Register
Forgot Password?
Score
-
-
-
  /100
Certificate
SEO Certificate

Option2: Harvest quality keywords in a matter of minutes

Sorry, you are not logged in. Please login to get full access to this page or register if you're not registered yet.

As I promised, here's the simple and short way to get as many great keywords as you wish.

Rank Tracker SEO Software
Rank Tracker

There's a tool called Rank Tracker that's great for working with keywords. The module I particularly like is keyword suggestion. Rank Tracker also checks website positions by keywords with a lot of details, to see how they change over time — and does much more. But we'll need that a little bit later. And right now, we'll need the keyword suggestion feature the most.

So here's where you find Rank Tracker:
http://www.seoinpractice.com/seo-software-bundle.html

You can trust the software I recommend here 100%, for I not only used it thousands of times. I truly took part in its development, consulting the Link-Assistant.Com team all way through. So these tools are also products of my SEO experience. Hundreds of SEO companies and thousands of individuals all over the globe use this software. Many of my clients do part of the job themselves, with the tools I recommend. And believe me, these development guys know how to keep all their users happy!

So here's how it works. First, download Rank Tracker and install it on your computer. What you'll do now is:

Get a long list of keywords at a couple of mouseclicks

Run the tool and click the New button to create a new project. Rank Tracker will ask you to enter a URL, so enter your site's URL.

Enter URL
Enter your website's URL

Then choose Search Engines to apply (in fact, you can click any, say Yahoo! — it doesn't really matter for keyword research).

Choose search engines
Select search engines

Now you need to enter a keyword to start with. Type in any keyword related to your business, like I typed in wedding ideas, and Rank Tracker will take a couple of seconds to check your site's ranking for that word (but I'll save talk about rankings for later).

Enter keywords
Enter your major keywords

What you need to do right now is: select your keyword and click the Suggest button in the Keywords tab.

Suggest Keywords button

You can enter a number of generic keywords related to your niche or business. Rank Tracker will use these terms to give you keyword suggestions.

Initial keywords
List of "big" initial keywords

The tool will ask you to choose a keyword research method. Choose Google Suggest, and after Rank Tracker stops searching (it can take a while, depending on the number of keywords you've entered and the speed of your Internet connection), you can choose any of the keyword suggestions it offers. (I'd recommend you to select all suggested words now. And later Rank Tracker will let you easily single out the best-quality keywords.)

Suggested keywords
List of suggested keywords

As soon as you make your decision and click Finish, you will see the keywords you chose in the Keywords tab.


Now, repeat the same procedure choosing Wordtracker, Yahoo! Search Assist and Ask TypeAhead Search Suggestions.

Your keyword list is getting longer, yeah?

Now let's

Spy a bit on your competitors

A great thing is to find out what keywords your competition is using (really useful, you know, as you can copy their strategy and improve on it!)

Use the Competition Research option for that.

Keyword research methods
Various keyword research methods

Localize the search

Now let's add some regionally-marked keywords to your list. You've probably read above, it's sometimes very useful to localize your keywords, as people often search for products or services exactly in their own area. So here's what you need to do now: select some keywords from the list you already have (hold Shift or Ctrl buttons for multiple choice), then click the Suggest button of Rank Tracker and choose the Word Combination option. After that on the left you will see the list of keywords you've just selected.

Now your task is to add regional names to your list. Say, if you sell footwear in Michigan and Illinois, type in the names of these two states in the right-hand field. Then click to proceed and after a few seconds you'll have a list of fairly good regionally marked keywords.

Broaden your keyword list

Now I guess, you've gone through the Rank Tracker options and made a massive keyword list. But Rank Tracker still has to do some work for you.

Believe me, you still can add to the great keyword list you already have. Look at the keywords and choose the ones that are thematically most relevant to what you offer. Select these terms (hold the Shift or Ctrl buttons for multiple choice), and hit the Suggest button once again.

Now, if you repeat the procedures for finding keyword suggestions, you'll add more straight-to-the-point keyphrases to you list. Thus you'll have enough reasonably precise search terms to choose from.


DO IT NOW! Make a massive list of keywords and keyphrases for your website in Rank Tracker, and copy them all into a column in a spreadsheet (ex. Excel).




So what do we have at the moment? A huge list of keywords, all you could find. Well, you must be proud, thinking how big it is. Now here's the confusing but funny thing: you won't need most of this list! The time's come to think of keyword' quality. As a next step, we'll shortlist your keyword suggestions.

33 comments

Add comment Hide commentsShow comments

Please log in or register to leave a comment.

2008-07-31 16:27:34: Gerben Bouwhuis

The competitor keyword research is nice (i do think we're getting the meta data from competitors, but hey, who am i) but you don't fetch them per language, why not? It's even more usefull to do so.

Answer
2008-08-04 12:23:54: Dan Richmond

Gerben,
sorry, I'm not sure that I understand exactly what you mean, therefore I won't comment on your suggestion.

