Our company have been providing SEO professional services to customers since the birth of the internet. While our approaches have developed over time, our overall aim hasn't and that's to get our customers web pages to rank on the 1st page for appropriate keywords along with only using ethical and long-lasting techniques.
Monday, October 31, 2016
Guildford man denies rape and sexual assault charges
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/guildford-man-denies-rape-sexual-12102043
Local plan delay 'could threaten towns and countryside' with pending appeals for Wisley Airfield and Guildford station
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/delay-guildford-local-plan-could-12103118
Christmas fairs and markets for gifts and festive treats this winter
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/christmas-fairs-markets-gifts-festive-12084174
Camberley Mall shopping centre bought by council for £86m
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/mall-camberley-shopping-centre-86m-12105514
Number of speeding fines 'up by almost 40%' in Surrey
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/speeding-fines-handed-out-surrey-12106762
Jim Crowley out of hospital after Kempton Park horror fall, Freddie Tylicki 'stable in intensive care'
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/sport/other-sport/horse-racing/jim-crowley-out-hospital-after-12107322
Halloween horror as aliens land in Earlswood front garden
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/lifestyle/fun-stuff/halloween-horror-aliens-land-earlswood-12106849
Kempton Park injured jockeys taken to hospital on spinal boards
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/sport/other-sport/horse-racing/kempton-park-injured-jockeys-taken-12107030
Dorking resident describes seeing 'unperturbed' Highland cow in neighbour's garden after A24 jaunt
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/dorking-resident-describes-seeing-unperturbed-12106651
Halloween in pictures: Your impressive pumpkin carvings
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/halloween-pictures-your-impressive-pumpkin-12103204
Surrey Storm manager Tom Reseigh loses battle against illness
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/sport/other-sport/surrey-storm-manager-tom-reseigh-12106084
Kempton Park horses pile-up leaves jockeys Jim Crowley and Freddy Tylicki in hospital with 'suspected spinal injuries'
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/sport/other-sport/horse-racing/kempton-park-horses-pile-up-12106334
Haslemere crash: Second vehicle managed to stop before hitting elderly victim, says witness
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/haslemere-crash-second-vehicle-managed-12106222
Liberal Democrats attack 'illegal' Surrey recycling charges
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/liberal-democrats-attack-illegal-surrey-12106029
Weybridge house fire sparks investigation into cause
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/weybridge-house-fire-sparks-investigation-12106024
Missing Ashford man Wesley Clark found 'safe and well'
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/missing-ashford-man-wesley-clark-12106074
CCTV images released after series of supermarket thefts in Farnham area
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/cctv-images-released-after-series-12105754
Rurik Jutting trial: Surrey banker suffered 'narcissistic' and 'sexual sadist' disorders when killing two women
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/rurik-jutting-trial-surrey-banker-12105101
Download No Trick or Treat poster to keep kids away this Halloween
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/download-no-trick-treat-poster-8021306
Have you ever herd such nonsense? Cow causes traffic chaos on major Dorking road
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/you-ever-herd-nonsense-cow-12103950
Updates after collision in Haslemere town centre and air ambulance attendance
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/updates-after-collision-haslemere-town-12104025
Wisley campaigners accuse Guildford Borough Council of 'dithering' after local plan delay
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/wisley-campaigners-accuse-guildford-borough-12102706
Asda card machine and till fault causes chaos for shoppers on busy Halloween shopping weekend
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/asda-card-machine-till-fault-12103315
Bonfire Night and fireworks displays listings 2016
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/fireworks-displays-bonfire-night-listings-11848039
Teenager spared jail for part in Horley pub brawl which left man with broken tooth
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/teenager-spared-jail-part-horley-12101849
Halloween: Send us your best pumpkin carving pictures
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/halloween-send-your-best-pumpkin-12080988
Weather forecast: Motorists urged to 'drive to the conditions' after Met Office yellow warning for fog
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/weather-forecast-motorists-urged-drive-12101394
Man suffers fractured eye socket and broken nose fighting off two men trying to steal van in Banstead
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/man-suffers-fractured-eye-socket-12101375
Appeal launched to trace 'vulnerable' missing Ashford man Wesley Clark
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/appeal-launched-trace-vulnerable-missing-12101329
Moz Keyword Explorer vs. Google Keyword Planner: The Definitive Comparison
Posted by BritneyMuller
Keyword research, the blueprint to any successful SEO strategy
If you’ve been doing keyword research for a while, you’ve probably fallen into a routine. And that routine has likely been recently disrupted... thanks, Google.
