The Wonders of WordTracker

by John Alexander

For me personally, Wordtracker.com is not just a tool for looking up keywords. Sure, that's one good use for it, but what I want to distinguish is another influential and exciting use for Wordtracker as an SEO resource.

"Keywords" for use in your Meta tags are probably the least influential element in search engine optimization these days. However, hunting for keywords still seems the most popular use for Wordtracker. After all, it contains over 336 million queries within its database, which is no older than 60 days. An SEO can spend long periods of time doing research and hunting for keywords. But let's really try and get our minds around the keyword hunting issue for a minute, and I'll explain a few other tips for using Wordtracker.

Identify your target audience's "surfing behavior" Is there any greater discovery than having an understanding of a target audience's "surfing behavior?" It's like a light coming on in your mind. It's like flipping on a switch to an idea generator! Wordtracker will give you absolutely AMAZING detail if you take time to think about it laterally and outside of the context of just a "keyword hunt."

Later in this article, I'll explain how you can use WordTracker to identify your audience's surfing behavior.

Move beyond the "keyword universe" function.

In speaking with many search engine optimizers, I have learned that so many seem to get stuck in the "Keyword Universe" feature. The ability to generate lists of keyword phrases using the built in thesaurus is nice, but you must not get stuck there and let it do all the thinking for you. As you move on to discover other features within Wordtracker, you will also have the opportunity to perform a "comprehensive search" or an "exact search" or utilize the "top 1000" report.

Tips to identify human behavior?

Where you'll find most of your "revelations" or "insights" are in the "comprehensive search" feature of Wordtracker. Try entering one part of a search phrase and letting "comprehensive search" figure out the best "full use" of the phrase. Another technique I like to use is to examine the top reports for a "high performance" keyword or topic related to my client and then cut and paste it into comprehensive search to get streams of currently "hot topics." I define a hot topic as a popular topic in high demand, which may also have lists of related keyword phrases also in high demand.

Let's study a real life example . . .

Now let me give you a recent example of understanding behaviors. I wanted to pull additional traffic into a site selling baby furniture. The site sells strollers, baby furniture, cribs and other baby products. The client explained that they wanted me to find ways to pull in their true audience. Sometimes you'll discover the true audience is not what it first may seem. By true audience....I mean "targeted audience" or the folks most likely to "BUY" or "respond" to the Web site.

If you just think only in "keywords" mode, you may miss this.

Performing a comprehensive search within Wordtracker by typing in the word "baby," Wordtracker returns interesting results. Do you know what I learned? The target audience for baby strollers is NOT people who have babies! You heard correct. The "true audience" for those buying strollers and baby cribs ARE NOT "folks who have NEWBORN BABIES!" Here is the catch....if you are targeting folks with newborns, to sell them a stroller....you're too late! The true audience are people who are "soon to become parents."

Once Mom and Dad know a new family member is on the way, they start buying BEFORE the baby arrives. Better yet...often it's not even the parents who are buying...it's the grandparents. Perhaps you have pages scoring tremendously well for things like babies, strollers, cribs and baby furniture...... but now your client wants even more.

Here's an example strategy:

One behavior of the true target audience which I discovered by using Wordtracker was as follows. As I entered the term "baby" into "comprehensive search," the first thing I noticed was the top phrase "baby names" which had been requested on major search engines over 34,350 times in the last 60 days. It became very obvious when I noticed the incredibly high demands on major search engines for the phrase "baby names," or how about "meanings of baby names."

This was indeed like a light coming on! I thought, imagine this, "soon to be parents" are researching their unborn child's name by using the Internet. What better time to connect with folks than before the baby is born.

Finally, build a strategy based on the identified behavior

Suppose we were to build a little library of themed pages right into your client's site to attract the TARGET audience. They are searching for baby names so it is essential that this is what you MUST give them. Give them lists of baby names to choose from, right? Don't ever trick your audience or they will simply never buy. Give them exactly what they are looking right up front. In this example, you could create pages that offer baby names and meanings of baby names AND subtly offer a few product listings or links to your client's store front. It is essential that you always provide content related to their search first, and then you might offer some links to other appropriate products within your client's site.

Test these unique ways for using Wordtracker yourself, and learn how effective they can be.

Good luck!

"Dr Ebiz"

"Copyright 2004, Ralph F. Wilson. All rights reserved. Used by permission."

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