Planting the seeds of Inspiration, Keyword style.

Alex Whalley

When you are starting your keyword research you usually already have a keyword in mind. This is known as the seed keyword and it’s here that the whole process of researching and optimizing begins – because how creative and original you can be with your seed keyword will define how successful you are with whatever longtail keyword is generated. Most people will find the first keyphrase associated with the product or service they wish to sell and then do some research off of this. If you really want to stand out in the niche marketing and Search Engine Optimization crowd then you need to start thinking outside of the box AND applying some creative thinking to the process in which you find your seed keyword. Here are 5 super cool ways to help you think outside of the box with your seed keyword selection.

1. Forums

No, I am not talking about forum marketing to increase your backlinks or your online presence, although this is good too. There are tens of thousands of forums out there, covering every niche from how to ‘make money blogging’ to ‘guinea pig exercises’ and the idea here is to get ideas for your seed keyword.

• What other phrases and expressions are they using within that niche?
• What other terms are used to describe the product or service?
• Is there a term known to the lovers of this niche that only they would use (because THAT is the golden keyword right there – targeted and longtail)
• What questions are they asking about the product or service? (because before you can answer their question and make that sale, you have to know the keyphrases they used in the first place)

2. Television and Mass Media

It’s amazing what you can learn from watching the news, at least in the context of keyword hunting. (not sure if you learn anything anymore watching the depressing and monotonous drivvle that passes as ‘news’ nowadays)
Some of the most popular keywords online come from Television, I mean just look at Google Trends any day of the week and at least 30% of the list are celebrities and characters from popular culture. I don’t need to tell you what a product or service being mentioned on Oprah will do its online counterpart, but needless to say it has a *slight* effect on the market. THe point here is that popular culture has a lot of influence on what goes on online, so staying with current trends and listening out for new personalities and product models can help give you the headstart on that elusive new seed keyword.

3. Junk Mail

This is the best way of finding great seed keywords, and even finding ideas for a new niche for that matter, but let’s not go off track here. In order to sell something to consumers (us), advertisers have to know and use the words that people are familiar with and actually use in context to their services, so the junk mail that gets put in your letterbox is a brilliant source of keywords. I am constantly getting flyers for tree lopping services ( I live in a very leafy suburb –TOO leafy one could argue) and I always dismissed them because I don’t need their services, but  these flyers are full of keyword ideas, even the back of the flyer has a bullet list of the services they provide in relation to tree lopping. Every one of them is a potential seed keyword.

4. Steal, cheat, copy, mame, kill, destroy.

I am referring to taking ideas from other sites by looking at their sitemaps or simply using the tool I spoke about in this post to find out what keywords they are competing for.
Basically I am talking about stealing from, I mean copying other keyphrases. Sorry about the subtitle, I got a bit carried away, I think the tourets in me came out to say hi briefly, it’s OK he’s gone now.
Most sites will have a sitemap, well ALL those sites doing very well will have a sitemap, that’s for sure, and all you need to do is take a look at it to see the names of all their pages, each of which will be built around various keyphrases. Look and learn, copy and paste.

5. Stop thinking like an internet marketer!

I left this one until last because it’s my own special mix of herbs and spices and it’s not really a tip at all, more a dose of common sense, because believe me – it’s something we could all do with from time to time. Stop thinking like an internet marketer and start thinking like a consumer for once! Seems really obvious but when you have spent hours, maybe even days analysing, interpreting, and researching keyphrases within a niche you tend to forget about the reasoning and the logic behind shopping. There are processes we follow when we buy things, and there is a sequence in the purchasing cycle too, and I’m not talking seasonally. (these are just off the cuff ideas/examples and more for entertainment value so don’t start judging my notion of shopping J )

• If you’re selling ladies designer shoes then chances are your buyers are going to be looking for blister cream soon, so either target that niche too or incorporate similar keywords into your existing campaign.
• If you’re selling maternity wear then your target market is pregnant or about to be. If I think like a consumer then I realise pregnant women are going to be online searching for everything from new cots to strollers, highchairs and more. Target them before they even think about their own comfort and watch them follow your link with great interest.
• If you’re about to buy a new phone, the first thing you are going to do is buy a new cover, charger, handsfree thingy, and that other brand new awesome just released only available today thing you just had to buy. Not just phones either, consumers have this obsession with matching things up and buying 50 extra things they don’t need just to compliment the original item they didn’t technically need either.

You get the point, get your head away from the monitor for a while (after this post of course) and go and BE a consumer for a while. Remember the logical processes you followed when making purchases? Even before Google it was confusing I know, but it made sense as a buyer and the more you can stay in touch with that the better your online campaign will be.

Get more Keyword Inspiration by downloading my latest ebook, The Ultimate Keyword Research Resource. and have an awesome day!

_____________

Alex Whalley, also known as The Keyword Research Blogger is the author and founder of The Keyword Research and Niche site marketing blog.  Alex recently quit his fulltime job to concentrate on niche site and search engine marketing. Subscribe to his Keyword Newsletter to get the Ultimate Keyword Research Resource and learn how to generate waves of organic traffic to your blog today. You can also Follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his Blogs RSS Feed.