"Keyword Analysis Part II: Looking For Low-Hanging Fruit"

"Keyword Analysis Part II: Looking For Low-Hanging Fruit"
(c) 2006 Damon G. Zahariades
http://www.WebBusinessToday.com

Getting traffic from the search engines for competitive
keywords is a tough battle. And it's getting tougher.

This article will help you continue to drive traffic from
Google, Yahoo and MSN while avoiding the sandbox where the
bullies hang out.

There's always someone with a bigger budget and larger staff
trying to bump your site from the top ten slots on the
search engine results pages (SERPs). In fact, some keywords
are so competitive that search engine optimizers (SEOs)
resort to tactics that range from mildly scandalous to
downright brutal.

Some SEOs cloak their pages. Some of them hijack other
sites' pages. Still others file false DCMA complaints
against their competitors, hoping the search engines will
ban the offending sites without bothering to validate the
claim.

Like I said... brutal.


Find The Keywords Others Are Ignoring
========================================

In every niche market, there are several keywords that
everybody focuses on.

These are the keywords that command high bid prices in
Adwords. These same keywords are also savagely fought over
in the organic SERPs. Either way, you're gonna be a goldfish
in a sharkpool if you try to rank for them.

So, if the competition for those keywords is so fierce, why
are so many people content to be ripped apart by the sharsk?

Why do they spend so much time, effort and money competing
for keywords they have little chance of ranking for?!

Three reasons...

First, most people aren't creative. They can't figure out
what unexplored keyword sweet spots are availabe to them
(I'll show you an example in a moment).

Second, they're lazy. And when it comes to growing your
business, laziness trumps creativity every time.

Third, they don't know about the tools that can help them.
There are tools you can use to help you find the sweet spots
of keyword territory. I'm using one of these tools right now
that does this. You can find it at...

http://www.webbusinesstoday.com/seo-keyword-tool

Whatever the reason, people are ignoring valuable keyword
territory. They are leaving money on the table... money that
you can scoop up by optimizing pages for these ignored
keywords!


An Example Of Ignored Keywords
=================================

Let's say you want to rank in the top three slots in Google
for the keyword "chiropractor." (We're not even going to
touch how unlikely it is for a general keywork like that to
convert!)

Do a Google search for "chiropractor."

At the time of this writing, there are 8,910,000 results.
That number is NOT a real indicator of TRUE keyword
competitiveness, but it's a start in the right direction.
(We're gonna talk about how to do TRUE keyword
competitiveness analysis in the next few lessons in this
series.)

The first ten slots in the SERPs are very well-entrenched.
How do I know that? From using my favorite tool for
analyzing keyword competition. You can get a copy of that
tool at http://www.webbusinesstoday.com/seo-keyword-tool

Beating those folks in the top ten slots will be tough. A
little too tough in my book. That is, it will require too
much time, effort and money to knock them off their perch
for the ROI I can expect from ranking for "chiropractor."

It's one of those high-voltage keywords that everyone in
that market focuses on.

So, let's dig deeper for some less-competitive, undiscovered
treasure.

Let's search Google for "california chiropractor" (use the
quotes). Whoa, that a big difference. Now, we get 9,880
results. MUCH better! But, if I wanted to get into the top
three, this keyword is still a little too competitive for my
tastes.

With a bit of work, I can likely knock the 2nd and 3rd guys
off their purchases. It'll take some effort, but I can do
it. As for the guy ranked first... not a chance. He's
entrenched.

So, let's dig deeper. Maybe there's some unexplored
territory out there.

Search Google for "north orange county chiropractor" (again,
use the quotes). Look at that! At the time of this writing,
there are 0 (zip, nadda, zilcho) results.

Now, how easy would it be for you to rank well for THAT
keyword? It's like shooting fish in a barrel. This is true
low-hanging fruit.

Are people using this keyword in Google? Well, it may not
jump out at you in Wordtracker, but think about this...

There are a LOT of people in Orange County, California. A
lot of them look for chiropractors (heck, I have a friend
that drives from Los Angeles to Fullerton twice a week for
his chiropractor).

People are refining their search these days to get more
relevant results from Google. Often, they're refining their
searches by geography.

And not only will you easily scoop up folks looking for
"north orange county chiropractor" but you should also rank
well for "orange county chiropractor" (only 326 results at
the time of this writing).

That's a pool I'm willing to swim in!


Cumulative Effect Of Ignored Keywords
========================================

Let's face it. Ranking well for "north orange county
chiropractor" is not going to bring a flood of traffic like
ranking well for simply "chiropractor."

But, it doesn't need to.

First, "north orange county chiropractor" is much more
targeted. If someone is searching for "north orange county
chiropractor" it's a good bet that he's having problems with
his back and wants to fix it fast.

If you're collecting and selling leads (we'll talk about how
to do this in an upcoming series, so stay tuned) to a
chiropractor in Orange County, you can unload 'em for a lot
more cash than leads collected from people searching Google
for "chiropractor."

Second, you're gonna have a bunch of these tiny keyword
sweet spots sending search engine traffic to you.

For example, you're not going to simply create one page for
"north orange county chiropractor," call it a day and head
for the beach. You want to create pages for...

o "south orange county chiropractor"
o "laguna beach chiropractor"
o "anaheim hills chiropractor"
o "yorba linda chiropractor"

... and so on. You want to have lots of these pages scooping
up people who are searching for these largely-ignored
keywords. If you want to dig even deeper for keyword
treasure, tack on the word "certified" or "board certified"
to each keyword above.

The possibilities are endless. And cumulatively, these
little sweet spots can add up to a flood of highly-targeted
traffic to your site.

Are you getting excited yet?


Last Thoughts
================

Avoid the high-voltage, ultra-competitive keywords in your
space. The time, money and effort you need to spend to rank
well for them will probably give you a rotten ROI (most
folks don't have a business model that can yield a great ROI
from these shark-infested waters).

Instead, go for the keyword sweet spots... the unexplored
territory of largely-ignored keywords.

They're much easier to rank for. And the traffic they drive
is more targeted and easier to convert.

The traffic that only one of these sweet spots drives may
not seem like a big deal. But, rank well for a LOT of them
and the targeted traffic can pile up quickly.

As I mentioned, my favorite tool for doing a lot of this
analysis (which pays off big) can be found at...

http://www.webbusinesstoday.com/seo-keyword-tool

You can manually do everything this tool does for you. But,
this powerhouse can do it in a fraction of the time and
effort.

So, if you have no budget, do it manually.

But, if you have a few bucks to spend and want to save
massive amounts of your time, grab a copy of this gizmo.

That's it for now.

Next time: More ideas and tips on finding keyword sweet
spots.

I'll talk to you soon! Forward this to a friend who'll enjoy
it.

Damon G. Zahariades

P.S. There's an active SEO forum that supports the tool at
http://www.webbusinesstoday.com/seo-keyword-tool and offers
a LOT of valid SEO advice.


============================================================
Article by Damon G. Zahariades. To get immediate access to
your free Special Report, "The 5 Critical Elements To
Creating A 6-Figure Income Online" go right now to
http://www.WebBusinessToday.com


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