10 of Google's Free Tools for Keyword Research

Choosing the just the right keywords for your site is truly the key to successful SEO. They define your whole Internet marketing campaign – it revolves around keywords. Thus, if you really want to hit the bull’s eye with your SEO efforts, performing a thorough keyword research is where you’d start.

There is a gazillion of keyword tools out there that help you research keywords from various perspectives. But today we’ll talk about free Google tools that allow you to get valuable keyword intelligence without spending a penny. Some of them you probably heard of, while some names might not ring a bell. In any case, the more keyword research methods you use, the better targeted your search terms will be. So, it won’t hurt to add these Google keyword tools to your SEO toolkit.

1 - Goolge Adwords Keyword Tool

This keyword tool is well-familiar to most SEOs and Internet marketers. It was initially intended to assist Google Adwords advertisers with getting the highest-paying keywords for their PPC campaigns. And it has become a truly indispensible source of keyword ideas for almost every SEO professional.

The app will suggest keywords based on the initial list of search terms you provide or based on your website’s content. It will also tell you the competition rate for each keyword, as well as the number of searches it gets on Google per month.

A keyword’s search volume (aka search popularity) may vary depending on the match type you specify. The tool offers 3 match types – broad, [exact] and “phrase”.

- Broad match will bring you all the phrases that contain your keyword plus synonyms. For example, “designer sunglasses” will be considered a synonym for “designer shades”.

- Exact match will show the number of searches for an exact term, excluding synonyms or longer phrases with that keyword. For instance, it will tell you how many times the exact phrase “designer shades” was looked up on Google.

- Phrase match will also include longer phrases that contain the initial key phrase you specify. For example, ‘buy brand-new designer shades’ and ‘designer shades in different styles and shapes’ will be considered matches for the phrase “designer shades”.

Google Adwords Keyword Tool also groups suggested keywords into appropriate categories, which helps you easier find the ones that are more suitable for your website.

2 - Google Suggest

You must have seen this many times. Once you start typing a search term on Google, you get suggested how to complete your key phrase. These suggestions are not random – they are based on popular terms people search for on Google. To get some unique keyword ideas for you site, start typing your initial keyword and copy the suggestions that appear. You can make a screenshot and convert it into a different format later. Or you can simply write down suggested keywords on a piece of paper – up to you.

The downside of this method is that it’s not very convenient to switch between windows and programs or to take notes manually. Besides, you have to type in each keyword that you want to get ideas for.

3 - Related Searches

The Related Searches section on Google is yet another valuable source to tap into for more keyword ideas. Related searches normally appear at the bottom of a page when you google something up and look like this:

To get even more out of the Related Searches section, hit the More search tools link in the menu on the left and choose the Related searches mode. This time, an extended list of related searches will get displayed at the top of search results:

Besides, each of these prompted terms is clickable. If you click on it, a list of keywords associated with this particular term will be produced. Thus, you get an almost never-ending string of keyword ideas.

Besides, the Related Searches method can also be used inside Rank Tracker, if you choose.

4 - Google Wonder Wheel

Google Wonder Wheel is yet another option you can use to get more keyword tips. It is located right below the Related searches button in the All results menu. Wonder Wheel is a way to graphically present keywords that are related to one another. It is not much different from the Related Searches option, but presents data in a more fun and refreshing way:

The wheel in the center contains your initial search term and is surrounded by related terms. If you click any of those associated keywords, another thematic wheel will appear, with the word you clicked on in the center. This method allows you to easily group words into thematically-related clusters and makes your keyword research easier, not to say, more fun.

5 - Google Sets

Google Sets is a not-so-well-known keyword app by Google that produces sets of things based on the initial terms you enter. You can choose to get suggested a large or a small set of related terms. But even after it has been generated, you can opt to grow the set or shrink it.

6 - Google Trends

Google Trends allows you to see how the popularity of different search terms changes over time. It reflects seasonal fluctuations in certain keyword’s search popularity, and allows you to see which one of your targeted keywords is looked up more often in comparison with a synonymous term. It basically helps you predict seasonal traffic changes and prompts you when a keyword becomes more or less “trendy”.

Besides, it will show what countries certain search terms are most popular in. You can get info on up to 5 words within one single graph that allows you to easily compare them.

