keyword analysis

[jwcashflow]

[Lynn Terry]

[Sharon & Roy]

[avrr]

[jwcashflow]

[Lynn Terry]

[jwcashflow]

Well cool! One of the potential competitors only had 9 back links to there front page. That should be doable.

For the SEO class, would you recommend that I have a site up, so I can tweak as we go through the class?

Could someone address the competitor part of the message? I was wondering if there are other sites or tools which allow you to search for competitors or somewhat similar categorical groupings.

Lynn, I liked the article on keywords, particularly about taking the listing, refining and combining. Thank you,

JW

[Lynn Terry]

For the SEO Class, you will be given assignments or projects to complete to help you learn "hands on" - so this will work for you whether you have your own site ready to develop or not

I worked on a "test page" on the side when I first sat in on Sharon & Roy's class, and just put some affiliate creative (banners & text) on the page as I was going (just so that it wasnt completely blank). I ended up getting a good ranking for that page and making several thousand dollars in commission over the next few months!


As for competition, I generally analyze the SERPs (search engine result pages) more than anything else. The majority of what I am going to promote is going to be through the search engines (either free listings or paid listings) - so this is where I look. If you are going to be promoting offline, or locally, or anything else besides keyword-specific search engine listings... then you will want to look in those places to analyze your potential competition.

Keep in mind that "competition" can be a VERY good thing. Especially online! See:

You'll also see "Link Strategy - Tips For Gaining Inbound Links!" on that same page, which you may find helpful at this stage.

[Hock Ng]

This is a great thread Lynn, perhaps you should make it a sticky.

Another good resource I came across recently for keyword-digging is

It's priceless (and free too!).

Hock

[jwcashflow]

[Lynn Terry]

[Hock Ng]

[jwcashflow]

Here is a funny way to check keywords, only if you are bored. http://www.googlefight.com/

[Jason Moffatt]

I was so glad to see you explain the "Backward" link trick through Yahoo search. I saw it on the "video", and it really lit some light bulbs.

Thanks Lynn,

It was amazing to see some of the top ranked sites for my particular keyword phrases only had 14-20 backward links. This is awesome, as I can easily get that many. It's interesting to decipher what other things are taken into account for the ranking though, as I have seen some sites with almost no backwards links getting great rankings. It seems these sights are very optimized, and, or, have lots of unique and relevant content.

[Lynn Terry]

It depends on which search engine they ranked well in. I would love to look at some examples. You are welcome to post them if you run across them again, or send them privately if you'd rather not share it on a public forum.

Yahoo tends to focus more on "on the page optimization" while Google favors "off the page optimization" (quality inbound links - your Link Popularity and Link Reputation).

If a site ranks well with hardly any backward links, then you can pretty much figure that the keyword phrase used is not very competitive. It's interesting too that some keyword phrases are VERY competitive when it comes to PPC, but the SERPs (search engine results pages) are not at all competitive for the same keyword phrase.