Keyword Stats VS Keyword Concepts: The Human Element To Your Website

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I've come across more than a few discussions lately about keyword confusion, so I wanted to make this post to help someone struggling with keywords. This won't be a "comprehensive" understand everything from step 1 style of post, but a unique explainer that can be a next step to understanding how keywords work and why we use them.

THE Core Keyword Concept

At it's heart, a keyword is just an article topic. If keyword metrics are confusing you, forget about numbers for a second and remind yourself why you are writing this article: someone is searching in Google for information.

What is the topic of your article (blog post)?

Make sure your topic is in the title so people know what your post is about, and make sure to introduce your topic properly at the beginning of the article. (Using descriptive paragraph headings can also help people see an overview of the content flow as they skim your article. )

So aside from all the numbers of how many searches VS how much competition, we just want to discover what people are search for, and write articles about those topics.

Why Even Use A Keyword Tool?

Well, if Jaaxy is just spitting out numbers, why even use it? Why not just brainstorm ideas by yourself?

Jaaxy can tell us which topics are searched the most, and which topics are the most competitive. Jaaxy can help us organize our time, and organize our website efficiently.

For a brand new website, it's important to target low competition phrases.

You want to structure your website so your core articles (pillar pages) target frequently-used phrasing. For example: (numbers are traffic)

backyard chicken cage<10backyard chicken coop364

It's the same concept, but what should my core article title be?

How To Build A Backyard Chicken Cage

or

How To Build A Backyard Chicken Coop

Obviously, number two is the better choice.

What about QSR (Competition): (numbers are QSR)

backyard chicken coop designs41raising backyard chickens258

What's easier to rank for with a new website?

10 Free Backyard Chicken Coop Designs

or

How To Raise Backyard Chickens

The first option will be easier to rank for with a new website that doesn't have a lot of authority.

Jaaxy helps us make desisions about what to write about, and how to write about it.

Jaaxy VS Human Thinking Power

When you get started looking for keywords, many people (including myself) get stuck limiting your articles to what a keyword tool tells you. It's important to keep in mind that a keyword tool is just that - a tool.

It's only going to spit out data, and can't think about what's a good or not-so-good keyword.

You must engage your brain to figure that stuff out!

From time to time I see someone "discover" an incredible, lifechaning keyword. It's usually something like this:

invest gold bullion6777115350

Wow! Almost 7,000 searches and only 50 competition!

But wait. Nobody writes like that. I talked about this concept in my post about bad grammar keywords. Since nobody writes with poor grammar, there are very few websites showing as "competing" for this phrase.

At the same time, people searching are lazy, so they don't use correct grammar when searching. This combinatin means that some keywords will show up as having high searches with low competition.

Think about it though - how will you write your blog post? You'll most likely make your title "How To Invest In Gold Bullion". Check these keyword instead. Since "how to" doesn't change the meaning of the phrase, look up:

invest in gold bullion

invest in gold bullion67771153145

Suddenly the QSR jumps to 145. More websites are competing for this phrase! Should you use "invest in gold" for your keyword instead stats instead? No. Investing in "gold" can be different from "gold bullion". There's likely a bit of crossover though so it's worth checking, but I woudln't focus on those stats.

I'm starting to get off track here a bit. The main idea I want to convey is to think about the topic of your post to determine what your keyword is.

Example: best cat toy

Articles:

Best Cat Toy For Young Cats
Best Cat Toy For Senior Cats

So your keyword transforms to something different by making it more specific. Though you started with the keyword of "best cat toy", by adding additional phrasing you changed the meaning of your post, therefore changed your keyword.

From the example above, here are your your keywords:

toys senior cats56101best toy young cats<10<100

Since "young cats" is weird phrasing and has no searches, I'll change that to use a different keyword:

best toys kittens136242

...and Jaaxy proves itself useful again, helping me discover a great blog post idea while searching for "best toys for kittens":

best toys teething kittens2450

Now I can use the "alphabet soup" feature of Jaaxy to search for toys for specific types of kittens.

Another Example Of Thinking About Keywords

You should not try to game the system by writing posts about keywords similar in concept but just with different grammar or metrics. For example:

  • Best Cat Toys
  • Best Toys For Cats
  • Best Toy For My Cat

They are basically the same thing. Pick one, and ignore the other. Search engines are smart and will not perceive these multiple articles on different topics.

HOWEVER, you can transform those similar keywords and make them different concepts. Still using "best cat toys":

Best Cat Toys That Have Catnip Inside
Best Toys For Cat That Simulate Hunting

At that point though, as pointed out above in the previous example, these have now transformed into new keywords. They are no longer "best toys for cats" keywords. They are unique keywords:

best catnip toys cats56106cat toys hunt<10<1035

In this case, the "hunt" phrasing isn't pull up much searches, so I'll change the phrasing but keep the concept.

interactive cat toys49384174

Better!


What do you think? Does this explain keywords more clearly, or muddy the waters and make it more confusing?

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Recent Comments

37

I believe that you have defined keywords and keyword usage very well, Nathaniell. Thank you for the clarifications.

Candice

Thanks Candice!

So, something I’ve always wondered about I think just got answered. I’ll ask anyway. If my chosen keywords are “big green monster,” if I title my post “How to kill a big green monster” does it change my keyword? And does changing a poor grammar keyword by adding words to make it proper alter it with the search engines? I think the answer is yes to both questions.
Grant

I think in your first example your post can still rank for "big green monster". If not, then I have to re-train again, not the first repeat lol.

In my opinion YES. The meaning of your post changed, therefore your keyword changed. It depends on how you write the post but if the focus is on how to kill it, then your keyword would be "how to kill big green monster" or "kill big green monster".

If your post focused on explaining "what is a big green monster", then your keyword would more likely be "big green monster".

Depending on your competition, as well as the content of your article, you may show up for all of the above keywords!

Adding words that don’t have meaning like “to” or “a” doesn't change the keyword. Same with switching the order.

Google will autocorrect anyway, so you kind of have to estimate between the bad grammar and good grammar keyword to determine competition (in my opinion).

Cool. Thanks, Nathaniell

Thanks so much.

Definitely explains using keywords more effectively. Thanks for sharing!

Glad it helped Max!

Keyword stats or keyword concepts both are very good things to know but as you stated the human part of the equation has to be able to discern which is best or possibly go a different path altogether.
Jerry

Supplementary ideas / concepts on Keyword to ponder with. Thanks Nathaniell. . .

Well said you are only limited by how well you can use Jaaxy.

Thanks Nathaniell, really helpful!

Wayne

No problem Wayne!

Keywords can be confusing and this is a great new way to look at them.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen

Hope it helped!

Thanks for that.

Glad to help Stanley!

Great job Nathaniel. I find that people are too fixated on the metrics rather than the general concept and spirit of keyword research.

Thanks Eddy!

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