing the syndication as well of the site if it is not already fully syndicated. I look at my keywords coming in to see if I can expand on them or better formulate the content to cast a broader net. In addition I try to see if anything is going on trend wise in the news or related media to have caused it.

Many times all that is needed is more content, perhaps new models have been released or new brands. The site is obviously doing something right, it just needs more of it. It is our job to continue to pan to find out what that something right is. Don't rest on your laurels, pan faster.

SEO Search Terms Tagging 2 & Recent Searches Wordpress Plugin

I know I have seen these two plugins before and think I have one installed on an older site somewhere, but really never looked at them closely in relation to improved benefits in long tail organic searches. A PHPBay thread brought it back to my priority list and I even had both plugins bookmarked. The plugins are the SEO Search Terms Tagging 2 & Recent Searches Wordpress Plugin. They should be pretty straight forward on what they do. Both show recent search engine terms used to find your site. The recent searches plugin works great in the sidebar widget and the SEO SearchTerms Tagging 2 can display terms under neath each post where the surfer lands. You can see it in action here. I am also going to try to remove the linking feature of the words in a test as well, where only the phrases are shown and not hyper-linked back to the post to see if it makes any difference. I like the fact the Recent searches plugin links to other pages as it is constantly fluid and sending down link juice. Have any of you tried these as well? Wordpress plugins continue to amaze me.

ETA: I got a confused email so I wanted to clarify: Use the Recent search term widget included in the SEO Search Terms Tagging 2 plugin. The recent searches widget plugin is searches done on site which you can use as well if you get a ton of on site searches.. Sorry to confuse you on this if I did.

A Couple Of Ways To Take Advantage Of Craigs List

I have become a Craigs List junkie over the last month or so as I used it to find an exercise bike. I have had some health problems the last couple of months and although I am not over weight, my doctor wanted to see me get a little more exercise. I knew an exercise bike would be right up my alley, but no way was I going to buy a brand new one, when a used one would fit the bill. 6 months after the New Year is a perfect time to sniff these out as well. People have lost their motivation by then. lol

Any how, I have also used Craigslist to do keyword research using the SEO Quake tip I gave a few days ago. Now you might try a few cities for a specific niche starter phrase or go wide open category by category in search of a niche or starting point. Does not matter. You can filter it down to 3 and 4 word phrases using the keyword density tool on SEO Quake then export it out and remove everything not relevant. Then run these through Micro Niche Finder or Market Samurai in bulk fashion and see what comes out the other end. With a good hour work, you should be able to find some good niches or phrases.

In addition to that tip, I have been experimenting with the Craigs list RSS feeds as well. They are in the bottom right corner of any page or search. I use the RSS Shortcode Wordpress plugin from Joost de Valk to make a few feeds from some big cities of a keyword phrase or product name search and then grab the feed and burn it with Feedburner. I then display that feed on pages of my niche website down at the bottom as aggregated Google food. Plus you are linking out in to a reputable site not using an affiliate link and adding to your surfers experience. Good for everyone. Get the picture? You can bury this in a tab using the Post Tabs plugin as well so the surfer has to dig to get to it, but the SERPS see it straight on. This works by category or search in Craigslist. Give it a try on a page or two and test it out. Pretty cool, huh?

Keyword Digger Tool

I came across this keyword digger tool on the cheap today and picked it up for just $14.00. Now let me say, it is no Micro Niche Finder or Market Samurai, but it is a great place to start a broad search. Basically it scrapes the Google, Bing and Amazon suggestions, meaning when you start typing in a word into the three, you start getting suggestions for longer words. I used this today to mine longer keywords and then run them through Micro Niche Finder or Market Samurai for further analysis. The tool is fast and thorough, but not worth more than 14 bucks. For those out there that are using the autoblogging programs, it easily lets you export out the results as well. it is a quick and dirty tool and nothing else, but if used with other tools can help you uncover some long tail keywords. One trick I used it for is to start with an adjective say "fitted" then add each letter of the alphabet to it. So fitted a, fitted b, fitted c and so on. I then use this tool to see what type suggestions it gives. Get my drift? Cool tool if the price is right.

UPDATE: They added Youtube as a source as of this morning and eBay might be on the way as well.

