Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. SEO Tactics
  3. Keyword Research
Log in to post

Category: Keyword Research

Learn about keyword research best practices and how to improve your keyword strategy.

  • SSFCU


    So I went to a panel a while back that said Wordtracker is basically useless. I'm not using it as an end-all, be-all, but more for insights and context. Do you agree with that statement? The hosting company provides a keyword research tool, so I wasn't sure how seriously to take it. Have you guys been using Bing for the search data previously provided by Google's Keyword Research Tool? Do you find that to be a viable resource? Thanks.

    | SSFCU
    0
  • Arkix


    Previously I always utilsed the Google Adword Keyword Tool to provide traffic estimations in order to assist with my keyword research. I have recently revised these levels of traffic using the new Keyword Planner. Local Traffic results are approximately have fallen approximately 85%, I have anaylsed this over approximately 50 results. I am aware that the new Keyword Planner does not have a local traffic column anymore so I have utilised the location filter. I have the same problem in all my campaigns, in two different countries, please can someone advise why this is and how I can collect accurate keyword data. Kind regards

    | Arkix
    0
  • yandl


    HI, I am wanting to see when search volume "peaks" for specific keywords. Is there a good way to view search volume over an historical timeline? See the best month, weeks? Thanks! Kevin

    | yandl
    0
  • Kevin_P


    I'm using the Google AdWords keyword planner and Bing Webmaster Keyword Research tool. For both, I'm trying to get accurate search volume for the exact term "advertising sales". Over the last thirty days, Bing reports a volume of  5,988. Google's average monthly search volume is 880. Given the market share Google has, I would expect a much higher volume, especially when compared to Bing. Can you offer some ideas of why this might be happening?

    | Kevin_P
    0
  • CHECOM


    Hello, What does everyone use as a good keyword tool for keyword research?  I previously used Google's, but would like something better than what its become. Thanks!

    | CHECOM
    0
  • JaredBroker


    Hey everybody, I thought I would get your opinions on the sites where you like to mine keyword phrases. Before determining competition, I like to get ideas from the Adwords Tool, Keyword Optimizer Pro (a Google suggest scraper), Insights, Trends, and by looking at the phrases competitors are optimized for. How about you guys? Jared

    | JaredBroker
    5
  • Andy.Drinkwater


    Hey folks, I just wanted to find out what everyone is using for keyword research now that the Google Keyword Tool has been retired. I know there is a form of it in Adwords, but something a little more usable than this. Cheers,
    Andy

    | Andy.Drinkwater
    0
  • meteorelectrical


    Is there any way I can find out a list of the top keywords for my site automatically without having to type in certain words myself and wait on the results?

    | meteorelectrical
    0
  • mrodriguez1440


    Hi, When you search "Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney", the first organic listing is Tyler and Wilson.  My listing comes up fourth.  My question is, how does Tyler and Wilson get their address AND google + page listed right below search result.  No one else gets that.  I included a screenshot so u see what I mean.  How can I add that? mPQBlHT

    | mrodriguez1440
    0
  • JBNorthAm


    What is the best strategy to write the SEO title for corporate pages listed below: Abouts US Investor Relations Careers News & Events

    | JBNorthAm
    0
  • crackingmedia


    Hi everyone, Does anyone know of an online scanner / search tool that will do a live check for the occurance or a word or phrase on a website? I know you can use Google's  site:domainname.com <word phrase="">but that is only checking what Google has in its current index for that site. I am looking for a tool that will do a live scan and search (i.e. as at the time) and then return a list of occurances it has found for the word or phrase.</word> Thanks in advance for this. Peter

    | crackingmedia
    0
  • Nightwing


    Buongiorno from 11 degrees C very cloudy & dull wetherby UK 🙂 With Google encypting all organic search terms and (Not Provided) appearing like an unwanted rash of eczema doesnt the panic end when you just get that data from Webmaster tools? Maybe ive got it wrong but isnt all the organic keyword data sitting in webmaster tools any way? so in the words of Lance-Corporal Jack Jones - Dont Panic! Any insights welcome 🙂

    | Nightwing
    0
  • eqgirl


    Greetings!  I've read previous posts on this topic, but wondering if something has changed recently...On the on-page grading, the following was suggested:Use Keywords in your URL - high importance - easy fix  _(In the past it has read difficult fix). _Could it be as easy as creating a new page with the name in the url, then redirecting to it?  My site is www.enchantingquotes.com and the keyword that brings in virtually all of business is "wall quotes".  I've read in the forum this isn't worth the trouble of trying to do, but the "easy fix" comment has me wondering...?Any help is much appreciated....I'm been trying to recover from a recent unexplained drop in rank.  Ugh! (So feel free to analyze my site LOL!)  :DA huge thanks for any advise!

