Warning: Paid-for Keyword Research Tools are Garbage

Not to beat a dead horse but if the allin results are not matching the general results it would seem that Google is for some odd reason rating sites using "a pop-up tent is best" higher than "best pop-up tent" despite a number of sites chasing the second phrase. In one of my sample phrases where the mismatch occurred Google ranked the phrase as having "low" competition yet the allin test had 9 matches.

I haven't a big data set to evaluate but it does seem like there must be a reason for the mismatch - even if known only to Google. Don't you find it intriguing if there's 9 sites trying to optimize for a phrase they are outranked for that phrase by sites that do not?

I'm not in any way suggesting your technique doesn't work. I'm just wondering if there might be another important piece of data to be found as well and how we could use it to our advantage.

 

Well, that is an interesting conundrum but you can still do the keyword research without answering it!

By the way, you mentioned taking notice of Google's competition figures. I completely ignore those. I don't see any value in them at all.the whole point of this method is that you are actually seeing what the competition is yourself by doing the 2 searches.

Similarly with Word Tracker, Market Samurai, Micro Niche Finder etc – I don't think their competition figures are worth anything at all.

 

I don't use them too, I got used to do every research manually.

 

Cool. And how does my method compare with your own?

Anything to add for us?

 

Hello malcsimm, do you think keywords research tools based on LSI analysis are also a garbage?
Thanks

 

Which one did you have in mind, Ahtamar?

Basically, to do LSI you just sprinkle in a few related keywords. Or, to put it another way, you just write an interesting and useful article on your topic and then you will naturally include these related keywords.

The whole LSI thing is generally overblown and the discussion is liable to be bullshit related. It's generally agreed that Google simply does not have the power to do LSI measurement to any extent – it is just too darned complex. So you find people giving this weight than it has in reality. People hear it, think it sounds sensible, so repeat it. Hence the bullshit.

Just write a good article, include variations on your key phrase as well as related key phrases – as you would in any natural writing – and you will be good to go.

During your keyword research these phrases will come out anyway. If you are choosing a good keyword for a page you are writing then just take a few of the extra keywords your research is brought out and sprinkle them in your copy.

And bear in mind that any writing focusing too much on one keyword phrase and having zero related phrases looks like spam. So don't do that.

Malc

 

Thanks for reply.

I see what you mean. The reason I asked you was that I'm currently developing such an analytical tool for Google's top 10 for myself.
Smth really similar to such a tool as webcontentstudio however having another features range.

And I think this approach makes sense, at least for me. You are focusing on continuation to write good articles but also to include theme words found the most relevant by Google according to top 10 pages content.

Ahtamar

 

I don't want to undermine your entrepreneurial flair – if you are thinking of selling this tool! But I do wonder what the advantage would be. Most so-called "LSI" keywords are common sense, and the rest can be gathered by doing a quick search on Google keyword planner, or looking at a few sites in the top 10to see the variety of phrases, menu names, categories etc they use.

Or am I missing something?

 

Frankly speaking I do think that advantage would be within the following terms: comfort, effectiveness, time and power saving, all you need in one tool. I don't think that good lsi analysis can be easily performed without any software.
Of course lot's of what programs do, you can do manually, but slower and less effectively.

I appreciate your input and consider you are widely thinking person I guess we shouldn't underestimate the power of algorithms, especially when they make our lives more comfortable and happier.

Regards,
Ahtamar

 

Cool Ahtamar. I wish you all the best with that project.

 

I can give you a try with it first when ready if you would like, your feedback will be valuable for me, Malc

 

For some reason, word order seems to be important to Google these days. *I kind of wonder if the recent updates are downplaying "best xxxx", since it has been so commonly used in past years by domainers and content writers alike.

 

Hi Ahtamar - (delayed response due to holiday )... but I said I didn't think it was a great idea, so why would I want to test it for you? LOL

 

Using my idea it doesn't matter on the word order - cos the results of the two "allin" searches reflect Google's ranking.

Might you be overcomplicating it - when you can see exactly how G is ranking your search phrases??

 

I like Market Samurai but Malc makes some really good points, sometimes doing things the hard way makes you understand and see the big picture. Market Samurai ads way too much unnecessary info that really bogs down the speed in returning the results. The SEO competition feature though I usually don't ignore. Nothing worse than spending weeks building a site only to find out you botched the KW research.

One thing I'd be careful is who I hire to do KW research. Whether you use Market Sam or Google search, try learn and do this yourself, unless you really know the person offering to do the research. There are some out there who claim to be experts, and the reports they give you come straight from Market Samurai, their results are not even accurate and you can tell they relied solely on Market Sam instead of their own expertise in KW research.

 

Hi Gladys - thanks for taking the time to comment

the one thing I don't understand is where you say you use the competition feature in market Samurai. personally I can't see how it's any use at all. They are pure guesswork at best – and using the two searches I describe and then comparing the results mean that Google shows you which keyword phrases it's easier to rank for. Why not use those rather than pure guesswork?

If I'm missing something please put me straight – but I don't think so.



Malc

 

Hi usa - Sorry, I missed your comment which was made the day before I went on holiday to 10 days.

What does this matter when you can test directly – using the method I describe? It's not surprising that word order matters to Google; after all simply putting in a plural will give very different results in many cases.

Just so your keyword research as I describe and you will identify which keywords it's more than likely worth going after.



Malc

 

It can be guess work at times. Over time you'll notice your KW research improves from the experience, even from the KW you chose in error. There's no certainty as to how many hits a KW will get looking forward, that's mainly guesswork and speculation by Google.

Analyzing backlinks though helps take some of the guesswork out of the research. Page backlinks in particular, I can't ignore a competitor with tons of page backlinks. If I do, I'll just waste time ranking for a KW I'll probably have no realistic chance to beat. Also, if you go further and view those backlinks, their authority and quality, this will pretty much tell you whether to even consider the particular KW.

Sure you can prob do all of this with Google, SEO quake and other tools. MarketSam just cuts down on the time.

 

Oh I see - you mean for the quality of competition.

Well, MS is a start I suppose: but it uses Majestic data which was hammered recently by the very knowledgeable Matt Woodward on his post headed up:

"If you don’t have time to read this post terminate your Majestic SEO account immediately & take out the Ahrefs trial instead without hesitation."

Read more: http://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/experiments/ahrefs-majestic-seo-1-million-domain-showdown/

I know Matt pretty well - (in fact I'm meeting him tomorrow for lunch!) - and he really knows his stuff. The thing is, AHREFS gives tons more backlinks than Majestic.

Still it gives you something to go on. For a quick check I'll use SEO Spyglass which - again - misses off a lot of the backlinks AHREFS catches - but it's OK for a quick snapshot when you know you're not getting anything like all the backlinks.

Cheers

Malc