The Keyword Research Rabbit Hole

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how to use your first meeting with a client to understand their business and collect information that could later inform your keyword research. Now, you’re back at your desk and wondering what to do with all that information.

To begin with, you should have three lists of keyword-types (I call them seeds):

Elements to include in keyword research

1. Seeds most important to your clients (note that these may include jargon and industry-specific terms that need further research)
2. Seeds that accurately describe the business (these would be your own layman’s terms for what this client does)
3. Seeds that are not relevant or core to your client’s business

I like to refer to these as seeds because they are a seed of an idea that could grow into giant “trees” of information and possibilities.

There’s no need at this point to distinguish between “deck” and “decking” for example, and this is a mistake SEOs often make; trying to narrow the field too much too early.

Let’s dive into each of these a little more deeply using an example of a client I did work for:Artisan Construction Services.

Note that all of these lists have far more than 2-3 keywords on them, but for purposes of example, I’ve simplified them. This client is a local (to Raleigh, NC) remodeling company that specializes in building decks and screened porches and remodeling kitchens and bathrooms. (Those are my own words for List Two).

The owner of the company, when asked to describe the product in his own words, said:

“We provide decking, siding and window replacement, and interior remodeling.”

Seeds most important to the client (based on the above description and the keywords he mentioned) are decking, siding, windows and interior remodeling. This would be List One above.

Seeds that aren’t relevant (List Three above) are things the client prefers not to do or sub-contracts out, such as roofing (says he can never do it as cheaply as professional roofers), plumbing (he hates it) and highly specialized design work like tile inlays. He’s also not a licensed electrician. So these are keyword seeds to avoid.

Example of Keyword Seed Lists

List One

List One is based on jargon, and requires further research. The first thing I do with keywords like this is to look at competitors’ websites. I’ve gotten a list of competitors from the client that I’ll research, and I’ll also put these terms into Google or Bing and look at the sites that come up in the results (I’ll localize to Raleigh, NC so that I’m getting the most accurate set of competitors).

Reviewing these sites will give me more seeds to research based on that jargon. In this case, I found specific types of decking, such as composite and pressure-treated, and I found that many competitors also refer to screened porches as sunrooms or patios (which are slightly different, but may cover more potential customers).

One additional thing the client told me is that customers often aren’t sure of what they want until they call him in for an estimate, so I’m keeping this in mind. Also during my research, I found another competitor in search that wasn’t mentioned as a major competitor. I’ll put this on a list of things to ask the client about in our next meeting.

Example of List One Expansion based on Competitors research

Next, I’ll look at how customers are actually referring to the different products and services.

I’ll use the “related searches” area at the bottom of Google’s SERPs,Google Insights to look at trends, and the “Discussions” search option (click “More” under “Search” on the left side of a Google SERP page).

Based on what I found here, I’ve learned that many people are asking what the differences are between screened porches and sunrooms, as well as that they’re sometimes referred to as lanais or three-season porches. I’ll add these seeds to my research.

I also learned that many people are interested in enclosing an existing deck into a screened porch, or “winterizing” a screened porch. More seeds for my research.

To review, I’ve taken the keyword seeds [screened porch], [patio], and [sunroom] and added:

• enclosing deck
• winterizing porch
• lanai
• three-season porch

These are all things that my client’s customers are looking for that his competitors aren’t servicing. They should be easy wins.

Example of List Two expansion based on Google "Discussions"

List Two

I can research List Two in much the same way I did List One. I’ll add these seeds to the research as well.

List Three

List Three is a little different from the others. I won’t add these as seeds to my research, but I will save them for the elimination and refinement process later.

This is where instinct and experience becomes particularly useful, as it’s likely that I can take any list of keywords to avoid and expand it on instinct.

For example, based on what I know of this client, he already wants to avoid roofing, plumbing, tile, and electrical. But here are a few more statements I jotted down at our meeting that give me more clues:

• “I’m not the best priced contractor out there, because I don’t hire any undocumented workers and I pay my taxes. But I am very experienced and my clients are always happy with my work.”

Now I know I need to avoid [cheap], [free], [low-cost], [best priced], and other keywords like that. [Quality], [experience] and [ethical] are possible modifiers that are allowed.

• “I prefer to work with composite materials rather than pressure-treated lumber for decks. It’s much higher quality and creates a nicer finished product.”

So it’s a good idea to focus on any searches asking for the differences between those materials. Also I’ll probably weight the research more heavily to different types and brands of composite materials.

Another note I’m jotting down from this statement is to suggest the client create a page that discusses the pros and cons of composite vs. pressure-treated materials.