    | eqgirl
    0
  • SSFCU


    Now with Google localizing search increasingly personalizing queriesquery results, is it still necessary to add geo-specific modifiers to keywords? [reworded for clarity]

    | SSFCU
    0
  • zsyed


    What long tail keyword research tool do you use besides Moz keyword research tool. Thanks

    | zsyed
    0
  • chickenjoy2013


    I know this is a dumb question but how do I perform a full keyword research in MOZ? Saw this post: http://moz.com/help/pro/researching-high-potential-keywords but that's pretty much outdated. I appreaciate your response. Thanks,Tony

    | chickenjoy2013
    0
  • seo1212


    Using Keyword planner, I am seeing search volume results which to me look somewhat odd. Anyone else experiencing this? How is this different to the keyword tool used before?

    | seo1212
    0
  • ULCRobotics


    Since many of our products and services are purpose-built for a niche community, I find that many of the keywords I am researching are all low-volume. Data on the Keyword Difficulty Tool show '0' under Bing Search Volume (exact match). I know what my competitors are targeting based on their title tags and web content, but I'm not sure if they did their keyword research homework, so I don't want to assume. Is there any other way to determine which keywords I should be targeting?

    | ULCRobotics
    0
  • StoryScout


    Hi Guys! Is there an easy way of finding out which key words my site is currently ranking for? And how wwell these keywords are doing in the search engines? Thank you for the help 😉

    | StoryScout
    0
  • Adammcconnell


    Hey guys, My ecommerce site sells fair trade jewelry, bags, shoes from developing countries. I used the Keyword difficulty tool and came up with a list of about 50 keywords. Should I focus on the 29%-50% difficulty keywords or go for the 50%-75%? Or a mix of both? Thanks so much, Adam My list is attached in a .jpeg VmpJ7iQ

    | Adammcconnell
    0
  • Adammcconnell


    Hi guys, I was recently brought on to do basic contracted content marketing for an ecommerce website built on Shopify. They have a ton of old blogs that were written with NO keywords in mind. The meta tags are totally different for what they want to get found for, links, ALT tags, etc. Should I delete all of those blog posts? Or just start optimizing new blogs? Thanks so much, Adam

    | Adammcconnell
    1
  • garney


    Hi! I am doing some Google keyword research using the Google Adwords Keyword tool to decide what content to create for the masses. That is, to find opportunities to create content that is in-demand where the current offering is not satisfying the need effectively. Here are some keywords I picked out. I hope to produce a single piece of content optimized for some or all of these keywords. (See attached imgur link) The first thing I notice when doing this kind of work is that many similar-sounding keywords are showing the same sum of average monthly totals. This suggests to me that they may not actually be unique. For instance, the first two searches "guitar strings order" and "guitar string notes" each have ~5400 monthly searches. Does that mean 5400 each, or 5400 total between the two? So does anybody know if these are individual numbers or part of a bigger total? And if they are part of a bigger total, how could I estimate the average searches for a piece of content that targets all 8 keywords? If I tally all of the searches, I have over 23,000 potential searches per month. But if some of them are being counted more than once, so to speak, then the number could be much lower. ghmFYOZ

    | garney
    0
  • StoryScout


    Hey team! I fell like this could sound very silly but... How can I find out which would be the best new keywords to focus my SEO effots on? How do I know which keywords I should be trying to rank for? Thank you!

    | StoryScout
    1
  • Ron10


    what is the best tool for finding what people are using as search phrases for my product?  i used to use the google adwords keyword suggestion tool but that tool is gone now.  Is the google keyword planner now the best tool to use? Thanks, Ron

    | Ron10
    1
  • OasisLandDevelopment


    So is it right we are only allowed 300 keywords across all campaigns? if this is right how are we suppose to work with this? is there a way to make it higher?

    | OasisLandDevelopment
    0
  • MrPenguin


    I run a price comparison website for a small niche at http://cdkeyprices.com I am targeting keywords for the specific products I am comparing the price/merchants on. On a typical page I would have a price column, product name, the merchant and a buy button. Buy button is affiliate linked to the merchant. The product name in the product column is the name from the actual website I am tracking. As such, my keyword was appearing sometimes up the 30 times. I've took it down some months ago but was wondering if this was a bad move. I was concerned Google would think I was stuffing the keyword. I've only just gotten into SEO the past few months so was not able to  see any changes. Should i put the product column back up or would it be considered over optimization?

