One of the most important aspects of being a successful internet marketer is understanding the basics behind keyword research.

Before you enter into any niche you must first clearly identify your target market and what it is they are looking for, be it a solution to a problem, specific products or just everyday entertainment.

The following will take you through some of the keyword research steps & tools I use before entering into any niche!

What Are Your Target Market’s Wants and Needs:

-Use Google to research what is currently online about your niche, so if I was in the dog training niche I would type dog training into Google and see what information comes up the most and write it down on a piece of paper.

-Go to forums in your niche:  to do this just type in “your keyword” + forum into Google.  Here you will be able to find out what questions people are looking to get answers for.  Forums are also a great way to get ideas for your website content, where you can reword the questions and responses and put together a blog post or article.

-Google Insights: is a great tool to use if for researching a niche market especially if you are going into a seasonal niche.  Here you will be able to see what some of the top searches are in Google for a givin niche, where most of the searches are coming from and how popular the niche has been over time.

-Google Trends: is also an awesome tool to use to find out the hottest trends in the marketplace.

-Quantcast: This tool helps you with competitive research so you can find out who your target market and competitiors are in your niche.

-Check out what others are bloging about in your niche!  You can find other blogs in your niche at blog catalog, a niche blog directory, here you will be able to see what they are currently writting about in your niche and also see if you can leverage some backlinks from them.

Once you have researched your niche and found some ideas as to what your target market is looking for its time to do the break down of specific keywords you are going to target.

*For keyword research I use a tool called Micro Niche Finder, which I highly recommend because it simiplifies the research process onto one screen and with the click of a button, this is by far the best keyword tool I have used, for more information on you can check out my affiliate link for Micro Niche Finder.

However, keyword research can be done without the use of any keyword tools it just takes longer to do so.

Keyword Research Steps For Entering Any Niche:

1.) Launch your keyword research tool, if you do not have one a great place to start would be the Free Google Keyword Tool. This will give you the basic information you will need to start your research.

2.) Type in your main keyword phrase into the search box, enter the capcha and press get keywords.

3.) From here you want to look at the results and eleminate words with to much competition and to little search volume, this is where Micro Niche Finder Makes it really simple!

- I typically look for keywords that are at least 3 words, if the competition is low and search volume high I might go after a 2 word phrase.   Also if the search volume is high I sometimes go for 4 word keywords but 5 is getting to be to much.

- For search volume I look at the exact match, if you are using Micro niche finder it is automatically set to exact, if you are using Google keyword tool you want to switch the match type in the upper right corner dropdown box to exact. I go for keywords that have at least 1,000 searches per month.

- For competition I look for keywords that have under 50,000 competing pages in Google, however I will go for 100,000 if the search volume is big enough and I think it is worth while.  To find the competing pages in Micro Niche Finder you just click on the button next to the keyword called get exact phrase count.

If you are using google you want to copy the key phrase and paste it in quotes into the normal Google search for example “your keyword” and click search then in the upper right corner you will see how many search results there are for that keyword.

- I also like to see a estimated cost per click (adsense) of at least $1.00, this is mainly for people who are looking at adsense sites, to find this in Micro Niche Finder it is right next to the key phrase, in Google keyword tool you want to locate the dropdown that says choose columns to display and click on estimated avg cpc, this will pull up the average cost per click.

4.) Once I pick out a couple keywords that fit the decription above I will then research them further to see if they truely are phrases worth targeting

- Check to see if there are currently advertisers in the niche on that specific keyword phrase and how many there are, this tells me if it is profitable, If people are paying for advertising that means its a profitable keyword.  I like to see at least 2 advertisers on the pay per click side in order to go after that phrase.

- Type the phrase into Google itself and see what the top 10 pages on Google currently are and check to see how many backlinks they have coming to them and their pagerank, an easy way to do this if you have firefox is by downloading a free addon called Seo Quake.

I like to see if there are any pages in the top 10 that I know I could out rank, these include web 2.0 sites (squidoo, hubpages,wetpaint, ect), bookmarking sites (digg, stumbleupon, ect), youtube videos, press release sites, ect…

The rule of thumb is that if you notice a keyword where all of the top sites in Google have a high page rank, lots of backlinks and have been online for years (sites like wikipedia, cnn and other big name authority sites) then the chances of you ranking in the top 10 are slim to none, and it’s time to look at another keyword phrase.

