NOT a Guru!
Keeping it simple, without the hype. PC tips and Internet advice for mom and pop businesses.
Keeping it simple, without the hype. PC tips and Internet advice for mom and pop businesses.
Google has been producing one useful thing after another this year. Non-technical mom and pop business owners will benefit from the wealth of free resources that the search engine giant provides.
Although it is in the beta development stage, Google’s new Search Based Keyword Tool is an excellent compliment to the other research tools that we have been discussing this week. The Search-Based Keyword Tool will give you a bird’s eye view of the keywords and key phrases that drive traffic to your competitors.
Accessing the Tool.
To access this new tool, you will want to go to the following URL:
http://www.google.com/sktool/#
Discover 800 Top Keywords by Category.
This is sort of fun … Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the link, “Or see top keywords across all categories.”
Once you click that link, look at all the categories that you can view!
Throughout the “Google Keywords” articles posted this week, we’ve been focusing on the hot trend, “candle.” So let’s keep following that keyword. “Candle” will probably fall under the home and garden category, so let’s click on that and see what Google’s top 800 keywords are for home and garden. Here’s a screen shot of part of what you’ll see:
In the left hand column (circled in red), you’ll get subcategories so you can target your search. You even get suggested bid amounts for any AdWords campaigns that you may be running.
If you click on the “home decor” subcategory, you’ll see the following:
As you can see from the above list of sub-categories, “Candles” has its own category. Click on the candles subcategory and you’ll see the top searches that are related to candles. By default, the search results will be reported with the most number of searches at the top of the list.
You can export the list as is, or you can click on any of the headers (like Competition, for instance), in order to rearrange the data for viewing on the web.
Another thing that you can do is to click on the icon that looks like a magnifying glass to get more details about a particular keyword. Let’s say, for instance, that you are interested in keywords and key phrases that people are using for soy candles. Click on the icon next to soy candles and you’ll get very detailed results as reported by Google Insights.
Discover the Organic Search Results that Your Competitors Are Enjoying.
The “top 800″ keywords function is an awesome tool that you can use when writing your content and product descriptions. It gets even better, using the website search function. This enables you to find out exactly how web surfers are finding the products that they seek.
Continuing on with our trendy keyword, “candle,” Google’s search reveals the following top sites:
In analyzing the competition, we’ll use the second entry, candle.com. Go back to the index page of Google’s Search-Based Tool and type in the URL for candle.com. Rather than specifying a keyword, I will keep it unfiltered for purposes of this tutorial.
After you click “Find keywords,” you’ll see the search terms that are delivering traffic to your competitor. Like the other functions discussed above, you can export the data, analyze the competition for the keywords, and drill deeper by clicking the icon that looks like a magnifying glass. You can even take a look at the web page on your competitor’s site that is related to the keyword or key phrase (this is in the far right column – click the hyperlink and you’ll see the page).
Although it is not shown in the above screen shot, when you try using the Search-Based Keyword Tool yourself, you’ll see that you can also see what brand names are popular. Of course, you can filter your results throughout the process if you wish to fine tune your research.
Use The Tool To Analyze Your Own Pages.
I personally use AdWords for some of my sites, and because of that, I can use the drop down feature in the Search-Based Keyword Tool to analyze my sites that are being advertised with AdWords. You don’t need to have an AdWords account, however, in order to see what kind of keywords your site is reporting.
In the example below, I typed in this blog’s url, http://www.notguru.com to receive a report of the top 100 keywords that are associated with the blog. In the example below, I clicked the “Competition” heading to see what types of low competition keywords for which the blog is receiving traffic. This is something that I might want to focus on in article writing and blog marketing. Here’s a partial screen shot:
Great Data, All For Free.
Thanks to Google, we have an arsenal of keyword tools at our fingertips. It’s just a matter of using the wealth of information that we are being given to succeed online.
Remember: The way people find your website is by typing words into the search engine box. You need to focus on the words that web surfers actually use in real life, not what you think they should be using. While search engine technology is getting better about deciphering Flash content and other non-textual media, you will experience the most success by focusing on the words that appear on your page, not the fancy DHTML, Flash, Javascript or images on your page. Even if you have an ugly, Plain Jane type of website, you are going to have a lot more success and traffic if you focus on the words and written content.
As “keyword guru” Mike Liebner says, “Words = Money.” For mom and pop business people who want to understand more about how to use keywords to their advantage and how to profit from them, I highly recommend Mike’s Article Underground service. You get 400 highly-focused keyword articles a month, a wonderful blog system where you can promote your web pages and Mike’s personable and easy-to-understand videos showing you exactly what to do. Mike also gives members excellent spreadsheets that target low competition, profit-making keywords. You get access to a forum as part of your membership, where you can ask questions and Mike or the other members will help you out.
Recap: Here are the Links that You Need.
This is a pretty long post, so here’s a recap of the links that you will want to visit:
- Google’s Search-Based Keyword Tool - This is where you can find the 800 top keywords by category, analyze your competition and analyze your own pages.
- Article Underground - Normally $97 a month, Mike is running a special offer where you can access the system for just $9.95 for 21 days. After taking your trial membership for a spin, you can determine whether it’s for you.
- Previous NotGuru Posts – Be sure to read the articles I posted over the last three days that show you more free keyword tools offered by Google. Use every single one of them!
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