I make no apology for repeatedly mentioning keyword research. I strongly believe, if you are serious about getting traffic to any content, including your Blog, it is one of the most important tasks you MUST do and it is an ongoing one. You don’t just do your keyword research once, you keep on doing it because trends change and the phrases being used to search those trends change too.

When to do Keyword Research?
When you set up a new blog, publish a post on any blog, Squidoo lens, Hubpage, or article, the FIRST thing you need to do is your keyword research. The worst thing you can do is assume that you know what popular search terms will get traffic to your content.

Remember: Keywords are what Search Engine Users are actually searching for – NOT what you think they are searching for!

I recently posted about an “expert” who was teaching their followers how to mask URLs to redirect visitors to an affiliate site. That same “expert” was also showing how to buy a Domain name. However, one virtally important piece of advice was omitted. Keyword research was not mentioned until after the advice about buying the Domain!

This was a dreadful omission from a step by step guide!! Having your keyphrase in your Domain name is one of the lethal weapons in your armoury that will help you dominate the search engine rankings ahead of your competition.

What keywords should you look for?

You are looking for words and phrases that have:

• high search volume
• a low number of pages targetting that phrase on Google

and in the case of a Squidoo lens, Hubpage or article you may like to consider:

• a low number of pages using that keyword or phrase on the site on which you are publishing

Note: I am not saying topic – I am saying keyword. There IS a difference.

How to do Keyword Research?

There’s a range of software available to help you research keywords, but when you start out, I always advise people to use the free Google keyword research tool first. To help you with this, I have made a Step by Step Guide about how I looked for the keywords and phrases I needed for a new lens about a chicken recipe.

How to Research Keywords has screenshots, stats and analysis that provides a Case Study to help you understand why I chose the keywords and phrases for that page.

Remember: once you have bought a Domain or grabbed the Squidoo or Hubpages URL, you cannot change it. Keyword research BEFORE you start is crucial!

Further Reading:
Building a Microniche Blog – 16: Blog Stats

Today I want to remind you of the importance of researching keywords and making sure they appear naturally in your headings and content and don’t forget to add them to your tags!

I want to start by asking you a question.

Are you blogging:

1. To make money?
2. Because you just want to write?
3. To do both of the above?

If your answer is 1. or 3. then not only do you need to set up Link Wheels and ensure you have great content, you MUST research your keywords. Sometimes it’s hard. You have an idea for a great blog post and off you go.

But if you want an audience, you are going to need a bit more help than just relying on some Tweets, some posts on Facebook and your mates paying  you some visits.

In the Squidoo Step by Step Guidebook I explain how to undertake keyword research, so I wont go into it now, other than to say that the principles of keyword research are the same, whether you are publishing a Blog, Squidoo Lens, Hubpage or Articles. Today I want to give you some examples of how keywords can get you featuring high in the Searches.

When I set up the original Year of the Tiger Tattoos Blog, I already knew that “Year of the Tiger Tattoos” was searched for regularly on Google and that there were not many pages that contained that specific phrase. The research I did also turned up a lot of related keywords. Not only would they need to be used on a regular basis in my blog posts, it is those high ranking keywords that will keep me focussed on what topics I should write about.

Thanks to this research, time and time again searches for my keywords and phrases are turning my up Year of the Tiger Tattoos blog on the first one or two pages of Google.

Here’s what I found, when I searched for my keywords when my Blog was just one month old:

Year of the Tiger Tattoos

• Year of the Tiger Tattoos Blog #7
• Hub #9
• Article on 3StepAds #14
• Year of the Tiger Tattoos Blog Post about Year of the White Tiger Tattoos #22

Year of the Tiger Tatoos (spelling mistake intentional!)

• Blog #3
• Hub #5
• 3StepAds article #14

Chinese Tattoo Mistakes

• Year of the Tiger Blog Post #9

Year of the White Tiger Tattoos

• Year of the Tiger Blog #3 & #4
• 3StepAds article #8
• Hub #9

Angelina Jolie tiger tattoo

• Year of the Tiger Tattoos Blog Post about Angelina’s Jolie’s tiger tattoo #8

I was particularly pleased about the following stats as these are more “nuggets” that were turned up by my Google Alert “Year of the Tiger Tattoos”

Emii

• Squidoo lens #26

Emii’s Tattoos

• Lens #1
• Year of the Tiger Blog #2 & #3
• Hub #4

Emii’s Tiger Tattoo

• Hub #1
• Squidoo lens #2 & #3
• Year of the Tiger Blog Post #4 & #5

Total visits for the month = 604

The next big milestone was figuring out how to convert to sales!

Further Reading:

Building a Microniche Blog – 8: Google Alerts

Building a Microniche Blog – 10: Sites to use in a Link Wheel