SEO 2020 FORUM

[TimS]

I'm no stranger to keyword research, but I'm confused as to what you are telling us to do according to "the plan" when it comes to keyword research.

It has always been my practice to go after the low hanging fruit (pardon the expression) and to build many, many pages for those keywords. Now it is my understanding that we can rank well for the higher competition keywords using the plan?

What do you do when choosing keywords? Do you do a competition search? Do you pay attention to KEI? (I use wordtracker) If so, do you search with quotes on and off, and what KEI do you look for before you will use a keyword?

I'm starting today with 2 people writing quality articles every day for my sites, I'll be adding several more people this week. I want to make sure that I'm not targeting keywords that are out of my league, and wasting time competing in a field that is too big for me.

It is my goal to have 75 - 100 quality sites online using the plan as a guideline by the end of the year.

Thank You.

[themezoom]

Hi,

I have been in several forums where this confusion about "the plan" is evident.

Following this entry, I will post a conversation I had with another person in Jill Whalen's "high ranking" forum.

The Plan is a BASIC silo stucture. It has never been more than that. The brilliance is not so much WHAT it is, but the simplicity with which Charles has been able to lay it out.

In fact, when I studied with Bruce Clay, he trained us on the "advanced plan" using the http://www.cabellas.com website. He taught us about themeing and silo structures- but he would implement more than one on a website. (which we, at the time, called a Portal).

The purpose of "the plan" is to get indexed around a basic frameword and let the spiderbot make no mistake about adsense or anything else. Basic site map, basic subject matter- inevitable result=

This site is DEFINITELY about GOLF!

There is no WAY it can be about SHOES.

This is because the site has been well themed based on Site Map.

In fact when Bruce Clay was working on http://www.cabellas.com the domain was http://www.cabellasonline.com while he was setting up the infrastructure- and it was mainly just a site map from what I remember.

Read the post following this, and you will understand how yoiu back yourself into HIGH HANGING FRUIT over a reasonable amount of time following the plan and the "theme zoom" plan if you have graduated from "the plan". They are essentially the same, mine just uses more "plans" in one site. But stick to "the plan" until you are absolutely certain of how themeing works.

Here are my basic tutorial videos onhow to implement "the plan" and how to implement my "tz" plan.

- Russell : themezoom dot com

http://www.theme-zoom.com/pfdogs/the-plan-step-one.html


http://www.theme-zoom.com/pfdogs/the-plan-step-two.html


http://www.theme-zoom.com/pfdogs/the-plan-step-three.html


http://www.theme-zoom.com/pfdogs/the-plan-step-four.html

[themezoom]

Here is a conversation I had with someone in the High Rankings forum: classic SEO contradiction and useful to consider.

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Hi, I have a problem with a client:

I have a client who rank's on page 1 and 2 for some very competitive keywords, although he ranks for competitive keywords, the volume of traffic overall does not increase.

example: using keyword discovery a keyword such as "keyword" has a search of 1,000,000. The keyword ranks on page 1 for Google. Some other keywords that are targeted on this page rank on page 2 - 3 in Google results.

If I look at the internal reports to see how many visits the page receives its very low.
The client that I'm working with does not want to continue optimizing more page if the numbers will be this low for competitive keywords.

Can I be targeting the wrong keywords? Please note that my competitors are in the top 4 for the same keyword.

Should I change the copy on these pages. Each page is optimized for 3 - 4 keywords.

I know this might be too much too ask, but can anyone tell me how I can handle a situation like this with the client?

In distress unsure.gif

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Theme Zoom response:



Hello,

I am the CEO of Theme Zoom, which is a keyword research tool and service designed to combat the very issues you are facing. Alas neither Theme Zoom, nor any keyword research tool will solve this internal contradiction you struggle with.

In my experience, the answer to this question depends PROFOUNDLY on your business model.

Have you read Jill Whalen's how to write for the search engines e-book?

Suggestions:

What keywords are in your web log files? Leave no stone unturned. These are keywords visitors use to arrive on the site- as you know. I know you are only interested in the terms visitors are NOT using when your client is paying for that service. I had to deal with a client in a similar situation which was demanded that I “re-educate” or “fire” him.

; - )

Web log keywords: keywords visitors have already used to discover your website.

We call these "effective" keywords. Contained within "effective" keywords are also phrases we call "unexpected" keywords.

Have you looked at those?

These words provide a GOLDMINE of information about the behavior of your visitors- along with the average time on the website and other juicy details.

Crack into those terms, and you will start to crack into your true client base.

And guess what?

You don't need keyword tools to do that . . . not even mine (damn it).

Question:

Whos idea was it to optimize for difficult terms? Is that an idea that you GAVE your client, or an idea that he already had when he hired you??

Owning difficult terms over time involves excellent inbound link strategy COMBINED with writing excellent content for your authentic visitor. I know you know this. Yet- when someone is paying you top dollar for those results that are not happening . . . I know what it must feel like.

There is a huge long argument inside this (Jill's) forum about Latent Semantic Indexing - what it IS and what it is not. Both sides are wrong. ; - )

The bottom line is that I have clients ranking highly for terms that are not even on the damn page! Yet, there they are . . . right on the SERP. (Search Engine Results Page).

