The SEO Pro's Secret Path by Mark Nunney, 18 November 2008
Your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should focus on achieving success for the keywords that will deliver the most profit. That seems obvious but how do you find and prioritize those keywords? SEO pro, Mark Nunney, introduces the process so you can apply it to your own site.
Key points
- Find groups of keywords (keyword niches) that your target customers search with.
- Research each keyword niche - its size, the competition, your site's current traffic and sales from it.
- Compare and prioritize your target niches in order of profitability.
- Your prioritized list of keyword niches is your SEO strategy.
Before they do any work on a site, professional SEOs use keyword research to find the groups of keywords - the keyword niches - they want to target. Then they prioritize those niches and the result is their SEO strategy.
The path I take includes the following steps:
- Find relevant keyword niches
- Evaluate your keyword niches
- Prioritize your keyword niches
Let's look at that in some more detail...
Find possible keywords and niches
Find groups of keywords (keyword niches) that your target customers search for using the following methods:
- Read the trade press
- Look at competing websites
- Look at your site’s existing traffic – what keywords bring the most sales?
- Use your own market and product knowledge
- Enter significant keywords into Wordtracker’s lateral research tool
Wordtracker's lateral search tool
Here’s how to use Wordtracker’s lateral search feature - the excellent ‘Related Keywords’ tool - for finding more possible niches to target…
From the Wordtracker home page, go to the Keyword Universe tool:
(You'll need access to the subscription-only version of Wordtracker - take a free trial here)
Enter a seed word (one will do). For example, for business management site, thinkingmanagers.com, I might enter ‘management’, as shown on the grab below:
The following image shows the results of the above search:
In the list, I found a number of interesting new keyword niches that thinkingmanagers.com might target, including these:
- leadership
- leadership training
- project management
- management training
- business schools
- coaching
- careers
- human resources
Evaluate each possible keyword niche
You can’t work on all your target keyword niches at once, and with the same level of effort, so you have to prioritize. Therefore, you must have an SEO strategy. To prioritize, evaluate the potential of your possible keyword niches using a number of different metrics. Here we’ll look at:
- size
- competition size
- current traffic
- current sales
Keyword niche size
Log in to Wordtracker and this time go to the Keyword Researcher tool:
Enter relevant seed keywords - 'management strategy' in the following example.
Click ‘Research >>’…
In the following grab, see the start of Wordtracker’s results (Wordtracker shows up to 1,000 keywords for each search):
Use the tick box to select, then delete, irrelevant keywords. Then click ‘Evaluate’ - see results below:
… and we see more info relating to each keyword.
Now we have to analyze our keywords at a niche level, and that means we export the data into a spreadsheet and add up or average the results for each metric for each niche (I hope I don't get into trouble but I think I'm allowed to say that Wordtracker will soon be doing some of this for you). For our 8 niches for our example site, this gives us the following results in an Excel sheet I call the ‘SEO Strategizer’:
Here’s a quick reminder of what each of those metrics are showing:
- Size is Wordtracker’s prediction of the number of searches made in a single day, with all the keywords in the keyword niche that (important this bit) are in Wordtracker's database.
- Competition is the number of websites competing for the keywords in each keyword niche (I have averaged each keyword’s figure)
- KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) uses both size and competition figures to give a single figure estimating the prospects of success for a keyword (here I have averaged the KEIs for each keyword in the niche)
If your site is currently live you can also look at how much traffic you currently get from each keyword niche – ie visiting your site having searched with a keyword niche’s phrases – and any subsequent response. Let’s do that…
Current traffic and response for each niche
Current traffic levels for a niche are a simple clue about how successful your site currently is for that niche. This is important because it is far easier to achieve future success in niches that you currently get good results for. For example:
Thinkingmanagers.com is doing well for the keyword ‘management styles’ so it should be quite easy to be successful for the keyword ‘different management styles’.