If you’re new to keyword research, getting comfortable with new keyword research tools will come more easily to you. Lucky pups. But us change-averse old dogs can still learn new tricks when we need to. Are you ready to see which tool is right for you? --Woof.
My hesitations about writing this article:
- I’m new to Moz and don’t want to be crucified for criticizing our own keyword research tool. This concern has only been met with acceptance and encouragement, so…*fingers crossed* they don’t change their minds. Love you guys!
- My methods of keyword research revolve around finding qualified traffic for increasing conversions, not just any large search volume numbers (to make traffic look good).
- I fear that this will come across as a Moz Keyword Explorer soft sell. It’s not. It’s a very honest comparison of Moz Keyword Explorer versus Google’s Keyword Planner. It's a post that I've been wanting to read for a while.
Here are some great guides if you need a Moz Keyword Explorer refresher, or a Google Keyword Planner refresher.
< << TL;DR Skip to the conclusion here >> >
Google Keyword Planner's recent change
Any habits we’ve held onto with Google Keyword Planner were disrupted early September when they decided to stop providing average monthly search volume data (unless you’re in that special group of higher-paying ad buyers who can still access the more precise search volume data). Instead, we now see huge swings of min-max search volume, which really starts to muddy the keyword research waters. Google recently came forward to explain that this change was done to deter scrapers from pulling their search volume data.
For a more comprehensive write-up on this change, read Google Keyword Unplanner by Russ Jones. He explains a little more about how this change affects various data sources and what Moz has been doing to mitigate the impact.
But, showing is better than telling. So let’s take a look for ourselves:
A 900,000 average monthly search volume swing is crazy! In fact, Google now only provides one of seven volume sizes: 0–10, 10–100, 100–1000, 1000–10000, 10000–100k, 100k–1MM and 1MM+.
Moz’s Keyword Explorer also gives ranges, but they’re not nearly as vast (or as arbitrary). The machine-learning model behind Keyword Explorer is designed to predict monthly fluctuations in search volume. It’s mathematically tied to the most accurate keyword data available, and you can see exactly how, and how accurate Moz gets in this Clickstream Data to the Rescue article.
Which is why I wanted to know:
What's most important to you when doing Keyword Research?
— Britney Muller (@BritneyMuller) September 1, 2016
What are quality keywords?
Quality keywords successfully target your demographic during their acquisition phase (education - purchase), have a specific searcher intent, low-medium organic competition, and medium-high search volume (this will vary based on what part of the acquisition funnel you're targeting).
However, it's important to keep in mind that some longer-tail queries (with little to no search volume) can be highly profitable as well.
Tier 1 keyword research setup
Google Keyword Planner:
This is my familiar ol, kooky friend that has been acting very strange lately (anyone else noticing all of the delays and glitches?). I’m a little worried.
Anywho, here’s how I begin keyword research within Keyword Planner:
- Enter in your keyword under “Search for more keywords using a phrase, website or category.”
- Make sure the region is set to United States (if wanting to research nationally).
- Set keyword options to “broad.” --Settle down, we’ll go back and change this to “closely related” after our first swoop.
- Sort keyword volume by highest to lowest and change the “show rows” to 100.
- IMPORTANT: Always scroll top to bottom! Otherwise, new keywords will populate from the bottom that you'll miss.
