Surviving keyword analysis

There is a psycho analysis and there is the keyword analysis. Both have to do with madness. Here is how I survived the second one.

I have tried everything to avoid this step, but at the end I had to give in. There was no other way for me but to start learning about keyword analysis tools. For starter I have found some more prominent then others. Some give me a chance to test run before buying, others don’t. After spending what I assumed is enough time on that and after receiving some recommendation I have ended up purchasing license for an Australian product Market Samurai.

They are new on the market and in some areas still developing tools. I see that by frequent messages suggesting clicking and uploading new versions. I am not thrilled by that but didn’t experience any problem so far. At least they are constantly improving it.

They have several education videos and explain in simple terms what this is all about. There is useful comparison at the beginning of searching for keywords and panning for gold. It goes as follows:

We have to come up with a phrase that is relevant to our products. I will use the phrase from the previous post: “I need custom software development”.

They will go to Google and come back with several hundred similar phrases that they think may be relevant to what we need. This is like filling the pen with dirt expecting that there is a golden nugget inside.

Now the process of filtering begins. We will remove first bigger rocks, then smaller ones etc. At the end we expect to end up with a golden nugget in a pan: a phrase that has passed all criteria and is the one that we can use.

The filtering follows several steps:

The phrase we need must be relevant to our products. All those not relevant are removed.

The phrase must be one that people use. The Google databases will tell us whether anyone has ever typed such phrase. If yes, how many times? There is no point using the phrase that nobody searches for. As a result we will remove all those not used and leave the phrases that people actually type in.

The time is now to ask question: what is competition doing? Which of our remaining phrases are our competitors using? We want to filter out highly used phrases as our chances to beat the others with a phrase used by everyone are very slim.

There is one more filtering step to go. The tool looks to Google’s AddWords where people pay for adds to appear on the search page. Indication how much they are ready to pay, tells me about the commercial worth of a particular phase. We want to filter out those that have no value, those that at the end won’t attract people that are ready to buy.

A lot of filtering is taking place, hoping that some gold nugget will remain in the pan. Any phrase that passed all the steps is worth putting on the web site as we know that it will attract big number of right people and really looking for what we have to offer.

I have searched for many phrases and their variations and for phrases relevant to each of several services and products that we are offering. I have spent days trying to do the right thing and discover the proper phrases for our web sites.

So how many golden nuggets have I found so far? The result will surprise you? I have found none! Yes none! It always starts with generating many phrases that look promising, then filters out group by group until at the end all phrases go. No nuggets so far!

What is my conclusion after all those efforts? I have purchased the software, learned about it and spent days trying to use it. Here is what I have come up with:

I have a feeling that in reality there are no golden nuggets at all! There are no phrases that everybody wants and nobody is offering. Like for everything else, whenever there is a demand the offer has matched it. No free ride!

The idea behind the software I was using is good, it all makes sense. The problem is that I am panning for gold in the wrong place. There is no gold there. It is my problem that this is my only place and I don’t have another. Those are my products and I have to make them somehow work.

It looks that the fight for place on the first page will have to shift to other areas: properly done web site, clean contents, having proper links incoming and out-coming etc. The keywords are not the only things that Google is looking for.

So, where are we with the keywords? What after all to put on my web site?

One of good things that this software is giving me is that it lists competition, other sites that do rank on the first page. I have decided to use a common sense. I open their site, select View Source from browser and look at the phrases that they have chosen. Then I pick up the phrases that I think are relevant for me and put on my web site. This will not make me win the race to the first page of search results but at least we are equal in that category. I now understand that we will have to fight battles on other fronts.