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    Beanstalk's SEO News Blog

    At Beanstalk Search Engine Optimization we know that knowledge is power. That's the reason we started this SEO blog. We know that the better informed our visitors are, the better the decisions they will make for their websites and their online businesses. We hope you enjoy your stay and find the SEO news contained within this blog useful.

    May 12, 2010

    Keyword Research Article

    The latest article published by Beanstalk SEO has just been added to our archives.  The article is titled, “Keyword Research Basics for SEO” and is exactly that.  For the experienced there will be little to glean from the article bu it gives a good outline of how to use keyword tools (specifically Google’s) to help assess what your possible targets are.  A followup article will be coming out in the next few days on competition analysis to help our readers turn that keyword research data into a useful SEO strategy.  To read the article just click the link above or visit our SEO articles archive for this and other useful publications.

    I’ll post here the second the new article is available and be sure to stay “tuned” – we’ve got some new writers who will be adding their voices to the Beanstalk blog in the next week with a  focus on bringing you more and up-to-date news and analysis.

    SEO news blog post by @ 7:49 pm

    Categories: keyword research
    Tags: , —

     

    April 15, 2010

    An Apology & Keyword Tool

    We’ve all been there, you start doing something when you have time and then – as other things creep up (let’s call them clients and staffing obligations) suddenly anything that isn’t hammering at your door tends to slip through the cracks. This blog has fallen victim to just that and for this – I am sorry. You come here for reliable and up-to-date information from the SEO realm and find a post 2 weeks old. Well that’s about to change.

    Not only am I personally recommitting myself to posting more frequently (at least 3 times per week) – you’re going to see a lot more posts coming in from other Beanstalkers (or should I write … Beans talkers). But for today – you’ll have to put up with me.

    So for today I’m going to discuss the newish face of Google’s keyword tool which is right now in beta. The data’s the same so what’s different. A lot if you know where to look.

    My quick feedback is that I like it. I think it’s a big step forward to the lay-person and is far more intuitive. Here’s what I like:

    • I like that the trending data is shown by default. To me it’s a huge help to not just see if a phrase was highly search last month but what it’s volume has been like for the past year. This data is already available in the keyword tool but it’s displayed by default in the new version. Very helpful information. You’d be surprised at how many phrase have a 1 or 2 month spike that augments their importance. Personally – I want phrases that show steady traffic over all months.
    • I like the new “Contains” option that allows you to further filter down your results based on what keywords you want in and what you don’t ant included (words like “free” for example).
    • The Match Type has moved to the left. I’m neither here nor there about location but thought I’d let you know where it is. :)
    • If you’re looking for suggestions – they also have a category selection so you can choose similar keywords by the category or filter by category if your keywords would span multiple industries (let’s use a phrase like “windows installation” for example).
    • Google Insights link – I also like the link to Google Insights which gives the user more information on a phrase-by-phrase basis. With regional data, trend data, etc.

    Now Google added the beta back in September but I’ve only recently really started digging into it as I can already pull all this data from the classic tool but it was when I was chatting with a client who was at the new version that I realized that for the layman – it’s WAY better.

    So head over to the tool at https://adwords.google.com/ – at the top left client over to the beta tool and see what’s available. While you’re at it – schedule regular checks to do this every couple months … it’s just a good idea. :)

    SEO news blog post by @ 12:12 pm

    Categories: Uncategorized
    Tags: , —

     

    An Apology & Keyword Tool

    We’ve all been there, you start doing something when you have time and then – as other things creep up (let’s call them clients and staffing obligations) suddenly anything that isn’t hammering at your door tends to slip through the cracks. This blog has fallen victim to just that and for this – I am sorry. You come here for reliable and up-to-date information from the SEO realm and find a post 2 weeks old. Well that’s about to change.

    Not only am I personally recommitting myself to posting more frequently (at least 3 times per week) – you’re going to see a lot more posts coming in from other Beanstalkers (or should I write … Beans talkers). But for today – you’ll have to put up with me.

    So for today I’m going to discuss the newish face of Google’s keyword tool which is right now in beta. The data’s the same so what’s different. A lot if you know where to look.