    | MrPenguin
    0
  • seoug_2005


    How can we  check with the Google Keyword Tool to figure out which keywords are getting significant traffic. Needs explanation for the bolded part. I am referring to the Q and A at - http://www.seomoz.org/q/is-there-a-report-in-seomoz-that-will-show-me-what-keywords-each-page-ranks-for-on-my-site The best way to see the information you're looking for is to take all keywords that sent you an organic search visit for a given time period in your analytics and run them through a rank checker. You can then cross-check this data with the Google Keyword Tool to figure out which keywords are getting significant traffic.

    | seoug_2005
    0
  • WSIDW


    Since the change in Google's keyword tool I have found it frustrating to use in finding new keywords. Which keyword tool would you recommend? Many thanks.

    | WSIDW
    0
  • EJDekkers


    I need some clarification as to how exactly keywords work. I learned that I should focus on more specifically targeted long-tail keywords. However I am uncertain of how this actually works. Say I decide to use the longtail keyword "online dyslexia test for children". Will my page only be found by people when they enter that exact search term or will it also be found when people search for any of the other terms containing the same words? For example like all the phrases below: free online dyslexia test
    online dyslexia test
    online dyslexia test children
    dyslexia test online
    dyslexia test
    dyslexia testing
    dyslexia test for children
    dyslexia tests for children
    free dyslexia test for children
    test for dyslexia in children
    dyslexia online test
    testing for dyslexia in children
    free online dyslexia test for children
    free dyslexia test
    online test for dyslexia in children
    online dyslexia test free
    dyslexia tests online
    online dyslexia testing
    test for dyslexia for children
    how to test for dyslexia in children online
    online testing for dyslexia
    dyslexia online test for children
    child dyslexia test
    dyslexia test online free
    free dyslexia test online
    how do you test for dyslexia in children Also if I have a page that I optimize for "online dyslexia test free" can I create another page for "free dyslexia test online" or will this be creating competition? In other words are these both unique keywords that will independently rank. Last question about keywords is are they still important and what is the search volume you should be targeting with your keywords. (Allot of my long tail keywords only have around 20 monthly US searches) Thanks! Joy

    | EJDekkers
    0
  • davidgjacobs


    We are looking  at SEO as ways of promoting our online flip page travel magazine but its really difficult to distinguish the good from the bad and the downright ugly in terms of agencies to use. For example we are proposing to use an SEO agency who have come up with a long list of interesting keywords. The problem is that the degree of competitiveness which is listed alongside each keyword varies dramatically from the results I achieved by keying in the same keywords into the moz keyword tool. The agency says their results are achieved by using Google tools. Any advice on what to do would be really welcome. The website is www.eurotravelmag.com and the flip page magazine can be reached here: www.eurotravelmag.com/current Thanks David

    | davidgjacobs
    0
  • measurableROI


    I'm using the Google Keyword Planner, trying to get an idea of search volume, and I'm finding that if I check "Ad Keywords As > Broad Match", I get EXACTLY the same numbers as I do if I select "Ad Keywords As > Exact Match".  I even exported the spreadsheets, and put them side by side, and the only difference between them is that one has "Keyword Type > Exact" all the way down the column, while the other has "Keyword Type > Broad".  How can those numbers be the same?!  Anyone else seeing this, or am I doing something incorrectly?!  Thanks for your input!!

    | measurableROI
    0
  • RuchiPardal


    Hi All, In Google keyword planner, "broad match" option has been removed. I want to know that is there any other method in Google keyword planner or any other tool or any technique through which we can find out the "Broad Match" search volume??

    | RuchiPardal
    1
  • BoomDialogue69


    Does anyone have any suggestions for Google Keyword Tool alternatives, since is has been closed by Google? Thanks

    | BoomDialogue69
    0
  • SSFCU


    What is your process for keyword research? I used Google's Keyword Research Tool for the bulk of my research in the past, so I'm pretty lost right now. However, I'm on the ground level of developing a content strategy for my company's website refresh, and this is a great chance to start from scratch with a sound process. The goal, of course, would be not to respond to keywords, but rather, letting holistic keyword research guide our content strategy. But obviously, I still want to grab low-hanging fruit where I can and beef up weaker parts of the site where possible. After reading Ruth Burr's excellent post last week, I'm testing a few tools, and so far am leaning toward Wordtracker for volume/competition data, cross-referenced with Moz's ranking reporting. However, I still need to check out SEMRush and get friendlier with Keyword Planner. I just want a little SEO angel to fall out of the sky and give me a recipe to follow. No? In case someone asks, my current goal is to identify our target audience's search habits to better reach them through content on our company website. While we serve several communities and do plan to geotarget, we're not there yet. So while I'm glad we have that option on Keyword Planner, there's not much I can do with it today.

