keyword research question
 

Let's say If someone was launching a site industry specific . How would one go about determining, on the keyword research side, how big or small the tail of the search terms in that industry are?

Basically, looking for a methodology to measure the value of being listed in the top for a few, hig volume search terms in the head vs. the value of having rankings for the thousands of smaller terms making up the tail. Other than simply using intuition and logic, one can't seem to think of a good way to do it.

thanks

Hi,

Yes, it's always a good idea to research keyword phrases before you start any seo campaign.

You're right there are high traffic, big money keywords that can be difficult to attain, especially for a new site. In the meantime you can target lots of keyword variations that are easier to rank for. They don't bring much traffic indivdually but if you can target a bunch of them they can keep your business ticking over until the seo campaign matures - if you don't want to use pay per click advertising.

There are two online tools you can use via:
http://www.nichebot.com
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

The both give suggested variations on keyword phrases but first gives the "competitiveness" of a keyword, the second gives the number of searches for a particular keyword. Take the number of searches results with a large dose of salt though, but they're a useful qualitative guide.

Cheers,
Paz.

Hi,
To approach an "industry," I'd want to get a look at what works for
that industry's longer standing niche publications. What concerns
re-surface regularly? Are they adequately addressed? Would these concerns be of more interest to customers or colleagues?

Would it be helpful to look at how a customer hears about and chooses
who to hire or buy from?

slivermoon

Paz,

Are you sure about that nichbot link? I just clicked it and got redirected to a site pushing windows/accounting/business/database/tax prep/photo software.

he meant www.nichebot.com :)

Ahhh, much better. Thanks :-)

no worries bro ;)

LOL... sorry. Fixed link and added Google's keyword research tool.

Just one rule I follow while doing doing keyword research - If I were looking for this product/service/information, what would I search for?

Once you get a list from the above question, compare it with "actual data searches" using tools PAZ mentioned.

Keywords Analyzer is one excellent tool for brainstroming, finding related keywords etc. Other good tools are Wordtracker and Trellian's Keyword Discovery.