Are you Struggling with your Keyword Research?
I often see with my clients (that are SEO and web design firms!) that they are really struggling with their keyword research. The worst part is they don’t even know it, they simply select keywords and as me to rank them.
Why are people still struggling with keyword research?
Well the first answer that comes to mind is lack of knowledge, most people think they can just either fire up the Google keyword tool, generate some related keyword and BLAMO, ready to fire. Well that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
First things first
The Google keyword tool can be useful but you have to know it’s capabilities. I sometimes use it when i want to generate some keyword ideas that i might have overlooked, but you must not use that tool to get an idea of the competition level of any given keyword.
You see, the little graphic in the “Competition” column has nothing to do with SEO (some junior SEOs out there will grind their teeth), but that competition level is about how competitive the keyword is in Adwords!
I know some people say “Well, if it’s competitive in Adwords it’s also competitive in organic searches” Bullcrap! If you want to know how competitive is a keyword you must look into it’s organic competition, period.
Then comes the volume aspect
I also get clients who say “why am i only seeing around 1000 visits per month on that keyword when Google says 15000?” Well my newbie friend, i suggest you go read about broad, phrase and exact match search volumes.
- The broad match is just about useless to any good SEO.
- The phrase match will give me an idea of the volume if we dig in, and work on longer tail keywords
- The exact match will give me the correct information, short term speaking.
I see too many SEOs trying to sell their clients by talking about the broad match search volume, that’s a load of BS! Never will your client see a 20% of that volume, and in the end yes you will have made a sale, but your client won’t be happy and go somewhere else (like using my services for example!) 
So how do we find our target keywords?
Easy, you use a tool built for this! A tool like Market Samurai (that i’ve been using for years). I tried every new tool that came up after MS but i have to admit that not one gave me the information like i needed. The grids are perfect and they show all the information i need to see if the keyword(s) are worth spending time on.
What’s the key to finding good keywords?
Once you’generated a list of keywords, you simply run your filters (minimum volume…) then you click on SEO competition, and you analyze the top 10 results for that keyword. Market Samurai gives you all the info you need to make that decision: backlinks (to page & domain), cache age, PR, domain age, on-page SEO, and much, much more.
Once i’ve found a keyword with acceptable monthly volume, and analyzed the competition, i can tell you exactly where i’m going to rank on the first page, it’s that simple (ok, i’ve been doing this for 12 years). But with a little practice, you’ll do that too!
So go out there, get your copy of market samurai (you can get a free evaluation copy) and dominate the search engines!
Please leave a comment below if you liked the article or if you have another keyword tool i may have overlooked!
Why using a Link Cloaker is So Important
It always amazes me to see that not all internet marketers are cloaking and tracking their important links. Link tracking should be on top of the list of people getting into online marketing. This is an unbiased review / post, you won’t find an affiliate link to the tool i am talking about.
I mean, if you’re going to invest (time or money) into an online promotion, wouldn’t you like to get the most out of it?
Reason #1 for Cloaking your Links
Long URLs are ugly! If you’re running a promotion, what looks better, this:
http://www.empowernetwork.com/theylovetobuy.php?id=covert
or this:
http://realgamechanger.net/what-i-do
It’s pretty clear the second link is much better and will get more people to click on your link. This has proven to improve up to 30% the number of clicks i had on campaigns i tested cloaking, a while ago.
Reason #2 for Cloaking your Links
Tracking!! What good are promotional links if you can’t track how many clicks you had and where they’re coming from? That’s the most important part of using a link cloaker, to track your traffic.
We all know that in order to generate money online you need traffic, and traffic often comes from various sources:
- Youtube
- Craiglist
- Blogging
- Banner ads
- PPC
- …
So how are you supposed to know which of your strategies are working, need tweaking if you’re not tracking your traffic?
My Tool for Cloaking and Tracking my Links
Since most of my promotions are made through blogging and WordPress sites, i use a plugin named Pretty Link. This is the free version of the plugin available in the WordPress plugin directory.
It’s enough to get you started, in fact i’ve used it a very long time without any issues. There’s also a paid version available at prettylinkpro.com, it’s pretty cheap: 37$ for a one site usage, 97$ for unlimited sites usage. And the pro version really gives you awesome extra features:
- Cloaked redirection
- Tracking pixel redirection
- Conversion reports
- Google analytics tracking
- URL rotations
- And much, much more
Why not use bitly.com or other free services?
It’s pretty simple! These services are good for trow away links. If you’re serious, you want to be in control of your links. If you setup 100′s of links using a free URL cloaking service and for whatever reason they delete your account, you’re in trouble! You now have to find every place where you added the link and change it, if you can!
And, many people are affraid to click these bitly or goo.gl URLs since they have been known to direct people on infected pages. So why not install a free plugin, and use your own domain? It’s easy, free, and you’re in complete control of all the links you created.
