EzSEO Newsletter # 243

 

In this issue:

1. Designing WordPress Templates

2. Keyword Research Tools

3. A new Keyword Tool

4. Link Bait

Hi Again

This week is a bit of a Keyword Research Tool Special.  I’ll show you the best fr.ee keyword research tools available, as well as a new tool that I found this week.  I’ll also tell you about a new idea I had for link bait on my travel site, but first, I have news of an exciting book for those who are interested in creating or learning more about WordPress themes. 

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1. Designing WordPress Templates
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Last week I told you about one of my picks of 2009.  I won’t repeat what I said then, but if you missed last week, you should check out my review here:

31 days to build a better blog

This week I have another cracking "Wordpress" eBook to tell you about.  This one is not for everyone though – it’s strictly for those of us who are interested in how the WordPress template system works and how to create templates ourselves.  Have a look at the video review I created for you:

At $29, this book is fantastic value.  You can buy the book here:

Rockstar WordPress Designer

Incidentally, for those who want to create their own templates without learning any PHP, check out my review of Artisteer:

Artisteer Review

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2. Keyword Research Tools
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Last week I mentioned the new Google Keyword tool at:

http://google.com/sktool

A couple of people asked me for a tutorial on using that tool, but I actually got more questions from people asking me for my thoughts on Keyword Research tools in general.  What are the best fr.ee ones?  Which one(s) do I recommend? Do I still use Wordtracker?  What about Nichebot?

I figured that my time would be better spent this week in creating a round-up of the keyword tools that are available, with a special emphasis on the fr.ee ones, so here goes..

Firstly, do I still use Wordtracker?

Actually, my subscription to Wordtracker ran out earlier this year and I have not yet renewed that subscription.

Why? 

Wordtracker is still my favourite paid service, but last year it stopped giving accurate Google competition data. 

Despite several emails to Wordtracker, that problem was not solved and for the last few months of my subscription, I was unable to use the tool in the way I had become accustomed to. 

Is the problem solved now?  I have no idea – you’d have to ask Wordtracker support.  Mike Mindel (Founder of Wordtracker) contacted me directly over my competition error reports, and what he told me was they were working on something that was intended to replace competition with something more useful.  Again, I have no idea if that has happened, but when it does, I fully expect to renew my subscription with them.

OK, so what about the fr.ee keyword tools?

Firstly, the one keyword tool I use more than any other at the moment is Google’s External Keyword Tool:

Google External Keyword Tool

Rather than create a new video, here is one I created for newsletter subscribers a while ago showing how I use this tool for keyword research and for finding hot niches:

For KRA/KRA Pro owners, here is another video I created showing how to import data from Google’s keyword tool into KRA:

Armed with Google’s Keyword Tool for initial keyword research and digging, and KRA Pro to find theme words for any page I want to create, 99% of my keyword needs are met. 

However, there are some other good tools:

Wordtracker has a fr.ee tool here:

Free Wordtracker

This is a great tool for quickly finding the top 100 phrases related to any niche.  You’ll get the phrases and an estimated search count, but the downside is that you won’t get a competition figure, so you don’t know how many other pages compete for these phrases.

One of Wordtrackers biggest competitors is Keyword Discovery. They also have a fr-ee tool that is very similar to the Wordtracker one:

Free Keyword Discovery Tool

NOTE: Most of the fr.ee keyword tools out there have similar limitations regarding competition figures. 

Here is another very popular keyword research tool:

http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/

This one provides a lot of information with links to other resources for each keyword phrase it finds.

Overall, fr.ee keyword tools can get you most of the way there.  Of the bunch, my favourite is the Google External Keyword tool, its just a shame they don’t include good, accurate competition data – if you need that, then there is a new tool that might interest you….

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3. A new Keyword Tool
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Keyword research services are all well and good, but not everyone wants to shell out month after month for a keyword subscription. 

One of the questions I got this week asked if there was a good keyword research tool that was a one-off payment, and did collect competition data. 

In the past there were a bunch of keyword tools that used Overtures keyword suggestion tool for its data.  I have always been mistrusting of the data that came from that source after early tests showed a big discrepancy between suggested search volume and actual search volume.  I cannot remember the exact details but it was something like this:

I found a phrase that had a suggested search volume of 50,000 in the previous month.

