One of the first steps in search engine optimization or “SEO” is to research what keywords you need to target in order to begin building or buying traffic.
If you are going to build traffic, you need try to locate a good mix of keywords and phrases, maybe 10-15 that apply to your business or service. Make sure the keywords aren’t too broad or competitive (example; an art gallery should not optimize for the keyword “art”) and also make sure the keywords have enough traffic to warrant spending time optimizing/setting up CPC campaigns.
The same advice goes for people looking to buy traffic using Google AdWords or a competitive service from Yahoo/MSN. The broad and competitive keywords will be the most expensive and least profitable for you as they will most likely not be targeted specifically at your business. The only exception maybe being competitive keywords with low volume that price themselves out of profitability by head to head competition or high profit margins.
There are several free tools out there to help you find these keywords and determine which ones apply to you.
1. The first keyword research tool comes from SEO Book dot com and offers a database that is based on all the other top keyword databases such as Overture/Yahoo, Google and WordTracker. The great thing about SEO Book’s Tool is that it combines all these separate tools into one, and provides additional data in the results such as links to Google services like Trends, Estimator, and Suggest. These additional tools and fast speed really set this tool out from the others.
2. Google provides it’s own search volume tool that is pretty quick on it’s toes and provides some valuable information straight from a trusted source: Google itself. However, the service is meant to sell you keywords (so beware), and is somewhat basic compared to offering from SEO Book. Plus the CAPTCHA verification is annoying.
3. An oldy but a goody, Overture’skeyword inventory tool is simple and to the point. However it frequently goes down so you may find yourself venturing off to a competitor to do your keyword research.
*/Yes the screenshot is intended to show a 404, as I mentioned in the description, the site has troubles keeping it’s crap together.
4. Coming in last but certainly not least comes WordTracker’s free keyword suggestion tool, not to be confused with their pay service which offers a lot more features. Another very simple interface, WordTracker offers up data from only a limited set however, as explained on their site:
* Every day, on average, we collect about 4.13 million search terms from Dogpile.com and Metacrawler.com, who according to Netapplications.com account for 0.63% of searches across all engines. By combining these two figures, we estimate that the total daily searches across all engines is 655.7 million.
It’s still a lot of searches and the data remains consistent with the tools above so it’s still a wise choice.
Overall you want to do your research and try a few of the services above in order to get a nice wide sample of data and find a service/interface you like. Find the keywords that have just the right amount of traffic, and the right amount of competition so that you don’t waste your time going after keywords that won’t give you the highest profit.
BONUS: SEO Book dot com provides an embeddable search form that I’ve pasted below:
Baby Nipples and Crack Cocaine, a perfect combination for Google AdSense ads today on Oomny. This special mix of ads comes from my wife’s recent post on Dr. Brown’s Bottles and my contribution (courtesy of StumbleUpon) the Drug Slang Dictionary …for parents
This got me thinking, who advertises with the keyword phrase “crack cocaine” on Google? Or anywhere for that matter. Now I know we’re not supposed to click our own ads but I just had to find out so I took one for the team and risked banination from the mighty Google gods to find out. The results? Not much of a surprise actually, as most of them were drug rehab clinics which makes perfect sense.
Recently the company at which I spend the majority of my web development time with reached a milestone in the development of it’s latest Internet software project dubbed: Team Solution Software. Myself and the rest of the staff at KISS Computing are furiously trying to promote this latest, and we all thinkgreatest team collaboration tool.
What is Team Solution Software?
Simply put, it’s an online tool that allows small teams to coordinate projects and business together. Send Messages, Share Files, Edit Contacts and Clients, Time Track and Manage Projects with Tasks, Notes and Files, Report on Sales and Profitability, Share a Calendar… There’s so much more that I’m not mentioning but rest assured that all this information will be released to the public on our way to an open Beta.
Special! Here’s a “leaked screenshot of the build mock up for the Shared Calendar screen.
Check out the Blog, which is being updated daily. Also sign up on the home page for the Beta notification.