- Select keywords with unique intents as you scroll down the first 100 rows, click "next," and start again from the top until through all keyword results.
Moz Keyword Explorer:
My hip new friend that I’m not sure I can trust just yet. However, multiple trusted friends vouch for her integrity and... I really dig her style.
Here’s how I begin keyword research within Keyword Explorer:
- Enter your keyword into the Keyword Explorer search bar.
- Navigate to “Keyword Suggestions” on the left-hand menu.
- Set “Display keyword suggestions that” to “include a mix of sources.”
- Set “Group Keywords” to “no.”
- Sort keyword list by highest search volume to lowest.
- Scroll down and select keywords with unique searcher intent.
Either way, this will give you one giant list of 1,000 keywords, which can be tough to pace through (compared to the 100 keyword chunks in GKP). A progress bar of sorts would be nice.
The thing that’s taken the most getting used to is not seeing a competition/difficulty metric adjacent to the search volume. The whole goal of keyword research is to discover opportunity gaps that offer mid-to-high search volume with low competition. If you’re anything like me, you’ve ran hundreds if not thousands of strange SEO tests and are very aware of what you can achieve “competition”-wise (domain-dependent) and what you can’t. (Or when a higher-competition keyword should take the form of a longer SEO plan.)
*It’s important to note that the KWP “Competition” metric is an advertising metric.
Despite this metric occasionally leading to an SEO correlation, it’s often misleading and not an accurate representation of how competitive the organic results are.
The KWE “Difficulty” metric, on the other hand, is an organic search metric. It also leverages a smarter CTR curve model to show when weaker pages are ranking higher (in addition to other ranking signals).
That being said, having to wait to find out the competition metric of a keyword until after I add it to a list is frustrating. I can’t help but feel that I’m not selecting keywords as strategically as I could be. Hopefully, Moz will add a historical competition metric up front (adjacent to search volume) sometime in the near future to help us better select ripe keyword opportunities.
The relevancy metric doesn’t do much to help my research because I’m already relying on the keywords themselves to tell me whether or not they're relevant/have a unique user intent.
(I told you guys I would be honest!)
Label by keyword type:
Navigational: Searchers seeking a destination on the web.
Example: "University of Minnesota tuition"
Informational: Searchers researching, getting quick answers, often times using what, who, where, how, etc. modifiers.
Example: "what is a conker"
Commercial Investigation: Searchers investigating beyond an informational query. Comparing brands, searching for "best," researching potential clients, etc.
Example: "ppc experts in london"
Transactional: Searchers looking to purchase something, comparing rates, seeking prices for things, etc.
Example: "affordable yoda action figure"
Transactional and Commercial Investigation types tend to be most profitable (depending on business model). For example, a blog could do very well from Informational-type keywords.
If you want a more in-depth understanding of keyword types; read Rand's Segmenting Search Intent. <-- An oldie, but a goodie!!
Compare results & answer:
- Which tool provided better long-tail results?
- Which tool provided better top-of-funnel queries?
- What percentage of "keyword types" did each tool provide?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of each tool?
For whatever reason, “student loans” painted an accurate picture (of what I’ve found to be true across other competitive keywords) for each prospective tools’ wheelhouse. So, “student loans” will serve as our point of reference throughout this comparative analysis.
