Finding Targeted Keyword Phrases Your Competitors Miss

Finding Targeted Keyword Phrases Your Competitors Miss

Finding keyword phrases your competition is missing is easier than it seems. Combinations of two and three word phrases are often overlooked by your competitors when vying for the top competitive terms. This missed opportunity may be a benefit to you to overcome your competition in the search engine rankings.

Think Like A Searcher - Study Your Target Audience

Really look at the audience you want to bring to your website. Are there terms you might not ordinarily use or your competitors use that would work for a small portion of visitors? Remember that single words tend to be more competitive. Find two and three word phrases that would work for a searcher looking for your website topic. If your visitors usually search on "vertical widgets", look at "horizontal widgets" as well. Dig deep to find terms that might not be obvious to you. Of course using a keyword phrase that no one searches on might give you lots of search results, this is why you should focus your terms on the actual topic of your website content. Have another person compile a list of keyword phrases used to find your website or product. You'd be surprised at the number of variations two minds can come up with instead of one. Think like a searcher - not a website owner.

View Your Competitor's Source Code And Content For Keyword Phrases

Viewing your competitor's source code is very easy and a good way to see what keyword phrases (if any) they are using. Using your browser, view the source code of the page. The title and meta tags should contain the same keywords or variations of keyword phrases if the competitor's website is optimized. Look over the web page content as well as for keyword phrases worked into the text, image alt text, headings and hyperlinks of the pages. If their pages are not optimized you may gain an even bigger edge on the competition by optimizing your web pages.

Using Keyword Tools To Find Variations Of Keyword Phrases

The Overture Suggestion Tool will provide keyword variations: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Clicking on the suggestion tool link will bring up a window, you can search for terms and variations of terms. Begin with your list and see how many variations come up with the results. You might be surprised at the popularity of some of the search variations you see. Be sure to add you new keyword phrases to your list.

WordTracker is a keyword tool as well, you can purchase a yearly subscription or even a one day subscription. Learn more about it here: http://www.wordtracker.com/

Search On Keyword Phrases In The Search Engines

Using your expanded list of keyword phrases, search for those terms in the search engine databases. Note the number of search engine results. The more results, typically the more competitive the term. See the differences in number of search results for plural versions as opposed to singular versions of your keywords in each engine. Note the descriptions that the search engine results bring up - are there any keyword phrases there that might apply to your website? Don't forget the ads Google displays in their search results. Study the ads that come up with your search terms as well. While you are searching on your keyword phrases, check your competitor's ranking, along with the new keyword phrase variations you come up with through the Overture Keyword and WordTracker tools.

Add Keywords Reflecting Your Local Cities And State

You can also target local areas by listing them in your title/meta tags and text of your web pages. List only the cities and state you reside in and/or provide services to. You never know who will be looking for a local contact producer of "blue widgets" in your city or state. Some people prefer to work with a local company. Adding in those type of specifics, even on your contact page with your local information, can pull in traffic your local competitors are missing.

Check Your Site Statistics

Last but certainly not least, check your search engine stats program or raw server logs to see what terms your visitors are using to find your website. There may be combinations of words your visitors are using you have not thought of or that may not be in the content of your pages.

Incorporate Keyword Phrases Into Content Of Your Web Pages

Once you have your list of varied keyword phrases, work them into your web page. Incorporating these terms into your web pages should "make sense", in other words, they should read well and not sound "spammy". Most of all, they should realistically be part of the content of the page, not placed there only because you need them in the content. Have another person read your copy to see if it sounds reasonable to them.

Keyword Variations Make A Difference

Don't miss out on the keywords your competitors might miss. Those extra keywords could translate into profits and increased viewing of your website by visitors who might otherwise not find you.

Daria Goetsch is the founder and Search Engine Marketing Consultant for Search Innovation Marketing, a Search Engine Marketing company serving small businesses. She has specialized in Search Engine Optimization since 1998, including three years as the Search Engine Specialist for O'Reilly Media, Inc., a technical book publishing company.

Copyright © 2002-2005 Search Innovation Marketing. http://www.searchinnovation.com All Rights Reserved.

Permission to reprint this article is granted if the article is reproduced in its entirety, without editing, including the bio information. Please include a hyperlink to http://www.searchinnovation.com when using this article in newsletters or online.

---

Google is Quickly Changing...

Google is quickly changing...With the big buzz of Novembers fall... Read More

Search Engine Wars - Quality Searches Vs Quantity!

It is no secret that Google and Yahoo are on... Read More

SEO Trade Secrets - 8 Great Tools for Search Engine Optimization

About 80% of website traffic comes through search engines. And... Read More

Google Patent Application - SEO Highlights

The recent patent application filed by Google details numerous items... Read More

Googles Trap, DMOZs Nap, And Yahoo!s Crap

On November 16th, 2003, Google commenced an update (the Florida... Read More

Tread Towards A Successful ?Internet Research?

Internet is a terrific resource containing billions of web pages... Read More

7 Search Engine Optimization Mistakes and Solutions

To many websites, webmasters discover that major sources of website... Read More

Types of Links

Internal Linking ? An introductionThe web as they call it... Read More

Search Engine Optimization and Web Site Usability

Build a Web site and the people will come.Ha! If... Read More

Searching The Internet Without Search Engines

The World Wide Web contains more than ten million websites... Read More

New Free Online Tool for Keyword Research

I came across a new website the other day and... Read More

Understanding Google - What You Need To Know To Conquer This Search Engine Giant

Use a keyword density of about 1 to 2%. Use... Read More

Straight Talk on Search Engine Optimization

To get your website listed well in the major search... Read More

Design A Spider Friendly Site

To be successful in the search engines it's important to... Read More

Google, Adsense, SEO, and How It All Works

Google uses an algorithm to determine the search engine results... Read More

Analyzing Googles Backlinks Is Close To Worthless

... Read More

Link Popularity: Distribute Content, Not Just Links

You've spent many hours trying to increase your online traffic... Read More

Link Building: To Link, or Not to Link, That is the Question

Lately, there have been a lot of heated discussions regarding... Read More

Put the Full Power of Google to Work with 11 Google Power Search Tips

Google has many ways to help you find want you... Read More

Recommended Tools When You Put On The SEO Cap For Your Web Site

The name of the game is search engine optimization and... Read More

Drive More Traffic to Your Website With Your Web Page Title!

One of the most overlooked, but important components, on your... Read More

Can Invisible Text in CSSs Slip Under Search Engine Radar?

I'm literally inundated with questions on the subject of invisible... Read More

How To Start An Internet Business ? Meta Tags and Keyword Density

Okay, you have a domain name, layout and content. Now... Read More

Why Search Engine Marketing Has A Passion for Web Site Usability

Watching a recent football game, I imagined two very different... Read More

Creating Search Engine Friendly Web Sites

With tons of competition and copycats online, you need a... Read More

Google Has No Content On Page

One of the post from My SEO world Meet Up... Read More

Tops In Toolbars?

Most internet marketers are aware of, and probably use, the... Read More

Answers Count - Matching Keyword and Phrase Density

What's more important to your business success - the question... Read More

How and When Should I Submit My Website to Google?

As soon as you register your domain name, submit it... Read More

Why SEO (as we know it) is Doomed to Failure and How You Can Avoid the Trap

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become one of the biggest... Read More

Google, Yahoo!, Pandoras Box And The Lottery

In the fall of 1990, the musical group Snap had... Read More

Search Engine Success & The Google-Vision Secret

Want to know the secret to great search engine listings?... Read More

Site-Digest 7 Simple Steps To Place Your Site Map On Steroids

The Site Map is a too often overlooked piece of... Read More