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Blog Keywords? What are blog keywords?
These are the words that people who have visited your blog typed into search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN Search) when looking for information.
The idea here is to find popular keywords for your blog that relate to your subject matter
and use them in your Blog title and often throughout the content. If you choose keywords
that are searched for often in search engines then you will have more traffic to your blog,
more traffic = more money. Also you will get more relevant ads from Adsense
(or other contextual advertiser) if it can read useful keywords in your
blog content as they ads are keyworded too, again this means your blog will monetize better.
So How Do You Choose Your Blog Keywords?
First you need to write a complete list of keywords that you think
people might type into a search engine that would be relevant to your
site.
Not just one word, but phrases of two and three keywords together too.
Remember if you are in a popular catagory the top keywords will
already be "taken" by your established competitors. In this case it is
better to go after the "long tail" keywords.
Chasing After The Long Tail Keywords
The long tail is a term that describes keyword phrases that are not
too popular but will bring in a steady stream of slow traffic. Say from
example if Frank started his gardening Blog but the keywords Roses
brought up a bunch of florists in the top 30 positions on Google that
had heavily optimised their sites already then he would find it hard to
get listed in the first 2 pages of results initially.
What he could do would be to use terms such as "Rosa Canina (Dog
Rose) flower", notice how I use both the botanical name and the common
name - that doubles your chances of being found.
The same if you blogged about electrical goods or mechanical parts -
write the part number after the name too. People often (more often?)
search for model numbers or part numbers - I know this to be especially
true in the mobile phone field.
By using these long tail keywords you let enthusiasts find you,
though you won't get the same traffic as if you had top placement for
Rose, it is easier to get a string of these long tail keywords and
bring in a steady stream of higher quality readers.
Higher Quality? Yes, anyone searching for a specific term is
generally looking for specific information, or is looking to buy,
rather than someone browsing the general terms who are just "window
shopping" as it were.
So Where Do I Find Out If My Blog Keyword Selections Are Popular?
This is where this all gets very confusing - and very time consuming.
There are different 'engines' to use that will display keyword
popularity, but thet all use dfferent methods to arrive at their
figures - and often the figures vary wildly between engines for the
same keywords.
You need to take the figures from several sources and then take an
guessed average - but yet just use these figures as a rough guide as to
whether the term is popular or not.
Popular free keyword selection tools are:
Google Trends
Overture Keywords / Yahoo Bid Amounts
Nichebot Keyword Discovery Tools
I will write a more detailed article later on how to utilise these tools properly.
OR THERE IS ANOTHER WAY TO FIND BLOG KEYWORDS...
If you do not want to go through all the trouble of the above there
is another way. After studying the abovetools for about a week I came
to another conclusion.
WRITE.
WRITE MORE
THEN WRITE A WHOLE HECK OF A LOT MORE
CONTINUE THE CYCLE.
If you do this just keep in mind as you write what your Blog is
about and throw in keywords that you think people might search for, once
you mention something do not then refer to "it" use its full name or an
alternate name or phrase.
Naturally you will write a ton of long tail phrases by accident, you
will even stumble upon a few keyword phrases that you never thought of.
Just write a lot of your own original content and then keep an eye
on your server logs. Check where your visitors come from and more
importantly check what search terms they used in the search engines to
find you - these are your blog keywords you should then go and write an article for.
If you spot a pattern then go and write an article on the subject of
the blog keywords that includes the keywords that are drawing attention.
This is how I write.
I write a lot of good useful content then let the search engines
sort themselves out. This has the benefit that if the search engines
change their search algorithm then my site does not have to be
rewritten, in fact because I am not trying to game the system then it
is probably that those who have been will be removed from their top
places and I will move up.
Also if you check the top Bloggers, there is always one article that
they write that catapults them to massive traffic, you cannot research
this it is a matter of chance (not luck) the more you write the better
the chance you will write one of these articles.
If you hit the frontpage of slashdot, technorati, delicious or digg
- then 1 million readers will hit your site in quick succession, even
if 1% become monthly readers you gain enough traffic to be able to hit
the front page on those social bookmark sites again.
But in the meantime concentrate on those search logs and see what keywords people are looking for when they hit your blog - then write more articles that target those keywords.... or start a new blog catering to those keywords and phrases
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