Can We Talk?:Keyword Research & Rainbow Poop

So it goes something like this. A few years back I had a personal blog on a now defunct blogging platform. I discussed anything and everything, especially things I noticed on a daily basis. I talked about my cat and the weather. But never, anywhere in this blog did I mention “rainbow poop.” Ever. So why then was that my number #1 ranking keyword?!

Keyword Research

I admit I never did keyword research on that blog…I didn’t even know what the heck it was. I didn’t really care either, I just wanted to write and throw in some humor for good measure.

It wasn’t until I decided to get serious about blogging and teaching people tips and tricks, that I discovered keywords and how to pick them. It’s definitely a process and it most certainly is a must (in my opinion) for you to take your blog/site to the next level.

I try to do things with ease as most of you know. I don’t like things complicated, mainly because I get a strong desire to put my head through the monitor for lack of understanding. 🙂

So, after realizing that I could not escape from keyword research, I went out to the top of the mountain and figure out what I needed. I had to learn first that if I didn’t optimize my keywords, meaning, make them search engine friendly, I was not going to move up.

Example for you of optimizing a keyword. Your chosen keyword is, oh let’s go with, oh! How about rainbow poop????  Okay, so you pick a keyword of “rainbow.” As of this writing, searching rainbow in Google returns 163,000,000 results. Uhm, you’re good but not that good! How will you get to #1 spot with all that competition?

Now, you drill down your choices. A good tool for this is the Google Wonder Wheel. I won’t get all into that here, entirely different post…you can click the link above and check it out. Here is an image of what it looks like for you though.

Pretty simple. Anyways, now you have chosen the keyword you want, “rainbow poop”.  14, 900 results. Excuse me, but why are so many people searching for that?! As you can see, a much more manageable number for you to dominate.

The best thing I ever did was utilize a keyword research tool to help me. This way I can do research right from my dashboard as I write my headlines. And because I am easily tech challenged, this tool is color coded for me 🙂 I use Keyword Winner for its simplicity. (Affiliate link.)

You can determine for yourself if you think it’s easy, but anything that shows me low competition keywords,  suggestions, trends and implements SEO tools…works for me. So far I have at least ranked on the first page of Google for one of my primary phrases thanks to my KW plug in.

The Internet Lifestyle

Now back to my old personal blog I used to have. I was on a blogging platform that paid you to blog. And they had their own analytics in your dash. So that is how I knew I ranked for rainbow poop. Sure enough, I Google the term and there I was, front and center, number one for rainbow poop.

I don’t know how that really happened, but it allowed me to live the Internet lifestyle. Oh yes, I made .05 cents a week my friends. See, it can be done. You too, with hard work and dedication, and a little rainbow poop can live the luxury lifestyle of the Internet. Had I ranked for a second amazing keyword, I would have bumped to the next tier and made .08 cents a week. The stress of all that cash was too much. 🙂

What I am trying to get at here is that junk keywords are not going to help you rank, make money or get readers. If your blog is your business, then you need to research. This includes topics, your readers needs, list building and keywords.

The Bottom Line

I don’t want to make the same mistake with this blog that I did with the old personal one. I want to know why things rank or how something I implement affects my readers/traffic/serps.

That’s why I use tools to help me, most of them free…because I’m trying to save all that cash I made before. 🙂  The best thing I did for my blog to help with search, was learn about keywords. If you need to do keyword research and you feel like you need an easy, efficient way to do so, then take a look at the KW plug in I use in this video below. After the 1:00 minute vid, check it out here.

How bout it? Have you ever ranked for some goofy keyword??

Image Credit: Nymag.com