How to Avoid Targeting the Wrong Keywords
Video Transcript
One of the biggest dangers when you’re starting an Internet business is targeting the wrong keywords.
Many beginners and even experienced marketers sometimes fall into the trap of targeting incomplete keyword phrases or phrases with keywords in the wrong order. This can lead to many weeks or months of wasted time and effort.
In this video we’ll be taking a look at how to avoid this trap by using keyword phrase permutations.
Specifically, we’ll be covering:
What phrase permutations are
Why they are important
How to investigate permutations using Market Samurai
Definition of a Permutation
In the context of using Market Samurai, a keyword phrase permutation is simply a rearrangement of the words that make up the phrase.
The easiest way to understand this is to take a look at an example.
The phrase ‘dog training collar’ has 6 possible permutations:
(1) dog training collar
(2) dog collar training
(3) training dog collar
(4) training collar dog
(5) collar dog training
(6) collar training dog
As you can see each of these permutations is simply a rearrangement of the words in the original phrase.
Why Permutations Are Important
Let’s now take a look at why these permutations are important.
Occasionally Google returns keyword phrases in a misleading word order. You can identify these phrases in Market Samurai by their low Phrase to Broad Match Ratio values. For example the phrase ‘dog train’ shown here has a PBR value of just 6% which indicates that these words are not commonly searched for in this order.
If you mistakenly target one of these misleading phrases, you can fall into the trap of spending weeks or months optimizing your website only to find that you receive little or no traffic. This is why we usually filter out terms with a low PBR value.
Digging Deeper
However, if you’re interested in digging a little deeper, you can sometimes uncover some great keyword phrases to target by investigating phrases that have a high level of SEO traffic and a low PBR.
Example Using Market Samurai
Let’s take a look at an example to illustrate how this strategy works.
Once again I’ll start with the example of ‘dog training’.
Access Keyword Research Module
First of all, I’ll access the keyword research module...
Generate Keywords
...and click the generate keywords button to generate a list of related phrases.
Analyze Keywords
I’ll then come down and click the ‘Analyze Keywords’ button...
Display SEO Traffic and Phrase to Broad Match Ratio
...and as you can see, I’ve chosen to display the SEO traffic and the PBR columns.
Sort Data By Low To High PBR
Now this time I’ll click on the PBR column heading TWICE in order to display the PBR values from lowest to highest.
Examine Data
As I scan down this list, what I’m looking for is a phrase that has a high SEOT value and a low PBR value. Let’s say - under 10%.
For example, let’s take a look at ‘dog training obedience’.
Create New Keyword Tab
To examine this phrase in more detail, I’ll begin by coming over here and clicking this key icon, which gives me a new tab with the term ‘dog training obedience’ as the new seed keyword.
Access New Tab
I’ll click on this tab and then...
Access Keyword Research Module
...access the Keyword Research module again...
Generate Permutations
...and this time I’ll click the ‘Add Permutations’ button.
Analyze Keywords
Market Samurai then generates all the permutations of the phrase I’m investigating.
Having generated these permutations, I can come down and click the Analyze Keywords button.
Retrieve Data
And with the SEOT and PBR columns being displayed, I can click the Analyze Keywords button to get my data.
Examine Data
In this example I can see that one of my permutations has a high PBR, and it seems to make logical sense that people would be searching for ‘dog obedience training’ rather than ‘dog training obedience’.
Check Exact Match Type
You’ll also notice that with the match type set to ‘broad’, all my permutations have the same SEO Traffic value, however, if I change the match type to exact, I can see the difference in traffic potential for each of my permutations.
Identify High Traffic, High PBR Permutation
The reason this is so important is that it allows me to identify the high traffic permutation and avoid these other low traffic permutations.
Quick Recap
So let me just recap what we’ve done here.
We started with the seed keyword ‘dog training’ and generated a list of related phrases. Next, we dug a little deeper and identified a phrase that had high traffic and a low PBR value which was ‘dog training obedience’.
We then explored the permutations of this phrase and discovered that one of these permutations had a much higher PBR.
By doing this analysis we were able to identify that the phrase ‘dog obedience training’ would be a much better phrase to target than any of the other permutations.
