| When I was a beginner in internet marketing, every | | | | Notice the inane repetition. Also notice variations... |
| webinar I attended, every talk I heard, emphasized | | | | with and without spaces dogfood and dog food. All |
| the need to get the keywords right. Aha, I thought... | | | | these count. |
| keywords... those are the words people search for. If | | | | 8. Wherever you can, especially towards the |
| their search and my specified keywords match, my | | | | beginning and end of text, incorporate "yourname |
| ad/article/post/video will show up high on the search | | | | dog food" and hyperlink it to your site. This is called |
| engine. Cool. How complicated can that be? Of | | | | anchor text and the link helps score brownie points |
| course I know what people are searching for... "make | | | | for your site on the keyword/s in anchor text. |
| money, work at home, online business "... I'll use those | | | | 9. Lastly, note down all the keywords you've used so |
| words, I thought... simple. | | | | you can check how well they're showing up. You are |
| Over time, I got not-overwhelmingly-great results. | | | | into a scientific experiment on artificial intelligence! |
| Hmmm. Actually nothing showed up on Google in the | | | | Congrats! |
| first 10 pages. | | | | Where you can look for what they look for. |
| Hmmm. SEO. Search Engine Optimization. People | | | | Now this is the most boring part. Also the most |
| seem to be making a lot of money with it. These | | | | fundamental. Like most things in life, veggies included. |
| techniques place keywords at the 'right spots' for the | | | | It's best to keep a pen and scribble pad handy. This |
| search engines spiders (bots) to 'crawl over' to them. | | | | is very important advice. Do it now. |
| Now I am not one to spend money on something I | | | | As we go through, we'll follow a 3 step process. Just |
| know I can learn by putting two and two together. | | | | know that we are aiming to figure out 3 things: |
| So I just spent a lot more time. And learned what I | | | | 1. What words do people search for |
| share here. | | | | 2. How many people search, how often and where |
| What I know can be split in 3 parts: | | | | (traffic) |
| 1. What search engines look for | | | | 3. How many sites use the same keyword |
| 2. Where you can look for what they look for | | | | (competition) |
| 3. Where you can place what you found | | | | In case you are doing keyword research for pay per |
| What search engines look for | | | | click (PPC) advertising you would also need to |
| Initially it was a mystery to me how Google* can | | | | consider 'commercial value' of your keyword (will it be |
| 'see' a video and know where to classify it and when | | | | profitable). But this is what the paid keyword |
| to bring it up. | | | | softwares are about and beyond the scope of this |
| Now if you have ever posted a video, you'll recall | | | | article. |
| there are 3 things you feed in. The title, the | | | | So here goes: |
| description and the tags. You also save your video | | | | Step 1 : Think of a seed keyword and type it in this |
| with a 'filename'. Remember that. | | | | tool (for now it will be 'dog food').adwords.google |
| Google is looking to serve content that its users will | | | | .com/select/KeywordToolExternal |
| be happy to read. Why? Because if Google | | | | This tool will throw up lots of phrases related to dog |
| understands what they are searching for they will | | | | food along with number of searches per month. This |
| keep searching. So Google uses lots of programming | | | | keeps changing with time... what I see now are (top |
| to constantly 'prune its garden' of content grass. | | | | 5):dog food - 2,740,000 searches /monthdry dog |
| Yes, Google is a living organism. The biggest artificial | | | | food - 165,000 searches /monthdogs food - 135,000 |
| intelligence on the planet. It knows what everyone in | | | | searches /monthbest dog food - 110,000 searches |
| the connected world is thinking (searching for) and | | | | monthnatural dog food - 110,000 searches /month |
| carefully organizes what it serves you. Scary? Live | | | | Try it. That's the best way to learn. |
| with it! And read the book Perry Marshall's definitive | | | | Step 2 : Pick some of these search words that relate |
| guide to Google AdWords to master Google with | | | | to you (maybe you are not into 'dry dog food' so |
| authority. | | | | don't bother with it) and hop across to google.com |
| So Google will constantly stay in touch with places | | | | insights/search |
