Join serpIQ in this webinar about Keyword Research for SEO. We welcome Nick Eubanks, who is an experienced start up investor and technical founder. He currently manages digital strategy for W.L. Snook & Associates, a digital asset holdings company with a focus on ecommerce.

1. KEYWORD
RESEARCH
FOR SEO
RESEARCH, ANALYSIS, AND EVALUATION
WITH NICK EUBANKS
@nick_eubanks

2. TIP #1:
DON’T MAKE
ASSUMPTIONS.
DO RESEARCH.
@nick_eubanks

3. ASSUMPTIONS COST MONEY
RESEARCH MAKES MONEY
@nick_eubanks

4. VANITY VERSUS TRAFFIC
Vanity: We want to rank #1 for “plumbing Philadelphia”
VS.
Traffic: We want to rank #1 for relevant high traffic keywords
@nick_eubanks

5. LET THE DATA DECIDE
@nick_eubanks

6. NOW THAT’S OUT OF
THE WAY…
@nick_eubanks

7. RESEARCH – WORD GATHERING
Brainstorming
• Problem
• What problems does your product solve?
• Compliments
• What phrases, adjectives, or nouns are
tangential to your product but may be
used to describe it’s function or benefit?
• Product
• Words directly describing your product
• Adjectives that describe your product or
it’s benefits
@nick_eubanks

8. RESEARCH – WORD GATHERING
Industry: Pet Waste Removal
But What’s THE PROBLEM?
@nick_eubanks

9. RESEARCH – WORD GATHERING
Industry: Pet Waste Removal
@nick_eubanks

10. RESEARCH – WORD GATHERING
Industry: Pet Waste Removal
@nick_eubanks

11. RESEARCH – WORD GATHERING
Just Because This is Awesome
@nick_eubanks

12. RESEARCH – WORD GATHERING
Use Ubersuggest For What’s it’s Good For
• Head term variations
• Intent variations
• Long-tail research
@nick_eubanks

13. RESEARCH – WORD GATHERING
Not So Sneaky Ways to Mine Competitor Data
Conversion Terms Traffic Terms Engagement Terms
• PPC • Product Page Titles • Blog comments
• URL Link Targets • Blog Post Page Titles • Executive Bio’s
• Social Ad Titles • Guest Post Titles + • Public responses:
• Linked In Anchor Text • Quora
• Facebook • Social Profile Anchor • Linked In
Text • Inbound
Anywhere there is a • Linked In
direct cost! • Google+ Anywhere they can
describe their business
Anywhere they can in their own words!
edit their anchor text!
@nick_eubanks

14. LOOK AT HOW
THEY ADVERTISE
THEMSELVES.
@nick_eubanks

15. @nick_eubanks

16. 
@nick_eubanks

17. RESEARCH – WORD GATHERING
Analyze Customer Contact Channels:
• Support Tickets
• Sales team or call center reps
• Contact Form Submissions
• Social Media WITHIN your vertical
• Linked In – Groups, questions,
etc.
• Quora – product or services
related to your business
• Yahoo! Answers
• Twitter – conversations about
the benefits of your product OR
questions *hint*
@nick_eubanks

18. TIP #2: YOU ARE
LOOKING FOR
POSITIONING
LANGUAGE.
@nick_eubanks

19. GOOGLE KEYWORD TOOL.
10 KEYWORDS AT-A-TIME.
DOWNLOAD ALL
SUGGESTIONS TO EXCEL.
REPEAT…
REPEAT..
@nick_eubanks

20. REPEAT
@nick_eubanks

21. DE-DUPE
@nick_eubanks

22. THAT’S WHERE YOU’RE
GOING, BUT WHERE HAVE
YOU BEEN?
@nick_eubanks

23. ANALYSIS – PERFORMANCE AUDIT
• Go into Google Analytics and pull down
your top organic traffic driving keywords
• Dump into Excel
• Copy and paste into Google’s Keyword
Tool
• Divide potential traffic by actual traffic
• Look for opportunities for rank and or
content.
Reference: http://www.zazzlemedia.co.uk/blog/keyword-
performance-audit/
@nick_eubanks

24. ANALYSIS – LOOK AT INTENT
Search intent is usually grouped into 4 top-level buckets:
1. Navigational Queries
Example: “skout media philly”
2. Information Queries
Example: “video production company works with milkboy”
3. Commercial Investigation
Example: “video production services in Philly”
4. Transactional Queries
“video production Philadelphia pricing”
Reference: http://getstat.com/blog/search-intent-conversion-optimization/
@nick_eubanks

25. ANALYSIS – SEGMENT FOR INTENT
• Avoid low-intent keywords (informational) at least in your
primary optimization investments
• Common behavior of informational queries:
• Contain words like “ways to,” “how to,” “what is,” etc.
• Contain informational helpers like “list,” “playlist,” “top,” or
“best”
• Searchers tend to view multiple results pages (SERP’s)
@nick_eubanks

26. EVALUATION – VOLUME VS. INTENT
Remember Vanity vs. Traffic?
Same goes for Traffic vs. Conversion
@nick_eubanks

27. TIP #3: IF A
KEYWORD CREATED
A SALE, CHANCES
ARE IT WILL CREATE
ANOTHER
DON’T GET HUNG UP ON LOW SEARCH
VOLUME IF IT’S CREATING REVENUE
@nick_eubanks

28. EVALUATION – SEASONALITY &
TRENDS
Yahoo! News Trending Now
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/
Bing Search Blog Archives
http://www.bing.com/blogs/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2012/
11/26/year-end.aspx
Bing Keyword Research Tools
http://www.bing.com/toolbox/keywords
@nick_eubanks

29. SO YOU’VE
GOT YOUR
KEYWORDS
NOW WHAT?
@nick_eubanks

30. CONTENT!
@nick_eubanks

31. BAKING YOUR KEYWORDS INTO
YOUR STRATEGY
• Use keywords in your marketing
• Events
• Whitepapers
• Anything that has the potential to be used as a link anchor
• If you don’t have content built around your keywords,
curate it.
• Crowd-source intelligently – ASK!
• What kind of content does your audience share?
• Topsy
• Followerwonk
@nick_eubanks

32. OTO VS. SEO
ORGANIC TRAFFIC ≠ SEARCH TRAFFIC
(AT LEAST NOT ALWAYS)
@nick_eubanks

33. OTO VS. SEO
@nick_eubanks

34. QUESTIONS?
@nick_eubanks

35. RESOURCES FOR FURTHER
COMPREHENSION
• How To Do Keyword Research For SEO
• SERP Analysis – Dissecting Your SEO Competitors
• An Evergreen Forest Of Digital Marketing Resources
WANT ME TO DESIGN YOUR SEO
STRATEGY, FOR FREE?
http://www.seonick.net/keyword-strategy-giveaway
@nick_eubanks