Richard Goulde Writing

SEO Keyword Research Step 3.3: Whittle the List Down

Friday, March 27th, 2009 | SEM, SEO

We have enough information to start whittling our list down.

If you look through the list, you’ll notice pairs, trios or even larger groupings of keyword terms or phrases that present only minor variations of each other – plural versus singular, different tenses, etc.

In comparing keywords, we’re actually doing two things:

1. We judge between two or more similar keywords to determine which is best. This means comparing within a single grouping.
2. Then, we compare one keyword grouping to another to choose the best keyword ultimately.

We don’t have enough information to judge the second item yet, but we do have enough information to look at the first.

For example, between copy writer, copy writers, copy writing, copywriter, copywriters, and copywriting – which would be best? We’re looking for lower competitiveness / keyword difficulty balanced by higher search volume.

Organizing the Research

We’ve moved to a new step, and it’s time to change to a new tab in our spreadsheet. How exciting!

At this point, I recommend separating the keyword sets onto different worksheets, and then go through all the research steps for one keyword set at a time. It’s much easier to work with the lists that way.

Besides, remember, we can really only optimize for 2 to 3 keywords per page. If you have multiple keyword sets, that implies you either have — or need! — multiple pages.

1. Name the new tab “Step 3 – KW Set #1” (or you can use a more descriptive name, like “Step 3 – Dog KWs“).
2. Copy the appropriate keyword set (along with the column headers) into the spreadsheet. (For myself, I usually just copy the Step 2 worksheet wholesale, and then delete what I don’t want.

Eliminating Keywords

When eliminating keywords, you have two options. One is to just delete the whole row. You can always go back to the previous tab to retrieve keywords.

The other, which I prefer:

1. Select the whole row
2. Italicize it
3. Change the text color to light gray
4. Replace the “Common Term” with an x.
5. Add a quick note in a blank cell why you axed the term. “Anotherterm better – higher search volume, same competition.”
6. Then, when you’re done with the whittling process, you can sort according to the Common Term to get all the “deleted” keywords at the bottom of the list, while retaining easy access to their info.

The Whittling Process, Step-by-Step

1. Start at the top of the keyword list and identify the first grouping of closely related terms. (Be sure to look through the whole list. Keywords in a single groupings may not be all right next to each other.) For example, I might have a grouping like:
   copy writer
   copy writers
   copy writing
   copywriter
   copywriters
   copywriting

   The question is, out of this grouping, which is the strongest keyword?

2. I typically tackle this in pairs, and compare the data points from the Google AdWords Keyword Tool.
   

   Keyword	Advertiser Competition	Last Month Search Volume	Average Search Volume
   copy writer	0.93	12,100	8,100
   copy writers	0.86	1,300	1,600

   Between these two, copy writer is better – it has slightly higher competition but boasts a ton more searches.

   Before we make that final call though, let’s think about targeting. Is one word more targeted than the other? In this case, no – we’re just talking about singular versus plural.

3. Delete the loser. (Remember, you can always go back and find deleted terms simply by clicking on the Step 2 spreadsheet).
4. Now I compare the next closest matching pair.
   

   Keyword	Advertiser Competition	Last Month Search Volume	Average Search Volume
   copy writer	0.93	12,100	8,100
   copywriter	1.0	135,000	110,000

   In this case, copywriter wins. Yes, it’s higher competition – but copy writer is still pretty darn competitive itself. Plus, the search volume is so much greater for copywriter that it far outweighs the small jump in competitiveness.

   Targeting – still not a concern. It’s basically the same word, just two spelling variations.

5. Move on to the next closest matching pair.
   

   Keyword	Advertiser Competition	Last Month Search Volume	Average Search Volume
   copy writing	1.0	14,800	14,800
   copywriting	1.0	74,000	74,000

   Here, copywriting is the clear victor. Advertiser Competition matches, so we don’t even look at it, while search volume is clearly better for one than the other.

   Now, we might have guessed this already, before doing this research. But we didn’t know. Now we have numbers to back up our conclusions.

   Why all this research?

   Sometimes you just can’t predict how variations of keywords will perform.

   Copywriter wins over copywriting (see below). But when I look at Freelance copywriter versus freelance copywriting I get the opposite results: the -ing form has double the search volume and is only slightly more competitive. If I hadn’t done the research and comparison, and had just tried to guess, I might have been way off.

6. On to the next pair:
   

   Keyword	Advertiser Competition	Last Month Search Volume	Average Search Volume
   copywriter	1.0	135,000	110,000
   copywriters	1.0	12,100	12,100

   Another easy one.

7. The next pair. (Yeah, I know this is getting really involved. I chose an example with several keywords to compare on purpose, to give you an example of the steady whittling process in action).
   