We also avoided the trap of building our business around one of the low traffic permutations which might have been disastrous.
A Second Way to Use Permutations
OK - Let’s now take a look at a second way to use the keyword permutations feature in Market Samurai.
Sometimes when you conduct a permutation analysis, you will discover that ALL of your permutations have a low PBR.
One possible reason for this is that there is a word missing in the phrase you are analyzing.
Targeting a partial keyword phrase can be just as bad as optimizing for the wrong keyword combination. Once again, you can spend lots of time, energy and money to build a website only to discover later that you’ve overlooked an important word.
Let’s take a look at an example so you can see exactly how this works.
Example
In this example, I’m going to analyze the phrase ‘solid metal’.
Access Keyword Research Module
So to begin with, I’ll access the Keyword Research module...
Generate Permutations
...and this time I’ll come over here and click the ‘Add Permutations’ button, and then click ‘Analyze Keywords’.
Retrieve Data
And now with the SEOT and PBR columns being displayed, I’ll click the ‘Analyze Keywords’ button to obtain my data.
Examine Data
As you can see this search term has an incredibly high SEO Traffic value but both permutations have an extremely low PBR.
High SEOT + Low PBR on ALL Permutations
Whenever you see this pattern of a high SEO Traffic value combined with a low PBR on ALL permutations, it is worth checking whether there is a word missing in your search phrase.
Return To Generate Keywords Screen
A good way to search for missing words is to use the ‘Google Search Keywords’ option in Market Samurai. To do this I’ll first click the ‘Modify Keywords’ button...
Include Google Search Keywords
...and then I’ll come up here and check the 'Google Search Keywords' checkbox.
Generate Related and Long Tail Keywords
I can then come across and click the ‘Generate Keywords’ button. This will allow me to generate longer tail keywords associated with my original seed keyword ‘solid metal’.
Analyze Keywords
And when the keywords come back, I’ll click the ‘Analyze Keywords’ button.
Sort by SEOT
If I sort these results by SEO traffic, I can see that the phrase ‘metal gear solid’ has an even higher SEO Traffic value than my original seed keyword and more importantly a PBR of 100% which means this is a term that people are actually searching for.
This also suggests that the high SEOT values for the phrase ‘solid metal’ are actually due to the large number of people searching for the computer game ‘Metal Gear Solid’.
Check Exact Type Data
I can verify this by changing the match type from broad to exact.
Review SEOT of Seed Keyword
And if I scroll down you’ll see that the SEOT value for the term ‘solid metal’ has dropped from a broad match figure of over 46000 to just 7!
Now if I’d targeted the term ‘solid metal’ thinking that I’d discovered an untapped niche, I could have easily spent a lot of time, effort and money optimizing my website around a phrase that was missing a critical keyword. But thankfully by investigating phrase permutations I can avoid making this kind of costly mistake.
Summary
The concepts we’ve covered in this video can be a little tricky to understand so let’s just take a moment to clarify the strategies that we’ve looked at and explain when you should actually use them.
If you come across a phrase that has a high SEO Traffic value and a low PBR, the first thing you should do is generate all the permutations of the phrase and analyze them to see if one of these permutations has a high PBR. This will allow you to identify the best word order of a particular phrase.
If when you generate these phase permutations, you discover that they ALL have a low PBR, then the next step is to check for missing words using the Google Search Keyword option which generates longer tail derivative phrases.
It’s important to realize that Market Samurai is a very powerful and open ended tool. By understanding concepts such as keyword phrase permutations, you will gradually develop the skill and intuition you need to explore a niche and find the best opportunities to target.
You’ll also be able to avoid the traps of optimizing for keywords in the wrong word order or targeting incomplete phrases, and this will give you a much better chance of long term success.
Search
More Keyword Research Lessons
- Introduction to Keyword Research
- Golden Rule #1: How to Find Relevant Keywords
- Golden Rule #2: How to Find High Traffic Keywords
- Golden Rule #3: How to Assess Market Competition
- Golden Rule #4: How to Assess Commerciality
- Golden Rules Case Study
- Finding Long Tail Keywords
- Understanding Match Type Data
- How to Avoid Targeting the Wrong Keywords
What happen when it is high SEOT and very low PBR but SEOC more than 2 million? My presumption is that it is a bad keyword 'cos SEOC is too high. What say you?