Using site stats software, we look at the results for each niche and get reports like the two following examples from Google Analytics:
‘Management style’ keyword niche:
‘Business development’ keyword niche:
Notice how ‘business development’ might get fewer visits than ‘management style’ but it is 4 times as responsive. (Response is here measured as subscribing to the site’s free newsletter.)
If $ sales are being recorded in your site stats (easy enough with Google Analytics) then conversion % could be $/visit instead.
Prioritize your target keyword niches
We can gather similar data for all the keyword niches being evaluated and put them into some new columns in our SEO Strategizer spreadsheet like this:
Now we can look at keyword research data from Wordtracker and our site stats in one table as here:
Using that data, consider a number of other factors such as:
- your own level of resources
- your SEO expertise
- how developed your site is
- how quickly you need results
… you can decide the order in which to target these keyword niches.
The following version of the SEO Strategizer shows the order in which I prioritized these thinkingmanagers.com keyword niches:
I'm going to first target the most responsive niche (business development) and get up to 400% more return for my efforts than if I worked on others. I then work my way down the list.
If a niche is small I do a small amount of work on it. Perhaps just a few minutes optimizing a page or redirecting some internal link power.
If a niche is big I can do a lot of work on it, eg optimizing a lot of pages, existing or new, and building new inbound links.
Pages relevant to high return niches might be given more bespoke marketing, boosting returns even higher.
Your own version of that prioritized list of niches of keywords is your SEO strategy. Now it’s time for action…
SEO Action
For each niche, starting with the first on your prioritized list:
- Plan, add & optimize content.
- Have one spectacular piece of content that is irresistibly link-worthy, eg, a wonderful widget, a free report.
- Using the spectacular, promote the content to build inbound links, with appropriate link text and to relevant pages (deep links).
- After working on your first niche, move to the next niche but monitor and return.
About Mark Nunney
Mark Nunney has been a successful professional SEO since 2000 and is CEO of The Website Marketing Company, although (apart from the link in this sentence) he's never optimized their website! He also publishes ThinkingManagers.com, the business management website which he has optimized a bit. With Wordtracker he is committed to teaching 'SEO for profit in the real world'. You can follow Mark Nunney's SEO on Twitter.
30 comments
So, basically, KEI doesn't play a role in your analysis or something?
Sure, SEO experience and a broad picture overview is what matters, but did you actually try playing by the numbers and see what happens?
Just curious.
P.S. This blog needs a "Send comments via email" checkbox.
Yura: I've recorded KEI in the process shown above for those who like it. Personally I just take a look at KEI to see if it shows anything interesting. Not sure what you mean by "playing the numbers".
Mark,
I've been using wordtracker extensively for the last two years. I love it to death. Thanks for putting together this overview of the process...it reaffirms i'm using the tool properly and even cleared up a few misconceptions. I look forward to future updates to this incredibly valuable service.
Mark,
What I like that you did above was show how this is a process. That SEO involves very much where and how you want to fucuss your SEO efforts, but marketing as well.
John
Very nice Mark, looking for niches is the first thing I do when researching keywords.
Here's my SEO strategy dilemma. The local non-profit I describe below will never have a person who can be thinking about SEO all the time. They also don't have the resources to develop thousands of niche pages, although I am hoping they can expand to 200-300. I've identified both popular terms related to what they do (for both kids' mental health services and charity-related terms), and I've done a keyword analysis using Universe. WHAT WOULD YOU RECOMMEND IN TERMS OF BALANCING POPULAR WORDS WITH NICHE OPPORTUNITIES, GIVEN THIS BUSINESS PROBLEM?
I'm a pro bono consultant working with a local organization that is about to revamp its website (desperately needed). They serve very troubled youth - usually foster kids who have been abused or whose parents are incarcerated. As such, they are paid for their services by governmental organizations but rely on donations for some valuable support programs above and beyond counseling, etc. That's really what the website needs to support - fund development.