Using SEO Quake To Mine Niches & Keywords

Happy Independence Day to you all. I am bringing up tools of late in post that I have not posted about in a while. I recently got an email asking how I mine for keyword phrases in niches. The SEO Quake tool bar for Firefox has a great keyword density feature that will show you 1, 2, 3 and 4 word phrases used on any page you surf. You can take these 3 and 4 word phases and research them in your favorite tool such as Market Samurai or Micro Niche Finder to whittle down and find a gold nugget or two to use as a basis to research profitability. Just pick out those sites ranked on page 1 of Google for a certain niche to start with. It may take looking at about 10 sites or so, but you are sure to uncover some great un-tapped micro niches. These types of tools are all around you and free to boot.

ETA: Of course it will save you time to remove the obvious phrases that are not niche related. That should be pretty obvious, but I just wanted to clarify.

PR: wait... I: wait... L: wait... LD: wait... I: wait... wait... Rank: wait... Traffic: wait... Price: wait... C: wait...

Get Article Content Ideas With Wordtracker Keyword Questions Tool

A great way to brain storm ideas for article content for your niche site is to use the Wordtracker Keyword Questions Tool as a starting point for your research. You will be both filling a need and targeting long tail keyword phrases in the process. This tool works great as a starting point and I would not get too hung up with the volume of searches it returns. What I do is to use it in conjunction with either Micro Niche Finder or Market Samurai to dig a bit deeper into both competition and volume. The type articles you produce that answer common questions in a niche, the more likely they will get linked to naturally. These types of backlinks are gold. Often times you can address several of the questions in just one article as well and target the phrases SEO wise by using h2 header tags. You do not have to limit your self to one question per article. Often times several of these phrases are commonly linked together in a way that just one article can address several of them as well as open your site up to several other longer tail organic keyword phrases on top of it. Give it a whirl and run some through either MNF or MS tools as well.

Niche Rummaging Will Turn Up Ideas

I am closing in on finishing up some site rebuilds that were long overdue. In June, I plan on focusing on a new site and have started doing some research of what niche I want to be in. Now let me say, I am more concerned about if I think the niche can make money and find as many keyword openings as I can. I have talked about using Amazon.com and Shopping.com to look for popular items and searches, but sometimes I just like to rummage through niches to see them in action and start a list of keyword phrases to run through Micro Niche Finder and Market Samurai. I will often just blindly wander through Commission Junction and Google Affiliate program dashboard for a bit to see if anything sticks out at me. I do not just jump into a niche these days with out tons of research and merely rummaging through these affiliate sites really gets my mind jump started with different ideas for my business plan. Make sure to have Notepad, Excel or Word open so you can jot down specific products and keywords to help you do bulk research on another day. Makes for a great mental exercise when tackling a new niche site.

New Keyword Supercharger Tool

I just got around to play time today as I have spent most of the morning and afternoon spinning some articles to go out on SEO Link Vine. I played briefly with the new Keyword Tool Supercharger by GeekLad. I plan on playing more this evening time permitting, but there is a post up on Search Engine Journal by Ann Smarty that goes a little more in depth on the supply/demand ratio. This tool works of course in conjunction with the Google Adwords Tool and they have both a Google Chrome Extension and a FireFox addon.

You Can't Rank For It If It Ain't On Your Site

One of the things I have learned over the years is that I can't rank for words that are not on my site. What? Did I just say that? Yes a very duh statement, but so true. We get so tied up trying to rank for the term "Cheap Ipod Reviews" that we forget other term that associated with Ipod. Colors, features, model numbers, batteries, chargers, how to hack them, etc., etc. Instead each pages content is generic except for the keyword phrase we are targeting. This makes the page so narrow in focus that it gives you no shot at ranking organically for other phrases that you are not fully targeting. Make your content include specific terms, model #s, or words specific to the item you are selling and you will open yourself up to broader organic searches. I recently purchased some articles from a new writer and while they were written good grammatically, they were generic. Watch out for this if you are having content written for you. If you are having an article written around the phrase "Cheap Ipod Reviews", make sure the writer knows to mix in some some words related to Ipods or whatever it is you are targeting as the seed word. Understand? Is your article just your keyword phrase with 400 other generic, non industry specific words? Does the article stand a chance at ranking for any thing else organically? You should know very quickly.

