Keyword Research Expanding The List

Posted on 15. Sep, 2009 by Pete Hollier in Keyword Research, Search Optimization

Keyword List Expansion

The opportunities which await your company through developing an extensive database of keywords and phrases is immense. Sure, the top level keywords in most industries are increasingly difficult to achieve Search Engine Results visibility. However, by expanding keyword lists of topics, subtopics and so on, you discover niche keywords with reasonable monthly search volumes, and minimal competition from other web sites.

Although it is easy to compile a comprehensive Keyword Database, the analysis of keywords is where the effort pays off. Keyword Analysis is time consuming. From the hundreds or thousands of keywords in your database you will only have time to thoroughly evaluate a few opportunities at a time. Because of this, while developing the preliminary keyword lists,  keywords which do not meet your business’s criteria need to be removed.

After last weeks Blog Post Keyword Research – First Steps you should now have an extensive list of the keywords and phrases used by your competitors. It is now necessary to expand the competitors keyword list and filter results for additional Keyword Analysis

Expanding the Keyword List

What keywords and phrases are people really using for Search requests?

Getting a comprehensive list is easy. You have many options when it comes to using Search Engine Optimization Software such as Web CEO, paid Keyword Subscription Services such as WordTracker and Keyword Discover and of course numerous free Keyword Suggestion tools such as, Google Adwords Keyword Tool. Having a quick browse through all options is well worth the effort as each uses various resources to determine keywords.

For example purposes I will use Google’s Free Adword Keyword Tool.

The Steps

Select and Open Keyword List Spreadsheet

Select keyword grouping such as: notebook notebooks notebooks monitors notebooks monitors printers

Visit Google Adwords Tool

Screen Tasks Paste selected keywords Select as indicated in example image Scroll to download results to Spreadsheet

Download and Open the Spread Sheet

Filtering The List

Filtering the keyword list is a repetitive task, as you dig deeper and deeper into keyword analysis, keywords and phrases are filtered from the list.

As I stated keyword analysis is time consuming so the following steps are quick steps to delete obviously unacceptable keywords and phrases prior to additional analysis.

The Steps

Delete unnecessary columns Competitor and Local Search

Select column Monthly Search Volumes, using Spreadsheet Sort Function and sort column lowest to highest (A to Z) and delete keywords with minimal monthly searches Select Column Keyword and Sort A to Z; review and delete obviously unacceptable or usable keywords and phrases. Name and save file for future analysis

The Results: Reviewing the Keyword List

The original 4 keywords is now a list of approximately 150 related keywords and phrases used by Internet users to find your products and services. Upon review if sorted alphabetically you will see that many of the original grouping of keywords have created targeted and topic specific sub groupings related to your business activities.

The Analysis

The advantage of having an extensive range of keywords is the increased likely hood of finding the elusive keyword with high monthly search volumes and minimal competition.
These terms do exist however, it takes a considerable amount of time and even luck to discover these keywords.

Since seeking the ideal keyword is often unrealistic determining what keywords to complete for is the next important step of your Keyword Research Program.

Written by: pete@seowizardry.ca a Search Engine Optimization Consultant

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