Thanks Mark. This is a very useful step-by-step article.
Excellent article. A nice broad overview of SEO strategies. Thanks!
Mark, I meant that you made the decision on your experience and conversion rates. Did you actually try only relying on the numbers and determining the most profitable keyphrase by comparing the actual numbers you have in the table?
For example, in your article, you don't rely on KEI heavily, though, typically, you might as well.
Overall, though, I'll understand that it is much more reasonable to only rely on traffic/competitors, not on KEI, but I'd really like to see you actually use all the numbers and make a decision, based on what they tell you.
For example, "business development" and "business management" are the keyphrases that are undeveloped (as in, they have high possible numbers in WT, but low in actual traffic). What you didn't mention, however, is that "entrepreneur" has even much higher potential to get traffic. Sure, it'll be harder, but it'll get you almost the same amount of conversions as "business development".
It is by running through the numbers that you get insights like these, instead of simply glazing over them.
Sorry for writing a long comment, no time to write a shorter one :)
Great article. I strongly recommend Mark's SEO courses
@ Mark - This is really a nice step by step process well drafted for amateurs like me. As Yura said, KEI doesnt play any role in the analysis and so is what I see the other heads. The only thing that you sorted out your analysis on is the Response % for the Keywords / Niches! How did other heads prove useful to you in your analysis?
@ Betsy - I think you have the answer in your question already - "BALANCING POPULAR WORDS WITH NICHE OPPORTUNITIES". I think what you essentially need to do rather than think of the On-Page Optimization of the website within a competitive industry like charity is focus on Off-Page. Link Building - as much as you can. I am sure you will get a support from .govs and .edus. You could also put in some efforts into Social Media. I mean this is what I would have done. Choose the MOST IMPORTANT keywords among popular and Niche Opportunities since you have limited resource and time to spend on the website.
thanks mark.. i got the idea now :D
Shadab Malik: I've actually shifted recently to mostly using this more simple approach (response%). But note this is only for sites with traffic and response figures. A lot of people use bounce rates and page/visit to which I say: 'if you're have nothing else'. So you can't use response % if you are planning a new site.
Also, for what I'll call 'big strategy' I order the list by 'niche size' (from Wordtracker) to see a site's prospects for its biggest niches. The wise will be saying that, at this scale of future planning – looking at big market niches – no way will they all be as easy to get more results for as each other. True, but we have clues to find out how easy they will be:
Current niche visits (the more, the easier to get more)
Current visits for niche seed keyword (the more, the easier to get more niche traffic) which aren't shown in the table above tables but I record the figures in a hidden column.
Yuri: on 'using all the numbers': (you'll like this) I used to use the metrics shown plus more metrics including SERPs ranks for samples from each niche, counts of inbound links of competitors and I built an algorithm to assess all the data. But * for sites with traffic and response data* I've simplified this (see reply to Shadab).
For sites with no traffic, I do still use an algo that gathers "all the numbers". That algo is always changing. I didn't write it about it here because I had to stop somewhere and didn't want to overload the article. I will write about it soon though (but someone of your skills can start writing their own algos ;)
Your point about different size niches, eg 'entrepreneur' is a big niche, is a good one. Partly I've covered this in my reply to Shadab - one works at different scales at different times: sometimes making big plans for lots of work (and then looking for big niches rather than small); and at others working no more than an hour a time on a niche. (I've also updated the article since you first read it, to deal with some of these points.
Also, to some degree, the 'highest response first' approach can deal with this 'scale issue' if you: do an amount of work on a niche that matches its size; monitor 'marginal response' so that you always chase the highest response niches (figures will change); and move across the top of each niche - picking off the low-hanging fruit that is always there.
Pete: Hiya. You'll notice reference to a simplified method to the one I taught on the course you attended. I'll send details of this to all previous trainees like yourself.