Please, note that the table does not show exact search volumes of words. It shows the relation to one another and uses the first keyword you enter as a starting point.

Another valuable insight this tool provides is top 20 most searched for terms on the Web. This way you can define hot topics to write on and discover keywords that will help you optimize your site or blog for Google News.

7 - Google Trends for Websites

Using Google Trends for Websites you can see how the amount of traffic to a particular site changes over time, what other sites those who visit the site you’re analyzing also go to, and what related keywords they look up. The app provides the following statistics:

- The number of visitors to your site and seasonal traffic fluctuations
- The websites those who came to your site also visited
- The keywords those who came to your site also looked up
- The countries your visitors came from

This way you can analyze traffic to your own website or get insight into what’s going on your competitors’ sites. Not to mention this tool is sure to bring you some totally unique key terms your target audiences really search for.

8 - Google Insight for Search

Google Insight for Search is quite similar to Google Trends but provides a wider range of analytical data.

It also shows how keyword trend change over time, tries to predict searchers’ behavior and displays search tendencies in different countries.

It gets you the following statistics:

- Relative popularity of up to 5 search terms and how it changes over time
- Top 10 most popular related searches
- Top 10 fastest-rising searches
- Top 10 countries where the search term is most popular
- Search popularity forecast for 1 year

Before you analyze your keywords, you can set a certain region, timeframe and the span of the Web (Web Search, Image Search, News Search, Product Search) you would like to get analytical data for.

9 - YouTube Keyword Tool

Nowadays a lot of Web marketers employ YouTube immense capabilities to promote their businesses online. YouTube Keyword tool will pinpoint the most popular terms that YouTube users search for. It is very much like Adwords Keyword tool. You can get keyword ideas based on (1) the initial list of keywords you specify, (2) you video’s URL or (3) different user parameters that you specify, such as, age, gender, geographical location, interests, etc.

Just like with Adwords Keyword tool, you can see how many searches a term gets per month. Again, beware of different match types that may influence search popularity statistics.

10 - Google Analytics

And, finally, good old Google Analytics. In case you are just starting a website and do not use Google Analytics yet, you might not know what I’m talking about. Google Analytics is a popular free Web marketing tool that allows you to track your site’s performance and provides diverse analytical data regarding your site.

It also shows keywords that visitors actually used to arrive at your website. Such data is helpful for 2 reasons:

- You can see what keywords on your site bring the most direct traffic
- You can get some more keyword ideas you might have been missing out on

In order to see keyword-related statistics, go to Traffic Sources in the left-hand side menu in your Google Analytics, then choose Search Engines and add the Keyword column to the analysis table.

SEM Blog - Search Engine Marketing Blog

10 of the Best Link-Building Tips for an E-Commerce Websites

High-quality and abundant backlinks are by far the sure-fire way to drive your website to the top of search engine organic listing. No matter how Google updates its algorithms further, backlicks will always be the main ranking factor (unless social media push them back).

However, quality backlinks are not that easy to get if your website is a 100% e-commerce store. But the more challenging the task is, the more attractive it is.

Here are 10 of the Best Link-Building Tips for an E-Commerce Websites.

1 - Start blogging

Corporate blogging is an awesome opportunity to be more human and personal to your customers and create quality content people will be willing to link to. Once you start blogging, other people in your industry will comment on your posts, share them in social media, thus adding you backlinks and spreading the buzz about your e-commerce store’s blog around.

2 - Post on niche forums

We’re not talking about spam here. As an owner of an e-commerce store, you’re an expert at what you sell, so you can provide value to people by answering their questions. A link to your website in the forum signature section will be a bonus for your efforts.

3 - Get involved in niche organizations and local business associations

Thus you’ll be able to establish good business contacts offline, sharing experience and getting new ideas, partners, customers and friends.

4 - Donate to local charities and nonprofit organizations

Find charities and nonprofit organizations which link to their donor’s websites.

5 - Sponsor/organize contests and giveaways

Organizing contests or just sponsoring them is another great way to attract some links. Search for bloggers who actively organize contests for their readers.

6 - Create a coupon code

Coupons are very popular, and almost every buyer tries to find a coupon code of a store before doing a purchase from it.

