What should I write about next?

March 24, 2009

Have you ever sat at your PC, staring at your web site and wondering what your next article should be about? You know that it's important to have fresh content, because fresh content means more chances to rank for long tail keywords and earn more money from your site. But what do you write about next?

Here's an idea: ask your visitors.

Now, I don't mean putting a survey on your site to find out what your visitors want to read about (though that's not a bad idea, come to think of it). What I'm talking about is using your web stats to discover what people are interested in reading about.

Now, most of the time folks will find your site via the search engines using queries that you've optimized your site for — but not always. I'll use an example site of mine to help you visualize what I mean.

I have a site that's got about a dozen articles on it, all related to stereo headphones. Naturally, I get a lot of search traffic for the phrases like "stereo headphones" or "best stereo headphones", keywords that I've optimized the site for.

However, I just took a look at the search queries people found the site with (using AWStats, my stats program). Here's part of the list:

best sealed headphones
sterio hadphones
stereo headphones wireless
wireless headphone devices
what stereo headphones have the best speakers
headphones top product
best wireless headphone
difference between cordless and wireless
best headphones for all music types
bose double prong
the best headphones bluetooth
headphones
did ever invent wireless headphones
stereo headphone in popular
best headphones to get
wireless headphone
wireless stereo head phones
what is difference between stereo earphones
the best headphone
advantages of playing music through headphones
best headphones top
how to look for the best headphones
auscultadores sem fios bose
best stereo earphones for my ipod
headphonedevices
broken bose headphones
best headphone bluetooth
wireless headphones comfortable
cordles stereo headphones
getter earphone
best wireless headphones
best wireless headphones music stereo
best headphone to get
advantage of wireless headphones
best true stereo headphones
what ia the best headphones
stero headphones
wirless music headphones
best home stereo headphones
best wireless stereo headphones

There are all kinds of keywords in there that my site is not well optimized for, but is apparently landing in the rankings for. That list is golden, because it means that Google already favors my site to some degree for all of those keywords.

So here's what you do with that list:

Analyze those keywords to see which ones are profitable.
That means running the keywords through Google's Keywords Tool to see if they get any traffic at all.

Once I find the keywords that get a decent amount of traffic, I run them through WebComp Analyst to see how many links I'd need to aim at a page to get it to rank for those keywords. Keep in mind, though, that if your site is already being found for the terms, your chances of ranking even better for the keywords is probably pretty good.

When I say "a decent amount of traffic", I don't mean thousands of queries a month — a few hundred is fine, or even a few dozen if it's a super-targeted keyword phrase. The more targeted the keywords, the higher the AdSense click values usually are, and the more likely to convert into a customer the visitor is if you're promoting affiliate products.

Remember, too, to check and make sure that the keywords have strong commercial intent.
Select the keywords that have the most potential and write about those topics.
Whether you do this one at a time, or have content created around all of the best keywords at once is up to you. Just remember: somebody already found your site for the keywords, and Google says there are other folks looking for the same thing. So the sooner you can get that content up, the sooner you can start profiting from it.
Get links to the new content using the keywords as the anchor text.
I use 1WayLinks.net to get a few dozen (or hundred, as the need may be) links to my new content pages. Be sure to vary the anchor text some — you don't want the same anchor text for every link or that will throw up a red flag at Google.

For instance, if I put up a new page at my stereo headphones site for "best stereo earphones for my ipod" (that's in the above list), I would vary the anchor text between "best stereo earphones for my ipod" and perhaps "best earphones for my ipod" and "best stereo earphones to use with my ipod." Three or four variations is usually plenty. (1WayLinks has built-in spinning capabilities that makes this easy to do.)

Rinse and repeat.

Once your new content is up and starts to get ranked, you'll find your site ranking for even more keywords that you weren't targeting. Guess what that means? That's right: more opportunities to create new content!

You'll find that even a niche site can grow very quickly if you take the time to examine your stats a few times a month and act on what you see. You'll probably get so many content ideas in there that you can't keep up with them all!

So the next time you find yourself staring blankly at your web site and wondering what to write about, remember to check your stats.

Please leave your thoughts and questions in a comment below.

Posted by Jonathan Leger | Filed Under Traffic, Search Engine Optimization, Blog | 60 Comments

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Will your keywords result in sales?

March 16, 2009

When discussing search engine optimization, I very often talk about the importance of selecting keywords that offer a reasonable amount of traffic without being too difficult to rank for. That is a very important factor, to be sure, but there is another factor that is equally important. I should have discussed it long before now.

But hey, better late than never, right?

The second factor that you need to analyze when selecting your keywords is whether or not the keywords have a high probability of commercial intent. That is, are people who are searching for these keywords looking to buy something, or are they just searching for information?

For example, someone searching for "lung cancer" is likely looking for information, not products. On the other hand, somebody searching for "canon powershot digital camera" is very likely looking to buy. If only it was always that easy to judge the commercial intent of all keywords! Unfortunately, it's not.

For example, someone could search for "old time radio" with the intention of getting information about old radio shows, but there are many people who sell compilations of old time radio shows as well, and it's possible the searcher is looking to buy. Wouldn't it be nice if you had a tool that would tell you how likely it is that a person searching for a set of keywords is looking to buy?

Guess what? There is such a tool, and it's free. MSN actually has a Commercial Intent Tool that you can feed a set of keywords and find out how commercially viable any given set of keywords is.

Click here to go to the Commercial Intent Tool.

I've run a number of keywords that I have personal experience with through this tool, and so far it's proven to be very accurate. It's very easy to use: just enter your keywords, select the "Query" option, and click "GO". The tool will then return either a "Commercial Intention" value or a "Non-Commercial Intention" value (from 0 to 1). Just multiply that value times 100 to get the probability that the keywords are (or aren't) good for selling a product.

For example, if a set of keywords comes back with a .65 Commercial Intention value, then there's a 65% chance that somebody searching for those keywords is looking to buy. On the other hand, if it comes back with a .7 Non-Commercial Intention value, then there's a 70% chance the searcher isn't looking to buy.

To answer my previous question regarding the commercial intent of the keywords "old time radio", the tool tells me that there's a 56% chance that a person searching for those keywords isn't looking to buy. So that may not be the best set of keywords to target if I'm looking to sell something. On the other hand, the phrase "old time radio cd" has a 96% chance of being searched for with commercial intent — so that may be a better set of keywords to target.

This information is incredibly valuable, because it's not always easy to judge whether or not a set of keywords is worth the time, effort and expense to rank for (or bid on if you use Pay-Per-Click ads). A set of keywords may get a million searches a month, but if it has no commercial intent, you would be much better off ranking for (or bidding on) a set of keywords that gets a lot less traffic if the commercial intent is a lot higher.

So next time you sit down to do your keyword analysis, don't forget to check the commercial intent of the keywords before making your plans for ranking or bidding on those keywords.

(P.S. Even if you're just putting up sites and pages to earn AdSense revenue, it's been my experience that Google rewards a site with a higher EPC — earnings per click — if that site converts well for the advertisers displayed on the page. So you want to target keywords with a high commercial intent in order to earn as much as possible, even if you're not actually offering any affiliate products, just AdSense.)

Please leave your thoughts and questions in a comment below.

Posted by Jonathan Leger | Filed Under Traffic, Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketing, Blog | 133 Comments