How A Single Character Can Make A Keyword Difference

As we have said before in a past blog entry on KeywordSpy —while caps on keywords do not make a difference in the search, misspellings (key word instead of keyword) and extra punctuations (key-word instead of keyword) do.

For a more timely illustration, we shall use the recent celebration of St. Patrick’s Day in the context of this keyword research example.

The word St. Patrick’s Day, when used as a keyword, has a lot of ways to be searched (some would type in the whole day name “st. patrick’s day”, but others would also type in just either “st. patrick”, “saint patrick” or “st patrick”. All of these search variations would definitely draw in different results, so there’s always a probability that people would or would not take notice of a St. Patrick’s Day-related PPC or SEO campaign.

For this article we narrowed down the search to just the keywords “st. patrick” and “st patrick”, to show how a punctuation can make a difference. To that, we turn to our keyword research tool of choice, KeywordSpy. Let’s first look at the results for “st. patrick”:

We can see on the top left that the cost/click is $0.43, the clicks/day is 59, the cost/day is $30 and the paid advertisers are three. On the time chart, we see that March is the top month for the most paid advertisers, which is a given. Also, all months have at least one advertiser for “st. patrick” except April, September, November, January and February.

In the paid competitors’ list we can see that that Tafford.com/StPatricks tops the list, followed by CafePress.com, and lastly, Discover Ireland.com.

Now, moving on with our keyword research, let’s try using “st patrick”, without the dot:

Now if we check out the first three statistics for this keyword in this research, they come out identical to our first search. But if we look at the search results, we see that it is at 64,100,000, which is a large leap from the number we saw in the earlier search.

We also find out in the time chart that there are more months wherein “st patrick” had more advertisers bidding on it for their PPC campaign. In fact, in September, it even had two advertisers for it. This is a clear indication that “st. patrick” and “st patrick” will pull up different results.

This is reflected even more in the paid competitors list. While the number 2 and 3 competitors remain the same, at number 1 now is the domain Proposition317.com.

If you would like a little more verification, try searching for both “st. patrick” and “st patrick” on any search engine. Even if there will be very similar results between both those searches, the domain results will be in a different order, and sometimes they may appear on different pages of the search.

As an Internet marketer and PPC dabbler, it is important that you take note of these differences in punctuation in your research, much as you would in the spelling of a keyword. Since it would lead to two different searches, a simple punctuation can spell the difference in the price you are bidding for, in the placing that you will have in search engines, and in the number of people coming to your site.

In this case, since both variations offer the same price for the keyword, you can go for either variation should you decide to bid on it. But since “st patrick” without the dot lends itself to more search results, it might be a more viable option.

Such knowledge is a benefit that keyword research tools can offer you. If you had to rely on the searches on Google, Yahoo or MSN alone, you would have to go through every single page of the searches and hardly come up with information useful to your PPC or SEO research and campaign. On the other hand, through KeywordSpy, you were able to easily compare the viability of “st. patrick” with “st patrick” in a matter of seconds. You could also get a glimpse of the sites that are bidding or ranking high for the keywords with their corresponding stats—information that would evade you if you chose to use mere search engines.

So, in the future, should you ask, “To punctuate or not punctuate?”, let a keyword research and tracking tool do the dirty work for you—while you sit back, relax and enjoy that nice, cold brew. Or in the spirit of the holiday, shall we say—Guinness?

The Philosophy Behind KeywordSpy's Look: No-Nonsense Keyword Research Above Anything Else

After going over the mailed-in feedback by KeywordSpy’s support engine, we found out that the look of the keyword tool site has drawn a lot of mixed comments from users and observers alike.

From one viewpoint, it could be a minimalist keyword research and tracking tool, free of banner ads, laid out in a monochromatic hue, and its simple text and graphics combination complements their ability to be exported into Text and Excel files.

On the other hand, those who have been accustomed to looking to competing sites may find KeywordSpy a bit plain, somewhat unexciting and just plain number intensive. And yes, looking at our competitors, we can say that is has the least pompous in appearance among our fellow keyword research websites.

Whatever your opinion, the trail that KeywordSpy has led is still something that deserves a long, hard look. We believe bold graphics can always take a backseat to the most comprehensive keyword research and tracking that KeywordSpy offers, covering over 30 countries and information updated daily for tracking and 30 days for keyword research.

Looking at KeywordSpy, you’ll see that when it’s kept to a minimum, the facts get to you straight. Once you do your keyword research, you see the snapshots of your of URLs, which appear very small so as not to be intrusive, yet visible enough to elicit stares.

Then as you get further into the site, you get your ROI per keyword, the clicks they each get per day, the cost per click, and other analytics presented in straightforward, tabular fashion, and with minimalist status bars. There are no fanciful graphics that just take eons and eons to load. You demand topnotch information and the most comprehensive keyword research and tracking in the industry, and that is what KeywordSpy delivers.

So next time you consider using the other keyword research tool just because the colors make it appear that it’s brimming with life, and its pie charts give you effects akin to a 3D feature—think twice, cause it all could just be hyped-up fluff. Take a quick stop at the KeywordSpy’s website and you’ll get the utilitarian features of a dependable keyword research and tracking companion for your SEM, PPC and SEO needs.

Creating a Good Keyword or Domain Watch List for SEM and SEO Competitors

One of the special features of the keyword research and tracking tool KeywordSpy is a watch list in one corner of its page. This watch list is made for the competitors you would most like to keep an eye on. Now, not all the time your competitors are at the top of your game. There'll be times that their share will fluctuate and you may not feel the least threatened by them.

But suppose you find yourself in the situation that your competitors aren't what you make them out to be. So you have to redo the search, and clean up the rankings. But if you had the right choices from the start, you wouldn't have to change the rankings ever so often.

So how can you come up with an effective PPC and SEO watch list? One technique is by checking the Time Machine function, also available at KeywordSpy. Over a span of months you will see what web sites would bid on keywords more consistently.

Supposing we have a site that would bid on 400 to 450 keywords from June to August for their PPC campaign, then will fall down to an average of 300 from September to November, then partially back up to 350 from December onwards. There's hardly little fluctuation there, so it seems a good candidate for the research watch list.

But then we come across a competing website that bids on an average of 600 keywords from June to September, then fall drastically down to 150 come September to October. Then the number will rise up to 200 for the last two months. Is this still a likely candidate for the watch list? The answer is, it depends on what parameter you would like to follow. If you count on the total average for the year (and yes, it is still quite a big one all in all) , it is still viable and you would think that numbers would be up for the year.

Another thing to consider would be the seasonality of the product you're promoting. Flowers would always be in demand come Valentines or Memorial Day (US), so expect numbers of it to be up on those said dates. Whilst we see a steady decline in certain models of cellphones (most probably no one will be looking for a Motorola KRazr or a Nokia N96 model real soon), so it may be better to put off keyword bidding and PPC and SEO campaigns focusing on such models and always be on the lookout for more modern paraphernalia.

Remember, your research watch list will be the key to your hold on your prospective PPC and SEO market, and is there to serve as a handy, quick reminder of what you will be up against in the tight keyword research and tracking race. Make informed choices for the list so that you keep your game on.