How to select Keyword?

[world4health]

Hi guys, I've read Master John's article on link weights and got concerned with my own choice for keywords. I did a check for the competitive keywords in Overture that John Used for Suzuki-Bikes.com "Suzuki Intruder, Suzuki Katana- etc" and none of them pasded 10000 searches : All my keywords are over 10000 and some are over 100000, am I being unrealistic here and should I focus on less competitive keywords?

[John Scott]

Search counts don't determine the competitiveness of a keyword.

I did a check...in Overture

Overture is worthless. Take, for example, this:

58062 suzuki motorcycle

If you followed Overture, you would target "Suzuki Motorcycle", which drives no traffic. The traffic is in "Suzuki Motorcycles" (plural) - which is, by the way, over 10,000 searches per month.

As to your question, should you target keywords that you cannot get top ranking on? No, of course you should not. If I target "hosting", and end up ranked #200, it won't drive any traffic. You'd do better to target a less competitive search term if it's going to drive traffic.

[John Scott]

And from your PM:

I've read and printed your article on link weight and the proper way to distribute link weights to pages competing for competitve keywords however i've noticed that most of your backlinks takes you back to your home page, why? I was of the impression that if when competing for competive keyterms each page was to be targetted with backlinks that had the related keyterms in the anchor text, please correct me if i'm wrong.

The link weight gets channeled to whichever pages need it, even if those pages are index pages.

You did not notice the links at the bottom of every page? Those pages need the PR, and the index page needs the pr to get ranked for "Suzuki Motorcycles" - the most competitive search term that Suzuki-Bikes.com deals with.

[Pimpen 2010]

There was a tool to see how many times something is searched for, know where I can find this?

[John Scott]

WordTracker is the best, IMO.

[world4health]

Originally Posted by JohnScott

As to your question, should you target keywords that you cannot get top ranking on? No, of course you should not. If I target "hosting", and end up ranked #200, it won't drive any traffic. You'd do better to target a less competitive search term if it's going to drive traffic.

How do you know which keyword to choose, is it based on the related search stats for that keyterm or is there other factors?eg: Wordtracker.com has this keyword "home based business" count = 1628, pred = 1686, should I even try for it? or go for "home based businesses count = 592, pred = 613?"

Originally Posted by JohnScott

The link weight gets channeled to whichever pages need it, even if those pages are index pages.

You did not notice the links at the bottom of every page? Those pages need the PR, and the index page needs the pr to get ranked for "Suzuki Motorcycles" - the most competitive search term that Suzuki-Bikes.com deals with.

Yes I saw those links. Here-In lies the confusion Based on what I read from your article I was looking for keyterms eg:"Suzuki Katana" in your alt tags with the URL pointing to the page that competes for "Suzuki Katana" Ref:"http://www.braada.com/links.htm", but instead you have "www.suzuki-bikes.com" as you alt text which takes you back to the index. How does Suzuki-Bikes.com get SERP 4 for "Suzuki Katana" if there is no backlink with that keyterm.

[Thanol]

Originally Posted by Pimpen 2010

There was a tool to see how many times something is searched for, know where I can find this?

Yes, but it only covers Overture's Network. http://inventory.overture.com/d/sear...ry/suggestion/

[world4health]

Yes, but it only covers Overture's Network. http://inventory.overture.com/d/sear...ry/suggestion/[/quote]

Originally Posted by JohnScott

Overture is worthless.

[John Scott]

world4health

Selecting keywords is really a two-part process. First, do the research on which keywords people are using.

Then check the SERP's and see the competition. If the competition beatable, go for it; but if the competition is solid, reconsider.


Like, for "jobs":

www.jobs.com
www.monster.com
www.hotjobs.com
www.usajobs.opm.gov
www.careerbuilder.com


Those are all PR8 or PR9. You could beat those, but the resources required to do it may not be the best way to go. If you have the resources to beat them for that one search term, you could use it to beat them on a number of less competitive keywords which would drive more traffic overall.

[John Scott]

Originally Posted by world4health

Based on what I read from your article I was looking for keyterms eg:"Suzuki Katana" in your alt tags with the URL pointing to the page that competes for "Suzuki Katana" Ref:"http://www.braada.com/links.htm", but instead you have "www.suzuki-bikes.com" as you alt text which takes you back to the index.

I have no control over how Braada links to my index page. I would prefer he use "Suzuki Motorcycles", but still a link is a link, and I appreciate his linking to me.

Originally Posted by world4health

How does Suzuki-Bikes.com get SERP 4 for "Suzuki Katana" if there is no backlink with that keyterm.

Google doesn't show them as backlinks, but all of the "Dealer" pages link to the Katana page using the anchor text "Suzuki Katana":

http://www.suzuki-bikes.com/louisiana.php
http://www.suzuki-bikes.com/nebraska.php
http://www.suzuki-bikes.com/north_dakota.php
http://www.suzuki-bikes.com/utah.php

Before those links went up, we weren't in the top 20 for "Suzuki Katana".

[world4health]

Thanks this was very helpfull I think I am now on the right track, I got top placements for keywords that were not used, I failed in doing the proper research, however I believe the next time around should be better. I've hired someone to help in an aggressive search for links and I think you have just cleared the bugs that has been cluttering my mind. I will keep you posted, thanks.

BTW does google still dance every month or are they updating weekly :