    | SSFCU
    0
  • Justian


    I've notice that the Serp for some keywords are updated more frequently then others (or am I mistaken?) Do any of you have any data that might support that theory? what seems to be the longest periode it takes for a SERP to update for a certain keyword? Is there any rules of thumps on this matter?

    | Justian
    0
  • SebastianKnopp


    Hey, I wonder what the effect of filler words like "on" or "for" is when I try to rank for a certain phrase. Here is an example, lets say i try to rank for "best apps iphone" but the grammatically correct usage in the headline or text is "best apps for iphone". Is there any difference or should I use the exact keyword without "for"? Thanks!

    | SebastianKnopp
    0
  • webplex


    I bought a domain name drivingtest,DOT,ca and planning to move (301 redirect) one of my established site (4k daily unique) to it. The site is about written driving test Q&A in Canada. Am I at risk of EMD penalty if I use that domain name? by the way 'driving test' is not my targeted keyword. Many thanks for people responses.

    | webplex
    0
  • ithvac


    I'm having trouble understanding how google determines out of my text what are the keywords and what aren't. Is there somewhere I can go that will tell me what google sees as my dominant keywords and I'd like to see my total keyword list too. We are running eCommerce and I don't think it is picking up on everything we expected it to see as keywords. I'm pretty new to this SEO stuff but I'm trying to learn. Any help would be appreciated. I understand I'm suppose to include important words in my page titles, headers and meta description and use effective markup as well so I'm just a bit lost on how I can actually see what google counts as my keywords and their level of power/importance. If this isn't possible if anyone has any suggestions on how to gauge this, I'm open to ideas! Thanks in advance guys!

    | ithvac
    0
  • lisarein


    I am just starting out doing come SEO research.  I seem to remember a tool that would tell me which words my competitors are ranking for and what kind of traffic they are getting. Thanks, Lisa

    | lisarein
    0
  • theLotter


    I want to know the search volume for ~1000 keywords that I discovered via ubersuggest. Yesterday I could have done this in 5 minutes, but I can't seem to get it to work in the new Google tool and would love some advice. When I either upload or copy and paste my list into the tool I can get it to give me search ideas with volume, but it has all the keywords I am uploading as 0 search volume (when I know that is not true and some of them have thousands of searches).  I've tried "entering keywords to see how they perform" and also "searching for keyword ideas" (the second just because the first didn't try after my 10 tries) Any ideas about what I am doing wrong?
    Or is this a bug other people have been experiencing?

    | theLotter
    0
  • ChristieC


    I am working on a site which sells elliptical equipment. I used Google Adwords to determine number of searches on the following keywords: Elliptical trainer – 3.,600 searches Elliptical machine – 14,800 searches Elliptical trainer machine  - 22 searches I am currently optimizing “elliptical trainer” – but after seeing results above would also like to optimize “elliptical machine”.  My question is:  if I add “machine” to “elliptical trainer” will Google now only read “elliptical trainer machine” or will it read “elliptical machine” in addition to “elliptical trainer”. How do you know what word or “chunk” of words Google picks up?