   Keyword	Advertiser Competition	Last Month Search Volume	Average Search Volume
   copywriter	1.0	135,000	110,000
   copywriters	1.0	12,100	12,100

   Easy.

8. Next pair.
   

   Keyword	Advertiser Competition	Last Month Search Volume	Average Search Volume
   copywriter	1.0	135,000	110,000
   copywriting	1.0	74,000	74,000

   One guess which word we’re going to choose!

   Here we get to a point where targeting is important, because these are two different terms.

   I would argue that copywriter is slightly more targeted. Copywriting is more generic: the searcher might want a copywriter, but s/he might also want to define copywriting, learn copywriting, etc. Someone who searches for copywriter might still want to become a copywriter rather than find a copywriter, but it’s less likely they’re trying to define the term. Not impossible, but less likely.

   Still, if the search volume were reversed, in this case, I’d still follow the volume. Targeting becomes much more important with multi-word phrases. In this case, I’d say copywriter is a little bit more targeted, but not enough to justify selecting a keyword with lower search volume.

   There’s a quick way to check (indirectly) how targeted a given keyword is: Google the term and look over the results. Are they similar to your website or web page? Does the search turn up sites selling a product or service like yours?

   Search engines aren’t perfect at delivering people to exactly the sites they want to find, but they’re pretty darn good. If a search of the term doesn’t turn up sites like yours, chances are people don’t use that search term to find sites like yours. That means, the term is probably less targeted.

   When targeting does matter

   Before we move on, let’s look at another example where targeting would play the deciding factor.

   Keyword	Advertiser Competition	Last Month Search Volume	Average Search Volume
   writing jobs	1.0	135,000	110,000
   writing services	1.0	33,100	27,100

   Writing jobs gets a ton more traffic – over three times as much. But put yourself in the mind of the searcher. Is someone who uses the search phrase writing jobs looking for someone to do a writing job? Maybe. But there’s a better chance they’re a job seeker looking for writing jobs. By contrast, someone searching for writing services is likely looking for a writer offering that service. In this case, I’d have no problem eliminating writing jobs from my keyword list. It’s so poorly targeted I don’t think it’d do my page any good.

   Once again, though, I could quickly double-check by performing a Google search.

   Let’s look at another example where I might draw a different conclusion:

   Keyword	Advertiser Competition	Last Month Search Volume	Average Search Volume
   business writers	0.80	12,100	8,100
   business writing	1.0	135,000	110,000

   In this case, I’d really have to think it through. I’d have to consider the contents of the web page, and what kind of visitor I’m trying to attract.

   At this stage, it very possible I’d keep both on my list. Right now both have advantages. More information culled over the next several research steps might help one stand out against the other.

   Business writers seems to be more targeted than business writing. But business writing gets so much more search volume. The question is, does the greater search volume outweigh (1) somewhat lower competition and (2) a slightly more targeted term? Right now, I don’t know. Further research is warranted.

   I hope you’re also starting to see why it’s important to build as large a list as possible before doing any research.

9. So out of initial grouping, we have a winner! Cool. Boldface the entire row on the spreadsheet to indicate you’ve already looked at it.
   

   Am I going to use only keywords on the web page?

   At this point you might legitimately be asking: so does this mean I’m only going to use the term copywriter and drop copywriting altogether from the web content?

   No. Emphatically, no. Keep this process in perspective: we’re not figuring out what to say in the content of your web page. We’re finding 2 or 3 keywords to emphasize in the page title, headings, meta tags, link text and to use maybe a little more often than other possible terms in the text. But that’s it. We’re just picking terms to optimize for, not terms for content writing. They’re two separate concerns.

10. As you go through this process, you might think of new keywords that aren’t on your list. Feel free to add them and do a quick search via the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. I frequently do this because I invariably miss some possible variations of different word stems (-s, -ed, -ing, etc.) and different word combinations or word ordering.
11. Now, wash, rinse and repeat for all the other keyword groupings in your list.

Hopefully by the end you will have at least cut the list in half.

Wow, this is a lot of work

A note about how much labor this process involves. I’ve said it before, and I’ll reiterate. You get out of keyword research what you put into it.

This step-by-step is not the most exhaustive process possible, but it’s pretty darn thorough. I’ll post some future articles about “Quick and Dirty KW Research,” but the labor involved is part of the reason why so many companies hire professional SEOs.

But I can also tell you, take comfort. The more you do this, the better you become. You’ll move faster, and you’ll develop good instincts. If you started out with a list of 100 keywords, once you’re practiced and experienced, you can do this step in half an hour or less.

Richard Goulde is a professional writer and SEO who combines compelling copy with Internet savvy -- sales, educational, PR and creative. He's based in Dallas but his words go global, so whether you're in Peoria or Paris, contact him to talk about how his work can serve your business needs.

Tags: Keyword Research, Keywords

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