Using Google’s Keyword Tool To Choose Keywords 

This post is for Vicki who has recently started a recipe blog on Blogger, but it’s also a quick example for anyone who wants to learn a few basic tips for choosing keywords for their site content. For the completely uninitiated we are talking here about Search Engine Optimization, or SEO for short – but you could also think of it simply as picking keywords and phrases for your content that people are searching for.

Google will show us what people are searching for – and I will show you how to get this information from Google and interpret it.

First you should have a look at Vicki’s blog, and specifically this page on a delicious Gourmet Grilled Steak Recipe.

Before we continue I’ve done something important here – I’ve linked to Vicki’s blog, but I’ve carefully chosen the words that I will link out with and included keywords that I know Vicki will want to rank for. I’m not going to go into this in great detail but beginners should take note of this fact – it’s important to get links from other websites that use the same keywords that your site focuses on.

The rest of this post will be addressed to Vicki,

Dear Vicki,

I just wanted to congratulate you on setting up your blog and writing a couple of great posts! The grilled steak recipe is mouth watering!

I have a couple of small suggestions – if this were my blog I would start posting individual recipes as blog posts, not necessarily every time, as you obviously want to have some fun with your blog, and inject a little personality into it, as you have done so well with your first posts.

I note you have included a recipe in the post I have linked to above, but the title of the post is “recession proof gourmet”. Google puts a lot of emphasis on your titles, and rewards you if they relate to the content very closely.

So by including the word “recession” you may be putting Google off the scent a little.

You will get more search engine traffic if you establish a convention of making the post title a recipe title, e.g. “Grilled Steak…” and then keep the post on topic as much as possible. Google really loves sites that focus on specific niche topics and provide content (pages) consistently around the topic(s).

I have some experience with recipe sites specifically and I know this works.

Again, if this were me, I would stay with your “Grilled Steak” theme for a while and put 10 more grilled steak recipes up one after another. Then begin a new theme. The posts don’t actually have to go up in groups/themes, but I find it easier to work like this in general. Once you have 10+ recipes for a specific niche you can move to another gourmet niche.

But don’t put up just any recipes! It’s now time to visit the Google keyword tool and gain some insight into what people are searching for.

When you get there enter “Grilled Steak” as the search phrase and you will see a ton of suggestions like “Grilled Flank Steak” with 8000 searches per month…

You’ll notice some other terms like “Grilled Steak Seasoning” only get a 200 searches per month…

So already we are getting an idea of what people are interested in!

I’ve taken a  screen shot and inserted it below – just a segment of the total results, so be sure to run this search yourself. This image will enlarge if you click on it.

Google Keyword Tool

Google Keyword Tool

Of course don’t just limit your research to ’steak’ and ‘grill’ – run all your recipe idea keywords through the tool – see what people are interested in! Sometimes I spend hours on this web page doing research – it pays off!

I couldn’t resist doing the following search as well:

Keyword Tool - Google

Keyword Tool - Google

There is a lot more I could say but that is probably enough for lesson one. I’m sure you are getting a good idea of what’s invovled in niche marketing. Just do try to create groups of similar content topics on your site(s).

What it boils down to (no pun intended) is that Google will send you more visitors if you appear to be an authority on one, or a number of related topics (in your case ‘Gourmet Recipes’),  as opposed to having 100 recipes for completely different things.

But be guided by the keyword tool and what you find there – choose the phrases people are searching for!

Next lesson will cover a number of slightly more advanced keyword tool topics to determine not only what people are searching for, but also look at the potential revenue that may come from the keyword choices, and also how competitive the keywords are.

Less competitive is better as you will not have to work so hard to achieve higher rankings in Google, and in turn more profit for your efforts!

Enjoy!