A neat little feature that Micro Niche Finder has is there SOC (strength of competition) tool where you click a button next to each keyword it will search Google’s top 10 for you and come back with a number and color telling you if its too competetive or not.

Keyword reseach is the most important factor when it comes to ranking for keywords in your niche.  If you put the time into it and do it right it will start to pay off in the end.  If you do want to save some time be sure to check out Micro Niche Finder, it’s one of the best tools I own.

Until Next Post,

Krista

One of the main keys to a successful website or blog is knowing how much and where your overall traffic is coming from.  Having this information at your fingertips will allow you to experiment with different traffic techniques and see which one works the best and then capitalize on it.  Without knowing your website statistics you will have no idea what traffic techniques are working and which are not, making it harder to improve your campaign!

Google Analytics, a free service offered by Google, keeps track of your website statistics for you, allowing you to keep track of where your visitors are coming from so that you can adjust your traffic techniques and marketing campaign accordingly.

How To Install Google Analytics

Installing Google Analytics is not all that difficult.  It requires the understanding of some web code, but if you follow the steps below you should have no problem getting it installed on your website or blog.

Step 1:    Go to the Google Analytics website  http://www.google.com/analytics/

Step 2:    Sign up for a Google analytics account. 

- Click on the Sign Up Now link underneath New to Google Analytics

- If you have a Google account sign in.  If you don’t click set up a Google account and follow the steps.

*If you have an account with google analytics sign in by clicking the Access Analytics button on the right side of the homepage.

Step 3:    Create a New Account

-  Once signed into Google there should be a screen that pops up asking you to enter your website address. 

-  Enter your Web address, A name for your account, your Country and time zone

-  Click Continue

-  Fill in your name, phone number(not required), other info

-  Click Continue

-  Agree to the terms and conditions and click Create New Account

Step 4:    Add Google Analytics Code To Your Site

-  Google will then give you code that needs to be pasted into your site so that they can track your statictics

-  Copy all of the code in the box

-  If you have a website paste the code in between the <body> tags, most people paste it towards the bottom, but the code is for Google’s purposes only it will not be seen on your site so as long as it is before the </body> tag you are good.

-  If you have a Wordpress blog sign in to your dashboard –> Appearance –> Editor –> footer.php  Next, paste the code anywhere inbetween the <body> tags, but it must be before </body> tag.  Click save when done pasting and that is it.

Step 5:    Sign In To Google Analytics Account

-  You should see your new account set up, There will be a yellow caushion symbol under status this means Google did not reconize your site yet, this may take a couple hours or days then it should change to active after it reconizes your site.  When it is active you will be able to see your site statistics!

-  If for some reason after a couple days it still does not reconize your site I would suggest contacting Google anaylitic support.

Step 6:  Install Google Analytics Complete!  Congradulations!

Wordpress Google Analytics Plugin

If you have a Wordpress blog you can download the Google Analytics for WordPress plugin, which automatically tracks for blog statistics for you without having to paste code.  This plugin is very easy to install just download the file and save it to your wp-content/plugins folder and you are all set!

Till Next Post,

Krista

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Is your website getting the traffic it deserves?

You have an amazing product, a excellently designed website and a sales pitch that is right on. You launch your site and await the stampeding crowd…

You wait… and you wait… and you wait…

Meanwhile your competitor next door has people lined up down the block just waiting to get their product.  What are they doing that you’re not?  What is this big trick that you seem to be missing out on?

Well it just so happens that the trick is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – SEO lets the search engines know that you have what people are looking for, the answer to their question.

However, many people find SEO to be a time consuming and complicated process to learn, if you are a newbie to the SEO world it sometimes can be quite frustrating!

Well today I wanted to share with you a free seo software tool that simplifies the whole process for you!  This free software is called Traffic Travis.

So what’s included in this free seo software?

