7 Steps to a Successful Keyword Strategy

Download the SE ANALYST Spreadsheet Template here.

Welcome to the SE ANALYST Spreadsheet Template -- an aid in developing your Keyword Strategy or monitor the implementation of an existing strategy. To develop your strategy, follow these basic steps:

Step 1: Keyword Analysis
A keyword analysis may take several forms and methods. But all methods share some common elements. The first part of the process involves developing a list of potential keywords. It is also very helpful to find out how many searches are conducted and the current "sponsored link" cost for each keyword. With this information, you can choose the best keywords worthy of SE ANALYST investigation.

The spreadsheet tab labled "Keyword Analysis " can serve as a work space to develop your keyword list.

Step 2: Consider Keyword Variations
The objective of every search engine is to retrieve website pages that are most relevant to a search query. That means search engines may display website pages that contain synonyms or plural/singular forms of the search phrase.

As an example, consider the keyword phrase "golf teaching aid" (quotations to indicate keyword only - not part of search query). The websites that rank highest in Google contain a synonym for 'teaching' and a plural for aid. So in addition to the primary keyword, you may want to consider adding a keyword variation like:

golf teaching (training) aid (aids)

This keyword string tells SE ANALYST to gather the top website pages for the phrase "folf teaching aid" but evaluate these pages and backlinks based on the following possible variations:

golf teaching aid
golf teaching aids
golf training aid
golf training aids

IF you are not sure if you should consider keyword variations, just examine the results of a search engine query. If you see other forms of the keyword terms in bold within the listings, then consider variations of those terms.

Step 3: Load your Keywords into SE ANALYST
The shreadsheet tab labled "SE ANALYST KW String" will assist you in loading your keywords with their attributes into SE ANALYST. Remember, you can pass keyword attributes through SE ANALYST and have them appear as part of your reports. These keyword attributes are place in fields labled User1, User 2 and User3. The "SE ANALYST KW String " tab makes it easy to construct a keyword string (that includes keyword attributes) that may be copied and pasted into SE ANALYST's keyword field.

Step 4: Assign Your Custom URLs
SE ANALYST can be run without any Custom URLs. However, if you want to compare how your website pages are doing relative to those that are doing well, then Custom URLs are essential.

At a minimum, consider adding your website home page. Make sure you use the page name that appears in the search engines. On some occasions users may need to enter a URL that specifies a specific home page name.

Example: http://www.domainname.com/default.aspx

Also, consider adding important interior website pages to the Custom URL list. In this way, SE ANALYST will report how well these interior pages are scoring relative to those that are currently doing well.

Step 5: Run your SE ANALYST Report
SE ANALYST is use for both seach engine research and Keyword Strategy development. So it needs to be flexible in the way users choose to use the tool. If you are using SE ANALYST to either develop a Keyword Stratety or monitor your implementation progress, then use the Default conditions available within SE ANALYST for each search engine.

Step 6: Copy SE ANALYST Report Data
This spreadsheet contains tabs for archiving your Detail and Summary report information. The easiest way to get your data into these sheets is to use the Excel Export option in SE ANALYST. This feature will export SE ANALYST reports directly to Excel. Once the report is visible, simply copy the report to the appropriate tab in this spreadsheet.

Step 7: Develop Your Keyword Strategy
The last tab of the workbook is labled "Keyword Strategy ". It is specifically designed to aid in the development of a Keyword Strategy. Simlpy export the "Quick Summary" report from SE ANALYST and copy it into the sheet where marked.

With "Quick Summary" report values in place, you can develop your Keyword Strategy. The spreadsheet allows you to see your current (Custom URL) scores relative to those that are currently ranking high as well as score values for hypothetical pages. In this way, you can see what you may need to change to your current pages in order to improve your search engine rankings. An example Keyword Strategy is shown in "E.g. Keyword Strategy" tab.