Tier 1 keyword research overview:
Moz Keyword Explorer | Google Keyword Planner | |
---|---|---|
Term: | "student loans" | "student loans" |
Region: | United States | United States |
Spectrum: | Include a mix of sources | Broad |
Group Keywords: | No | - |
Total Results: | 1000 | 700 |
#Keywords With Intents: | 43 | 40 |
+ Moz Keyword Explorer results:
Keyword | Modifier | Type | Min Volume | Max Volume | Difficulty | Opportunity | Importance | Potential |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
student loan consolidation | consolidation | Commercial Investigation | 11501 | 30300 | 60 | 83 | 3 | 79 |
student loan calculator | calculator | Informational | 11501 | 30300 | 75 | 100 | 3 | 76 |
student loan | - | Informational | 118001 | 300000 | 82 | 84 | 3 | 82 |
federal student loan | federal | Navigational | 30301 | 70800 | 63 | 48 | 3 | 76 |
student loan refinance | refinance | Commercial Investigation | 11501 | 30300 | 55 | 83 | 3 | 77 |
student loan repayment calculator | repayment calculator | Informational | 11501 | 30300 | 67 | 100 | 3 | 74 |
student loan interest rates | interest rates | Commercial Investigation | 6501 | 9300 | 53 | 54 | 3 | 69 |
student loan hero | hero | Navigational | 1701 | 2900 | 49 | 19 | 3 | 53 |
student loan forgiveness | forgiveness | Commercial Investigation | 70801 | 118000 | 62 | 86 | 3 | 86 |
student loans information | information | Informational | 501 | 850 | 90 | 55 | 3 | 39 |
applying for student loans | applying for | Informational | 4301 | 6500 | 72 | 55 | 3 | 60 |
fafsa student loans | fafsa | Navigational | 2901 | 4300 | 98 | 56 | 3 | 28 |
bad credit student loan | bad credit | Commercial Investigation | 1701 | 2900 | 44 | 83 | 3 | 70 |
student loan websites | websites | Commercial Investigation | 851 | 1700 | 79 | 53 | 3 | 48 |
where to get student loan | where to get | Informational | 501 | 850 | 76 | 55 | 3 | 47 |
citibank student loans pay | citibank pay | Navigational | 201 | 500 | 29 | 94 | 3 | 64 |
how to get a school loan | how to get a | Informational | 201 | 500 | 68 | 55 | 3 | 45 |
how to find my student loans | how to find my | Navigational | 101 | 200 | 54 | 58 | 3 | 48 |
how to check student loans | how to check | Navigational | 101 | 200 | 63 | 55 | 3 | 45 |
discover private student loan | discover private | Navigational | 101 | 200 | 53 | 21 | 3 | 36 |
check my student loan balance | check my balance | Navigational | 101 | 200 | 55 | 100 | 3 | 52 |
apply for student loan online | apply for online | Transactional | 101 | 200 | 68 | 53 | 3 | 41 |
look up student loans | look up | Commercial Investigation | 101 | 200 | 53 | 90 | 3 | 51 |
student loan now | now | Transactional | 51 | 100 | 72 | 86 | 3 | 42 |
stafford student loans login | stafford login | Navigational | 51 | 100 | 76 | 60 | 3 | 36 |
federal student loan lookup | federal lookup | Navigational | 11 | 50 | 55 | 100 | 3 | 46 |
how to view my student loans | how to view my | Informational | 11 | 50 | 57 | 64 | 3 | 39 |
how do i find out who has my student loan | how do i find out who has my | Informational | 11 | 50 | 59 | 86 | 3 | 42 |
apply for additional student loans | apply for additional | Commercial Investigation | 11 | 50 | 73 | 64 | 3 | 34 |
what student loans do i owe | what do i owe | Informational | 11 | 50 | 50 | 41 | 3 | 34 |
student loan application status | application status | Navigational | 0 | 10 | 72 | 100 | 3 | 33 |
what is federal student loans | what is federal | Informational | 0 | 10 | 78 | 58 | 3 | 25 |
who services federal student loans | who services federal | Informational | 0 | 10 | 68 | 100 | 3 | 22 |
apply for student loan by phone | apply for by phone | Transactional | 0 | 10 | 86 | 86 | 3 | 11 |
national student loan locator phone number | national locator phone number | Informational | 0 | 0 | 58 | 29 | 3 | 11 |
i owe student loans who do i call | i owe who do i call | Informational | 0 | 0 | 50 | 94 | 3 | 26 |
where do i find my student loan interest | where do i find my interest | Informational | 0 | 0 | 78 | 58 | 3 | 11 |
how to find my student loan account number | how to find my account number | Informational | 0 | 0 | 55 | 100 | 3 | 25 |
how much federal student loans do i have | how much federal do i have | Navigational | 0 | 0 | 80 | 46 | 3 | 8 |
where do i pay my government student loans | where do i pay my government | Navigational | 0 | 0 | 77 | 55 | 3 | 11 |
student loans lookup | lookup | Navigational | 0 | 0 | 55 | 100 | 3 | 26 |
student loans payment history | payment history | Navigational | 0 | 0 | 66 | 46 | 3 | 14 |
how many school loans do i have | how many do i have | Navigational | 0 | 0 | 68 | 90 | 3 | 21 |
Additional tool features:
The Importance metric: ...is powerful! However, I’ve left all my results at a neutral Importance (3) so you can see downloaded results without any customization (and to keep things fair, because I’m not prioritizing GKP keywords).
