RICEinteractive<title> » keyword research http://riceinteractive.com Internet Marketing Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:25:24 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Keyword Research-Blogging for Longtail Keywords http://riceinteractive.com/keyword-research-blogging-for-longtail-keywords/ http://riceinteractive.com/keyword-research-blogging-for-longtail-keywords/#comments Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:22:40 +0000 Bill Rice http://riceinteractive.com/?p=36 Blogs are excellent tools for capturing strong longtail keywords. The incidental nature of blog posts and the broad topics covered draw longtail searches like flies to honey. This phenomenon, popping attractive keywords into my blog analytics, got me to thinking about creating longtail keyword honeypots as a regular part of my keyword research.

Turning Blogs into Longtail Honeypots

If you already have a blog you probably have noticed the attractive keywords searches that naturally stream in. This is the wonder of mildly focused, frequently posted, haphazard content and Google’s love affair with blogs.

The breadth and frequency of blog posts often open the filters and let us see search results obscured from our increasingly traffic engineered websites. This precisely the trickiness of creating an efficient process to draw in longtail keywords and not ruin the effectiveness of the technique.

Use Categories to Funnel Organic Traffic

The best way to get the right blend is to create a broad funnel. Start with a conscious topic area–a broad keyword. Then, much like you would with a domain, develop a good solid base of categories. However, maintain your normal non-SEO, informal blog-style content generation.

Some attempt to automate this process and get a little “blackhat” using a scrapper to seed keyword content into a splog.

Why I Don’t Advocate Scrapping

I tend to argue against this approach for a couple of practical reasons. Here are my reasons for maintaining my manual posting to these blogs:

  • Monetize your affiliate program content research with Adsense by blogging what you learn
  • Blogs can be great knowledge bases just waiting to be searched for future ideas
  • Buy a domain for each blog and make them domain aging outposts for future projects

Collecting the Longtail Keywords

Don’t forget to actually capture all this data. Blog stats packages are great for quick temperature checks on blogs, but put Google Analytics in place so you can do some serious keyword databasing.

Don’t leave the data idle–flip new longtails into your keyword research queue. The good ones should be flushed out into a PPC or Article Marketing campaign.

Expanding the Keyword Capture

Always be looking new keyword opportunities. As new search phrases come in see if there are opportunities to expand your categories or your posts to bring in more keywords.

Also, don’t forget to check your link backs and trackbacks. Yes, they will happen even on a keyword honeypot. These are great opportunities to find other concepts and categories you should be capturing.

Turning it Into Profit

Well, that is simple. Kick it into you normal keyword analysis or marketing program. Here are a few ideas:

  • Adsense on the blog itself
  • eBooks built on longtail clusters of interest
  • PPC campaigns
  • Article marketing topics

—

Bill Rice is the Principle at RICE interactive, a leader in lead generating copywriting and social media. He is a frequent writer, speaker, and consultant on marketing and sales. He is passionate about helping organizations execute more profitable marketing and lead generation strategies.

If you have any questions–contact me: http://twitter.com/billrice

]]> http://riceinteractive.com/keyword-research-blogging-for-longtail-keywords/feed/ 0 Headlines-Using Twitter to Test Headlines http://riceinteractive.com/headlines-using-twitter-to-test-headlines/ http://riceinteractive.com/headlines-using-twitter-to-test-headlines/#comments Sun, 03 Aug 2008 09:56:43 +0000 Bill Rice http://riceinteractive.com/?p=22 Twitter is a great way to test your headlines and short copy effectiveness. Hundreds of followers and a 140 characters maximum makes for a powerful marketing test environment. Twitter is a quick and efficient way to see if your headlines convert into clicks.

Article Library

Start with a good repository of articles. You should create a significant number of articles in a variety of topics. Good article diversity and quantity will ensure you have a ready-made test bed for a variety of projects.

This article library can be an article directory (eZineArticles), one or more blogs, or your website copy portfolio. Using your own blog or website gives you the added benefit of driving prospective business traffic too.

Since Twitter users, like most social networkers, don’t like constant self-promotion I suggest you routinely test using others websites, blogs, or articles as well as your own. The other authors will love the traffic, may link back to you, preserves your credibility, and it still achieves your conversion testing.

