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| Keyword Selection: Creating a Long Tail Search Vacuum Posted: 02 Sep 2011 06:10 AM PDT Yesterday I talked about how The Keyword Academy will thrive in a post-Panda world – and that starts with totally rethinking our keyword selection process. Our old method was built around the concept of "green" keywords. In order to qualify as "green," a phrase needed:
The problem with the formula was its dependence on flawed data:
The result? We funneled our members toward a relatively small group of "green" keywords. The total pool of greens might have been several hundred thousand keywords, but it seemed like every day I'd have another new member start a website around a phrase I'd seen several other members target. Not an ideal situation. The worst part isn't that we had groups of members targeting the same keyword phrases – the market is big enough to support them. The real issue was the members' lack of interest in their keyword set. Internet marketing involves some grueling, tedious, day in and day out kind of work. It's hard enough to succeed even if you really enjoy your subject matter. If you hate your subject matter (ie you can't bare the thought of writing one more article about "inflatable plastic rocking chairs"), the odds are that much more stacked against you. To sum up the problems with our old keyword selection method: 1. It started with faulty numbers search volume and CPC numbers. (Did I day faulty numbers enough times yet?) Ironically, the old method did work. We have nearly 150 people in the $1k club, with over 25 earning more than $5,000 and a growing handful who've passed $10,000 per month. But we can do better. We can help a higher percentage of people stick with it and succeed. What if… 1. We started by looking at subjects that held real interest for the user, making the day to day work less miserable (enjoyable even!)? 2. Instead of focusing on individual keywords, we acknowledged that most search traffic comes from the long tail? Which means we think about targeting groups of keywords with our posts (instead of trying to "win" individual keywords)? By starting with genuine interest and working hard to turn our posts into long tail search vacuums, we eliminate every problem we had with the old approach. Here's an example of how I'm transitioning from the old approach to the new: I have a site (BigEnoughBusiness.com) I'm using as a case study (it's work in progress, as you can tell). One of my keywords on that site is "carpet cleaning business." Under the old method, this was technically a green keyword: Global Searches: 1300 But the approach I was taking would leave a lot of money on the table. My focus was on ranking for "carpet cleaning business," but the fact is Google could be sending me traffic for hundreds of long tail variations:
I'm not saying I'll try to shove every one of those phrases into a single post about carpet cleaning, but I will create a long, rich piece of content that lets Google know it can give me any and all traffic relating to the topic (which is something I'll talk about in future posts). Under the old method, I would have ignored 95% of those variations (as would most internet marketers), but in the long run the group will bring me plenty of traffic and earnings. Under the new method, I'm not very concerned about estimated search volume, CPC, or individual keyword competitiveness. I'm throwing some carefully selected mud on the wall, building my domain authority, and letting Google do what it does best – send me long tail traffic.
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