    | ChristieC
    1
  • Gavin.Atkinson


    I am trying to better understand why some of my pages rank well and some don't rank at all. I've discovered that slight changes to how the key phrase is typed into Google can have dramatic effects on the results. Why is this? And how should I interpret it or use it? I understand that some phrases will be more competitive than others, but that doesn't seem to explain the variances entirely. For example, http://traveltipsthailand.com/phuket/best-bachelor-hotels-in-phuket/ (which is SEO optimised for the long-tail phrase "bachelor hotels in Phuket" and "girl-friendly bachelor hotels in Phuket") ranks #1 or #2 for the key phrase "bachelor hotels phuket", but if I modify the phrase slightly to "bachelor hotels IN phuket" it drops to #12 (page 2) with less relevant competitors (like "Bachelor hotels in Chiang Mai") getting in ahead of it. Likewise, if I search on "best bachelor hotels phuket" (the URL phrase of the page) it is #1 or #2 again, but if I modify the search phrase to "best bachelor hotels IN phuket", my SERP drops to #13. If I use the longer-tail key phrase "girl-friendly bachelor hotels in phuket" the results are even more dramatic. I rank #5 for that phrase in the SERPs with or without "IN" in the search phrase. But if I remove "bachelor" from the key phrase and just search on "girl-friendly hotels in phuket" my page drops right off the SERP radar. Somewhere above #200 I think. Would love to get a better understanding of what influences these changes if anyone really knows. Is it just Goovoodoogle or is there a logical explanation? 51c0d097f1c8d9-81984651 51c0d11688af68-43859477

    | Gavin.Atkinson
    0
  • cschwartzel


    Has anyone used Jaaxy for keyword phrases? Do you like the tool? What have you found it most useful for?

    | cschwartzel
    0
  • orion68


    what is the % relation in between a keyword in title and that given keyword's synonyms in a content of that page? if i use the keyword "apple pie" on a page title once, what should be % of reappearance of this keyword in the content ? and its synonyms in relation to the entire content on that page. thank you

    | orion68
    0
  • JamesBSEO


    In the past we have used google analytics keyword tool to evaluate a keyword for our campaign. Recently though with the changes to the keyword tool becoming the keyword planning tool we've seen an extreme fluctuation in the metrics provided for avg monthly searches. Specifically the keyword "best fries" used to be reported at 33100 avg global monthly searches, now with the new tool its at less than 200 overall for the month. Additional information has the google trends for the keyword to only be increasing and is roughly near peak search interest. So I guess to simplify the question, should I trust this metric? Is there an alternative source I can use for keyword research? Why would a drop like this happen? Why isn't the google trends data similar to that of the keyword data? Surely 100 representing peak interest doesn't translate to 200 searches a month.

    | JamesBSEO
    0
  • S.S.N


    Would using the same product descriptions that are on an e-commerce website for it PLA campaign count as duplicate content?  Ideally, would we want to alter the product description?

    | S.S.N
    0
  • theaffair


    Hi there Moz'ers, I run a mens fashion brand called THE AFFAIR, where we craft premium T-shirts and Art Prints inspired by your favourite books. So my problem is that I have no idea what to try to rank for keyword wise because every product is inspired by a different book and author. Whilst I could go very wide and try for terms such as "graphic t-shirts" or "printed t-shirts" they are a) super competitive and b) bear no relation to the primary selling point being the literature inspired basis of what we do. But on the flip side, there's just not that many people searching for "Jules Verne t-shirts" or even "Adventure t-shirts" to go a little wider at the genre level. Basically I'm confused at a conceptual level about how to best select my keywords and desperately need some help before running down the wrong path! For what it's worth the site is built on WP (using WooCommerce) and I have installed Yoast and begin playing around with it... But anyway it's the larger strategy that has me stumped at the moment and I really don't know where to begin. Thanks for your time and all comments very much appreciated. FREE T-SHIRT to whoever has the best solution 🙂 cheers
    Zoltan

    | theaffair
    0
  • TP_Marketing


    Hello! Does anyone have any suggestions to get an accurate search volume on organic traffic? I've been using Google Adwords however there is a big difference in Paid vs. Organic. Moz currently only pulls Bing. Any suggestions much appreciated!! Thank you!

    | TP_Marketing
    0
  • vahidafshari45


    I recently wanted to work on a high important persian keyword (شارژ ایرانسل) and analysis it on moz.com Difficulty SERP. But the result was very Surprised me. because the second top site in SERP used more than 15 time the keyword in home page and Google doesn't mark it as spam. why Google doesn't apply the spam algo in some language? akg2NqH.png kcHgx0D.png gUSez3B.png

    | vahidafshari45
    0
  • AymanH


    Hello, I'm working on a new dance school website. They already have their domain name .ae but the .com is not available. I was wondering in this case how could it would be to work on a domain like name-dance-school.com instead of name.ae In thie case .ae is very good as they just work on the uae. But I think that name-dance-school will definitely help them to rank better. Has anyone ever face this situation ? Best regards.

    | AymanH
    0

Got a burning SEO question?

Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


Start my free trial


Browse Questions

Explore more categories

  • Moz Tools

    Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

  • SEO Tactics

    Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

  • Community

    Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

  • Support

    Connect on product support and feature requests.

Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.