Tracking Conversions

Don’t forget the primary objective–tracking conversions. If you are using your own website or blog this is pretty simple–look at your blog stats or Google analytics. However, what about Tweets that you point at websites you don’t own?

In the past there was little opportunity to collect measurable results from these tests. You could use Summize to track keyword discussion and possibly track re-tweets. Unfortunately, this only measures buzz and typically has more to do with the destination content, not the headline. It doesn’t give you the core metric–do people click because of my copy?

Enter bit.ly Tweetburner, a new tiny URL technology that lets you track source and traffic through your shortened URL. So, now simply shorten and attach a unique bit.ly Tweetburner URL to each of your headline or short copy tests. Then you can track sources and volume of click-throughs.

Respect Your Audience

The quickest way to damage this excellent focus group is to abuse it. So, here are a few cautionary etiquette suggestions to keep yourself from poisoning the water:

  • Promote others, as well as yourself, with your headline tests
  • Stagger test headlines over various days
  • Make sure the destination content is interesting
  • Do not link your headline tests to sales letters or landing pages
  • Participate in the community too (ask questions and participate)

Happy Testing!

—

Bill Rice is the Principle at RICE interactive, a leader in lead generating copywriting and social media. He is a frequent writer, speaker, and consultant on marketing and sales. He is passionate about helping organizations execute more profitable marketing and lead generation strategies.

If you have any questions–contact me: http://twitter.com/billrice

]]> http://riceinteractive.com/headlines-using-twitter-to-test-headlines/feed/ 1 Keyword Research-Using Article Marketing to Test Keywords http://riceinteractive.com/keyword-research-using-article-marketing/ http://riceinteractive.com/keyword-research-using-article-marketing/#comments Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:53:10 +0000 Bill Rice http://riceinteractive.com/?p=20 Keyword research and analysis is a constant effort in optimizing. Yet, optimizing requires a sandbox to test in. Article marketing and article directories, like eZineArticles.com, can be that perfect test environment–good traffic volume, competitive content, and metrics.

Keyword Analysis

The first step in setting up your tests is the keyword analysis. The methodology for analyzing your project will largely depend on the purpose of your copy. Blogs are looking for volume, PPC campaigns are looking for a profitable niche, companies are looking for product and service inquiries.

As you begin to research keywords make sure you keep these concepts in mind. Resources like Google and Wordtracker.com keyword tools can focus you on the right keywords for each objective. Once narrowed to a handful of promising keywords and phrases to are ready to seed your tests.

Writing the Test Articles

Testing with articles can be as much art as science, but done properly it will still yield valuable information for any SEO project. Article directories and Google (your ultimate client) are very fickle about duplicate content. So, simply submitting multiple iterations and controls, like a traditional scientific test, is not an option. Instead follow these guidelines:

  • Try to find the most appropriate category for your SEO article test
  • Consistently post all of your test articles into that category
  • Ideally you have already published yourself into a top 10 author for that category
  • Write three unique articles for each keyword you are testing
  • Vary keyword density, key phrase word order, alternate keywords
  • Try multiple headline techniques (try a number in at least one)
  • Try various summary techniques (try a famous quote in one)

Marketing the Article

Once written and submitted this is where you can get a bit more scientific. You can attempt a variety of different article marketing techniques. Here are a few that I recommend:

  • Blog reference/link
  • Twitter comment
  • Social bookmarking
  • Email

I like to use bit.ly (a tiny URL technology) because it gives you detailed click-through source and tracking metrics.

Measuring the Results

If you are not measuring then you are simply hoping for miracles and most people don’t pay for that. Before you start submitting and marketing your test articles make sure you are certain of your objective and key tracking metrics. Here are some possible metrics:

  • Views
  • Click-through
  • Syndication/Publication
  • Traffic sources

Quality article directories, like eZineArticles, are making it easier to track and capture these metrics.

The nice thing about using article marketing as an SEO content and keyword test environment is, once complete, you have a great repository of validated and ready to deploy SEO Web copy.

—

Bill Rice is the Principle at RICE interactive, a leader in lead generating copywriting and social media. He is a frequent writer, speaker, and consultant on marketing and sales. He is passionate about helping organizations execute more profitable marketing and lead generation strategies.

If you have any questions–contact me: http://twitter.com/billrice

]]> http://riceinteractive.com/keyword-research-using-article-marketing/feed/ 0