If you choose to use this metric, you set a priority level for each keyword (1=not important, 10=most important) that will then influence the keyword's Potential score. This allows you to more easily prioritize a keyword plan, which is very helpful.
Group keywords with low lexical similarity: While this can save you time, it can also lead to missing keyword opportunities. In my example below, if I select "student loans" (and not "Select 821 keywords in group"), I would miss all of the nested keywords.
Use this feature carefully:
+ Google Keyword Planner results:
Keyword | Modifier | Type | Avg. Monthly Searches (exact match only) | Competition | Suggested Bid |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
student loan forgiveness | forgiveness | Commercial Investigation | 100K – 1M | 0.58 | 3.38 |
student loan refinance | refinance | Commercial Investigation | 10K – 100K | 0.96 | 34.57 |
student loan consolidation | consolidation | Commercial Investigation | 10K – 100K | 0.98 | 22.52 |
private student loans | private | Commercial Investigation | 10K – 100K | 0.99 | 28.51 |
student loans without a cosigner | without a cosigner | Commercial Investigation | 1K – 10K | 0.98 | 23.85 |
parent student loans | parent | Commercial Investigation | 1K – 10K | 0.96 | 10.27 |
best private student loans | best private | Commercial Investigation | 1K – 10K | 0.93 | 21.33 |
bad credit student loans | bad credit | Commercial Investigation | 1K – 10K | 0.97 | 4.02 |
best student loans | best | Commercial Investigation | 1K – 10K | 0.93 | 18.61 |
compare student loans | compare | Commercial Investigation | 100 – 1K | 0.98 | 23.8 |
medical student loans | medical | Commercial Investigation | 100 – 1K | 0.91 | 10.16 |
student loans from banks | from banks | Commercial Investigation | 100 – 1K | 0.97 | 13.09 |
student loans for international students | for international students | Commercial Investigation | 100 – 1K | 0.88 | 14.01 |
no credit check student loans | no credit check | Commercial Investigation | 100 – 1K | 0.98 | 5.74 |
nursing student loans | nursing | Commercial Investigation | 100 – 1K | 0.94 | 15.53 |
alternative student loan options | alternative options | Commercial Investigation | 10 – 100 | 1 | 30.32 |
best student loan consolidation program | best consolidation program | Commercial Investigation | 10 – 100 | 0.91 | 36.91 |
student loan bankruptcy | bankruptcy | Commercial Investigation | 1K – 10K | 0.42 | 9.48 |
student loan deferment | deferment | Commercial Investigation | 1K – 10K | 0.35 | 10.31 |
student loans | Informational | 100K – 1M | 0.98 | 25.97 | |
student loan calculator | calculator | Informational | 10K – 100K | 0.42 | 5.41 |
types of student loans | types of | Informational | 1K – 10K | 0.82 | 13.61 |
student loan options | options | Informational | 1K – 10K | 0.99 | 23.63 |
how to consolidate student loans | how to consolidate | Informational | 1K – 10K | 0.84 | 13.79 |
student loan default | default | Informational | 1K – 10K | 0.28 | 8.18 |
student loan help | help | Informational | 1K – 10K | 0.96 | 15.48 |
where to get student loans | where to get | Informational | 100 – 1K | 0.97 | 17.19 |
average student loan | average | Informational | 100 – 1K | 0.33 | 18.59 |
private education loans | private | Informational | 100 – 1K | 0.98 | 16.76 |