Anthony,
Thank you for another bit of great training. One thing that struck me while I was listening to this training (I listened to it and took notes as soon as i received it), was that the goal is to get a HIGH PBR not a low one. It sounded to me to be a little confusing in this training when I heard you mention that you were looking for a high SEOT and a low PBR.
So, just to clarify....the goal is HIGH SEOT and HIGH PBR, right?
Thank you and Merry Christmas dude,
Frank Dobner
It's one more BRILLIANT video! It's exactly one of my problems, and now it's solved!
This is very applicable...I always do research til I'm blue in the face on keywords and even after hours of research I'm still hesitant to pull the trigger and invest all the time needed to build my sites around certain phrases. This answers a lot of questions I didn't ever know how to ask.
Thanks.
Thank you Anthony - you are the best 'splainer:)
This lesson is one of those things often overlooked by me and extremely defining in the big picture. I truly appreciate the MS tool for this fine distinction of a fine point in keyword research.
Just a quick note to say that you rock. Your training is superb and is second to none. Nothing or no-one can even come close.
Market Samurai is simply the BEST.
Have a wonderful Christmas all of you at MS.
Cecil
Great video once again. I appreciate you clarifying PBR and how to discover the correct keyword using the permutation method. I can't wait until we get further into the program as there are so many things to learn.
Job Well Done!
Awesome video. Never would've thought of that. Thanks!
Hello,
Your video ans training note are one of the very best I have had. As a 63 year old newbe to the internet I have brought a lot of ---- from some of the top people
I have just checked a the key words for to the second website I am setting up and I am so glad you sent me this information. Only one word was any good.
It is now 8pm thursday evening and early tomorrow i am going to run through the key words of my first website.
Many thanks again, and Happy Christmas. Tom
I can see how this is really important, and great to know, thanks to you.
Thanks for taking the time to make these great videos
Another valuable insight Anthony.
Made me think about words which can be spelt in different ways or words that can be split. The most common one in our space is the word cashflow. Now is this Cash Flow or Cashflow. I'm going to obviously try this in market samurai but it seems to fall within the realm of permutation.
http://www.onesherpa.com
This is very true. People don't always think, or search, the way we think they will. Then, there are people that mistype, or misspell words. It's good to have something that helps find what we should use.
Thank You so very much for your help and concern, with the way you video and picture our direction on matter that make an online business run. This shows that you have good marketing skills and intention. Please keep up the GOOD work, out of all the instructor that out here your are the best, and I said this through experence.
This one is absolutely brilliant doc. Thanks! :) As a thumb rule what PBR% would you say is indicative of problems.
You just pleasantly surprise me by giving me something I can really use.
I vote for more of these tutorials on how to solve the difficulties that arise during SEO research.
Kudos!
this video tutorial is amazing, its very usefull for me. great job and thanks again.
The MS training is so important. Otherwise, I would have not able to find exact keywords that really attract the trafic.
Thanks Dr Anthony
Freakin' PRICELESS video, thanks for sharing with everyone! I know well and truly that the information in this one could save many beginners months or even YEARS of wasted work and frustration.. So if you're new to the keyword and market research game then do yourself a huge favour and watch this video over and over again until you've got it imprinted in your mind. Especially the tip on checking the traffic numbers using 'exact match' filter... Priceless! I've been very impressed with all your new videos so far also, incredible work!
Also, your training is seamless, brilliantly done Anthony- you're an amazing teacher.. Thanks very much.
Kieren
Excellent video explanation! Should we still be limiting out PBR to 15 as you have suggested in other videos?
Just tested it out with some of my keywords. Looks like this video saved me a couple of months.
Snake? SNAKE?!?! SSSSSSSSSSSNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
Thank you Anthony,
This may explain where I went wrong with my new site. Question: Is there any way to recover if you've chosen a low PBR phrase to optimize your site or do you simply dump it and start over?
Needed this video about 2 weeks ago:)
Excellent video! Thanks for making these available with this wonderful program.
I will not say any more because Kieren said it so well in his post.