From time to time clients and potential sales leads query my expertise on link trading as it relates to SEO and building traffic. Typically my response covers a few main points, mostly related to informing the client of the various types of link exchanges and their value, as well as relaying any techniques to avoid. Here’s a 6 item break down of basic link trading guidelines:
1. Ignore and don’t respond to unsolicited email link exchange emails. They are either complete spam, from an automated link building bot or from some Grey hat SEO firm looking to artificially boost their client’s website rank.
2. Seek out websites and contacts in your industry and a related field to trade links with, find their contact information and contact them via email in a personal matter. Work out these deals by hand which allows you to hopefully gain a more valuable link exchange.
3. When setting up link trading deals with friendly sites, try to have them publish an article or short blurb on their site/blog which includes linked keywords relating to your industry or specific keywords you are targeting. Getting your URL hyperlinked on their “Links” page isn’t worth the trouble unless it’s surrounded by copy and keywords related to the topic of your site. A 200-300 word paragraph or post with 2-3 linked keywords (ex: “your product name” or “your industry”) linked to your home page page is ideal.
4. When evaluating websites in which to trade links keep an eye on their Google PR levels, Alexa rank and Compete.com stats as well as any other stat metric you have available. If they rank higher than you in 1 or more places it’s probably going to benefit your site more than a lower ranking site link trade will. Because these services all share well documented inaccuracies, don’t rely solely on this data when making the decision to trade links. Even low ranking sites can be well worth the time.
5. Deep linking. Google and presumably the other search bots like deep links into your site from other websites. So while getting a link to your home page is good, a link to one of your sub pages can benefit you more, once you have the home page links well covered. Have sites link to your Products or Services page instead.
6. Links within your industry are better than random links from an unrelated field. Simply put, if the website linking to you contains keywords and content relating to your industry, the bots will weigh that more in their consideration of rank.
Do you have an additions to this list?Comment and I’ll post them with a link to your blog.
Recently I was perusing Digg and came across and very popular article about Intel and Google working on developing and pushing more efficient PSU’s.
Roughly 50 percent of the power delivered from a wall socket to a PC never actually performs any work, according to Urs H ölzle, Google fellow and senior vice president of operations. Half the energy gets converted to heat or is dissipated in the AC-to-DC conversion. Around 30 percent of the power delivered to the average server is also lost.
The article stated that Google was already using this tech which promised over 80% efficiency and that it only commanded a $20-$30 premium over “regular” PSU’s without this tech. The stunning aspect of this was how inefficient modern PSU’s are, especially compared to the relatively inexpensive energy tech already on that market.
I proceeded to make a comment on the Digg story asking of anyone knew of PSU’s on the market today that use this tech. Digger Bashar Teg replied with a suggestion to look at Antec’s EarthWatts line of power supplies which claim to be “ATX12V ver 2.2″ and have Active PFC. I headed over to Google and found a page on Antec’s site outlining the EarthWatts products.
Do your part for the environment with EarthWatts power supplies. The earth is our most valuable resource and protecting and preserving it for future generations is of utmost importance. EarthWatts is available in three highly efficient models—380 Watt, 430 Watt, and 500 Watt—and are all 80 PLUS® certified, the newest standard in power supply efficiency. And that means that using EarthWatts will save you money on your electrical bill. Fully equipped with universal input, EarthWatts automatically works on any power grid in the world. And the built-in Active PFC makes EarthWatts the ideal way to reduce electrical waste and protect the environment.
Next stop was Newegg to search for these EarthWatts PSU’s and see what other buyers are saying about them (Newegg’s best feature) and the current prices. I was surprised to find that the prices were very reasonable and Neweggers were actually buying them and saying good things overall.
Here’s the price and review breakdown of each model:
380W for $59.99 5/5 Stars 8 Reviews 430W for $69.99 4/5 Stars 6 Reviews 500W for $94.99 5/5 Stars 5 Reviews
There may be other manufacturers using this tech, and I’m by no means schilling for Antec, I just used their line of efficient PSU’s to illustrate a point; There’s no reason to NOT be buying these for your new PC or even your existing power hungry machine.
So as Antec states on their site, do your part to help the environment and your electricity bill and invest in these new efficient PSU’s.
I was reading the latest Torrent news over at TorrentFreak and Ernesto was promoting a contest being held for a new film on content, p2p, piracy and copyright called Steal This Film II - 15 Frames of Fame.