• Page analysis: Almost like having an SEO expert look at your webpage and tell you what you are doing right, and what you are doing wrong.  This tool does all that, and then gives you solutions for improving your on-page SEO!

• Position ranking: Keeps a daily, weekly or monthly record of exactly where your website is ranked for any search term. Check all the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN Live, Ask and Altavista) and see whether you’re going up in the search engines … or down.

• Keyword finder: A cutting edge keyword finder tool to give you a huge number of relevant keywords.

• Keyword sorter: An essential keyword sorter tool that enables you to categorize extremely large lists of keywords into targeted adgroups for PPC purposes.

• Top sites for keywords: Quickly find all the top sites for your various keywords… then analyze them to see if you can steal some of their tricks.

• Backlinks to site: Who is linking to you? Who is linking to your competitors? What pagerank are they? What anchor text are they using? And by analyzing your competitors with this tool you can find other great sites to buy/trade links with.

• Keywords/details: Discover how many advertisers are advertising on each keyword and whether there’s a heavy turnover in advertisers. This could mean that the keyword isn’t as profitable as everyone thinks!

• Top sites for keywords: Who are the biggest players in your niche? Which keywords are they bidding on? Suss out who your major competitors are, and then analyze their campaign. After all… they must be making money…

• Websites Keyword list: A more indepth keyword snooping tool… this shows you whether competitors keep advertising on a particular word, or whether they drop it periodically. (Consistently advertising on a keyword means it must be really profitable!) This tool also easily shows ad ranking position, so you can see which positions seem to work the best…

I absolutly love this free seo software!  Ever since I downloaded I can not get enough of it, Traffic Travis has literally saved me hours of research, allowing me more time to improve other areas of my business/website, such as the actual web design.

Download the free seo software!

If you currently use Traffic Travis, feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think about it?

Till Next Post,

Krista

***If You Like What You Read Feel Free To Share It!

It is a great idea to add pictures in your blog posts. They not only help attract your readers to read your posts, but can also help you rank higher in the search engines. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so you can see how they help attract readers to actually read your posts, but how can Google and other search engines see pictures as an advantage and rank your site higher up in their search results?

This Brings Us To Our 3rd SEO For Wordpress Tip: How Use The <ALT> Tag For Your Images

You are probably asking what in the world is and ALT tag anyway and how is this going to help me with SEO?

- To keep it simple and ALT tag is simply the description of your picture or image.  This is Not visible to your readers,

However;

- This description will shows up on your readers screen if the actual image for some reason does not load/display on their browser. Your reader will then see the description of the picture where the picture would have been.

- By using this description <ALT> tool will also help people with impaired vision who rely on different screen reading technology in order to view web pages.  Where the screen reader will actually read the text within the <ALT> tags from the image.

Now comes the biggest kicker as to why you should always use the <ALT> tag for your images!

- ALT tags are very helpful when it comes to Search Engine Optimization!

- The search engines use the information you provide in the description/<ALT> tags to further classify the overall content of your blog or website.

- In other words the search engines use the description of your images as KEYWORDS!!!

- So if you want to rank higher on certain keywords then make sure that your main keywords are present within the <ALT> tags or description of your images.

So How Do You Insert A Description Into Your Images?

Well if you have a regular website that uses HTML you can use this code:

<img src=”http://yourdomainname.com/image.png”  alt=”Here is where you put your image description”/>

OR….

Wordpress Makes this process even more simple.

- Use your WordPress image uploader to add an image to your post (This can be done by clicking the Add an Image button right next to the Upload/Insert text within your Add a New Post page, OR by going to media –> add new–>Select Files –>Select your image and press ok

- After you selected your image you want to upload there will be a screen that should pop up that looks like the following:

- In the box that says description you want to type your description of the image this is what will be shown in your <ALT> tags also remember to put your main keyword within this section to help with SEO.

- When you are finished Click the save button or if you insert into post button depending on where you inserted your image from.

Till Next Post,

Krista

***If You Like What You Read Feel Free To Share It!

Tip of The Day Number 2:  Wordpress All In One SEO Plugin

A great wordpress plug-in that I highly recommend you download for FREE is the “All In One SEO” Plug-in!  This tool will help you with optimizing your wordpress blog, and help your overall ranking in search engine results.

