CHEAT SHEET
GETTING KEYWORD IDEAS
© WWW.UNDERCOVERSTRATEGIST.COMOVERVIEW
Keywords or phrases in he context of a web search engine are those terms that a user enters into the search query field to find information or a supplier of a product or service.
Keywords form the basis of all search engine marketing activity.
Google works by attempting to match a user’s query to keywords found in webpages stored in its database (known as the Google “Index”). Thus if you enter “accountant los angeles” you will see matching results appear.
SOURCE CODE
When people visit websites, they see an attractive graphic interface. When an Internet Browser, such as Safari or Internet Explorer, visit a website, they read source code. Source code is behind-the-scenes code that provides instructions regarding how the browser should render the webpage for display on a
computer screen.
Google and Bing also read source code, not because of formatting, but because it contains text, which search engines use to understand both the structure of the website and the content of the webpage.
The section of source code that we are most interested in is the <head> section, which appears at the very top of the webpage. Google and Bing draw
information from the <head> section and this is what is displayed in the search engine snippet.
To illustrate, we can see that this Meta description appearing in the source code:
USE OF META KEYWORDS:
Some web administrators include Meta Keywords in their webpages.
Meta Keywords information is ignored by both Bing and Google so its inclusion will not assist in organic ranking. It does, however, enable competitors to quickly see keyword strategies.
TO ACCESS SOURCE CODE:
You will need to open the webpage that you want to take a look at.
Using Safari, click “View” and scroll down until you reach the “View Source” menu option. If you are using a mouse, right-click the page you want to look at. You’ll see a “view source” option is available. Internet Explorer has exactly the same access arrangements as Safari.
Using Google Chrome, just type view-source: in front of any URL you want to check.
A note pad will pop up on your screen.
Source code looks like this:
SPYFU
SPYFU is a paid subscription service that offers users the choice of data extracted from either the United States or United Kingdom (or both). It offers some
information for free. (If you trade outside of the US or UK, you may find its competitive information is of limited value, however, it will offer some keyword suggestions.)
If you are considering a pay-per-click advertising campaign, using SPYFU you can also see how American businesses in your industry are writing their
advertising copy.
TO SEE KEYWORD SUGGESTIONS:
STEP 1: Enter your industry phrase in the search query field provided and click “search”.
STEP 2:
Scroll down to find the most common keywords that accountants use.
You can take a note of the keyword ideas that interest you and check them in a tool such as the Google External Keyword Tool to determine local search volumes for the phrase.
TO SEE AD COPY:
While at SPYFU, you can see how competitors in the US write their pay-per-click ad copy by clicking on one of the coloured boxes.
ALTERNATIVES TO SPYFU:
Traffic Travis (www.traffictravis.com) which has the advantage of offering data across other trading markets, such as Australia, but is not compatible with Apple computers. According to the vendor, Apple users can try running the software using a Windows OS under Bootcamp, Parallels or Fusion.
engine. Thus, as you type, Google’s autocomplete algorithm offers searches that it thinks might be similar to what you’re looking for.
To get a good look at the data in Google Suggest, add letters after your keyword. For example, if we add au after accountant, we see the phrase “accountant auditor” appear which we may record to test for search volume later.
Drill further and further down to reach long-tail kweywords by adding letters. Search keyword options displayed by Google Suggest are based upon actual search phrases that Google search engine users have entered into the Google search query field.
GOOGLE EXTERNAL KEYWORD TOOL
You can access the Google External Keyword Tool at: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExterna
Alternatively, you can type in Google External Keyword Tool into the Google search engine and it will appear as the first result.
GOOGLE EXTERNAL KEYWORD TOOL INSTRUCTIONS: STEP 1: Enter your keywords or phrases into the field provided.
STEP 2: Check the box if you want phrase matches that closely resemble your ideas:
Or leave it unchecked to get broad results. (If you’re collecting ideas, leave it broad to start with.)
You can change the default location or language by clicking on the small plus sign to the left of the Advanced options and Filters menu and scrolling down to choose the country or language of your choice.
STEP 4: The first time you use the tool, you will be presented with CAPTCHA code, a popular anti-spam mechanism, which you will need to add to the field provided to prove you are a person rather than automated software.
Click search and the tool takes a few seconds to display its results, which are displayed in four columns of data.
Keywords – Keyword ideas generated by the tool based upon the keywords or phrases you entered into the keyword field.
Competition – A graphical interpretation of the intensity of Pay-Per-Click
advertiser competition for that keyword in the trading market you have specified. Global Searches – The number of global searches for that keyword or phrase that were entered into Google for the previous month.
Local Monthly Searches – The number of searches for that keyword or phrase in your specified trading market over the previous month.
You can download your results by clicking on the download option.
Either check the keywords you want and download the selected phrases, or download everything. It will be sent to your computer as a csv file that can be