• “A lot of customers get a quote from a company like SEARS home improvement when they’re thinking about doing a remodeling project. This makes it tough for me because the materials that SEARS uses are limited to less-expensive ones. It helps me a lot if I can get a sense of a client’s budget beforehand; a single project can vary by thousands of dollars depending on the materials used. But of course, nicer materials create a nicer finished project.”

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5 Questions To Streamline Your Keyword Research

It’s time for the first meeting with the customer. You may be a seasoned search marketer, but you’re still a little nervous. How do you achieve that perfect balance of getting the information you need while still exuding an aura of consummate professionalism, knowledge, and generally make yourself seem like the search Dalai Lama?

Sidebar: Even if you’re an in-house marketer, you can still use these techniques. Pretend your VP of Product Development or someone similarly entrenched in the product/service is your “customer”.First, realize that the real Dalai Lama feels no need to prove himself, he just *is*. Project an aura of confidence, and realize the most elusive concept in our industry. It is not about you, it is about the customer.

Similarly, that first meeting should be all about the customer. This is your best chance to get an outsider’s perspective of how your customer views their products and what language they use to describe them.

After this first meeting, you’ll be an insider, and asking some of these questions will make it seem like you don’t know what you’re doing. So let your customer do most of the talking.

As you listen to the answers, jot down key phrases, jargon, and abbreviations they use to inform your keyword research later. Don’t forget to ask them to clarify anything you don’t understand.

Note that this is by no means an exhaustive list of questions you should be asking; merely a sample of questions for keyword research purposes.

Question 1: I’ve reviewed your website, and have learned about your business. However it always helps to hear you explain it in your own words. So, Mr. Customer, how would you describe what you do?

The answer to this is likely to be the same words you read on their website or see in a brochure. Point out any jargon that you don’t understand, as this will set the stage for later, when you tell them they need to change the way they describe their product.

Question 2: In your opinion, what is it that makes your product/service special? What differentiates you from your competitors?

These are their value propositions; the key elements that need to come across on their pages to compel a conversion. If one of them is that they offer the lowest cost, then you know to research keyword modifiers like [cheap], [low cost], [price]. Alternatively, if they’re not low cost, you know to avoid these keyword modifiers. More on this in my next article.

Question 3: What do you think are similar services/products that you do not consider competitors?

The keywords that come out in this answer will help you refine the research. Often, keywords that are very similar may have a completely different meaning in a particular clients’ industry.

For example, “phone lines” and “phone trunks” are very different and each appeal to a distinct target market. You’ll only want to explore the right one in your research.

Question 4: Which products/services are most profitable for you? Are there other reasons (inventory, seasonality, location) that you would want to push one product/service over another?

Again, the answer to this question will help focus your research. Spend the most time expanding and refining the products that the client indicates are most important. This can sometimes save you from exploring an entire product line, if the customer says something like, “Product A is a necessary evil. We have to carry it, but we also have to price it below cost.”

Obviously, that’s not an area you want to focus on. You’ll include some keywords to be thorough, but you’ll spend more of your time on the “money” keywords.

Nine Best Practices For Optimized < title > Tags

When I do an SEO audit on a webpage, one of the first things I check is the <title> tag. Why? Well, I have several reasons.

Best Practices for Title Tags in SEO

In my book, the <title> tag possesses all of the following:

• It has the most SEO power of any tag on the page for establishing keyword relevance
• Its contents are the source for the blue-link text shown in the search engine results pages (SERPs)
• It’s the best place to get a concise description of the content on the page (well, that’s the theory)

In an optimal world, the last bullet above would always be true. But how many times have you seen a page come out of development sporting the <title> tag text “Page 1” or “Home Page” or “Template” or even simply left blank? Yeah, too many times (me, too).

Given the theory that the <title> tag’s text is supposed to describe the page, search engines ascribe a huge amount of SEO value to the tag’s content – but only if it’s well-formed, contains page-relevant text, and reflects in the limited space available what the page is about (there’s not much SEO power in “Page 1”).

This one tag is a huge opportunity to properly introduce your page to both human users (via the SERPs) and to search engines (for building keyword relevance). Whatever you do, don’t let this opportunity go to waste!

Best Practices For <title> Tag Optimization

When you are reviewing the code of your webpages, look for the <title> tag. See what it says. And note the following suggestions for making it be all that it can be for both human users and search crawlers alike:

1.  Use only one per page, placed within the <head> tag

I have seen many pages in my reviews that have either no <title> tag at all, have multiple <title> tags in the code, or have put the <title> tag within the <body> tag instead of the <head> tag. All of that is wrong, and negates the potential value of the <title> tag.