Some of the Key Features of the “All In One SEO” plugin are as follows:

- Home Page Optimization: Allows you to make your home page title, home page meta description and meta keywords detailed and separate from your other pages.

- Per Post Page Tweaking: Allows you to optimize each individual post on your blog (title, description, keywords). Remember what you write in the boxes provided with reflect what keywords the search engines will use to describe your website in the search engine results! So make sure your keyword, title, description properly describe the rest of the content on the site.

- The plug-in also Reorders page titles to optimize search engine coverage.

- Takes care of duplicate content: The “No Index” options prevent the search engines from indexing pages that contain redundant content such as category and tag result pages.

**To Download the “All in one SEO” Plug-in for Wordpress Click Here

Installation directions for the “All in one SEO” Plug-in:

1.) Click the link above to go to the download page

2.) Click the download link on the right side of the download page

3.) Save the Zipped file to your computer

4.) Make sure to unzip the folder and save it

5.) Upload the unzipped folder to your hosting account wordpress folder under:  /wp-content/plugins/

6.) Go to your wordpress dashboard and click on Plugins on the left side of the screen (you should see the “All in one SEO”)

7.) Click activate

8.) Visit the SEO options page (either settings or options – All in one)

*Dave Olsen Consulting put together a great video on how to use this “All in one SEO” plugin.  Check it out!

Till Next Post,

Krista

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Over the next couple of days I will be going through some easy quick fixes you can make to your blog in order to get a higher ranking in the major search engines and get more traffic overall!

Tip of the Day Number 1 : Using Custom Permalinks

What is a Permalink?

Each blog post is assigned their own permanent web site address (URL), this a called a permalink.  This link is automatically generated when you publish a new post.  The default permalink in Wordpress looks like the following:

http://yourdomainname.com/?p=100/

where the p stands for post, and the 100 is just the ID that is assigned to that particular post.

However, in Wordpress you can customize your permalink to be more search engine friendly!

Why Should I Customize?

If you want your site to be ranked higher in the search engines, customizing your permalinks is a must!  When you customize permalinks, you are automatically inserting keywords into the URL of your posts.  This will allow for search engines to reconize the keywords in your post and include your site in searches done on those search keywords.  One of the biggest things search engines look for when determining what sites to put in their results and their ranking, mainly depends on the keyword typed into the search and the keywords the search engine retrieves from different websites.

The default permalink in Wordpress is not keyword friendly what so ever!  It does not contain any keywords at all, its just a number of your post.  If you were to change the default to a custom permalink structure, you can automatically include the titles of your posts, which will then give you that keyword in your URL.  The custom format that I currenly use looks like this:

http://yourdomainname.com/2009/04/09/my-post-title

where when you break down the URL it is, year/month/day/your post title

How Do You Change Permalink to Make it More Search Engine Friendly?

The good news is that this pocess is fairly simple!!!

To choose the permalink settings you want to:

1.)  Go to settings menu (at the bottom of the left side bar in your Wordpress admin dashboard)

2.)  Click on Permalinks (the Permalink Settings page should open it looks like this:

Here you will see the different options you have to customize your permalinks.  You will notice that the default box is selected under the common settings section. This is what we want to change!

3.)  You want to Select the Custom Structure box.

4.)  You can then type in the permalink setting you want. So lets type in the new permalink!

To make the permalink look like this:

http://yourdomainname.com/2009/04/09/my-post-title

Type:   http://yourdomainname.com/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/

**Make sure that you put the slashes before/between/at the end of each tag

**Also by changing the permalink structure will affect the permalinks for previous posted material as well

5.) Click SAVE when you are finished

Below is a quick guide of what you can put in the customize permalink:

%postname%     =    The name of your post separated by hyphens (your-post-name)

%category%      =     The category name of your post

%post_id%          =    The ID of the post (ex. 123)

%author%          =     Post’s author

%year%              =     Year of post

%monthnum%  =    Month of post in numbers (April= 04)

%day%                =     Day of post in number

Hope this helps!

Till Next Post,

Krista

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