Conclusion
I highly recommend downloading the free version and giving it a try. Unlike some WordPress plugins, the Pretty Link plugin has no configuration needed, you just install it and BAM you’re ready to use it.
Discover The Limitless Possibilities of jQuery Mobile
For developers of web and mobile applications, jQuery Mobile provides a perfect framework for developing apps that can be used on multiple platforms. Developers can now build multi-platform web and mobile applications using the jQuery Mobile framework.
jQuery Mobile is a now a powerful framework in applications development. You can build great applications with jQuery Mobile. With jQuery Mobile Development, you can build apps that will run on multiple devices including iPhone or iDevices, Android, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry. It provides developers with a good way of solving the age old problem of “fragmentation” in the mobile web and mobile apps development industry.
From building websites, to apps to WordPress themes, there are thousands of things that you can build with jQuery Mobile. It is one of the most versatile frameworks that will play a critical role in future web and apps development. That is why it is projected to be one of the top trends of the future along with CSS3 and HTML5 as far as web design and development is concerned.
For web designers interested in working on the cutting edge of website and applications development, jQuery Mobile is the way to go. The framework has been constructed on the layers of the jQuery framework that we have used for many years in building great apps and websites that had cross browser compatibility. However, while jQuery was perfect for desktop applications, it could not scale well to the range of hand-held devices that have emerged in the last years. These include the smartphones and the tablets. That is why a mobile version of jQuery, the jQuery Mobile was conceived about two years ago.
While many developers have taken steps to quickly learn it, it is still a cutting edge technology. There are only a few top crème of designers using it in applications development. Its versatility has seen it deployed in very varied products in applications development. So where can you apply jQuery Mobile?
The most important application of the jQuery Mobile has been in the design of interfaces for the various mobile applications which it allows you to do with relative ease and efficiency. Being totally markup based, it is possible for you to build applications without needing to use JavaScript. Robust and versatile applications will, however, need you to employ JavaScript during the development process.
jQuery Mobile also enables you to exploit the full potential of smartphones and tablets. You will able to design mobile apps that take advantage of mobile features. For example, you can have touchscreen-capable websites and apps. You can also have apps that recognize actions such as rotation of the smartphone or tablet, actions like swiping and tapping and even change in the orientation of your smartphone.
With jQuery Mobile Development, you can also take advantage of thousands of themes together with the exciting trend of progressive enhancement. This will help you in building apps that are device aware.
Why HTML5 and CSS3 are The Future of Web Design
It’s clear HTML5 and CSS3 are expected to be fully supported standards in two years, and designers need to learn them to take advantage of their great versatility. Designers need to learn the highly versatile HTML5 and CSS3 standards since they will go mainstream in two years.
Some of the new web standards that are currently under development include HTML5 and CSS3 which will allow web designers to reach new heights in design. Designers will attain new heights in web design with HTML5 and CSS3 standards which are under development. HTML5 is expected to be fully released some time in 2014, but already web designers are upgrading their skills in anticipation of what it will offer. There is minimal support at this time, and only a handful of web browsers will fully render websites built in the new standards. Even the good old Firefox is suppressing certain features of the standard. So what aspects should web designers expect from HTML5? Learning them will allow many designers to ride the wave when HTML5 becomes big news in 2014.
The Future of Web Design has Started…
Some of the new aspects of HTML5 include the requirement that DOCTYPE be included in order to specify the standards. However, web designers can enjoy a smile since this process is now much easier and all that is required to specify the DOCTYPE is this: . Users will also be enthralled by the degree of support that HTML5 provides for rich media including audio and video files. It will now be much easier to add these multimedia files and get amazing rendering by the browser.
Another amazing feature of the HTML5 is the ease with which designers will be able to perform content editing. They have a contenteditable new feature that will let them edit content with greater ease simply by setting its value to TRUE. Another admirable feature of the HTML5 that will make your design work blissful and improve your productivity is the canvas feature, for example, that allows you to edit quality images and graphics for your website without the need for Photoshop. There are other innovative features incorporated in the HTML5 Standard that will significantly streamline the web design process.
HTML5 = Innovative Features?
HTML5 will create many advantages for web designers. The most important advantage is quick loading times that HML5 designed websites will exhibit. Perhaps the biggest winner in the introduction of HTML5 will be the mobile web applications. The building of great dynamic, mobile websites is an issue that is still a source of headache for a many a web designer. Apple, for example, famously banned the use of flash in iOS apps. With HTML5, designers will now be capable of building universal mobile web applications, instead of mobile web applications that are targeted at specific devices. The fact that HTML5 builds on HTML4 is also a great boon as designers can just build on what they already have.
Cool resources:
- HTML5 check out: HTML5 Rocks or this HTML5 tutorial
- CSS3 check out: CSS3.com or this CSS3 tutorial
4 Steps to Google Local SEO Success
Every business owner seeks to improve their customer base through the internet but many do not understand or fail to take advantage of Google Local SEO. Some simply place keywords and geographic location tags on their site and hope for the best.