But here's a hint for you and for anyone else having software suggestions: white to Link-Assistant.Com's support if you have any software-related questions. Here's Link-Assistant.Com's support system

There's qualified support staff working at all requests, no matter if you're a registered software user or not, and they'll be happy to hear your suggestions. (Just give a more detailed explanation probably).

So please write to support guys, they'll be thankful to you for sure, Gerben.

Answer
2008-08-06 16:06:09: Gerben Bouwhuis

@Dan,

i'll contact the support guys. But i'm talking about the option to get data per language too, like searches, metadata from other languages, it's all english based now.

Answer
2008-08-10 04:23:30: Darren Tong

Hi Dan,

On the whole this looks like a great resource for would-be SEO-ers such as myself... the one piece of feedback I would offer is that perhaps you should make it clearer the parts of this guide that are "content" and the parts that are "promotion"...

It would help readers like myself to draw a line between great tips and sales patter (which I have no objection to), and as a result we may even find ourselves compelled to buy!

thanks again for the tips & techniques you're sharing here.

D.

Answer
2008-09-23 18:04:39: satish kumar

Do we have any extra advantage if we use a keyword in whole caps. For example can we write both "dog food" and "DOG FOOD" keywords?

Answer
2008-09-24 03:51:44: Dan Richmond

Do we have any extra advantage if we use a keyword in whole caps.
According to Google official data, no. They claim to not differenciate between upper and lower case.

Answer
2008-10-30 05:49:12: jamie green

Are you able to perform the keyword research in regional databases with the full software, or only us as with the free version?

Answer
2008-10-31 06:01:45: Dan Richmond

@jamie green

You asked:
Are you able to perform the keyword research in regional databases with the full software, or only us as with the free version?

Yes, the paid versions of software have lists with nearly 400 search engines, from dozens of countries. Here's a list for Rank Tracker for example:
http://www.link-assistant.com/rank-tracker/search-engines-list.html
or here's SEO SpyGlass
http://www.link-assistant.com/seo-spyglass/search-engines-list.html

Answer
2009-06-03 19:02:22: Emanuele Longo

Hi Dan,

I started to use SEO Powersuite and to read this book today and it is very interesting.
I have a farm that sell, for example, raw milk directly to consumer, in Italy. For words like raw milk or farm (obiouvsly translated in italian) I found a lot of other keyword but they all have KEI = 0. My question is: do I have to not consider all these words with KEI 0 for the next steps (for exampe localization)? I think yes because KEI 0 means no search.
The problem is that all of my keywords have KEI very very low...

Answer
2009-06-03 19:35:15: Emanuele Longo

Hi Dan,

another question: but is the KEI tool in Rank Tracker working also with Italian keywords?Is the result calculated considering also, for example, google.IT searches?

Answer
2009-06-04 07:23:18: Dan Richmond

@ Emanuele Longo

Firstly, as I keep telling KEI is a relevant value. If your keywords have non-zero KEI is't not that important for keyword choice if it's very low. You just choose keywords with the best KEI and ignore the rest anyway.

Secondly, you've got to play with the software to see if there are ways to extract #of searches and compatition which are most appropriate in your situation. Go to Preferences -> KEI Settings in Rank Tracker and choose either Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery in the search volume dropdown and in the Competition field choose Google.it - should work better.

Well I guess this anwers both of your questions.

Answer
2009-06-04 10:36:29: Emanuele Longo

Dan,

maybe I did not explain myself appropriately :-)

1) but if my main keyword is "raw milk" and it has KEI=0, I have to ignore it?
2) wordtracker and keyword discovery analyze their data also from Italian search engine? I meant that it would be very strange that someone searches for "latte crudo" (the translation of english "raw milk") on an american/english engine and obviously if keyword discovery and wordtracker analyze only american/english search engines it would not appear and it would have a KEI = 0.

Thanks!

Answer
2009-06-05 03:54:02: Dan Richmond

@ Emanuele Longo

> but if my main keyword is "raw milk" and it has KEI=0, I have to ignore it?

No, you should not ignore it. I hate to admit that, but neither Wordtracker nor Keyword Discovery (nor any other tool) are able to provide top-quality data. All of us SEOs hate that but we've gotta use at least what we can have now. WT and KD still remain the most trusted services.

>it would be very strange that someone searches for "latte crudo" (the translation of english "raw milk") on an american/english engine

Why not? I use Google.com to search for words in German, daily.

I didn't check WT or KD for latte crudo, but some non-English words may appear there. Sadly, the story ends if you check latte crudo and it isn't there.

In a couple of weeks the developers will add another tool to check search volume - the one that's used in Google AdWords now. This one will work with non-English words.

Answer
2009-06-22 05:24:43: Benjamin Wingerter

I really love the RankTracker Wordmixer. And since google suggest is implemented for German keywords i can do a lot of work in less than the half time! It's important to have all tools in one package because you don't have to switch and are able to keep the overview.

