Finding new keywords and phrases

how do you find what people are using to look for a site

[bryanmex]

I have managed to get excellent listings (1st or 2nd in google for various keywords and phrases), but I am trying to figure out what people might also be using to find this type of site. Is there a technique or program that can identify what people are using in search engines to find related sites? Figure I have probably left out a few phrases that might draw some more traffic.

I am in the great position of just trying to refine since I have already managed to optimized the site for the main phrases.

Now if I can just do the same for all of my other clients.

[djriches]

bryanmex... one of the better ones I have seen is from Overture, not sure if I can post the URL but I'll sticky mail it you if you can't find it in Google (try 'Overture search term').

Good to help you expand on a theme of keywords, the frustrating part is seeing how many times your keywords come up in totally unrelated areas ;)

[Marcia]

Thanks, djriches - the Overture one is fine:

[inventory.overture.com...]

bryanmex, another great way is to watch the logs or stats to find odd phrases and word combinations that people use on a reasonably consistent basis.

Sometimes for some sites it can be seasonal, like for certain holidays, so it pays to keep track over time and in those cases make sure to make preparation several months in advance.

One simple way is to be imaginative with phrasing, either with the word order or different length phrases. widgets for the holidays is not the same as holiday widgets. There's also holiday widgets for men, men's holiday widgets and mens holiday widgets - different order, and the apostrophe makes a difference. In the case where people are looking at price, cheap widgets and affordable widgets are added options - plus going for targeted 3 and 4-letter phrases.

Aside from looking for synonyms or alternate words, sometimes there's a lot to work with, with what we already have.

[bryanmex]

Thanks ya'll

The Overture did bring up some interesting ideas. You can never guess exactly what the people will type in. I found some good combinations that I will have to implement in the very near future.

To be quite honest I was a bit surprised with some of the suggestions and how many searches were done on them.

Thanks again

I have learned to visit this site often because the insight is fantastic. Thanks to everyone involved.

[Woz]

Marcia has hit the nail on the head in that your log files will give you lots of ideas once the sice is underway.

Whilst the site is in developement though, I find the following free resources helpfull:-

Google Adwords Suggestions (https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandbox) is good for finding not only phrases that include your trigger words, but also related words and phrases that can expand your word base laterally.

I then plug those results into The Overture Tool as above, the UK Overture Tool [inventory.uk.overture.com] and also the 7Search Suggestion Tool [conversion.7search.com]. I quite often find that one tool will give suggestions that the other does not, again broadening your word base.

I then throw all these into a database for further searching and refinement.

Of course that is dealing with only free resources and in English. There are other Paid resources available such as Word Tracker, or the tools from FindWhat.com and the likes that require an account be set up to access them, and of course many non-English resources as well.

Oh, and as to Search Counts, a generous pinch of salt needed there!

Onya
Woz