7 - Offer products for review

Search for influential websites owners in your niche who write about different product and service providers, and submit your product for review.

8 - Issue news releases

Submit news/press releases to online press release distribution services. You’ll be amazed at how quickly your news item with a link to your website will spread around the web!

9 - Submit your online store to directories

Spread the word about your website in search engine directories (e.g. Yahoo! Directory), social shopping websites and other directories that provide thematic grouping of e-commerce websites.

10 - Plan and track your link-building efforts

At the end of the day, your link-building campaign will be successful only if you plan it carefully and further track the results. There’s special SEO software that can assist you in your link-building efforts.

• Reference/Source: 10 Link-Building Tips for an E-Commerce Store

SEM Blog - Search Engine Marketing (SEM) blog.

10 of the Advance SEO Terminologies You Should Know!

Being a blogger and a Virtual SEO Assistant, we need to do a search engine optimization in our blog or site for it appear in search engines. Now,some of you may or may not know about SEO, however, there are some SEO terminologies that we need to know in order to fully understand how SEO work for our blogs or websites.

Let me add the fact that there are hundreds of SEO glossaries out there too, but, here are some of the TOP 10 SEO terms that I want to share to all as I think it may be useful. SEO Professionals and newbies can benefit on this list as it can help broaden their knowledge on SEO.

1 - Crawl

(Noun) The process by which search engines retrieve content from a Website, including the criteria used to determine rates and priorities of crawl. From the perspective of an SEO, crawl can be influenced or managed through internal and external resources.

2 - Filthy Linking Rich Principle

(Noun phrase) The more links a document has accrued, the more links the document will accrue. Stated another way, the more visible a document is in search engine results, the more likely the document is to accrue links, and hence the more visible the document becomes in search engine results.

3 - Indexer

(Noun) A type of program that search engines use to update their databases with information about retrieved and parsed Web documents. You rarely see even knowledgeable SEO forum moderators and admins speak of indexers and parsers, perhaps out of a misguided concern that they will confuse people who are new to search engine optimization. Unfortunately, those new people visit the forums to learn about SEO, so teaching them the wrong terminology does them a great disservice.

4 - Influencer

(Noun) A Web site or individual whose content is deemed to be influential in adjusting search result (q.v.) rankings, usually either through the creation of new content or the placement of links to other documents. Some blogs (q.v.) can be powerful influencers.

5 - Link mass

(Noun phrase) The combination of all connected links that lead to any given page in a hypertext document collection. Absolute link mass cannot be measured. Relative link mass can be approximately measured.

6 - Naturality

(Noun) 1) A metric or measure of a range of search listings (q.v.) for a query which are not optimized to be included in the search results. A perfectly natural search result (q.v.) has a Naturality value of 1.0, reflecting the fact that none of the search listings (q.v.) are optimized for placement in the result. 2) The characteristic of being natural in the sense of not having been optimized for inclusion or ranking within a group or collection of natural, transparent, or opaque objects.

7 - Parasitical SEO

(Noun phrase) The practice of “riding coat-tails” for one’s own advantage. Parasitical SEO tactics may include: creating competitive content about well-established brands (common in affiliate marketing), injecting content onto an established Web site without the site owner’s knowledge or approval, dropping links into comments and discussions on popular blogs and forums, etc.

8 - Quality Links

(Noun phrase) A nonsense expression with no real value or purpose other than to act as a catchall for the types of links people think are better than “those other links”. Googlers use “quality links” as a subtle way of telling people to stop getting cheap spammy links. Many SEO forum moderators and admins use “quality links” in a somewhat broader but similar fashion, if only because they don’t know exactly what criteria make links good for any particular search engine but they recognize that people who are asking about linkage have a problem. Nearly everyone else seems to use the expression to refer to their (usually non-performing) backlinks. I wrote about high quality links at SEOmoz (in a post designed to rank for “high quality links” on the basis of content but the lesson passed over everyone’s head, except for Aaron Pratt who saw what I was doing right away).

9 - SERP (Acronym for Search Engine Results Page)

Everyone seems to know this acronym by now. I have always hated it even though I now reluctantly use it. SRP (search results page) would be better, since it’s all inclusive. You can have a DRP (Directory Results Page) which some people might argue should be called a DSRP (Directory Search Results Page). I still get click throughs from Yahoo! and DMOZ directory page listings (or a DLP, Directory Listings Page).

