AP 0116: Do I Rely on Keyword Tools or Do I Trust My Instinct?

AskPat 116 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: What's up, everybody? Pat Flynn here, and welcome to Episode 116 of AskPat. So thankful you're here. Today we have a great question from Cassel; however, before we get to that I do want to mention our awesome sponsor for today: LegalZoom.

LegalZoom.com. You know, America was built by innovators and dreamers just like you and to celebrate LegalZoom is making it incredibly easy this month to file trademark or copyright applications, incorporate your business, or form an LLC. So visit LegalZoom.com, they'll provide the personal attention you need and help take care of all of the details, just like they did for me when I got started online with my LLC. Now for a limited time, get a special price off trademark and copyright apps by using the referral code “Pat” at checkout. They provide legal help through independent attorneys and self-help, but they are not a law firm. Again, that's LegalZoom.com, referral code “Pat.”

All right, now let's get to today's question from Cassel.

Cassel: Hi Pat. I'm Carole, but I'm known online as Cassel. I have a site called ScrapbookCampus.com where I teach digital scrapbooking. However, this is only a hobby of mine.

I am a speech language pathologist and I'm looking at developing a blog site devoted to language development, but not specifically for therapy. Prevention and language promotion is what I currently do and have done for almost fifteen years. Trying to look at keywords, it seems that searches are limited for this topic. It is likely that parents are not actively searching for that content but, from the feedback I get every day, those who discover that type of activities are asking for more. What do you recommend? Relying on the keyword searches that say it might not been need or on real people's feedback suggesting it has potential?
Thanks.

Pat Flynn: Cassel, thank you so much for your question. And this is a fantastic question because a lot of times when we do keyword research, we might get really excited about a particular topic or subject or niche that we're looking up and all of a sudden those keyword research tools, whether it's Google or something like Long Tail Pro or Market Samurai or others, that might tell us that not money people are searching for those keywords. Now I will say that, first and foremost, make sure that when you do those searches on those keyword research tools that you have your data and your filters set correctly. Often times people make the mistake of either making it too narrow or misspelling it or whatever the case may be. Just double check to make sure that those keywords you're putting in there are indeed the keywords you're looking up. And sometimes you might be surprised; you might have entered it wrong before and you don't want to make that mistake of not going for niche if you made that mistake, of course.

Secondly, if you do enter those keywords and key phrases correctly and the numbers don't turn up very attractive, you will also want to make sure that you enter keywords related to that particular keyword or key-phrase. Sometimes what you think people are supposed to be typing in, in terms of whatever it is that you are going to be creating a site about or whatever it is you are interested in, those might not be the things that people are actually typing in related to whatever it is that you have to say. Perhaps often people are writing questions related to those topics or they don't know the scientific name and there's a different version of saying the exact same thing. So you want to make sure that you understand and try to figure out all the different ways that people are searching for what it is that you're talking about. And an easy way to do that is just do Google searches or look in forums and see how people are asking questions about those certain things.

So finding those keywords mentioned, you can do that by putting quotations around those keywords or key-phrases in your Google search bar. Hit “find,” and then you'll see those searches come up that are exactly the result for those keywords and key-phrases that you're looking up. And you can see if people are describing those things in other ways or try to find some other keywords in, around, and related to those things. Other keyword research tools like Long Tail Pro and Market Samurai—they will give you other terms related to that automatically. So there's that.

Now, let's say you do your research correctly and the numbers aren't coming up and you do try to look for other keywords related to that original key-phrase or keyword and there's just nothing coming up with those keywords as well. Do you make a decision not to move forward if that is the case? I would say no, and the reason I say this is because keyword research is just one variable or one method of determining whether or not a keyword or key-phrase or a topic that you're interested in is worth going toward. Now it is a way to validate, but it does not de-validate. What I mean is if you come up with great numbers while doing keyword research, then yes, you should go for it if it is something you know about or know you could provide value for, for a specific audience who is looking for those keywords. However, if you don't find the numbers, that does not mean that the particular website that you're going to create is not going to be successful.

For example, my very first site at InTheLeed.com, which is now named GreenExamAcademy.com. Even though I really wasn't paying attention to keywords and I really didn't even understand keyword research. I was using keywords not just for the domain but for the titles of the articles that nobody typed in, and it's because I was pretty new to the industry in terms of writing all that stuff online. But as a result of the popularity of the green exam industry and all this other stuff that was happening in and around that space for this exam I was creating a website for, things started to take off and that's why I was then, later on found at the top of Google for all those keywords once people started to know and started to type in those keywords.

So, just because you don't get in now and the numbers are small doesn't mean you can't be successful. I would definitely rely, I wouldn't rely, but I would definitely listen to your gut. But, most importantly, listen to what other people are saying as well. If it's that good and it is that helpful, it will spread and you won't even need Google to rely on in the future. And as a result of having great stuff, providing great value, making shareable content, you will be found at the top of Google anyway, maybe not even for that particular keyword that you're thinking of in your head right now, but for other long-tail keywords and that's why I think it's important to at least test this out. Give yourself a few months and not only see what the reaction is from the people who you are providing value for but also from Google. Again, over time Google has been trying to be more human, to put the best stuff at the top of the search engines for any relevant keywords and anything that's mentioned in and around that topic and so hopefully they'll do that for you too.

Of course you also want to do some research in terms of your competitors, if you have any competitors, go out and see what they're doing, see if they're ranking for any sites. You can go to a site called SEMrush.com, type in their URL there, and you can see what keywords they're ranking for or ranking fairly highly for and what those numbers are for those particular keywords as well. You might find some interesting keywords to target there as well.

So, Cassel, thank you so much again for the question—a fantastic one I think a lot people are going to learn from today. An AskPat t-shirt if going to be headed your way. I would love to see a picture of you wearing it at some point. That would be awesome. For anyone else out there who has a question they have in their head that they'd like potentially featured here on the show, just head on over to AskPat.com. You might get a t-shirt out of it.

Finally, as always, I want to thank today's sponsor, which is LegalZoom. Again, they helped me out big time when I first started an incorporated and formed an LLC. They also helped me out when I filed for a trademark and also did some personal stuff like with my will and things like that, which is really important of course. So again, for a limited time get a special price on trademark and copyright applications by using the referral code “Pat” at checkout. Again, that's referral code “Pat” at checkout. They're not a law firm but they provide legal help through independent attorneys and self-help.

And as always, I love to finish it with a quote. Today's quote comes from Benjamin Disraeli and his quote is, “The secret of success is consistency of purpose.” Love that. Cheers, take care, and I'll see you the next episode of AskPat.