A keyword analysis tool is important when it comes to your online business, but a lot of businesses and bloggers are not using it to its full potential. As a matter of fact, the way that a lot of businesses and bloggers are using them is putting their company or website at a disadvantage rather than at an advantage!
Keyword analysis tools are great, but only if you’re using them right. Use them incorrectly, and you may find that not only are you not generating more traffic, but you may be losing traffic as a result. Below we’ll go over some of the biggest mistakes that bloggers and businesses make when it comes to keyword tools so that you’ll know exactly what to avoid.
1. A Rarely Used Keyword Research Tool Is No Good
So you have a keyword analysis tool. Awesome. But how often do you use that tool? Use it once a month and you definitely are missing out on a lot of great organic traffic.
Using it once a week won’t really get you anywhere fast, either. A lot of bloggers, businesses and webmasters only use tools like the Google AdWords Keyword Tool maybe once or twice a month, and then “trust their gut” when it comes to other keywords and topics to cover.
This is the biggest mistake you could ever make.
A website with outdated title tags is a waste. A blog with old topics that are no longer hot or of interest won’t get you any organic traffic. Assuming which keywords are hot and which are not will get you nowhere, so make sure that you perform at least 3 keyword searches every single week. The more often, the better.
2. Ignoring Your Competition
Hot keywords all have a lot of competition. For example, if you use the keyword “funny picture” there’s pretty much no way that anyone will find your web page, despite that being your “keyword.” If there’s too much competition for one keyword, there’s a slim chance the particular keyword or keyword phrase will be of any benefit to your website or blog.
Finding out which keywords are doing the best in search results is important, but as a smaller website or blog, you really need to fine tune the keywords and keyword phrases that you use. Let’s say for example that there are two bloggers that have found that the above keyword phrase, “funny pictures,” generates a lot of hits. One blogger uses that exact phrase, “funny pictures.” His blog would probably show up on page 37 of search results and he may get a couple thousand hits. The other blogger has decided to fine-tune the keyword phrase and uses “funny pictures of pets” and will then get at least twenty thousand hits.
Which one of these bloggers do you think will make more money with his blog? You got it – the guy with over twenty thousand hits. Avoid using the top keywords as your keywords. It’s important to know what the top keywords are, but then tweak them so that they are more specific to your blog.
3. Targeting Unprofitable Keywords
What’s the use of using a keyword when it isn’t going to be profitable? A lot of bloggers and businesses may find a keyword that generates a lot of traffic, but the keyword doesn’t make a lot of money. If this sounds like you, then it’s important to remember that you need to both analyze the niche of the keyword, and the intent behind the search query that you have performed.
Let’s say you put the keyword “dog” into a keyword tool. You’ll get a whole bunch of keywords, one of them which is “squeaky dog ball” with over 200,000 hits and another is “dog daycare” at 13,000 hits. Which one do you think is going to be more profitable for you?
4. Using Keywords That Attract Non-Profitable Clientele
One of the most forgotten points when it comes to choosing keywords is that there are particular keywords that will attract “lookers,” and then there are keywords that will attract “buyers.”
If you want to make some cash, chances are you’re going to want to attract actual buyers. For this reason, you won’t want to choose keywords that aren’t going to make you any cash. Let’s take the above “dog” keyword example. So you have a website that sells dog gear. Having the keyword “squeaky dog ball” will draw buyers to your site. Having the keyword “dog daycare,” however, when you aren’t even providing dog daycare services, isn’t going to be of any use to you when it comes to turning a profit.
TIP: Using “non-profitable” keywords can still be turned into a profit. “Dog daycare” is often sought after these days, so having an article about what to look for in a dog daycare and posting it to your blog will bring traffic to your blog. Include information on what you should have for your dog to go to dog daycare, like purchasing an extra water bowl, extra treats, and maybe buy them an extra toy to bring, and provide links to such things on that blog post. Get creative and you’ll find that almost every keyword can turn into a profit.
5. Businesses Don’t Think About The Buyer
Not only is it important for an online business owner or a blogger to anticipate which keywords their potential buyers will be entering in the search engine, but you almost must anticipate what kind if visitors you’ll be attracting to your website. Not every type of customer group is the same. If your website is all about selling inexpensive tech gadgets to people, then you will have to tailor your keywords to those particular people.
You can use jargon and keywords that you know are known in those circles. If you have a website that sells designer handbags to people, however, you are dealing with a completely different customer base. Chances are you will be using completely different keywords, language, and different selling techniques than the budget gadget website.