Search Engine Marketing Through Search Engine Optimization - Part 4

Go through your search engine marketing keywords list and make your first cut. Cross off anything with a Results / Search ratio that is clearly higher than the average for your topic. These terms are too competitive. Look for those terms with high bid prices and large numbers of PPC campaigns. These are probably too competitive as well. Finally, stay away from terms with a high search volume when you are just starting out or you'll likely loose interest before you see any meaningful results.

In this cut you should be looking to narrow your list down to under a hundred potential keywords – around 50 would be better to start with. You should also start to get a feel for what search engine marketing keywords are going to work for this topic. Take a close look at these keywords. Are you still excited about the topic? If not, you should stop here and go back to your short list and start over. Passion is key.

The list you've just compiled will contain the keywords that you will turn into your site pages. As you look over this list and begin to do the next step in the search engine optimization process you should be thinking about your primary keyword. This will be the strongest keyword left on your list. You want to pick the word with the most search volume and least results, with few PPC campaigns and low bid costs. This primary keyword will form the basis of your all-important index page and will direct the selection of your domain name.

Don't settle on your primary keyword just yet though – you still have some data collection and analysis to do.

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Search Engine Marketing Through Search Engine Optimization - Part 3

This part is much more involved. During this step in the search engine optimization process you'll narrow your topic down into a set of competitive niche keywords to build your sites pages around. These keywords will form the foundation of your search engine marketing efforts. I can't stress enough how important it is to do a thorough analysis of your niche market before you start building pages. The most important part of your search engine optimization process is the research and planning you do before you build your site.

Take the first topic term from your short list. This will be your first search engine marketing research project. It may seem like a lot of work but you should go through this market analysis process for each of your five short list topics. Only by doing all five will you have a clear picture where your best search engine optimization opportunities are t be found.

This works best if you create a spreadsheet or a chart to help you organize the search engine marketing data you collect for each topic. Start by labeling your columns from left to right with the following:

Keyword
Searches
Results
Results / Searches
# of Google AdWords Campaigns
1 st AdWords bid
2 nd AdWords bid
3 rd AdWords bid
# of Yahoo Search Campaigns
1 st Yahoo bid
2nd Yahoo bid
3rd Yahoo bid
1 st site
2 nd site
3 rd site

Collecting this search engine marketing data and filling in this spreadsheet will take some time and effort but it will prove worth it in the long run.

The data for columns 1 & 2 can be obtained by using Overture's free search tool. Go to http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ and enter your topic into the search box. You will get a long list of keywords that include variations on your topic along with the number of searches performed for that keyword during the last month. Go down the list and enter your keywords in column 1 and their corresponding search volume in column 2.

You should have quite a list here. Remember, this is the process of narrowing your niche so it's ok to have lots of potential terms to pick from. At this stage in the search engine optimization process it's good to have a big list.

For column #3 go to Google or Alta Vista and do a search for each term on your list. Be sure to put quotes around your search term to narrow the results to a more targeted subset.

The results page for your search will provide you with the data you need to fill in columns #3, #13, #14 and #15. Column #3 is simply the number of results returned. This will be listed at the top of the page. For columns 13, 14, and 15 simply enter the URL's for the top three sites listed in the order listed on the search results page. These sites are your primary search engine marketing competitors for this keyword. You will come back to these sites later to determine how well optimized they are for the search engines and to help you develop your search engine marketing strategy – but more on that later.

At this point you have a list of keywords related to your topic, search volume (demand), search results (supply), and the top 3 sites for each keyword. Column #4 can be calculated by dividing the search results by the search volume. This will give you a number you can easily use to compare the supply vs. demand of each keyword. The lower the number the less competitive the market is with regard to searches verses websites targeting that niche.

Columns #5 through column #12 will tell you how expensive the pay-per-click market is for this keyword. You can get a good feel for how competitive a market is and how profitable it is by how many other search engine marketers are paying to advertise for those keywords and how much they are spending for a click.

Another important reason for collecting this information is to reveal arbitrage opportunities. Often there will be an imbalance between the cost per click for Yahoo and Google. You can take advantage of this imbalance.

In simplest terms you add content that has a high PPC cost in one engine. Add page display ads (AdWords etc…) to the same page for the high cost PPC engine. Then drive traffic to that page with the same keywords using the low-priced PPC engine. This isn't necessary for search engine optimization purposes, but it can earn you some extra revenue.

To fill these fields you will need to go to Google AdWords and sign up for an account ( https://adwords.google.com/select/ ). It costs $5 to get started and is well worth the price. Use your AdWords account to go through each keyword and determine the number of campaigns and the top three bids for each keyword.

The process for Yahoo Search is basically the same. Although Yahoo does require a $50 initial deposit, you can use this money towards click costs. Sign up here http://www.content.overture.com/d/

This search engine optimization research process has been tedious to be sure but you now have a valuable collection of data for your first topic idea. It's time to begin narrowing the field. Print off your spreadsheet so you can cross off keywords. This way you won't lose any of the data you've collected – it may be of value in the future.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Marketing Through Search Engine Optimization Part 2

The analysis and design of a website should follow a series of logical steps. 1) Pick your topic 2) identify your keywords 3) determine the competitive landscape 4) build your site. Following a well planned search engine optimization strategy is essential to successful search engine marketing.

The first item of business is to select the general topic of your site. It's important to recognize that your final topic selection will be driven by market forces and competitive pressures. Your goal is to achieve high search engine rankings after all and you aren't likely to achieve that if you choose a topic in a well-defined and highly competitive market. This process is essentially one of narrowing your search engine marketing focus until you have a niche that you can effectively compete in.

You will do better in every way if you pick a search engine marketing topic that interests you. First, your passion, or lack thereof, for the topic will come through in your writing. Passion and enthusiasm for a subject are necessary ingredients for writing content that people actually want to read. Second, you are far more likely to stick to your search engine optimization strategy if you have a genuine interest in the subject matter.

To begin your topic selection process you should brainstorm general topic ideas for at least 30 minutes. During the first few minutes the ideas will come fast and furious, but then you will have to start thinking about it deeply and intently. This is the point where most people quit and take the list they have and run with it. That's a mistake.

Your topic selection is the most important determining factor to your success or failure in search engine marketing. Take your time and do it right the first time. Spend the entire 30 minutes focusing intently on listing every topic that interests you, even if it sounds silly. The first benefit of staying on task is that you will create a much larger initial list than you would if you quit after the ideas stopped flowing freely.

The second benefit, and the real power of this technique, is the message you are sending to your subconscious. When you focus intently on a question for a full 30 minutes your subconscious gets the message that you want an answer, so for the next few days your subconscious will provide answers to your brainstorm question. And many of these ideas will be the best you'll get from your brainstorming session. Be sure to capture these ideas and add them to your list.

You now have your general topic list. This list will form the basis of your search engine optimization research for this site and the next so be sure to keep it safe and back it up with a hard copy.

Go through your list and select the top five topics based on the sole criteria of how excited you are about writing search engine optimized content on this topic for the foreseeable future. Your topic must interest you or your writing won't interest your visitors.

Now you have your short list and step two of your website analysis and design is finished.

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