Put all keywords in Excel and follow your own process for cleaning up the list (removing irrelevant keywords, filtering out based on search volume, etc.).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nThis process is an incredibly huge<\/em> waste of time — you could spend tens of hours on it and still completely miss the most effective keywords. Why? First, there is a tremendous amount of “noise” or irrelevant data returned by the data source. Second, there is no validation of the relevance of the keyword(s) to the client’s industry — the researcher’s knowledge and experience in the industry play a huge part in what is kept and what is thrown out in the analysis.<\/p>\nConsider this alternative approach, which leverages wisdom of the crowd:<\/p>\n
\n- Identify the page<\/em> on your (or your client’s) site that you wish to research for keywords.<\/li>\n
- Identify at least 3 (the more the better) pages from various competitor sites that rank for the core product or service name that the page is relevant for. For example, if you have a page about “New York hotels,” look for the top ranking pages from different competitor sites for that keyword.<\/li>\n
- Take your pick of your favorite keyword intelligence tool — SEMrush, KeywordSpy, SpyFu or a more targeted, industry-specific index such as what we offer at seoClarity (shameless plug!). Remember that a data source that offers significant breadth and depth is critical<\/em> to a good analysis.<\/li>\n
- Download the keywords that each of the competitor pages rank for.<\/li>\n
- Compile the downloaded data for all competitors into a single Excel workbook and create a pivot table to quickly view how many competitors rank for the same keyword.<\/li>\n
- Pick the keywords where two or more competitors rank for a keyword but your page doesn’t.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
That’s it! By ensuring that you look at the keywords that two or more competitors are ranking for and you aren’t, you eliminate a tremendous amount of the noise associated with traditional keyword research.<\/p>\n
Here is a Venn diagram that will help visualize the process. The keywords that are part of the overlapping sections are the ones that are common among the two competitor pages and are strong candidates for your own keyword set to focus on.<\/p>\n
![\"Wisdom_of_the_Crowd\"](\"\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20600%20411'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\")
![\"Wisdom_of_the_Crowd\"](\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2014\/02\/Wisdom_of_the_Crowd.png\")
<\/p>\n
With this research methodology you can be confident that:<\/p>\n
\n- You’re picking keywords that Google finds relevant to pages directly competing with you.<\/li>\n
- The keywords highlighted have a very high probability of being relevant to your page, too (as long as your page and your competitor pages are targeting the same audience with relatively similar services).<\/li>\n
- You have eliminated unnecessary noise due to company-specific (brand or product name) keywords.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
One of the other things I love about this methodology is that it can be equally well employed for nearly any<\/em> kind of research. Looking for influencers in the industry? Repeat the same process, but simply change the data source to MajesticSEO or another source. Looking for social outreach? Repeat with Twitter follower information. Looking for content ideas? Leverage what topics multiple sites are publishing in your industry. The list is endless!<\/p>\nTry it out!<\/p>\n