Micro Niche Finder 5.0 Review Video

Yes, the new Micro Niche Finder 5.0 is out now and is new and improved. It is amazing the advances that they make with these tools. It makes finding diamonds in the keywords much more easier. I will not bore you with a big sales talk. Watch the video below of the new 5.0. If you don't have it, get it.

Lots Of Diamonds Hidden In Amazon Best Sellers

Every read Acres of Diamonds by Russell Conwell? It is one of my favorite literary works. Go read it, I will wait.

You read it? Did you get it? Amazon has diamonds buried in it as well. Simply start in the Best Sellers section of any category. Why wouldn't you want to sell best sellers? Any how I by digging through there today, I found 10 products/model numbers that I researched with the new Micro Niche Finder 5.0 and found low traffic, low competition, low measure of backlinks and high search amounts in Google. Took me about 45 minutes. These products are in niches that i have already developed as well. Wednesday I will create the pages and they should rank instantaneously. Stop looking for secrets when the treasure is right below your feet. You just have to use the effort and right tools to dig. Go get those Acres of Diamonds.

How Wide Is Your Long Tail Cast Net?

After reading more on numbers included in the Long Live The Long Tail post I did, it prompted some research last night on a few of my sites that do not have high long tail organic searches. Now these sites earn money, rank well and get organic traffic, but they could be getting much more. These sites need a larger long tail net cast around them as they are already seeded very well.

After I get back from Vegas, I have as a priority to research and drill down further on these sites and have a goal to add at the minimum, 10 more pages each to cast a larger long tail net around the sites. These will include more specific brand names, model numbers and LSI related terms that will be woven nicely into content and product listings. It will indeed take some time, but I feel the effort will quadruple the traffic and earnings on most of the sites.

Have a close look at your own sites? How many long tail searches are you getting? Are you thin overall on the amount of words on the site? Could you weave in 5 or even 10 more articles or product pages to better attack other keywords that are closely related? It is amazing how much money we all leave on the table along with how much longer the tail searches are by the surfer. Do not get so caught up in keyword density that you ignore longer phrases that can be woven into an existing site. These long tail searches are usually surfers that take action, which means more money in your pocket.

Example Of Exact Keyword Match In Domain

The fine creators of Market Samurai have a new blog post up where they break down having an exact keyword match in the domain name can help you in ranking. Now do not read too much into this and let it run you off of a keyword with low competition, just because the exact match in domain names is taken. By all means though, if the exact match is available, register it. This really hasn't been a secret, it is just better reinforced in a post as this.

Another thing, don't think this is an invite to use trademarked names. As tempting as it is, it just is not worth it. You can attack a great trademarked keyword without having to register a trademarked domain name. Research it first by all means though as some names are more usable than you think, but you better ask permission. I have found a few myself that allow this, but it took some research and emails. When in doubt though, stay on the safe side.

Also if you don't own Market Samurai, yet, you really should consider making the investment in it, it is a solid tool.

Understanding Keyword Research The Downfall Of Many

A reader asked me on the BANS forum, where do most new people in the niche site building process go wrong. He also sent a link to his new site that he finished as well to look at and give opinions on. The site was better than most, it had good unique content, looked pleasing to the eye and was moderately optimized. The niche was not broad and on the surface looked like it could do well without me diving deeper into it. What the site was way off base on, was it's keyword focus. Not only for the home page, but interior pages as well. I did some quick research with Micro Niche Finder and immediately found some better alternatives for the home page as well as product pages within. Quite a few with strong monthly numbers with very low competition as far as ranking will go. The site will need a handful of backlinks and a little refresher of on site SEO, but now has a chance. Many BANS users have even bought the BANS guide, but fly right past the keyword research stage. It is quite obvious looking at the sites.