To keep your code valid and earn the value inherent in this key HTML element, simply keep this in mind: there should only be one <title> tag used per page, and it should only be used within the <head> section of the code.

Tips For Growing Keyword Seeds With Excel Formulas

Have your seeds germinated yet? Last time, we talked about keywords as “seeds” of ideas; a single keyword to represent an entire keyword cluster. Now it’s time to make our seeds grow.

In this case, let’s use “deck”. To begin with, I want to think of the types of decks my client might build:Using the example of Artisan Construction Servicesagain (thanks!), we’ll walk through the process that I use to grow a single seed.

• Composite
• Wood
• PVC
• Hardwood
• Cedar

Then I am going to use what we learned about the client already to develop a list of verb modifiers:

• Build
• Building
• Builder
• Replace
• Replacement
• Replacing
• Construct (wait, I’m not going to use that one, see below)
• Constructing (not this one either)
• Construction

I was able to generate the list above based on conversation with the client and a working knowledge of the deck building industry. If you’re not familiar with your client’s industry, you may want to research this more – look at forums, the discussions part of Google Search, and Yahoo Answers, for example.

Categorize Keywords By Intent

After I build my list of modifiers, I go back and think about intent. I’m not going to use “construct” or “constructing” as modifiers because I think the intent behind them is DIY. Construction probably has some DIY in it as well, but it might glean several useful keywords. I’ll make a note to filter those after the fact.

By the way, don’t go above 10 total modifiers; it gets to be too much to work with.

Since the focus of this post is how-to research, I won’t go into all the modifier sets I’d use, but normally, after I did this set, I’d go back and do one for decking and maybe also for specific brands (Azek, Nichiha, etc.) When you do this for yourself, keep in mind that de-duplication will be important (see below).

Concatenation

(Yes, it is a word, and a useful one for search!)

Next, I use a tool like the one found here to concatenate (that means put together) the keyword seed with the modifiers. I prefer not to use the “concatenate” function in Excel, because sometimes it is limiting. I also find this formula to be infinitely easier to remember and manipulate:

Let’s say you have the following cells:

A	B	C
build	composite	deck

You want to get the phrase [build composite deck] out of this. Use the formula A1&“ ”&B1&“ ”&C1.

The &“ ”& just adds a space between the two cells’ values. If you want to lock down a value, as in the list below, so that you could get the phrase [building wooden deck]:

A	B	C
build	composite	deck
building	wooden

Use the formula the same way as above, but lock out C1 with dollar signs: A2&“ ”&B2&“ ”&$C$1.

You can “lock out” either a Row or a Column value.

Ok. If you haven’t already clicked to open the spreadsheet I mentioned above, do it now. This will show you my initial list of keywords based on the modifiers I listed above.

Notice that because I didn’t use all 10 possible modifiers, my actual keyword list ends at line 40. Just don’t use the incomplete keywords at the bottom.

Getting Search Frequencies

Go to the Google Keyword Tool. Login if you have an Adwords account; it saves you from having to enter the captcha for each search.

Cut and paste the first section of keywords from your list into the keywords field. Make sure the box that says “only show ideas closely related to my search terms” is NOT checked. Click the box on the left for “exact match” (and turn off “broad”).

Google Keyword Tool Settings

After you click “Search” and get a list of results, don’t even look at them. Just click the “download – all – CSV for Excel” link.

Repeat these steps for each modifier, but when you get the CSV’s for the other modifiers, paste them into the original Excel sheet so that you have one big list of keywords in one Excel sheet.

Once you have your full list, you need to de-duplicate.

Steps to De-duplicate

1. Make sure all of your data is in the same format. I like to find and replace (CTRL-h) all of the brackets with nothing. Find=[, Replace=nothing (leave it blank). Then repeat with “]”.
2. Sort by global monthly searches ascending. Delete any rows where global monthly searches are “0” or “-“.
3. Now sort by Keyword A-Z.
4. Go to Data – Remove Duplicates. Specify (check) only the “Keyword” Column. If you’re using an older version of Excel, it’s a little harder to do this – see these instructions to de-duplicate.

Removing 0-Value Keywords

Now we’re going to look for keyword patterns. The first obvious one I see is “how to”. Anyone using the word “how” is not interested in paying a contractor (at least not at this time).

1. Use the following formula in Column E: =FIND(“how”,A2). This will “find” anywhere in A2 that has the text string “how” and return the character position it starts at. Trust me, this is useful.
2. Now copy/paste the formula all the way down your list.
3. Select Col E and copy it.
4. Paste special for values only in Col F.
5. Sort Col F. ascending.