10 - Universal Search

(Noun phrase) The practice by major search engines like Ask, Google, Live, and Yahoo! of melding results from several search databases to provide the user with a more diverse selection of search listings (usually combining video, news, blog, Web, book, and other search tools). Aka Blended Search.

You can check the full list of Advanced SEO Glossary here: Click here. Thanks to the SEO Analyst , Alwin Clores, for sharing this very invaluable SEO information.

Got some information overload? Fear not! Just ask here and I'll be very much willing to help you understand more about SEO and its terminologies.

About Tristan Khalil Singkala, the author
A gamer, manga-lover, blogger, SMM and SEO Professional. Proud Pinoy Freelancer, owner of TRIZZONE and Sociable Media Design. He blog about SEO, Social Media, being a Virtual Assistant and Freelancing. You can connect with him in his social networks.

10 of the Most Common SEO Mistakes Usually Neglected

No, these aren’t “myths” disguised as “common mistakes.” I’ve already beaten the SEO myths theme to death. What follows are 10 of the Most Common SEO Mistakes Usually Neglected. Some of these things catch even the best of us…

1 - Targetting the wrong keywords

This is a mistake many people make and what is worse – even experienced SEO experts make it. People choose keywords that in their mind are descriptive of their website but the average users just may not search them. For instance, if you have a relationship site, you might discover that “relationship guide” does not work for you, even though it has the “relationship” keyword, while “dating advice” works like a charm. Choosing the right keywords can make or break your SEO campaign. Even if you are very resourceful, you can't think on your own of all the great keywords but a good keyword suggestion tool, for instance, the Website Keyword Suggestion tool will help you find keywords that are good for your site.

2 - Ignoring the Title tag

Leaving the "title" tag empty is also very common. This is one of the most important places to have a keyword, because not only does it help you in optimization but the text in your "title" tag shows in the search results as your page title.

3 - A Flash website without a html alternative

Flash might be attractive but not to search engines and users. If you really insist that your site is Flash-based and you want search engines to love it, provide an html version. Here are some more tips for optimizing Flash sites. Search engines don't like Flash sites for a reason – a spider can't read Flash content and therefore can't index it.

4 - JavaScript Menus

Using JavaScript for navigation is not bad as long as you understand that search engines do not read JavaScript and build your web pages accordingly. So if you have JavaScript menus you can't do without, you should consider build a sitemap (or putting the links in a noscript tag) so that all your links will be crawlable.

5 - Lack of consistency and maintenance

Our friend Rob from Blackwood Productions often encounters clients, who believe that once you optimize a site, it is done foreve. If you want to be successful, you need to permanently optimize your site, keep an eye on the competition and – changes in the ranking algorithms of search engines.

6 - Concentrating too much on meta tags

A lot of people seem to think SEO is about getting your meta keywords and description correct! In fact, meta tags are becoming (if not already) a thing of the past. You can create your meta keywords and descriptions but don't except to rank well only because of this.

7 - Using only Images for Headings

Many people think that an image looks better than text for headings and menus. Yes, an image can make your site look more distinctive but in terms of SEO images for headings and menus are a big mistake because h2, h2, etc. tags and menu links are important SEO items.

8 - Ignoring URLs

Many people underestimate how important a good URL is. Dynamic page names are still very frequent and no keywords in the URL is more a rule than an exception. Yes, it is possible to rank high even without keywords in the URL but all being equal, if you have keywords in the URL (the domain itself, or file names, which are part of the URL), this gives you additional advantage over your competitors. Keywords in URLs are more important for MSN and Yahoo! but even with Google their relative weight is high, so there is no excuse for having keywordless URLs.

9 - Backlink spamming

It is a common delusion that it more backlinks are ALWAYS better and because of this web masters resort to link farms, forum/newgroup spam etc., which ultimately could lead to getting their site banned. In fact, what you need are quality backlinks.

10 - Lack of keywords in the content

Once you focus on your keywords, modify your content and put the keywords wherever it makes sense. It is even better to make them bold or highlight them.

• Reference/Source:Webconfs.com