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Easy Keyword Forensics using Google Data

Guest post by: John Alexander

Article Overview: Your average keyword researcher will tell you the importance of researching keywords. The term "keyword forensics" is more about exploring user search behavior, than just keyword phrase clusters alone. What's new about exploring keyword forensics? One of the newest ways I have discovered is 100% free (thanks to Google.)

Easy Keyword Forensics using Google Data

About Keyword Research in General: True keyword research is not about guessing at words and phrases. It's not based on knowing your industry or on traditional logical thinking.

True keyword research involves exploring fresh and accurate data so you can quickly expand and explore a much wider scope of word usage and phrase clustering without actually spending hours of research time.

The result is you come up with relative keywords based on how the audience is searching the Web.

How does Keyword Forensics differs from traditional keyword research:

By the term "forensics" I'm not speaking about forensics as in "legal matters."

Instead, I'm referring to the use of technology and a methodology of investigate user search and uncover and establish certain facts about how people are using the Internet as a tool to search with.

You are in fact uncovering a form of "hidden evidence" based on people's searching behaviors.

Ideally, these will be keywords that tell a story about the needs or concerns of the searcher. People search the Web based on the conditions in their life. Understand the big picture and you will see hundreds of trends and patterns that many Webmasters miss.

I particularly refer to learning how you can take advantage of the search trends that are left behind after someone uses a search engine on the Internet to determine why they search the way they do, why they behave the way they do, and discover their interests, related topics, and trends as they may relate to even a specific industry.

Remember this tip: The more you "think like everyone else thinks" (usually drawing keywords that are already lodged into your mind based upon your experiences), then the more you will be thinking like the rest of your competition thinks. The more our eyes, thinking, and our ability to observe is attracted towards keywords that "make the most sense" to our brains, then the more we tend to discover exactly the same keywords as the rest of the world are discovering. One of the best reasons to perform keyword forensics research from Google is that the best place for any information is always directly right from its source. And right now, Google has a huge percentage of the market share. Another excellent reason to try this is because it is free.

Here are 3 quick tips on how to explore Google data, that should prove eye-opening.

It's not just the use of the tool, but it is how you input data into the tool.

Tip 1:

This sounds absolutely crazy to say, but STOP thinking about "logical research" and begin exploring data "illogically."

Give yourself the liberty to stop "hunting for keywords" and go exploring the wealth of Google's data in an more illogical manner. Although you need to understand which keyword phrases to target, try to stop guessing at it and instead, learn how to quickly explore the data with alternative points of view.

Ideally, you are watching for very telling phrases that reveal trends and what the user is really after.

Tip 2:

Learn to explore data using single "action-related" root words.

Try researching supporting terms and even synonyms, by entering one word at a time (let Google show you the phrases and topics based around each word.) By exploring data one word at a time, you are allowing Google to reveal quite a number of things. Don't make the make some people make by confining your search to only what you think must be important.

Tip 3:

Instead of just thinking of your research as "keywords," try thinking in terms of your audience's "topics of interest."

If you see something curious in the results, remember that you can always dig deeper with synonyms and related terms that may render considerable surprises if you are patient and take the time to explore the data.

Once you begin finding those phrases that tell a story, you'll know what I mean.

In Summary:

Whenever you feel like you are not coming up with what you need, try changing your approach. Think in opposite extremes. You will begin to uncover some great possibilities just using these few tips. I wish you much success and remember, by reason of practice (only) your abilities will be exercised. You cannot magnify your lateral thinking without practice, so do a little every day.

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Article Tags: keyword research forensics SEO learn optimization stress free



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Re: What I Enjoyed Reading This Week - June 11 - Hi Evan, Thank you for the reading material. I look forward to the general release later this month as outlined in the 'Google Analytics To Add Search Query Data From Webmaster Tools' article. Anything that helps us to understand maximise extra data from Google Analytics can only be of benefit. regards, Mal.
Most Useful SEO Tools For Webmasters - Hi, My name is Jeff, I work for WebBizIdeas.com and we are developing an article called "50 Most Useful SEO Tools for Webmasters." We have ranked & listed our top 30 SEO Tools but want to get your opinion on what SEO Tools are most useful to you; as Internet Business Owners. Google Webmaster Tools Google Analytics Google Alerts Yahoo Site Explorer SEOBook.com Keyword Research SEOBOOK.com SEO For Firefox Tool SEOBOOK.com Search Engine Rank Checker SEOBOOK.com Back Link Analyzer SEOChat.com Keyword Difficulty Compete.com Quantcast.com Alexa.com Archive.org Stompernet Site Seer Technorati.com PRWEB.com ADDTHIS.com SHARETHIS.com EzineArticles.com Scribd.com Squidoo.com YouTube.com StumbleUpon.com Reddit.com Digg.com Del.icio.us Wikipedia.org Flickr.com NewsVine.com Yahoo Answers NOTE: When you list your answers please include a description on what the site is, why it is important to you, and your experience please....we may include it in our article. Jeff
Re: New Video - Make Money Online Selling Advertising - Hi Evan, I thought I'd been a bit dumb, but when I checked the Google Keyword Tool today I couldn't find the CPC info, so thanks for mentioning that I need to turn it on!
Re: How To Pick Keywords To Rank For - Hi Anelly, You can also use the Google Keyword Tool to get # of searches per month for each keyword. I find it to be the most accurate measure because it's using Google's actual data.
Re: What I'm reading this weekend - Feb 18, 2011 - Hi Evan, Thank you for a great list as usual, I haven't had the chance until now to read them as I spent all yesterday helping my father to re-build half of his house (or it seemed that way,LOL) I will make a start reading them today and I particularly like the look of Keyword Research in Google Webmaster Tools, thanks again, Mal.


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