Answer
2009-07-02 19:25:02: Ryan Flaherty


Ryan Flaherty


I use the rank tracker all the time it is a great tool

Answer
2009-07-13 09:15:32: Cuc Serban

Hy Dan,
I have a new customer interested in results for a local search engine google.ro
RankTracker is not giving me the number of searches so I can't give him a keyword research report.
PLEASE let me know how can I get this information using RankTracker or any other method.
Thank you very much.
Regards
Serban

Answer
2009-08-06 22:55:46: Hengke Fan

very good! I have read some information in Chinese from the website : www.seowhy.com

Answer
2009-08-16 14:30:47: Damon Day

I had no idea that I could use rank tracker for keyword research. I used the free version for about 2 weeks and then upgraded so I could get more detailed reports. I was just using the rank tracker to track existing keywords that I was trying to rank on. I am glad I read this page before I stopped and went back to redo my keyword research.

Answer
2009-10-14 03:08:24: Dirk Weemaes

Hello Dan,
1. am I correct in presuming that the keyword (phrases) we are looking for will be primarily used in the text of the webpage(s) we want to optimize and not in the meta keywords?
2. I noticed that my competitor, having the best ranking for most of the keywords I am after, is using a long list of words in his meta tags, separated by a space rather than by kommas. Moreover each of the keywords appears 2-3 times in the meta keywords; is this a different technique?
dirk weemaes
http://www.sabandari.com


Answer
2009-10-16 09:09:48: Dan Richmond

@Dirk Weemaes
I'll need to look at the competitor's page to see what you're talking about. Please write to me at dan@seoinpractice.com with your competitor's URL, you website and your keywords.

Answer
2009-10-19 19:41:30: rana cairo u

i use my website www.eduroute.info
and my keywords top ranking but i see that i'm not in the top and don't know how to do this

Answer
2009-10-20 01:28:09: Everett Patterson

So far so good. Keep up the good work!

Answer
2009-12-07 02:51:05: Ken Taylor

I'm not sure what to make of this RankTracker. There sure are a lot of CAPTCHA's I had to keep typing. Just for three keyword phrases it took about 10 minutes. On a positive note, my typing has gotten better :) But seriously, I wish the guide had more samples. For example, what happens when ALL you're keywords are net listed "in Top 100". And I'm not sure what KEI is except that when it's 'green' it's good. I'm assuming that KEI will be clarified as I move on through this Guide.

I do understand after reading this chapter how to use the "Suggest" tab of RankTracker. And I think I'll understand more as I use it.

Answer
2009-12-15 04:19:15: Dan Richmond

@Ken Taylor

Ken, after last week's update RT's search for KEI has sped up about a dozen times - please check it now.

Answer
2009-12-28 07:22:04: Paul Watchorn

Can somebody tell me how relevant the so called ‘sand box’ is.

For example: If a client was to ask me to do SEO on a new site, would I need to explain that nothing much will be happening for X months, because of the ‘sand box’.

I can’t find a satisfactory answer to whether it exists or not, and if it does, how long does it last and what to do about it.

I am doing this course to learn to do SEO effectively, and to give potential clients good value, so these little questions really need an answer.

Does anybody know?

Answer
2010-01-01 19:32:04: Sueños de Boda

Thanx a lot, itś a great book.

Answer
2010-01-05 05:43:05: Dan Richmond

@Paul Watchorn

Hi Paul, please read the discussion here:
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/whats-an-update/

Answer
2010-01-22 10:07:07: Marvin Chapman

Great book, and nice tips. Had never thought of getting help from my competitors.

Answer
2010-01-22 11:00:45: Ben Neale

Hi Dan,

I'm just working through this exercise. It works for Wordtracker, Yahoo and Ask Typehead. However Google Suggest keeps returning no results, regardless of what I put in. Any ideas why this might be?

Ben

Answer
2010-01-28 11:15:27: Dan Richmond

@Ben Neale

Ben, there was an algo change, but the software has already been adjusted. Please restart Rank Tracker to get it auto-updated and Google Suggest will work.

Answer
2010-02-01 10:40:37: Ben Neale

Thanks Dan,

Turns out I had a significantly older version of the software. I've just upgraded to the latest version, and it has a raft of new sources, including the Google Adwords tool. Excellent!

Answer
2010-03-01 16:41:05: warren kirkpatrick

I downloaded the free version but haven't downloaded the full version cant really afford it so there is probably alot of features i am missing out on which is a pity but if i make some money from this book by applying the techniques to my blog then i will def invest in the software.

Answer
2010-03-02 05:26:02: Dan Richmond

Hi Warren,
of course the full version offers you more features, but even in the free version SEO PowerSuite will be definitely useful. Don't miss backlink research in SEO SpyGlass, that's one of the greatest possibilities of SEO PowerSuite.

Answer