Keyword Research the BTB Way

Sort the file by competition.
Delete any KWs that are .80 or higher.

Umm the competition is adwords competition assuming ur using adwords tool. Do you notice that if u search things with low competition you get almost no ads. This generally means that for adsense LOWER competition = less relevant ads. IMO. Let me know if i'm wrong but i've always removed things under x amount for competition.

also when you are talking about the 2,000 pages of content. Are only 30% or so of them the keywords you pulled from adwords and optimized. Then the rest just for content purposes?
 
so are u creating an article for each keyword?

At least one article per KW and sometime several articles per KW.

All submitted on the main page and truncated so you have to go to their own page to read the complete article and all with a link from a separate page that has a list of all the KWs... I generally name that page Main Content - Types or Causes or Facts... something that works with that particular niche.
 
Sort the file by competition.
Delete any KWs that are .80 or higher.

Umm the competition is adwords competition assuming ur using adwords tool. Do you notice that if u search things with low competition you get almost no ads. This generally means that for adsense LOWER competition = less relevant ads. IMO. Let me know if i'm wrong but i've always removed things under x amount for competition.

I've never had problems getting relevant adsense ads using this process and I've been doing this for quite some time and my revenue from adsense tops 8K monthly. I'm not saying you are wrong, I am just saying my mileage differs from that.

That being said, I don't just use adsense to monetize your sites... there are copious ways to do that and mixing other methods in spreads things out and makes tons of economic sense.

also when you are talking about the 2,000 pages of content. Are only 30% or so of them the keywords you pulled from adwords and optimized. Then the rest just for content purposes?
Any content on my sites is designed to be searched for topics relevant to my main topic. I'm all about building a site that you would go to and look at several pages because I want more than one shot at hitting your wallet.

I'm a businessman and I treat my websites like a business and just like your local grocery store has a lot of products so you buy various products you may not "need" I do the same with my websites.

Lots of aisles grouped by product, lots of products in those aisles.
 
just about keywords, i used to do adwords for 5 years, too many restrictions/ban/blahblah.
Anyway like the op i rarely used tools, i mean i used them marketsam/google keyword tool and hundreds of others, but
1.my brain
2.friends

are the best options imo, use the tools to check on "competition". I just think of keywords and run with it, but the most important is your friends.
Let me explain, if you're doing IM, then you have already distanced yourself from a "normal" websurfer you cannot literally "think" like them anymore, it's impossible cuz now you "know" the IM world.

Your friends do not however, go just have them come over, sit them down and say, "Hey i need you to search blah blah" and just look over their shoulder while they do it, and see where the mouse moves (usually ppl move the mouse unconsciously to where they want to go, w/o even knowing).

work it into conversations "haha, that's a funny story, how would you Google it?"

figure out how "normal" ppl google, whenever i hear my fiance typing I always run over to see if she's doing a search (she has a mechanical keyboard, i can hear) i want to basically catch her in the act of "typing normal".

don't have friends? here's an idea take a trip to the library (they all have computers now for free with library card) and just walk behind a person and say "hey can you google blah blah for me real quick?" Do it at a starbucks or whatever works too.

I'm not trying to be "leary" or whatever but i'm trying to make you understand that going at it from a keyword perspective as a person doing IM is already a loosing battle, because (if you do this research) "normal people" do not search in the way you want them to search or the way the "guru's" want to make you believe.

basically i'm saying if you're doing IM you've desensitized yourself to what a normal person experiences on the web, use the experiences of normal ppl to remember what the search experience is like, replicate it in your keyword research.

There are some pretty solid arguments here... a perspective of someone who is a "regular Joe" can come in handy and add to the process.

I was remiss in not acknowledging your comments.
 
After that I take the main KW that I started with and go to wikipedia and see what wikipedia has on the main KW page. Looking at the page, I see what other wiki pages are interlinked to that page and copy and paste them. More often than not, I?ll click through and read a bunch of those pages and see what they are linked to and copy and paste those KWs as well.

Hi, nice to meet you. Bear with me, So lets say the main keyword is "brain cancer". What do you mean you go to Wikiepedia and see what they have on the main KW page? And where are you seeing keywords to copy and paste?

Normally when I go to Wiki and search the keywords (blue links on the page) are random keywords that link to other pages/topics.
 
There are some pretty solid arguments here... a perspective of someone who is a "regular Joe" can come in handy and add to the process.

I was remiss in not acknowledging your comments.

Like you i've literally played with millions of keywords, tracking 100's of thousands and checking each and every log to figure out "why?" why does a person click on an ad, why does a person type these terms? (if you're tracking and you must with ppc).
It took a while for me to figure out, i was too far removed from as you put it "the average joe", it was like a bunch of scientists studying the missing link of human in a glass cage, the scientist is too far removed from the missing link to figure out why the missing link is acting as he does and can only "run with" assumptions, so that's when i figured out, instead of figuring out the missing link, why don't i just try to become one, afterall isn't that why that crazy monkey lady is so well renowed?
be the monkey lady!
didn't mean to hijack or nuttin, just saw that you had great opinions (and wasn't so reliant on keyword tools, just like me) and i just felt like i had to add.
 