What an incredible eye-opener this video was. I don't think I have ever had things explained in a clearer way than they way Dr. Anthony presents in this series of videos.
I can't wait to see what comes next!
Julie
WoW - You guys are great I LOVE Your Ongoing Help and Training - I always learn something I have been missing.
Thanks So much
Dale
Another great lesson. These videos are a very rare example of a teacher showing one concept at a time, in a way that is easy to grasp and makes us feel that our own expertise is increasing week by week.
I look forward to the next one with excitement
The devil is in the details,too much information on the web leaves out the details,probably because the person selling or giving the information doesn't know either.What to do but not how is a common hook to try and draw people in. Anthony makes the details easy to grasp,thanks again.
Great video, but too late - I made such mistake last year twice...
Thanks a lot Dr. Fernando.
This training really help me solve my problem from the first time I started Internet Marketing.
God Bless U Dr. Fernando.
This video was very helpful. I'm now concerned about what keywords I have targeted that fall under this category of the wrong keywords.
Time to go check it out...
Another perfectly done tutorial. Great product, great support/
Great video, so basic yet so many people, myself included. Don't know how many times i have built a site around a term I thought would get thousands of hits only to get next to nothing. This is exactly why. Great video.
Just wanted to say that I've just gone over all the new training Anthony, and I have totally understood the methods your teaching us.
Your teaching style relates well with me and I want to thank you for that.
"It’s important to realize that Market Samurai is a very powerful and open ended tool"
Your training has been fundamental to helping me realise this fact about MS and why all those features are actually there! Thanks, looking forward to more.
Thanks , you are great teacher , very well explanation,looking forward to learning more from you .
you have the best information.You have the exact guides that i need to understand more how to get the most traffic.thanks to samurai tool.
These videos are some of the best training videos I have ever seen. Clear, concise, and a real eye-opener to the power of MS. Thank you so much for taking the time to make these. They are invaluable.
Thanks, much appreciated, learn something with each lessons, or the \"penny drops\" where I was confused.
Happy holidays to one and all.
Excellent clear instruction, thank you.
Another great training video! Thank you so much. Looking forward to learning more. :)
Great video... this material is greatly appreciated.
Question: Would it be advisable to click the google &/or permutations options right off the start or just when you see low PBR to SEOT numbers?
Thanks,
Jim
This is absolutely fantastic. Sheds a totally new light on keyword research. Very clear and succinct. MS crew - you are simply the best!
Konnichiwa, Sensi Anthony
I am beginning to understand the power of the tool you have built. I have done a comparison of your process outlined in the video series to date vs what I have been doing. I am excited to see what kind of results I get.
Dōmo arigatō
I'm so glad I tool the plunge and bought Market Samurai and then plunged into the keyword research lessons. I have gotten the most understanding out of this. Market Samurai was my Christmas present and now I will do my first research using it and be successful in my New Year.
Thanks for the invitation to the Dojo Dr. Anthony Fernando and I will make the most of my opportunity with Market Samurai. I look forward to a successful future.
@Frank
RE: high or low PBR
Yes, the aim is to get a keyword with high PBR and high traffic.
Low PBR with high traffic indicates that different word orders are more commonly searched. In these situations you should open a new keyword tab and check for permutations.
I wish I knew this before I started my first website 2 months ago! I think all of my keywords have high SEOT but low PBR. =( Anyway, supposed I do find high traffic, high PBR keywords, do I then proceed with the competition analysis as taught in Golden Rule #3? and also Golden Rule #4? I foresee that it would be more challenging to find high traffic, high PBR, and low competition, high commerciality keywords... But I guess no pain, no gain! =)
You won\'t find this kind of information for keyword research anywhere in a commercial IM product -let alone find it in a software product support, except Market Samurai of course.
Outstanding Training video !
Thanks & GBU.
best investment I've done so far in IM business and I bought lot of things.
Great Training and MS rocks.
Thanks guys.
Great training, I've been through it several times and it's excellent. The documentation is also good in support, my only suggestion would be to put a cheat sheet together (I made one myself) and give folks a step by step walk through on a single sheet. I did one and it has 43 steps and I use it as a control sheet when I'm going through my searches. Great Product, great support.