Sunday, June 12, 2011

How to Find the Best Keywords

Whatever you write about online, you will want to find the best possible keywords to write around. While it is true that it is always best to write about things you know about, and that you have an interest in, a true Freelance Writer has to be able to write about just about anything.

You may be asked to write blog posts for someone else, freelance, and to do this you not only need to be able to research the topic well so that you can write in an authoritative manner, but you need to be able to apply basic SEO to make the article search engine friendly.

So, How to Find the Best Keywords?

You can use the Google keyword tool - where the results you will see are competition for ad spaces, but they will give you a good idea of what is searched for and what market is over-saturated.

In addition to looking up words and phrases in the keyword tool, you will need to look at the results in Google.com too.

You will also need to know what backlinks your competitors have through Yahoo Site Explorer.

All in, keyword research is a long, slow laborious task but one which is vital if you want to be able to attract traffic.

High traffic, Low Competition

Ideally, you are looking for keywords that have a high search and low competition. This is more difficult than it sounds because there are literally millions of sites out there covering all topics.

Freelancers do not need to go this extra mile because most of the time, their employer will have stated what to write about and what keywords to use.

I have not researched the keywords for the topic I am writing about, because I am 100% certain the topic is incredibly over-saturated and the chances of you reading this are slim.

However, it is a subject I know well, as I have studied SEO intensely for two years full time and I am just beginning to understand it all, which is why I am happy to pass it on.

Market Samurai

I bought Market Samurai over a year ago, after trying their trial version. This program is a MUST if you are serious about learning SEO and web writing whether you are freelancing or have your own site or blog.

It is accurate and educational, and actually really helps you to understand how SEO works. It is also tells you your competition without leaving the software, and can even tell you vital factors like domain age, PR, internal backlinks, external backlinks of other sites (and where the backlinks come from) with just a single button click.

Market Samurai is an invaluable tool for keyword research and is constantly updated. It can save you hours of fun, traipsing through the keyword tool, digging deeper and deeper and constantly checking Google.com for competition.

It has many functions and includes URL searches and rank trackers  for new entrepreneurs but I'm afraid I haven't used it for anything more than research so cannot tell you of its other functions.

Market Samurai gives you a free trial - it might be 7 days, you will have to click through and see, and they include many training videos which you may feel enhances your understanding of how the software works. If you do not buy at the end of the trial period, the price rises quite substantially. Not only that, you can never download another free trial using the same email address and the same computer, as hidden files are left behind preventing a second free trial. These guys know what they are doing!

I highly recommend buying at the discounted price offered at the end of the free trial.

After I started using Market Samurai, my traffic doubled after I made the changes they recommended and my increased earnings more than made up for the cost of buying.

1 comment:

  1. The insights are very worth reading. You really gave valuable information here. Targeting the right keywords will bring you the right people.
    Nickolei | seo services philippines

    ReplyDelete