This brings all of the keywords with “how” to the top of the list. Simply delete out these rows, and then look for another pattern.

Hint: to easily look for another pattern, just select all of Col E and find/replace the string you’re looking for (example “how”) with the next one you need (example “design”).

When you think you’ve removed as much as you can, you will probably be down to under 100 keywords. These are the ones you really care about. Take just a minute to scroll through the completed list to make sure you didn’t miss anything and delete it.

Rinse and repeat as necessary. It takes a lot less time to do it than to explain it. You may also enjoy these easy PC/Excel shortcuts:

Shift+space bar = select an entire row

CTRL+- (that’s the minus sign) = delete an entire row

CTRL+h = open the find and replace window

ALT+e, then s, then v = copy and paste special for values only

Human traffickers using Pashupatinagar as transit point

Pashupatinagar in eastern Ilam has been found to be used as a safe transit point for human trafficking.
The transit point is being increasingly used by human traffickers to traffic girls from Nepal to different parts of India.

In 2011 alone, Maiti Nepal, Pashupatinagar rescued 128 girls including 19 from India and 109 from the bordering region in and around Pashupatinagar.

Girls from Ilam, Jhapa, Paanchthar and Terhathum have been found to have fallen victim to the human traffickers, said Maiti Nepal Pashupatinagar Coordinator, Hom Dhakal.

In the same year, Maiti Nepal rescued 433 girls from Pashupatinagar of Ilam, Kakarvitta of Jhapa and Biratnagar of Morang. Those include 109 from Pashupatinagar, 251 from Kakarvitta and 73 from Biratnagar.

Of those reported missing, seven among 34 were found in Ilam, eight among 52 in Morang while none of the 88 reported missing from Jhapa were found, Maiti Nepal said.

Maiti Nepal has been joining hands with the local police to monitor the travelling of people across the border.

During the inspection, girls were even found in their school dress trying to cross over the border, Coordinator Dhakal said.

Maiti Nepal, Pashupatinagar has also been running awareness programmes about human trafficking in the bordering villages and schools, as well as in the Indian bordering region.

Musical connection

KATHMANDU: “Brilliant musicians of Nepal meet the brilliant musicians of Norway,” claimed the Terje Heggernes, Principal of Seljord Folk High School, Norway at the musical exchange programme ‘North meets South’ on March 21 at the United World Trade Centre, Tripureshwor.

Organised by Ashesh and Nekhvam in association with Seljord Folk High School, Norway, the venue resounded with enthralling sound of rock, blues and Norwegian folk music where Norwegian and Nepali musicians shared stage.

School bands of Seljord Folk High School rocked the initial minutes with their skill and talent. Afterwards, Ashesh and Nekhvam with Ashesh Dangol on guitar and vocal, Suraj Lama on basss and Rajiv Tuladhar on drums wowed the crowd. They started with Sunnuna Sunaunushna and later performed English and Nepali numbers — Listen, Dark Clouds All Over The Sky, Bahula and In my Brother’s Blues among others — from their albums.

Making the concert memorable, the teachers from of Seljord Folk High School joined the band. Vidar on violin and Kjetil on saxophone took their places and there was no stopping of the flow of music.

The jam session was worth watching and listening to as the musicians played from one note to another giving a rise and fall to the whole repertoire. The sound of the violin was folksy while the saxophone produced jazzy notes and Ashesh and Nekhvam supported them. All the five musicians on stage were in the mood, having a good time as they played their kind of music.

After the jam session, Vidar shared their music as “Kjetil and I played the theme of Norwegian folk music which we hadn’t decided beforhand”.

As the event was a musical exchange programme, Heggernes shared that it has made a difference as they have good friends here in Nepal for exchange, to learn and develop relationship personally and professionally.

Ashesh and Nekhvam finally finish the 21st MARCH Nort meets South

Today Ashesh and Nekhvam FINALLY FINISH THE North meet south at the agni hall in UNITED WORLD CENTER.

Ashesh and Nekhvam - Sound for the Innocent ( OSLO -NORWAY 22.07.2011 )

Music is the art of living. No matter which gender or instrument we play but it speaks the language of our heart. Photographers play with light and shade, painters play with their colors, sculpturist give the shape and musician flow with their notes. The wind blow The bird sing Water fall The fish swing The sun rise The morning glow The sun set The moon shine The night crawl The blues man began to rise. Peace and Love ,lets we share together Ashesh Dangol