It is a real “mind blower” the first time you see it.

It's like "uh-oh, hot dog". Everything I thought I knew is wrong. (Sorry watching too much Mad TV).

We need to re-educate our client-base! Is it about "high ranking" or is it about conversion of profits. Starting to sound like Jill's motto ay?

Obviously for you, as a service provider- if success means getting your client a high ranking immediately- or he stops paying you - well . . .

I keep finding that what my clients REALLY want is qualified and responsive traffic. I also find that I have had to educate them on the difference between this and "high ranking". I ALSO find they will pay for this once they understand the value.

No. Really. They will.

Of course I had to fire some clients who wanted to rank number one on "viagra" . . . or else send them to my friend G*. (censored). You get my point.

So the Theme Zoom philosophy is to cast a wide net with excellent content- representing your product/service as a subject matter expert. Create an inbound link strategy that matches your well thought-out 3-4 keywords per page. You will unlikely rank well for them without a well Silo'd strategy. The real purpose of Silo structures for me is to get a handle on keyword strategy over the long haul.

Theme your site using the basic silo structure taught by Bruce Clay. Using Silo structure and basic theme-ing – so you can back yourself into broad and difficult phrases in a reasonable amount of time while still getting traffic on less competitive but related keyword terms. That is the single reason I went out and created my own keyword tool- because I wanted the keywords organized in a way that made sense for long term optimization- and that sorted out bogus overture keywords. ; - )

Again, no tool will perform the process of a subject matter expert. (Although I am still trying to build one that can).This method is a strategy not a tactic. It DEMANDS a carefully laid out offsite and onsite plan. I can get you ranked very quickly, but it may not be stable until those inbound link relationships and anchor-texts match your targeted themes and keywords.

In summary:

1.

Once you have the "foundation" framework keywords (difficult broad and competitive phrases) that you would like to eventually dominate- start backing into those ambitions with a well laid out content plan and inbound link strategy. Use your "unexpected" keywords discovered in your own web logs on a regular basis. Drill in to them. Research them. Find the "latent" behaviors within them. Write articles on these matters where they apply.

2.

Use expert verbiage in the content of your website- this is verbiage that an author
or an expert would use. An example of that is the "statistically improbable phrases" provided by amazon.com on about 50% of their book pages. These are phrases that are highly unlikely to appear in any other theme or book- therefore they are probably what Theme Zoom calls "expert verbiage". This will become EXTREMELY important in 2007-2008.

3. Keep your sites set on those difficult phrases. Back-engineer the high ranking site for your term . . . time permitting. Text summarize the content using a TS software and especially beware the anchortext of inbound links.

I hope all of this is as clear as mud!

- Russell Wright

[Sinkh]

Whoa! Silo? Theme zoom? Huh?

It's.... happening... again....

Too... much... information...

Head... going... to.... explode....

[Charles Heflin]

A big thanks to Russell with ThemeZoom!

He knows his stuff with regard to keyword research and prioritizing content everyone will do well to listen to his advice and commentaries.

I plan on working closely with Russell to help everyone get clear about keywords and keyword research in regard to building powerful "Plan" based websites.

In his videos above he is showing a great representation of where I am trying to lead lead everyone. The Plan is very simplified to help you grasp the core concept of what Russell calls "Silo Structure".

All major successful websites follow this structure.

Free tutorials are coming soon ... stay tuned

[JoeCool]

[jeremy]

Hi Russel,

I know The Master Plan is not ready yet but was
wondering from your diagram on the videos,

will the Master Plan website have different menus
on different pages, like crediteria.com

The skydivingnow site only had menu links on the
index page and not others.

It seems each menu link will be a mini silo.

Thanks,

Jeremy

[TimS]

Thank you for all the information on keyword research. I'll come back and take a look on Monday. This week has been crazy... father in law in the hospital (he is ok now) and our a/c went out. Next week will be more productive

TimS

[Ahri22]

Bit confused about the Themezoom videos...(well, I understand the principles of the linking...but not about how to integrate with the Plan)

Okay, in the Plan you have a index page, linking to 5 article pages, which link to each other sequentially.

On the video you have an index page, linking to main silos (if that's the right term) which DON'T link to each other. However, they each link to other article pages (for example) which link to each other, and one of these links up to the next silo (on the upper level). (Hope I've explained clearly!!)

So, if we were using the plan, and wanted to build our websites to integrate the deeper structure utilized on the videos, would we make the first five articles main silos, take away the links between each other, and then link each of them to their own sets of pages?

Hope I'm making sense here!!

Or, would we just use the initial structure to get indexed, then remake our sites using the more involved silo structure?

Cheers,
Fiona

[themezoom]

The reason that "the plan" is so kewl, is because of how easy it is to understand.

Nevertheless, folks still write Charles about how they do NOT understand it.

As you may have guessed, I recieve an exponential amount of e-mail asking me to explin advanced techniques and I will be letting you know more about this as soon as possbile.

In the mean time here is some basic info:

http://www.bruceclay.com/newsletter/0505/silo.html

There are many ways to skin a cat. We will go through a couple Silo Structures as well as discuss automated software that will build a keyword skelton allowing you to do this automatically. ( Not yet created).

- Russell