Keyword Tips for Squidoo

Google Keywords Adwords Tool is, by far, my favorite free keyword research tool. You can squeeze lots of information from this tool.

Let's start with an easy example. Say I want to do a lens on "sun tea". I type that keyword into the Google tool and get the following results:



Hmmm...looks like there's a fair amount of competition for "sun tea", but I like the search volume of 5400/month. I'm going to keep the word on a "potential keyword list" and keep looking.

I also like the phrase "sun tea jar". It implies a potential willingness to buy, but the competition is also a little high. We're keeping that on the list.

The next few phrases, highlighted in orange, look more promising with less competition.

Because competition isn't overly high on any of these terms, I'm going to do one quick check in Google. It's called an intitle/inanchor search. You type the following into Google and check the results:

intitle:"sun tea" inanchor:"sun tea"

And here's what comes back:



Wow! Over 17,000 pages already have the term "sun tea" in their URL AND have at least one backlink to their page with that phrase as their anchor link. Maybe the power of Squidoo will get me up there eventually, but it could take some time.

Next, I check "sun tea jar" - still 1210 pages of competition with backlinks - and "how to make sun tea" - still 107 other pages.

But what do I find when I check "sun tea recipe"?



Bingo! Squidoo and I together can take on 7 other pages and the keyword phrase I really want, "sun tea", is still in my URL. In addition, I now have a list of other keywords I could use as module titles or as other lenses in a niche:

Sun Tea Jar
How to Make Sun Tea
Sun Tea Recipes
Glass Sun Tea Jar
Sun Tea Pitcher

I might even do a lens using "sun tea" as the URL and one of each of the other search terms as separate lenses and link them together to form a stronger niche that might help the larger search term rise in Google. It's up to you as to how you want to tackle the phrases on your keyword list.

Yes, sun tea was an easy example and it's probably not a very commercial example. What do you do if you want to break into one of the more competitive and lucrative markets? You dig and dig through keyword tools.

For example, I love the iPod and my family alone has eight of them - at least one in every model. I'd LOVE to do a page and sell a few iPods! Just one problem - a LOAD of competition. I'm persistent, however, so I use the following tools and tricks until I find a term I think I can rank for:

1. Google Keywords Tool - type iPod into the tool and see if I find any phrases that might work. If not, I take the second, third and fourth highest searched terms that did come up and type those into the tool individually. Sometimes this will return a nice phrase that didn't come up when you typed in the main keyword.

2. Google Keywords Tool - type potential buying phrases in front of your keyword in the tool like "buy ipod", "best ipod", "choose ipod". Often, you'll find that searchers type long phrases into Google and words like iPod have so many possible terms that you don't find them all until you keep digging.

3. SEO Book - This is another keyword tool that aggregates Google, Yahoo and other search engine results. Often, I'll find a keyword I like from this tool that I didn't come across in Google's tool.

4. Find a nice, content rich site about your topic and plug it into Google's Keyword tool. Did you know you could do that? The tool will analyze a specific site and tell you the keywords on that site. In fact, I get some of the best ideas by analyzing a Wikipedia page on my topic.

To analyze a page using Google's Keyword tool, follow this diagram:

Once you have a list of possible keywords, you should check out the competition on Google and on Squidoo to make sure your work isn't going to go to waste.

1. Google - type your keyword phrase into the search bar and look at the first few pages. Are they high-ranking Google pages? Are they top, well-known stores? If so, you may have some difficulty ranking for that term.

2. Check the backlinks of your competition at Back Link Watch. If the first few pages on Google already have tons of back links, you're going to have to work very hard to get your lens up towards the top.

3. Do a search on Google for competing Squidoo lenses. Google will only return a maximum of two lenses for each search term. You can perform an Advanced search on Google with the intitle/inanchor request and only look at squidoo.com results. You can also type the following into Google's search bar: keyword phrase sites:squidoo.com to find only Squidoo results.

4. Use this tool for detecting commercial intent to see how well your keyword indicates a searcher's intent to spend money. It's easier to rank for non-commercial-intent phrases. Unfortunately, that means your visitors are less likely to spend money. I'd rather have fewer visitors and more spenders so this tool helps you find the right terms if that is your goal, too.