| where content comes up. YouTube, Squidoo, | | | | Here you'll get trends of how much the search word |
| EzineArticles, Free Press Release are some places like | | | | is searched for. Which countries / states. Any |
| that. It will check for new tags, descriptions, names | | | | seasonality and so on. Change the filters to find out. |
| and titles every few hours and index them. Then it | | | | Now you have some relevant keywords that work in |
| will serve and watch. If people click your content | | | | your area. Right? |
| (because the keyword/tag matched) but press the | | | | Step 3 : Go to Google and type your selected 10 (or |
| 'back' button in a few seconds and came back to | | | | so) keywords in. Look for the number of sites it |
| search, Google will know your content is not really | | | | displays on the top right. For dog food I see: |
| matching your words. "Shady guy. Says something... | | | | " Results 1 - 10 of about 43,400,000 for dog food |
| does something else." Google will make a mental note. | | | | with Safesearch on" |
| Similarly, the search engines will (on a lesser | | | | Phew! 43 million is a very big number. Try 'dogs food' |
| frequency) check for what's new on all sites on the | | | | and it will show up 25 million. That's still a lot. Go down |
| net. You may use pingomatic .com once a week to | | | | the list in step 1 and add a word or two till you can |
| 'ping' the spiders so they know you're generally | | | | hit a sweet spot less than 500,000. A well optimized |
| posting something new every week. | | | | site will rank high in that kind of competition. Now |
| Don't ping very often. Remember how irritating it is | | | | you see why it's tedious and boring? Well you can |
| when the doorbell keeps ringing? Same with Google. | | | | buy a keyword research software tool to help you. |
| You want it to like you. | | | | Where you can place what you found |
| This apart, search engines also look for picture | | | | Now you finally have 10 (or so) keywords that work |
| names, headings, link text and URLs. Let us | | | | and for you exclusively. Follow the 9 points of |
| understand these by example. Say you are into dog | | | | section 1 (above) to place them at the right places in |
| food. Now you will do just great if you can get these | | | | your content. That's obvious. |
| in order: | | | | Also get back to Google with the keywords you |
| 1. Get a URL like dogfood .com Generally this will not | | | | dropped (now you see why you needed the scribble |
| be available. So try A great site to check for these is | | | | pad?). Look up which sites score well on them. For |
| Once you have a name, register it at or any service | | | | instance, for 'dog food recipes' I find 20 million |
| you find ok. | | | | competitors... but there is a YouTube video at spot # |
| 2. If you already have a blog domain like youname | | | | 5. This tells us YouTube is being tracked by Google |
| .com and dogfood is an interest area, create a | | | | on this word. Study that video. Do better keyword |
| permalink yourname.com/dogfood This is more easily | | | | packing and post your video on YouTube. In a day |
| available but less authoritative. | | | | or two, if this video is replaced by yours... bingo you |
| 3. Now your title. This is the part that appears in the | | | | have your site linked from the first page of Google |
| blue band on top (left side of the minimize-close | | | | (be sure to start your description with your site |
| buttons). Make sure the words 'dog food' are there. | | | | address)! |
| 4. In your headline, use the words 'dog food'. | | | | If this last part got you, that's the law of the jungle... |
| 5. Putting up a picture of your product? Name it | | | | you don't have to be the fastest deer... you have to |
| "yourname dog food" | | | | be faster than the slowest to not be eaten! |
| 6. Filling out a description box? Use dog food several | | | | But it's not always so simple. The site on top may |
| times. Also /Alternatively in the first para, with other | | | | have a history, lot of back-links, links from authority |
| words around it eg 'dog food lovers buy yourname | | | | sites like .gov and .edu... all of which give it credibility. |
| dog food because dog food from yourcompany is | | | | So you can't ever say for sure. What you can do |
| dof good'. | | | | however, is keep posting good stuff on popular sites |
| 7. Select the tags as dog food, dog food lovers, | | | | with your keywords matched... and who knows, |
| yourname dogfood, yourcompany dog food etc. | | | | maybe a .gov site will link back to you! |