Advanced Keyword Research SMX West 2013

Using Competitors for Keyword Research

Matt Siltala, Presidentmatt@avalaunchmedia.com

@Matt_Siltala

@Matt_Siltala

SEO IS DEAD …. RIGHT?

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Clever Graphic showing terms like: SEO, Link BuildingKeyword Research, PPC, Press, Infographics all Inside a grave (like they are dead) or being put

In a grave…..

Have the graphic showing keyword research the oneBeing thrown into the grave with all the other

Stuff already in there

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Clever Graphic – now this clever graphic lets showA re-birth somehow of all those terms . Or coming from

The grave with wings or something??? Use your creativity

POINT BEING? SEO is not dead and all this other stuffIs not dead and it is why we need to keep doing this stuff

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Buying or Browsing?

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Do you know the difference?

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Graphic showing: some kind of spying graphic (no need to include all thisText … I am just having it here to give context to help you)

You know how you always see your competitors doing amazing things?You always see them showing up on major sites?

What kind of a strategy do they have?

What keywords are they focusing on for their viral campaigns?For the content marketing strategies?

For their site?

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Analyze the basics:

•Titles

•Headings

•URLs

•Meta Keywords and Descriptions

•Virals on blog, topic and internal links

Crawl a competitor’s site

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ONE RULE:

Make Sure The Site Is Strong

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Title

Use the “Page Titles” report for this one

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Headlines

Used the “H1” report for this one

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Headlines

Also great for harvesting content ideas

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Headlines

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URLs

Use the “Internal” report for this one

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Meta Keywords

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Meta Descriptions

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Graphic showing: guy or girl thinking to themselves (maybe on a Computer looking at a infographic)

When I see “X” graphic … I think to myselfWhat was the motive behind this graphic.

What keywords are they trying to improve

What are they trying to sell?

What was the point?

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Filter the report on common locations:

•Blog

• Infographic

•Video

• “Top X” type posts

Find Virals or Social Campaigns

TIP:Look at

these posts to see what keywords they are

linking and where!

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Other Things To Pay Attention To

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ONE MORE GRAPHIC – some kind of fun graphic showing

A visualization of the idea below:

You know, the other thing that would be a good idea for finding out what they are promoting is to make

sure you keep an eye on their twitter feed, facebook page, etc.

I don't have any tools offhand for doing this besides of course the big ones, but it's another thing

companies should be doing. Watch their twitter/facebook and see what they promote.

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25% of all queries are brand new

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Keyword Research Never Ends

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One Idea

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•Run competitor through a backlink analysis tool like OpenSiteExplorer.org

•Analyze external and internal link anchor text

Backlink Analysis

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Anchor Text Report OSE

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Export and Analyze

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Use Excel to filter links by

•Branded Anchors

•Themes

“Car Insurance,” “home insurance,” etc

Watch for variations

•Target URL

Filter Ideas

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•Learn more about the competitors PPC activities

•Not a perfect tool, but can give you keyword ideas

SpyFu

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Ad History Report - SpyFu

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Run competitor through SEMrush tools

•Organic Research > Positions

•Keyword Research > Overview

SEMRush

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Keyword Research - SEMRush

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•After compiling all keyword ideas

•Run through Adwords or another keyword volume tool

•Prioritize based on relevancy and search volume

•Optimize own site around new terms!

What’s Next?

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Clever Graphic showing CONFIDENCE …

Confidence in your ability to research out the bestKeywords in your industry …

Maybe someone holding up the term KEYWORDS over Their shoulders like a trophy or something

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Takeaways

•Screaming Frog is amazing for KW research

•Use Social Too

•SpyFu can help with spying on competition

•SEMRush is another bonus KW research tool

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Where You Can Find This Presentation:

http://www.slideshare.net/MattSiltala

Thank You!Matt Siltala, President

matt@avalaunchmedia.com@Matt_Siltala