So what are we talking about here?

We’re talking about using the Google Keyword Tool. You can click on the link or type it into the search engines and Google’s external keyword tool will show up. It’s the same thing their AdWords users use. Main difference is you have to enter a captcha code to indicate that you’re human. So do that if you wish to do so at this time.

Alright, so a little explaination on the different filters.

BROAD MATCH

A “broad” match indicates that the search is based on ANY combination of the words. In example, if the keyword phrase was “learn magic tricks online” the filter is looking for the following:

1. learn
2. magic
3. tricks
4. online
5. learn magic
6. learn tricks
7. learn online
8. magic tricks
9. magic online
10. magic learn
11. tricks online
12. tricks magic
13. tricks learn
14. online tricks
15. online magic
16. online learn
17. learn magic tricks
18. learn magic online
19. magic tricks online
20. magic tricks learn

And it just continues. You get the idea. THAT’S what the broad match does. It considers ALL the possibilities for that keyword phrase. That’s why the search volume is always so high for keyword phrases with 2 or more keywords.

PHRASE MATCH

What phrase match does is consider whether the keyword phrase is also considered in another keyword term. Here’s an example: magic tricks

This means the FOLLOWING keywords could also be considered:

1. learn “magic tricks”
2. “magic tricks” online
3. “magic tricks” learn
4. online “magic tricks”
5. I like “magic tricks”
6. “magic tricks” are fun
7. the best “magic tricks”
8. my secret “magic tricks”
9. “magic tricks” changed my life
10. learn “magic tricks” today

Again, it continues with the possibilities. This is why broad and phrase matches does no one any good. It spits out half-truths and you’re stuck trying to figure it out.

EXACT MATCH

The BEST filter to use is the exact match filter. The reason this filter is the best is because it tells you what the search performance is each month based on ONLY that particular keyword phrase in THAT exact order. We use it for all of our keyword research and analysis to know which keywords are the best ones for us and for our clients.

If you think you’re done after picking out the highly searched keywords, you’re completely wrong! Wait for next week when I explain the most important part in keyword research AND analysis!

You might be thinking that press releases are reserved for huge companies and corporations to announce that they’ve bought out another company or merging with another. Truth is, you don’t have to be a big corporation or announcing anything like that. It doesn’t matter if you’re a work-at-home mom, small business or whatever. As long as your article is intriguing and content rich with quality keywords, you will get a lot of traffic from it.

If you haven’t started putting this to use, you are losing out on a lot of benefits. The use of press releases has proven to increase business, improve SEO and establish professionalism. Here’s a little insider secrets to my readers – there is a specific resource we use to rank on the first page after just 5 minutes. It’s not black hat! It’s simply submitting the press release. That’s how powerful it is!

Press releases have changed quite a bit over the years, especially on the Internet. It use to be difficult to get your press release accepted and sent out to the world. The press release had to be written a specific way and it was just so expensive. Just 2 years ago, we paid $1,000 for a press release to be written and submitted. $1,000? Not everyone can do that.

And now, you can write it up yourself and have it sent out for only $20… or even for free! This really evens the playing field for the small business owners and individuals that work from home.

Before, you had to think in terms of news-worthiness before writing and submitting a press release. Now, you can think in terms of providing quality content related to your business and targeting keywords that is most beneficial for your website. You don’t have to wait for any significant occurrences. Just find good reasons to write and write it well.

It can be a press release for a new product you’re selling, new service, new merchandise, you’re having a sale, you’re celebrating your 13 month anniversary of being open, whatever. Any time you think something is worth mentioning, then it’s probably a good opportunity to benefit from it with a press release.

Here’s a few places you can send press releases for free:

• http://www.theopenpress.com/
• http://www.prlog.org/
• http://www.free-press-release.com/
• http://www.clickpress.com/
• http://www.newswiretoday.com/

And here’s my number one recommended paid newsletter (spend just $20):

http://www.webwire.com/

One social media marketing power I’d like to mention today is Twitter Feed. It’s a VERY easy to use program that allows you to feed your blog’s RSS and post it on Twitter automatically. In fact, you can allow it to post Twitter updates based on ANYONE’S RSS feed. That means you could build up your Twitter updates on autopilot leaving the extra few minutes a day to something else… like scratching your head or staring into deep space when no one is around.

