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12 Mar 10 What is the Single Most Important Thing in Keyword Research?

This is tricky, isn’t it?

So, what is the answer…?

Is it the search volume? Or is it competition volume? Better still, is it the nature of keywords? Or is it the intent behind the keyword search? Or is it the title competition? Or what?

Whew! Too many to juggle with….

Well, do not waste your time on thinking hard in the solitary corner of your messed-up room (messed up room is common with all the webmasters, do not get sold for the sleek, and well-arranged rooms that you see in the A-listers videos; they are done on a purpose) because the answer to the above question is none of the above.

All of these things are important, very important, but nothing is half as important as important for a successful keyword research as is the common sense. You knew the answer? Hey, Einstein, why didn’t you tell me so? J

Now, let’s get serious.

Keyword research is a process of funneling down the information searched by the customers in your niche so that you can come up with terms that are searched by the many users and have fewer competitors.

The definition is sweet and sleek. Take a note of it. But, keep in mind that this definition rests on two variables: information entered by your customers and process of filtering down.

To get what?

To find the right keyword for your website or campaign, and in both the cases you will need to use your common sense. It is your common sense that will tell you how much a keyword is valuable. For example, let’s say you have optimized your website for “beach hotels” seeing its volume and competition, and despite everything being just right you are not getting any traffic, at least not substantial. Why?

Because you may have been suggested by your keyword tools that “beach hotels” is the most searched term in your niche, but it didn’t say that no one searched for “beach hotels”. Rather people searches for terms like “Miami beach hotels”, “OC beach hotels” “beach hotels in Florida”, etc., as “beach hotels” is a local keyword. And people search this keyword as a compound keyword along with some city, county, or state’s name.

This is all common sense. Take it out of equation, and you end up getting no traffic, regardless of your ranking.

Say again, which is the most important factor in keyword research?

Well done! You got it right this time.

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10 Jan 10 How to Qualify a Directory for Link Building

We all use directories to build links, and that is the reason why there are so many web directories submission services around. But, are all of them good? Are the ones promising to submit your website to 500 directories for slightly less than $50 ($47 or $49 to be more precise) any good?

Well, you know the answer. Not all the directories are cut to be the same, and not all of them are good. Most of them are bad, and as far as $47 directories submission goes, the adage, “Pay peanuts and get monkey” holds true.

A submission to bad directory will not only not give you any link juice, but it will also suck away the respect you got from Google and other search engines, as many of the web directories are banned or blacklisted by Google.

How to qualify a directory?

You need to run a directory through three litmus tests before submitting your website to that. This will save you from the search engines’ wrath, and will deliver value for money.

  1. 1. Traffic: Look for the traffic stat. Compete stat is a good indication of the popularity of the traffic.
  2. 2. Outbound link policy: Check the directory’s outbound link policy before submitting your link. A directory that has stringent linking policy is good, and the one who links to everyone and anyone will get banned.
  3. 3. Google PageRank and Yahoo WebRank: Check for Google PageRank and yahoo WebRank of the directory you are going to submit your website to. This step can be considered optional.
  4. 4. Affiliation: Check if the directory enjoys any industry affiliation or not?

Always run a directory through these steps before you submit your link. What else do you think should one consider before submitting website’s link to a directory? Please use the comment box and let me know your views on the subject.

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27 Dec 09 Top 10 Most-Visited Websites of 2009

The eventful year of 2009 is about to wrap up, and it is time to analyze what has happened in the year passed by (well about to pass by). Experian Hitwise has done a study of the most-visited websites of 2009, and to no one’s surprise Google.com is the most searched website second year in the row and mail.yahoo.com is the second most searched website for the second consecutive year in 2009 as well.

Google.com got 6.70% of the total US traffic between January and November 2009, whereas, Yahoo mail got 4.44% visits. Facebook with 4.26% was at number 3 and Yahoo.com was at number 4 with 3.36% of the total US traffic between the said period. MySpace.com settled on number 5 with 3% of the total visits. Yahoo Search was on 8th Position. As we can see Google got just one listing in top 10, whereas, Yahoo has three. See the table below for the rest.

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