Most people do not know how to properly research keywords, what to look for or even where to start. They build sites just based on a niche and go from there. They usually attack high competition, highly used keywords and while they have great content, people never see their sites. Assuming you know how to use whatever platform you are building with, be it Wordpress or BANS, the next step is to learn how to research keywords. Pick a tool to master and master it. If you are new and need videos to spell things out bit by bit, use Market Samurai. If you would rather read up on the process and implement, Micro Niche Finder may be more up your alley. Both get you to the same place. Market Samurai may have a few more bells and whistles, but you can get by just fine with MNF. I own both and most of the time use MNF, but often double check some things in MS. It depends on the mood sometimes. Just pick one and learn the process from the tutorials before you build your next site. It is like finally bringing an AK-47 to a gun fight instead of a plastic butter knife.

Researching Your Google Competition

The fine people from Market Samurai released a video and instructions on How To Unmask Your Google Competition using the Market Samurai software. Now if you do not own Market Samurai, that is OK. You will just have a little more leg work to do, but you can at least look at the process and sites they use to get a good clean picture of how your competition looks for any keyword. If you do not own Market Samurai, I have included links to the sites that they reference below. I use both the MS software and Micro Niche Finder in my site research, but the key thing you should learn here is the process of looking at your competition.

http://www.google.com/trends
http://whois.domaintools.com/
http://www.quantcast.com/
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo

The video is below:

Longer Searches Flat This Past Month

I found an interesting report on Hitwise that says that longer search queries were flat between October and September 2009. I really can not put a finger on why that would be, myself, but do find it interesting nonetheless. Does this mean you should jump off of the long tail targeting? Absolutely not. In fact you see that searches of eight or more words increased by 1%. Surfers are getting more exact with what they are looking for, so in my opinion it is great for webmasters as well. Keep targeting the long tail, I have a feeling the next set of numbers will show an increase.

From Black Friday Until Christmas

I am in the midst of an utterly fantastic month thus far in November. It is shaping up to be record month for me. Some of the success is attributed to some sites that were rebuilt that are starting to reap the changes. The other success I think is to the fact that the holidays are approaching and everyone is jumping into the holiday spirit a bit early. As the calender turned to November 1st, I had sharp spikes in traffic on many sites.

I am not one that checks stats every day as most of you know. I get to looking at stats and I can't put them down. It eats away productive time. I like to check stats once a week and archive twice a month. However, from Black Friday until Christmas, I will check traffic stats everyday and examine very very closely the keywords associated from the SERPS traffic. I look for anything I can attack and attack quickly. Usually I do it in a blog post and a single item. I had a ton of success doing this last year and expect this year to be no different. I also will watch Google trends to see if I can spot anything in my niches as well. You never know when something might get hot and that way I can attack it as soon as possible. Remember, Black Friday is only a week away now, get ready.

The Berries Often Taste Better Than The Coconuts

It is a mistake we all make, especially those new to the business of affiliate marketing. Most look at the coconuts way high up in the tree and overlook the berries growing at the base of the tree. How does this relate to affiliate marketing? When most do their keyword or niche research, regardless of the tool you may use, the focus is often put on the results with high numbers. The higher numbers are often one or two keyword phrases, but are not limited to that length as I have seen many three and four keyword phrases that even I know not to attempt to capture.

MOST properly built niche sites these days will have 30 or pages to them. These 30 pages each can be focused on 2-3 sets of keyword phrases. Even if each page was focused around say 2 each per page, that is 60 in total. Now imagine if the exact phrase count for search was 100 each and each of those were very attainable to rank for. That would total out to 6000 exact phrase counts for that site. Now, will it be that perfect? Absolutely not, but you give yourself a much better shot at garnering "buying traffic" by using those longer tailed, less searched for phrases. Mix in the fact that your content by nature SHOULD include LSI type terms that you will garner organic traffic for and you will find that your site is better off as a whole.

So what do you do if you have a multitude of sites you aimed to high with? You can either re-focus those pages around lower volume keyword phrases or you can add more pages to the site that better attack these phrases. Depends really on the direction you want to go. In my case, I usually re-focus the pages, wait for the engines to come back and index them again and build a few backlinks in the mean time. Using this process, I have taken sites that were only earning a few peanuts a month to sites that earn $200.00 or more a month and the volume of traffic has increased. Not only the volume, but the quality. Meaning more repeat visits as well.

Does this mean you can not shoot for the coconuts on some pages? Absolutely not, but when you start picking the berries, you will be amazed how sweet they are and they are easier to get than climbing the coconut tree.