SEO Tip: Top 3 Google Tools for Keyword Research

Keyword Research requires an in-depth analysis of user search volume for each keyword idea.  Google is still the top search engine so we will use its statistical tools in performing keyword research.

Google has three search volume analysis tools namely:

1. Google Adword: Keyword Tool
2. Google Insights for Search
3. Google Trends 

Google Adword: Keyword Tool 

The Google Adword: Keyword Tool is a vital tool for keyword research. You can get the global and local search volumes for keyword ideas.  This is helpful in determining what keyword ideas have high, medium, and low search volumes and its relative level of competition.

You can search for keyword ideas by entering a keyword related to your business or service or a URL to a page containing content related to your business or service. Or, you can go straight to filtering keyword categories.

There are different settings for generating results.  The most important ones for SEO are listed below.

Option Settings:

Match Type:

• Broad match: 
• The sum of the search volumes for the keyword idea, related grammatical forms, synonyms and related words
• Phrase match: 
• The sum of the search volumes for all terms that include that whole phrase
• Exact match: 
• The search volume for that keyword idea

      Set as "EXACT" in order to get the most accurate volume for a specific keyword idea.

[ ] Only show ideas closely related to my search terms
       - Select this option to see only results that include your original search terms.  All closely related terms will be listed.  Disable this if you want more keyword ideas instead of a more targeted listing.

Advanced Options:
    Locations and Languages

       - Changing the country and language settings here will affect:

• The language of your keyword results.
• The statistics used to calculate Monthly Searches 

          Useful if you want to target a specific country such as for Google Places-related search volume.

Google Insights for Search

With Google Insights for Search, you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties. You can compare up to five search terms or groupings at one time, with up to 25 search terms in each grouping (use the plus sign to create a grouping). Click + Add search term to add a search term or a grouping; to remove a search term, click the x next to it.


You can choose which parameter you want to focus on by selecting the appropriate radio button next to the corresponding search box. For instance, if you want to compare two locations, select the radio button next to Locations.  You can compare up to five locations by clicking + Add another. Click the x next to a location to dismiss it. Then, click Search.  Similarly, if you want to compare different time frames, select the radio button next to Time ranges.



Google Trends

Google Trends shows how often a particular search-term is entered relative to the total search-volume across various regions of the world, and in various languages. Google Trends also allows the user to compare the volume of searches between two or more terms. An additional feature of Google Trends is in its ability to show news related to the search-term overlaid on the chart, showing how new events affect search popularity.

Use these three Google tools in performing your keyword research especially for generating Google Places-targeted keyword ideas.   These tools will help you create a keyword list by region for your local search-targeted campaigns.

After you have prepared your keyword list, you can then start building your website and/or Google Places listing SEO strategies.

SEO Tip: Top 5 Image Search Optimization Tips

Image search optimization especially for the Google search engine requires following standards and some Internet marketing savvy. 

Ever notice that the Google Web Search returns results from its  relevant indexed images especially if the search keyword is a popular name,product, or celebrity?

Here are my Top Five Tips for Image Search Optimization:

1. Use Target Keywords for Filenames
2. Follow File Naming Conventions
3. Don't Forget The IMG Tag Alt Attributes
4. Use Image Captions
5. Use Social Media Sites

Use  Target Keywords for Filenames

First, you need to determine your target keywords.  What are your focus keywords?  You need to perform a keyword research by yourself or hire a professional like an SEO Expert to help you.

The target keywords should be integrated to the image filenames.  Make sure that the names are short,descriptive, and not spammy or Google will notice it.


Follow File Naming Conventions

Website owners usually upload images from their picture folders loaded with images from digital cameras.  These pictures are usually named sequentially by the camera software (e.g. IMG_0001.JPG).   These default names won't help your optimization at all.

You need to rename these files manually to provide more relevant names for each image.  For compound names, it is recommended to use hyphens ("-") as word separators.

For example:

1. ferrari-logo1.jpg
2. apples-red-and-green.jpg
3. steve-jobs-apple.jpg

 Don't Forget The IMG Tag Alt Text

I've seen a lot of website owners and webmasters fail to include the "Alt" attribute text on their websites' IMG tags.  The "Alt" text is used by Google and other search engines for indexing images.  The "Alt" text on each image should be UNIQUE, short, descriptive, and not spammy.


Use Image Captions

Under each website image should be a keyword-rich caption that describes what the picture is all about.  The captions help the search engines in determining the relevancy of the images to the target keywords or key phrases.


Use Social Media Sites

Don't forget the importance of Social Media sites. Use Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and other photo-sharing sites as part of your web visibility efforts.   You can also share the images on top social bookmarking sites like Digg and Reddit.  The more varied the websites that host your images, the more Google will give value to these images.



The keyword rankings of these images may take from two to three months to reach the first page on Google's Image Search results.  This will depend mostly on your competitors and your image optimization efforts.

Hope you learned something.