I created a page optimized for that phrase and got to number one in Google.

I got 3 visitors a week.

You think that’s funny?  I didn’t at the time, but have since seen the funny side of this. 

Since the demise of the Overture suggestion tool, other keyword tools have arisen (like those mentioned in the previous section) using a variety of different sources.

Some use Wordtracker, some use Keyword Discovery, and some use Google Keyword tool. 

Keyword Research Pro is a tool that uses all three and more. 

Again, rather than explain how this tool works, let me show you a quick demo video I prepared earlier:

If you want more details of this product, you can get them here:

Keyword Research Pro

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4. Link Bait
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I am sure you have heard of the term before (in fact I have mentioned it before in this newsletter).  The idea is to create content that other sites will want to link to so that your site can grow links naturally over time without you having to do too much dedicated link building. 

But how do you do this?

There are a number of ways, and I suggest you try as many different ways as you can think of.

Here are some ideas:

1. Write an article that answers one or more questions relating to your niche.  The more authoritative the article, the more likely you will get incoming links to it, so don’t be afraid of linking to other authority sites within your article.  Your visitors will give you honorary authority status based on the crowd you link to :O)

2. Create tutorials on your site.  I have a tutorial on one of my sites that has attracted links from other sites, as well as continuous traffic from those other sites.  The article itself currently has 52 comments from people who have come to my site looking for a solution to this problem.    Articles that grow like this are fantastic for any site.

3. Create a video for your site, or use Youtube videos and create a page around a topic.   I have found that fun pages seem to do better, though pages with a tragic tone have done equally well.

4. Create FAQ pages.

5. Create a glossary page.

I am sure you can find more ideas yourself, but the idea is to tap into the areas of human interest.  What is it that people want to see or read?  Can you offer that?

I am going to be experimenting more with video on at least one site, but also I have an idea that might just work. 

My wife has a site on Tenerife (where we live), and since it is a tourist destination, I think that photographs must be an important part of the site.  Nothing new there….  How can I use this idea to generate incoming links?

Well, during the last couple of weeks I have been learning how to create HDR photos (do a Google search of HDR photos for some spectacular shots).  Since these can be so spectacular, they offer something a little different that might encourage inbound links.  Another benefit is I imagine visitors will come back to see new images.

Another idea I have been working on is Panoramic photos.  Again, this is something different.

Earlier this week I went up Mount Teide to photograph a recognised tourist spot and took some photos to experiment with.  Here is a low resolution shot of the Panorama I created:

Perhaps I can combine HDR with panoramas to make some spectacular photos. 

I may even be able to offer full sized panorama and HDR photos for purchase ;o) 

Another idea I have is to turn the panoramas into 360 degree movies.  Here is one I found on the Internet (wait for it to load and start moving):

Dolomite Mountains ? Italy

(In fact, that link goes to the index page for a number of panorama movies=

How cool would that be if you had a real estate site?

Coming up with ideas that attract links is one of the most profitable ways of spending your time.  Remember, you set up the page once and it attracts links for a lifetime.  Not only that, but your visitors keep coming back because of the content you deliver.  The only difficult part of this is coming up with good ideas in your niche.  You need to think outside the box!

Well, that’s it for this issue.  If you want to read the recent issues of this newsletter, you can read them online at my
blog:

http://ezseonews.com/

For older newsletters, you will need to visit the old archives at:

http://ezseonews.com/archives

Have a great week!

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The contents of this newsletter is copyright 2009 Andrew Williams.  If you want to republish any of the articles, you must get permission from the author.

This newsletter disclaims all responsibility for the advertising copy or the product advertised. You cannot rely on the fact that the newsletter has examined the product or recommends or endorses the product, unless it clearly says that it has, when you make your decision whether or not to purchase the product or interact with the advertiser. You are advised to do your own investigation before buying. Additionally, this newsletter may accept articles that we do not write or investigate the accuracy of and for which we may receive direct or indirect benefit or compensation. We specifically disclaim any responsibility for the content of such copy.

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