    My quick feedback is that I like it. I think it’s a big step forward to the lay-person and is far more intuitive. Here’s what I like:

    • I like that the trending data is shown by default. To me it’s a huge help to not just see if a phrase was highly search last month but what it’s volume has been like for the past year. This data is already available in the keyword tool but it’s displayed by default in the new version. Very helpful information. You’d be surprised at how many phrase have a 1 or 2 month spike that augments their importance. Personally – I want phrases that show steady traffic over all months.
    • I like the new “Contains” option that allows you to further filter down your results based on what keywords you want in and what you don’t ant included (words like “free” for example).
    • The Match Type has moved to the left. I’m neither here nor there about location but thought I’d let you know where it is. :)
    • If you’re looking for suggestions – they also have a category selection so you can choose similar keywords by the category or filter by category if your keywords would span multiple industries (let’s use a phrase like “windows installation” for example).
    • Google Insights link – I also like the link to Google Insights which gives the user more information on a phrase-by-phrase basis. With regional data, trend data, etc.

    Now Google added the beta back in September but I’ve only recently really started digging into it as I can already pull all this data from the classic tool but it was when I was chatting with a client who was at the new version that I realized that for the layman – it’s WAY better.

    So head over to the tool at https://adwords.google.com/ – at the top left client over to the beta tool and see what’s available. While you’re at it – schedule regular checks to do this every couple months … it’s just a good idea. :)

    SEO news blog post by @ 12:12 pm

    Categories: Uncategorized
    Tags: , —

     

    January 29, 2010

    Google’s Keywords Tool & Personalization

    I’ve got two topics to cover today – Google’s keyword tool and Google’s personalized results. Let’s start with their keyword tool …

    Google’s Keyword Tool (and my problems with it)

    Today I’m not going to focus on the common question, “Is the data accurate?” It’s a good question but one which is likely, “Yes if you know how to read it.” It includes the search network so i you read it as “number of searches on Google.com” you’re wrong but if you read it as “accessing Google’s search results” you’re right. Nonetheless, that isn’t what I’m going to cover today – my issue today is what they’re displaying and what they’re not.

    When one uses Google’s keyword tool one expects that the resulting data shouldn’t be tainted by Google’s personal bias towards products and/or services. But alas – it appears that either the results are biased or people’s search patterns are very different than what I would expect them to be and given that I’ve been working as an SEO for ten years – it’s doubtful that the search patterns are THAT different. Here’s an example of what I’m referring to so you can run your searches on this tool understanding that you might not see an accurate view of the world around you.

    Top 20 results reported for “iphone developer” (I’ve trimmed some of the columns to make it fit this page):

    Keywords related to term(s) entered
    Keywords – Monthly
    iphone developer – 74,000

    Additional keywords to consider
    Keywords – Monthly
    developer – 3,350,000
    resume developer – 40,500
    programmer developer – 33,100
    j2ee developer – 14,800
    cv developer – 14,800
    resumes developer – 4,400
    technical developer – 4,400
    developer engineer – 3,600
    consultant developer – 2,900
    unix developer – 2,400
    developer experience – 1,600
    ipone developer – 73
    aple developer – 46
    aplle developer – 36

    Really? One of their top phrases is ipone developer and the are no additional searches at all that include the keywords iphone and developer? Oh wait – if I search “iphone app developer” it shows 3,600 estimated monthly searches so why didn’t it appear in the above search?

    Now let’s look at the results for “android developer”. In this case we don’t even have to look at the “Additional keywords to consider” – there are plenty of results. They are:

    android developer – 12,100
    android development – 12,100
    android developers – 3,600
    android application development – 2,400
    android developer challenge – 2,400
    guide to android development – 1,900
    android developer phone – 1,600
    the busy coder’s guide to android development – 1,600
    professional android application development – 1,300
    google android development – 480
    android developer g1 – 390
    android development phone – 390
    android software development – 390
    android game development – 320
    android development download – 260
    development for android – 260
    android developer challenge ii – 210
    android developer forum – 210
    android developer forum – 210
    android mobile development – 210

    And the list goes on from there. Wow – the android sure is popular compared to the iPhone. ;)

    Another “curiosity” here is that the numbers noted above are broad match. If we go to Exact for “iphone developer” the number drops from 74,000 to 14,800. So there definitely are other searches in there – they’re just not being displayed. Hmmmmmmm.

    I’ll leave the reasoning there for others to work out.

    Now onto Personalization …

    As many of you have noticed, Google is tracking you with cookies and providing personalized results – even when you’re not logged in. I’ve got to commend Google on this one. From a user standpoint it’s another slam dunk in that they’re providing a better search experience however from and SEO’s standpoint – it’s a nightmare as we’re always searching and augmenting our results and so we often don’t see what other do. To avoid this you can block cookies from Google but you’ll have issues with Google services such as Blogger and every their keywords tool.

    I got an interesting email from the developers of a Firefox extension called Google Camo that stops personalized results but seems to allow other cookies so Google’s various services work. I’m using it right now and the machine is working great so thanks to the developers. You can read more about it and download the add on at http://www.iexposure.com/googlecamo.