Normally when I go to Wiki and search the keywords (blue links on the page) are random keywords that link to other pages/topics.

Those random KWs are the ones I use... they are not so much as random as they are related to the main topic on the Wiki page you are viewing.
 
Really good read and a great thread -

This would work wonders to be honest and a great way of thinking!!

I also like the idea that 90% of people who will read this but not follow it up because its "work" and they can't just press GO on MS/TT or whatever magic tools they have!
 
This can be done directly in the G's Keyword Tool.

You are correct; I just prefer to do all the analyzing in Excel; it is a little easier for me but as you pointed out, there is more than one way to skin a cat.
 
BassTrackerBoats is one of the few I've PM'ed on BHW with ideas and requests for his thoughts as I've been around for a while and his posts are always quality.

This shows nothing short of that. Great post, sir. Thanks for helping me, and more importantly this community.
 
I would also like to add that when you do your KW research, look at google trends to see the change in search volume per month. Sometimes, you may notice a surge for a particular kw around a holiday or time of year, and this should show in trends. Other months may show a decrease in search volume. Just know that the Google AdWords is meant I believe more as a mean search volume over probably a year or more.
 
I've never had problems getting relevant adsense ads using this process and I've been doing this for quite some time and my revenue from adsense tops 8K monthly. I'm not saying you are wrong, I am just saying my mileage differs from that.

That being said, I don't just use adsense to monetize your sites... there are copious ways to do that and mixing other methods in spreads things out and makes tons of economic sense.

Any content on my sites is designed to be searched for topics relevant to my main topic. I'm all about building a site that you would go to and look at several pages because I want more than one shot at hitting your wallet.

I'm a businessman and I treat my websites like a business and just like your local grocery store has a lot of products so you buy various products you may not "need" I do the same with my websites.

Lots of aisles grouped by product, lots of products in those aisles.


So in your experience if the thing says 0 competition and when u search it in google, it doesn't have any ads showing up for adwords. It will or can still have relevant ads?

2. The reason i asked about that is because i wonder how you get 2,000 related keywords from google adwords tool because i assumed those were the only ones with traffic. How do you get 2,000 different keywords that have traffic over 800?

3. Also do you filter out by the cpc or no (since u don't mainly use adsense)

4. You filter anything under 800 local monthly searches a month?

All submitted on the main page and truncated so you have to go to their own page to read the complete article and all with a link from a separate page that has a list of all the KWs... I generally name that page Main Content - Types or Causes or Facts... something that works with that particular niche.

How do you truncate them. Does your main page rank for only 1 keyword or do you use your main site as just a funnel page, sort of like an article directory where it shows only excerpts of the article?
and what do you mean all with a link from a separate page that has a list of all the keywords?

Also i highly agree with filtering out those keywords. I did have articles created around weird keywords like widget blue which really makes no sense and it makes it hard for the article writer to write something that makes sense. +1 for that common sense but highly important tip.

last but not least. Was wondering what a typical link building campaign looks like (i suppose this is the golden treasure of it all, ranking keywords) keyword research is half of the race, but if they aren't ranked they don't make money. And i have a problem ranking my keywords even though they should be low-medium competition.
 
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So in your experience if the thing says 0 competition and when u search it in google, it doesn't have any ads showing up for adwords. It will or can still have relevant ads?

I never have any trouble getting relevant ads on my sites using this process.

2. The reason i asked about that is because i wonder how you get 2,000 related keywords from google adwords tool because i assumed those were the only ones with traffic. How do you get 2,000 different keywords that have traffic over 800?

I generally get around 800 when logged into my adwords account and cull that down using my methods.


3. Also do you filter out by the cpc or no (since u don't mainly use adsense)

I do use adsense on some of my sites to the tune of about 8K a month in revenue but it is not my only source of revenue.

I don't filter by the CPC, I just use the method described in the original post. I don't care about CPC because my site's KWs generally pay very well as they are, for the most part, Business, Finance and Employment.

The employment pays poorly for adsense BTW.


4. You filter anything under 800 local monthly searches a month?

Generally I do but there are times I will go lower.


How do you truncate them. Does your main page rank for only 1 keyword or do you use your main site as just a funnel page, sort of like an article directory where it shows only excerpts of the article?

My main pages get ranked for the KWs using this process to a certain degree and all the inner pages are the main bread winners when it comes to getting organic traffic. On mys sites, there are ten truncated articles on the main page and they change daily as I add more content.

and what do you mean all with a link from a separate page that has a list of all the keywords?

I have a page that would outline some of the vision of the site.. something to the effect of Important Terms Concerning XYZ and list the KWs and have those KWs linked to the page the article is on.
 
BTB,

How long are your articles usually? For examples, if you have 2 articles in breast cancer symptoms...would one be the symptoms...and another be, cures? Or would you break it down to one article per symptom?
 
BTB,

How long are your articles usually? For examples, if you have 2 articles in breast cancer symptoms...would one be the symptoms...and another be, cures? Or would you break it down to one article per symptom?

I do one article per KW and the articles are 500 words give or take.

That being said, I have had more than one article per KW as I use 2 different writers and sometimes mess things up and give them the same KWs but I have only one article per page.
 
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