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Keyword research really is the first thing you should do, when you are just planning to start a new website. In this case I am talking especially about blogs, since I am writing one by myself and still planning to evolve in future, get more topic ideas and continue to research my niche. One more thing which is especially important – you should know what people are searching, which keywords they are using to get good traffic from such research in advance.
I really think now and in future small business websites cannot exist without a successful blog presence. Blogs are well known for ranking high in search engines because of its frequently updated content and acting like social network in return getting many backlinks, which are very highly evaluated by search engines.
This may be the first question you will have here, but really answer is simple – keyword research is really market research. If you have done any business plan previously you should know before starting actual business you should do inquiry, research what are your competitors, how profitable niche is and just then start to take next step to actual action.
I must admit I didn’t do any research when I started my blogging career, I just found several design blogs and slowly researched whole design community. But as this post will evolve, you’ll see how much I was missing without doing any research.
Essentially if you know your market, you know everything and that’s where Keyword Research takes place.
To create a summary, let’s write down pros you’re getting by doing keyword research:
As you may see just by doing little research you can find out almost everything about market you are interested in, what keywords you should use, which topics people would want to read, which services would be worth reviewing and how big competition is in your niche.
Note those research tool results still are not very accurate, but through comparing keyword results you can get good insight in your niche however.
I would strongly recommend to do keyword research regularly, in the same time using and implementing your observations in titles and keywords. Taking such actions research how successful your keywords are, how appropriate such tool results are and I promise you’ll be just doing better and better in future!
While writing this article I understood it will be better if I separate posts giving you introduction – sharing at first those free keyword research tools. I will give also small introduction to them and finally I will lead you through my research, showing how I am focusing on keywords in titles and articles through my research. Currently Google search engine is my top 1 traffic source delivering more than 100,000 unique visits monthly, which is ~3,500 unique visits daily.
Consider this and few next articles as little overview behind the scenes – I will show how I am choosing my keywords and doing my research.
If you will be interested I will evolve topic also telling you how and why my top 8 traffic source is from images.google.com doing just simple regular steps.
Finally I will also use heat map to look at my own blog tracking and researching where my visitors click the most and why it is important as well as content in above the fold.
Quote from Wikipedia
“Above the fold” is a graphic design concept that refers to the location of an important news story or a visually appealing photograph on the upper half of the front page of a newspaper. Most papers are delivered and displayed to customers folded up, meaning that only the top half of the front page is visible. Thus, an item that is “above the fold” may be one that the editors feel will entice people to buy the paper. Alternatively, it reflects a decision, on the part of the editors, that the article is one of the day’s most important. By extension, the space above the fold is also preferred by advertisers, since it is the most prominent and visible even when the newspaper is on stands.
I really hope you will enjoy these articles, evaluate advices and finally help to improve these articles with your own suggestions and experience.
Yes, I am hoping you will participate in these series, suggesting your own tips and experiences by emailing me or adding comments. If there will be enough people participating, I am thinking about one more article with title: Readers Participating: Keyword Research Experience And More SEO Tips.
I will quote your suggestion and you will get a link back to your site like this – Quote from Dainis Graveris.
Series coming up:
I am very excited to find out how you will react to these series and will you participate?
If you are considering to come back, I strongly suggest you to bookmark this page, because it will link to all related upcoming articles.
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Dainis Graveris is 23 years old blogger and designer, founder of 1stWebDesigner, now more silently managing everything behind the scenes. He usually hangs out in Twitter tweeting design related links and chatting with people. If you have any questions or feedback that's the best place to start! Cheers!
Wednesday, April 4th, 2012 13:59
thanks.Thank you! I have never won anything. This is great, I’m so excited. I can’t wait to get the book. Inspiration is always needed.
Tuesday, December 27th, 2011 17:51
I think it’s essentially that folks understand you have to really pinpoint your keywords before designing a single lick of code. Great article here!
Sunday, November 13th, 2011 05:19
SEO is something that I am struggling with. Today I finally knew that you shouldn’t search for only one keyword but more than 1. Dang, it’s like a brick hitting my head now and again. Anyhow, I will be reading this series.
Friday, November 11th, 2011 02:09
keyword research is good , but the best way for me to get traffic is linking your blog to many websites and social networks , that works better with me
Monday, October 31st, 2011 18:01
This is really great. It’s really very helpful tips for me. keyword research is best thing. Thanks.
Monday, January 17th, 2011 10:20
I wished I started earlier doing proper keyword research.
:-)
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Nashat
Sunday, August 9th, 2009 20:14
Hey. Even i am new to blog posts so actually waiting for the best new series i can find out. By the way, your article was great and am looking forward to read more.
ralph
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 16:58
Very nice post with some useful things to think about.
http://www.kropped.com free cut out people
David
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 10:27
Informative article. Looking forward to the rest of the series.
Nastia
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 02:27
I’ll be waiting. It’s very interesting theme for me now.
srikanth ad
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 23:22
great article, looking forward to the series..
Dainis Graveris
Friday, August 14th, 2009 12:37
Thank you! If you are new and still researching your niche, this should really be handy!