Mark, first, good post. However I actually don
t understand the meaning of KEI, because what matters is the number of competitorsbacklinks.That means how popular the site is and that kind of a site gets a high ranking, because simply engines want to offer their users the most popular sites.
Juhani
jerry curtis: I agree KEI is a weak metric. And backlinks are the best way to assess the quality of the competition you have to beat. But not just a count. One measure is backlinks - containing niche seed - word to the page (and it's site) that you have to beat to get on the 1st page of Google results. That's for the advanced class ;)
Mark, Thanks again for another insightful article. I have read almost all of your articles in the Academy directory. And having tried Wordtracker for a few days, I had the impression that these are the only things needed for a beginner to build a robust website for the search engines. Reading at some of the comments though,it seems that on-page optimization works only for niche areas that have little or no competition. For very competitive niches, so much more research has to be done beyond Wordtracker.
Angelina: On-page SEO is one of your SEO tools or better put it is part of the SEO process. The tougher the competition, the more important in-bound links become for success so it is a fair generalization to say "on-page optimization works only for niche areas that have little or no competition". However, the toughness of competition needs to be defined relative to your site. It's your site that has to beat it. And once you have success in a niche - no matter how good the competition - you can get more with on-page SEO on both new and existing pages.
Mark, I totally agree about conversion rate (you call it response %).
In my opinion, even if the site is new, it's still worth targetting less competitive, more converting words, if you can find them with your experience in keyword research and promotion.
In fact, my opinion is that conversion rate is more important, than metrics available through your tool. After all, your goal is to bring sales, not traffic. For starters, the more relevant the keyphrase is to the product/value, the higher the conversion rate.
My question regarding KEI and numbers was about the following:
I realize you probably won't say in the article that "Basically, KEI is worthless and I've included it here, just because", but what you mentioned in your reply to me might've worked (as in, "KEI is useful for the people trying out keyword research to estimate the difficulty of new sites/niches, but if you have the data, rely on conversion rate more").
Cheers. Yura
WordTracker is one of the secret tools used by SEO. Love it so much! :)
Yura: Looks we agree on pretty much everything.
"even if the site is new, it's still worth targetting less competitive, more converting words, if you can find them with your experience in keyword research and promotion"
"less competitive" - for a new site, there is no serious alternative.
"more converting" - if you have the data. You can do some tests with PPC and that is useful but PPC traffic often converts at a different rate to organic. I am also interested in metrics that measure 'commerciality' - by definition they are generalisations but what a great start.
"conversion rate is more important, than metrics available through your tool". If you have it, of course - that's at the heart of the method I describe above. But why not use it with keyword research about 'all searches' so you can see the potential for any keywords?
On KEI: Sounds like we're saying the same thing to me.
Always open to new ideas about SEO and keyword research. Thanks
I haven't done much with Wordtracker outside of the KW Universe. Thanks for this little primer on the Keyword Researcher. re: KEI- I don't pay much attention to it but every now and then you find a nugget!
Mark, It would be interesting to see an article written that mentions geographic factors in keyword analysis. How would you do your analysis differently if this was for an organization that operates in a particular geographic area? Would that change how you use WordTracker and evaluate your results?
Great article, thanks!
Nice to find this information, answers a few questions, thanks
Well written article.. I like to work with single action related root words using comprehensive search in order to see how that word is exactly being used within phrases.. I'm having no problems finding high KEI phrases.
Sarah W: Good question. When analysing your own site's traffic, you could first restrict results to the location you are selling too. When adding data from Wordtracker about the size of a niche, you are limited to either US or UK data so you will have to make a judgement about wether search patterns from those markets will match those in others.
Thanks, Mark. Just wanted to ask you a question. WordTracker only have data for US or UK, how is this useful for people who optimize websites in other countries like Australia? Can we still rely on this data for SEO?
Anna: If you're targeting an Australian audience only, Wordtracker should be used with caution. See answer to Sarah W above.