    Happy searching. :)

    SEO news blog post by @ 1:07 pm

    Categories: Uncategorized
    Tags: , , —

     

    Google’s Keywords Tool & Personalization

    I’ve got two topics to cover today – Google’s keyword tool and Google’s personalized results. Let’s start with their keyword tool …

    Google’s Keyword Tool (and my problems with it)

    Today I’m not going to focus on the common question, “Is the data accurate?” It’s a good question but one which is likely, “Yes if you know how to read it.” It includes the search network so i you read it as “number of searches on Google.com” you’re wrong but if you read it as “accessing Google’s search results” you’re right. Nonetheless, that isn’t what I’m going to cover today – my issue today is what they’re displaying and what they’re not.

    When one uses Google’s keyword tool one expects that the resulting data shouldn’t be tainted by Google’s personal bias towards products and/or services. But alas – it appears that either the results are biased or people’s search patterns are very different than what I would expect them to be and given that I’ve been working as an SEO for ten years – it’s doubtful that the search patterns are THAT different. Here’s an example of what I’m referring to so you can run your searches on this tool understanding that you might not see an accurate view of the world around you.

    Top 20 results reported for “iphone developer” (I’ve trimmed some of the columns to make it fit this page):

    Keywords related to term(s) entered
    Keywords – Monthly
    iphone developer – 74,000

    Additional keywords to consider
    Keywords – Monthly
    developer – 3,350,000
    resume developer – 40,500
    programmer developer – 33,100
    j2ee developer – 14,800
    cv developer – 14,800
    resumes developer – 4,400
    technical developer – 4,400
    developer engineer – 3,600
    consultant developer – 2,900
    unix developer – 2,400
    developer experience – 1,600
    ipone developer – 73
    aple developer – 46
    aplle developer – 36

    Really? One of their top phrases is ipone developer and the are no additional searches at all that include the keywords iphone and developer? Oh wait – if I search “iphone app developer” it shows 3,600 estimated monthly searches so why didn’t it appear in the above search?

    Now let’s look at the results for “android developer”. In this case we don’t even have to look at the “Additional keywords to consider” – there are plenty of results. They are:

    android developer – 12,100
    android development – 12,100
    android developers – 3,600
    android application development – 2,400
    android developer challenge – 2,400
    guide to android development – 1,900
    android developer phone – 1,600
    the busy coder’s guide to android development – 1,600
    professional android application development – 1,300
    google android development – 480
    android developer g1 – 390
    android development phone – 390
    android software development – 390
    android game development – 320
    android development download – 260
    development for android – 260
    android developer challenge ii – 210
    android developer forum – 210
    android developer forum – 210
    android mobile development – 210

    And the list goes on from there. Wow – the android sure is popular compared to the iPhone. ;)

    Another “curiosity” here is that the numbers noted above are broad match. If we go to Exact for “iphone developer” the number drops from 74,000 to 14,800. So there definitely are other searches in there – they’re just not being displayed. Hmmmmmmm.

    I’ll leave the reasoning there for others to work out.

    Now onto Personalization …

    As many of you have noticed, Google is tracking you with cookies and providing personalized results – even when you’re not logged in. I’ve got to commend Google on this one. From a user standpoint it’s another slam dunk in that they’re providing a better search experience however from and SEO’s standpoint – it’s a nightmare as we’re always searching and augmenting our results and so we often don’t see what other do. To avoid this you can block cookies from Google but you’ll have issues with Google services such as Blogger and every their keywords tool.

    I got an interesting email from the developers of a Firefox extension called Google Camo that stops personalized results but seems to allow other cookies so Google’s various services work. I’m using it right now and the machine is working great so thanks to the developers. You can read more about it and download the add on at http://www.iexposure.com/googlecamo.

    Happy searching. :)

    SEO news blog post by @ 1:07 pm

    Categories: Uncategorized
    Tags: , , —

     

    October 1, 2008

    Competitor Analysis Article Published

    The latest article by Beanstalk’s Dave Davies (yours truly) has been published today. It delves into areas of competitor analysis and keyword research that more of our readers likely haven’t thought of and that a large percentage wouldn’t even consider doing now that they have.

    The article, titled “Savvy Competitor Analysis and Keyword Research Your Competitors Aren’t Doing” recommends some fairly unconventional things – but if you’re in big business and you really want to know what everyone around you is doing – they’re effective.

    Enjoy. :)

    SEO news blog post by @ 3:49 pm

    Categories: Uncategorized
    Tags: , , —

     

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