Nate Finch

All the things, keeping it clever…🤓

Resources for SEO and Keyword Research

ā€”

by

Nate
in ,

(This post is the result of a question from James. If you have any questions, please let me know and I’ll see what resources I can send your way).

This post compiles everything I know about SEO and Keyword Research. It is summed up in the resources below that I used to learn and implement a few things along the way. Disclosure: I haveĀ NOTĀ made millions on SEO and Keyword research (which is why this article is free:-)!).

The Most Important Thing(s) to Remember

Reading this list and implementing everything and more from these articles and resourceĀ mayĀ make you MILLIONS. If it does, please see the tip jar on my website;-). However, it probably won’t. The people have done extremely well with this have really stuck with, made it their full-time job and worked overtime hours, and go deep with it.

I personally don’t want to do that with my time, but you might. Different strokes for different folks.

Amazing SEO, Ranking on page #1 in Google for the term “underwater fly fishing”, AND earning an income from it that will support your lifestyle is highly unlikely.

These resources are meant to do the following:

  • Teach you the tip of the iceberg about how to “optimize your site for SEO”
  • Make you aware of what Google is looking for when it crawls your site (as well as other search engines)
  • Make you aware of some of the people who are doing well with SEO and how they think.
  • Teach you how to think about SEO and Keyword Research.

“ā€œThe problem is never the problem. The problem is that you donā€™t even know how to think about the problem.ā€ –Ā Dan Sullivan

So, on with the biggest, darkest web you’ll ever wander into.

Have fun!

People to Follow

  • Mark Mason’sĀ Late Night Internet Marketing PodcastĀ is my go-to podcast for all things SEO, Niche and Affiliate site related (especiallyĀ this latest episodeĀ on the state of SEO in 2014).
  • Pat Flynn’s links and resources forĀ Niche Site Duel 1.0Ā andĀ Niche Site Duel 2.0. Different strategies for different times, but it’s good to have the background for everything, especially what is currently “working”.
  • Market Samurai’sĀ YouTube Channel: good stuff, and great insights.
  • Niche PursuitsĀ (especially the section on Niche Site Projects),Ā Niche Site ToolsĀ andĀ Internet Business QuestionsĀ all offer great content on SEO, Keyword Research and all things Niche.
  • Empire Flippers: Great content and podcast from folks who have built a successful business out of building sites and selling them.
  • Conversion Rate Experts: The key to making any website profitable is NOT traffic, but “conversion rate”. These guys will blow your mind.
  • Matt Cutts: Matt is Google’s main spokesperson on how Google does SEO. He’s worth listening to, and then seeing what everyone else above on this list interprets what he says.
  • Andrew Hansen is an expert, BUT does not publish a lot of stuff as of late. The best place to follow him is on TwitterĀ here.

Tools Iā€™ve Used or Recommend Checking Out

Free and Paid Available:

  • Google Keyword Planner. For keyword research. You’ll want an AdWords account (which you can get with a Gmail account). Actually, it’s really important to understand how AdWords works in relationship. Sara Young put a geood video together on how to use the plannerĀ here. Always remember: Google’s customers are folks that pay them with AdWords.
  • Google Analytics: It’s essential to know what is happening on your website, and Google Analytics can take a lot of mystery out of the guesswork of what folks do when they get to your site. For a great introduction on how to use this service, check out the FREEĀ Google Analytics Academy.
  • Ahrefs: Use this site to check the backlinks and referring domains of your competition, or to check your own backlinks.
  • Moz Opensite Explore: See article from Moz about the “long tail” below. This site is very similar to ahrefs.com
  • SEO Quake: similar to Ahrefs and OSE, but is a plugin for Firefox that gives you a TON of information about Google search results and sites you visit.
  • SEM Rush: use this site to study a site’s traffic and keywords that it is ranking for.
  • SERPFoxandĀ Rank Checker: Use these services to track how your site is doing in the rankings on Google and other major search engines based on keywords.
  • SEO Book: This is another keyword research and suggestion tool (I haven’t used it much, but it’s got a lot of good resources).
  • WordPress SEO by Yoast: This is a fantastic plugin to ensure that the posts on your (self-hosted) WordPress site are optimized for certain keywords.
    Paid:
    You might want to invest in some keyword research tools. These are all great services and help speed up and ensure excellent keyword research. All of these services have introductory videos that I would recommend watching about their products. Also, you should use the trial offers to get a feel for each service. I’ve tried these three (on trial versions) and would rank them in the following order:
  • Market Samurai: This was probably my favorite, very well thought out, an industry leader.
  • Keyword Canine: The most unique, keyword “sniffer” tool was pretty cool.
  • LongTail Pro: Accounts for “link juice” and a few other things.
    All are very good services. If I ever pay for one though, I think Market Samurai gives you the most bang for your buck (*Note, I am NOT an affiliate for them, but if I did pay for their product I could and would be an affiliate, I think they’re that good).

Top Articles to Read

You can read whatever you like. There’s TONs of stuff out there. However, these are some good “fountains”. Honestly, I don’t read much about SEO and Keyword research.

  • ThisĀ is THE article you should start with (then read the rest of the related articles). Then readĀ thisĀ one. And then pay attention to what Rand Fishkin and Moz have to say. Done.
  • Mark Mason’sĀ episode #72Ā on his Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast. Again, it’s important to keep up with the times on SEO and Keyword Research.
  • Again, Pat Flynn’sĀ Ā Niche Site Duel 1.0Ā andĀ Niche Site Duel 2.0Ā are great reads on the subject.
    I hope this helps a bit. As always, if you have any questions, please let me know!

How much time have I spent learning about SEO, Keyword research and Rankings?: 120+hours

How much money have I made from affiliate marketing?: about $150 in AdSense and Affiliate commissions (so far).

How much do I feel like I know about this?: Not even the tip of the iceberg!