This is especially helpful for folks who have a lot of niche products to promote and have multiple Twitter accounts to manage.

The signup process is fast and simple. In fact, I don’t think there was even a confirmation link. You just follow the step-by-step instruction and you’ll have Twitter updates filling up in no time. For now, I am having Twitter update my blog posts only, but if you want to be more advanced, here’s the next step:

1. Find a blog RSS related to your business/niche (between 2-3)
2. Fill out the Twitter Feed info
3. Using the advanced settings, change it to updating every 12 hours
4. Save the feed and then that’s it.

Although, it will be a good idea to share some personal posts once in a while to make it look like you’re a real person and not constantly promoting something. However, when you have these Twitter updates related to your industry and people are getting value out of it, they’ll want to listen to you more often.

If you want to add more blogg RSS for variation, make sure you have it updating every 24 hours because if you have too much, people may want to start removing you. Good luck and enjoy!

If you look below, this is the result we got for “texas search engine marketing” based on a broad match:

Looking at the broad results, there’s 1,900 searches, but if you look at the actual “phrase”, there’s only 590 queries for the local marketing, which is English and in the United States:

Now, why in the world would the local results be higher than the global search volume when there are more people in the world than the U.S.? Good question.

The answer to this question is simple: The local search result is based on the most recent month!

When you look at the global search volume, you’re not seeing whether some months got 1,000 visitors while some months had barely 10. And unless you track the local search volume every month, you don’t know whether “texas search engine marketing” only got 60 searches in February, 100 in March, and 80 in April.

Some months, people just tend to search for something a little more than usual. That’s why it is possible for local search results to be higher than the global average over 12-month period.

By-the-way, out of 7.7 million results, we’re ranked #6 for this keyword phrase .

So here’s the ad that I saw:

Okay, yeah, I also looked because it’s my home town, Grand Prairie, Texas. I was wanting to see how folks in my neighborhood are making money and maybe we could meet up some time.

Anyway, this is the page I came to (daily-job-news.com):

Noticed that I underlined my city, Grand Prairie. I thought to myself, “I bet you this isn’t even real”. I decided to view-source and see the page properties.

Here is what I found:

The web page is claiming that “Mary Steadman” is from Grand Prairie and is making so and so much money. However, how can it be true, when the city name is simply a javascript that displays the city name based on your IP address? So Mary Steadman could be from Chicago, Denver, Sacramento, New York, Okinawa and anywhere else in the world. Either way, that alone tells me that it’s a straight up scam.

It’s not strategy, it’s lying. Stay far, far away from this one folks. You don’t have to take my word for it, just do a search online.

So the next time you see a program/site that claims someone is from a particular city or whatever and is making a lot of money, this is a DEAD give away whether it’s legitimate or a scam. Good luck!

Supposedly, if your position in the SERP (search engine resulting pages) slip or fall, it is most likely due to duplicate content. It’s a total myth. That is not the case at all. It’s actually a lot of varying factors, but that is not the topic for today’s discussion. Today’s discussion is simply whether Google penalizes you for duplicate content or not.

Well, straight from the horse’s mouth (I like saying that a lot):

Duplicate content. There’s just something about it. We keep writing about it, and people keep asking about it. In particular, I still hear a lot of webmasters worrying about whether they may have a “duplicate content penalty.”

Let’s put this to bed once and for all, folks: There’s no such thing as a “duplicate content penalty.” At least, not in the way most people mean when they say that.

Source: Google Webmaster Central

I’m sure the belief of duplicate content penalty will still continue to circulate for many years until that idea is finally lost to the ages of time. People once believed that the world was flat. People today still think Michael Jackson is black. It just takes time.