An oft-repeated question we receive is about the accuracy of keyword suggestion tools. This topic has been discussed before. Anyway it needs to be revisited because we now have to consider not only the accuracy but also the relevance of keyword suggestion tools.
Keyword Suggestion Tools are slowly Losing Their Relevance
Why?
Because it is no longer easy to attach a monetizable reason to many of the searches that take place. Nowadays it is very normal to see huge number of searches that appear to be completely relevant but ultimately lead to nothing.
Reasons? many…
- Idle searches. The number of people using the net is increasing day by day. People now search simply because they have nothing else to do. They search, look at the site for a few seconds and go away.
- Make Money Schemes – There are so many make money schemes on the net that many of the searches are simply people looking for niche market ideas.
- Automated tools and scripts – These simply allow people to plug in just one word and these tools then go on to generate hundreds of additional words. Then all these words are searched contributing to inflated search volumes.
- Outsourced work -This is very noticeable if you spend some time on Google insights for search. Google insights for search allows you to “compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties”. You will see large number of searches from countries that are probably not your target market making the global search volume counts irrelevant (and local search volume counts inaccurate).
- Data collection services – These are companies that simply accumulate keyword and advertiser related data with the intent to sell it to others. A simple search will reveal a number of services that provide information on Google advertisers. They sell historical data that contain the advertisement texts, keywords that various sites bid on and more. All these data accumulation involve millions of searches!
Continued in Keyword Research – The Importance of Analytics and Smart Monitoring
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Did you know that you can compare the titles and snippets in addition to the actual URLs?
Look for a set of three small icons on the top right side of the SEO Lab Mac application window when in “SERP compare view“. You can use these to toggle the display between URLs, titles and snippets!
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We have released minor updates to the following domain management software products. To update, simply download the new versions and install over your existing copy.
This fixes a minor SQL query related issue in Watch My Domains ISP. The update adds ability to double click a domain name to modify it’s categories.
Domain Calendar and Expiry Date
The domain calendar in Watch My Domains ISP uses the registry expiry date to display the domains. You can change this to use registrar expiry. Since this is not really recommended, you will need to use regedit and manually add a key to make it work.
Simply add a new DWORD (32bit) value called
Use Registrar Expiry For Cost Estimate
to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Softnik Technologies\Watch My Domains ISP v3\Settings
and set it’s value to 1.
Please note that this is not recommended because most domains other than Net and Com will have empty registrar expiry date columns. Use this only if you manually add the dates to registrar expiry column. You may want to read
Why is the Registrar Expiry Date Column Empty for Some Domains in Domain Punch Pro and Watch My Domains?
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Here are some screen shots of the upcoming “Web Page Strategy Analyzer” (name not yet confirmed). This will be available as a freeware (“lite” version), a stand alone professional version and as part of the upcoming SEO Lab Enterprise Edition.
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Domain Name Filter is a free software we released many years ago. Don’t let it’s age fool you, it is an “ever-green” domain name tool.
You need Domain Name Filter if you work with large lists of domain names. You can use it to pick domain names that contain specific keywords at the start, end or in the middle, filter domain names based on the length (domains longer than 5 characters, shorter than 25 characters, etc.) and so on.
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One of the best things you can do to attract targeted traffic to your web sites is to perfect the best “web page strategy” for each and everyone of your important web pages.
You should always do this one web page at a time. This makes it very uncomplicated because you can simply concentrate on one thing at a time.
For each of your key web pages, you should…
- Indentify the purpose behind the page. What is your aim? What should your ideal customer do when she reaches this page?
- Identify the main keyword phrase for the page and then craft a powerful web page title for it (the keyword phrase will form part of the title)
- Create a good description for the page and use it for your “description” meta tag.
- Identify secondary keywords for the page. You should always have a group of 5-6 keyword phrases for each page. Use these for “on page” search engine optimization.
- Craft the headings and bulleted lists that will be used on the page. Use your secondary keywords in headings if it makes sense.
- Identify the pages that you will link to. Remember to use sensible keywords as anchor texts especially when you link to other pages on your site. Use “no-follow” if you are linking to pages that shouldn’t get “link juice”.
- Pick the images that will be used in the page. Use images to catch the attention of users.
- Identify parts of the page that are likely to stand-out when you scroll through the page. Use colors and images to create the pauses.
- Make sure that the web page provides the user with whatever you set out to provide by not adding distractions.
- Tabulate the data for each of your important pages into a spreadsheet. This will help you plan your over all site wide strategy.
Lookout for a new software that will help you formulate and manage your web page strategy. We will be releasing a “lite” free version and a more advanced professional version some time soon.
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Inside Adwords had an interesting post a few days back about conversion rates and ad positions. Check it out if you missed it.
“We have used a statistical model to account for these … found that, on average, there is very little variation in conversion rates by position for the same ad. For example, for pages where 11 ads are shown the conversion rate varies by less than 5% across positions. In other words, an ad that had a 1.0% conversion rate in the best position, would have about a 0.95% conversion rate in the worst position…”
Read more… Conversion rates don’t vary much by position.
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It is possible to select a domain name category while adding domains to Domain Punch Pro or Watch My Domains ISP.
First, make sure that the “Add Domains To Current Category” box is checked in the application settings. You can access “App Settings” from the “Config” tab.
Then click on the “domain category tree” (left pane) and select the category you wish to add domains to. While the domains in the category are displayed, use one of the Add or Import buttons to add domains. The new domains will be added to the selected category also.
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Did you know that you can use SEOLab for Mac OS X to check the on-page structure of web pages (your own or that of your competitors)?
The Site Analyzer display in SEO Lab Mac can be used to study…
- The actual text used in any web page (without the scripts and html tags)
- Keyword distribution and density of web pages
- Headings (h1, h2, h3…) used in the web page
- Anchor texts used for links
You can download a 30 day trial of SEO Lab Mac OS X.
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ICANN has asked for public comments about the “post expiration domain recovery” procedure. A working group has been setup to answer the following questions.
- Whether adequate opportunity exists for registrants to redeem their expired domain names;
- Whether expiration-related provisions in typical registration agreements are clear and conspicuous enough;
- Whether adequate notice exists to alert registrants of upcoming expirations;
- Whether additional measures need to be implemented to indicate that once a domain name enters the Auto-Renew Grace Period, it has expired (e.g., hold status, a notice on the site with a link to information on how to renew, or other options to be determined);
- Whether to allow the transfer of a domain name during the Redemption Grace Period (RGP).
You can submit comments till september 10, 2009. Please visit the following page for more details.
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-20aug09-en.htm
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