Glossary
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| Campaigns | With keyword research tools, this refers to the number of competing adverts that appear when you do a search on Google and other search engines for a particular keyword. Most keyword tools will tell you how many adverts (or campaigns) show up for each keyphrase you're researching. It's a way to gauge the competition you'll have for each keyphrase. |
| Keyword / Keyphrase / Phrase / Search Term | These all mean the same thing. One or more words that people type into a search engine when they're looking for something. For example 'high heel shoes', 'wedding invitations' and 'tv' are all keywords. |
| Keyword list | A list of keywords that you've created based on what you know people are using in the search engines to find your product. While you could write a keyword list on paper, it's much easier to use either a text editor, word processor or spreadsheet. Most keyword lists are built and maintained in Excel - a common spreadsheet program from Microsoft. |
| Keyword research | The process by which you build a keyword list. There are a number of common ways people do keyword research. The initial stages are often brain storming - writing down as many variations as you can that people will search for your product or service. The next step should be to use one of the many keyword research tools to help uncover other keywords that are popular. |
| Miva / Enhance / Adwords / Yahoo | The major PPC search engines. Although they all offer slightly different services, they're all pretty much the same thing: paying to have your website show up when people search for certain things. You pay a set amount when someone clicks on your advert and visits your website. |
| Negative Words / Negative Matches | In the same way that you can get your advert and your website listed in PPC search engines for phrases you WANT, you can also specify words that you DON'T want to appear under. For example you might want your advert to show up when a person searches for 'business software' but not when they search for 'free business software'. You can prevent this by specifying that 'free' is a negative keyword. Then you won't show up under any searches containing the word 'free'. |
| Organic Search | Nothing to do with vegetables. Also known as 'natural search'. Refers to the websites that are listed for free in search engines like Google. When you search for say 'digital cameras' on Google, you'll see organic (free) listings on the left side of the page, and paid listings on the right of the page. It's much harder to get Organic traffic than it is paid traffic. |
| Overture Suggestions | This is a famous and free keyword research tool. It's used online and can be found at: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ You type in a word you are looking for, and the tool will show you lists or keyphrases that people searched for the previous month, along with a score showing how popular that keyphrase is. |
| Overture | This is the name of one of the big pay per click search engines (see PPC). Or it was! Overture is now owned by Yahoo and is now known as Yahoo Search Marketing. Although many people still refer to this search engine and it's associated services as Overture. |
| PPC | Pay Per Click. Some search engines (such as Google, MSN and Yahoo) allow you to place adverts on their pages that show up when people do searches. You only pay when a user clicks through to your site from your advert. You choose which keyphrases you want your advert to appear for. PPC is a major way people get visitors to their websites. The other main way is through organic search / SEO. |
| Paid Search | The same as PPC. Getting traffic from search engines who allow you to pay for visitors by the click. |
| Results | This is a bit like Campaigns, but it refers to the number of websites that are listed free in a search engine for a phrase. Most keyword research tools will give you an idea of the number of results for each keyphrase you research. It's a rough guide to the competition you'll face to get listed under each keyphrase. |
| SEO | Search Engine Optimization. Trying to get free visitors from the search engines. The process involves altering your website's structure, webpage text and getting websites to link to yours. The aim is to get your pages to show up when people use the search engines to find products like yours. Keyword research is vital here because you must first know which keyphrases you wish to appear under when your customers perform searches. |
Where next?
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The best software I've found |
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Comparison of the major programs |
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Reviews of Keyword Research software |