The contest is simple, setup a webcam and a microphone and record an audio/video message for the “content industries” (think RIAA/MPAA etc.) Upload the video to GooTube, tag it “STFII” and email peers@stealthisfilm.com the link. There’s also an upload pop up on the STF website, not sure if they want you to use that or YouTube but whatever.
The idea for content came to me pretty quickly, here’s the script (feel free to use it as I’m not going to be submitting a video) And if you don’t know where this is sourced, just move on and don’t ask.
I know you’re out there…I can feel you now. I know that you’re afraid. You’re afraid of us your customers, you’re afraid of change…I don’t know the future…I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end, I came here to tell you how this is going to begin. Now, I’m going to turn off this webcam, and I’m going to show these people what you don’t want them to see. I’m going to show them a world without you…a world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries without DRM and Copyright. A world…where anything is possible. Where we go from there…is a choice I leave to you…
Kind of lame and a little cliche I know, but it’s pretty appropriate to the situation and the content of the film and with a little flair for video and a good personality you might win over the STF II staff.
/A world without copyright abuse, DRM and iron fist digital content control…now that is a fabulous thing.
June 6, 2007 at 10:43 pm · Filed under Announcements
Kathy Griffin has made her living on her TV show and in her stand up appearances by claiming to be on the Celebrity D list. She tears apart celebrities that cross her all at the same time wishing she had the power and influence an A lister brings. Now, Kathy does well as a D lister, and makes a very nice living by working her ass off.
How does this relate to blogging? JosiahCole.com as of June 6th 10:30 PM has had 8107 visits from 6175 visitors. This has resulted in roughly $13 in advertising revenue (over 1/5th of the month). It won’t get me on Paula’s top blogger salaries list and it’s certainly not A list blogger money but it definitely pays some bills around the house and makes blogging all that much more worth it.
The traffic has mostly come from Fark.com/tech and Fark.com/video due to my last two articles making the front pages there. And coming in at a strong second is StumbleUpon which I’ve begun using again at work and will probably install at home as well. It’s actually been a good tool lately to help me find new sites.
For some reason Rube Goldberg popped into my head recently and got me thinking there’s got to be some great video online of Rube’s famous machines and people inspired by them. I hit up YouTube for some action and found quite a nice collection of Goldberg respect.
1. The first Goldberg video is from Japan, and these machines are cooking Ramen.
2. This one is called “Rube Goldberg - Something for Nothing 1940″ and it’s pretty neat, starring Rube himself I believe.
3. Office Space Rube action here, this one is excellent although a little short. For once the video description is actually lengthy and informative and I shall quote it.
A friend and I decided to spend a night at my workplace assembling a contraption using supplies from the supply room and my basement. We started at 11p.m. on 6/26/05, and finished around 5:30a.m. This is take eight. Six of the eight worked. UPDATE: Thank you for all the views, everyone! A few quick answers:
-Haha, I didn’t get fired, this was done during non-business hours.
-The heavy breathing is me starting to laugh and trying my hardest to stifle it…I was one second away from busting out the whole time.
4. This 2 minute video is a commercial for Honda, and it exceptionally well done (a lot like their cars). It looks a little surreal (although they claim it to be legit), and I’d love to see it in HD but this GooTube video will suffice. The car that reveals at the end is a Honda Accord wagon.
Note: All of this commercial is real. The only thing “artificial” is the unnoticeable edit at the middle of the sequence. Reason for that is this whole course was too long for the studio.
5. More Japanese Goldberg action, it’s 4:23 long.
6. This clip is home made style (the way I like it), and features a 3:17 Rube Goldberg machine complete with Slinky action (talk about free time!)
7. This guy uses multiple pool tables in this Rube Goldberg Billiards/Dominoes video.
8. This next one is supposedly from a film that they want you to rent from Netflix? Errrr anyways it’s a great Rube Golberg video with lots of fire and flare, check it out.
9. Another homemade machine, with the submitter claiming “we didn’t cheat!”. Oh well, it’s a good clip.
10. Last but certainly not least comes the MythBusters and their Rube Golberg masterpiece (which took them a million takes). Explain away Adam…