what is a student loan | what is | Informational | 100 – 1K | 0.6 | 8.75 |
how do you get a student loan | how do you get | Informational | 100 – 1K | 0.94 | 5.22 |
no credit student loans | no credit | Informational | 100 – 1K | 0.98 | 7.85 |
about student loans | about | Informational | 10 – 100 | 0.92 | 14.9 |
information on student loans | information | Informational | 10 – 100 | 0.94 | 14.08 |
iowa student loan | iowa | Navigational | 10K – 100K | 0.23 | 9.08 |
great lakes student loans | great lakes | Navigational | 10K – 100K | 0.18 | 7.05 |
fafsa student loans | fafsa | Navigational | 1K – 10K | 0.61 | 7.41 |
student loan interest rates | interest rates | Transactional | 1K – 10K | 0.7 | 10.11 |
low interest student loans | low interest | Transactional | 100 – 1K | 0.98 | 21.07 |
need student loan today | need today | Transactional | 10 – 100 | 1 | 9.8 |
i need a student loan now | i need now | Transactional | 10 – 100 | 0.99 | 13.7 |
Tier 1 conclusion:
Google Keyword Planner largely uncovered Commercial Investigation and Informational queries. GKP also better identified a broader set of top-of-funnel keyword opportunities: student loan help, parent student loans, types of student loans, etc.
Moz Keyword Explorer largely uncovered Informational and Navigational queries. MKE better identified longer-tail keyword opportunities: how to get a school loan, apply for student loan online, apply for student loan by phone, etc.
Tier 2 keyword research setup
"closely related search terms" vs. "only include keywords with all of the query terms"
Google Keyword Planner: Perform same setup, but select "Only show ideas closely related to my search terms."
Moz Keyword Explorer: Perform same setup, but select "only include keywords with all of the query terms."
Note: Your .csv download will still say “Broad” for Google Keyword Planner, even though you’ve selected “Closely related”... Told you she was acting funny.
Tier 2 keyword research overview:
Moz Keyword Explorer | Google Keyword Planner | |
---|---|---|
Term: | "student loans" | "student loans" |
Region: | United States | United States |
Spectrum: | Only include keywords with all of the query terms | Closely related |
Group Keywords: | No | - |
Total Results: | 1000 | 700 |
#Keywords With Intents: | 66 | 30 |
+ Moz Keyword Explorer results:
Keyword | Modifier | Type | Min Volume | Max Volume | Difficulty | Opportunity | Importance | Potential |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
student loan | - | Informational | 118001 | 300000 | 82 | 84 | 3 | 82 |
student loan forgiveness | forgiveness | Commercial Investigation | 70801 | 118000 | 62 | 86 | 3 | 86 |
student loan calculator | calculator | Commercial Investigation | 11501 | 30300 | 75 | 100 | 3 | 76 |
citi student loan | citi | Navigational | 11501 | 30300 | 34 | 94 | 3 | 86 |
student loan consolidation | consolidation | Commercial Investigation | 11501 | 30300 | 60 | 83 | 3 | 79 |
private student loan | loan | Commercial Investigation | 11501 | 30300 | 62 | 80 | 3 | 77 |
student loan refinance | refinance | Commercial Investigation | 11501 | 30300 | 55 | 83 | 3 | 77 |
student loan repayment calculator | repayment calculator | Commercial Investigation | 11501 | 30300 | 67 | 100 | 3 | 74 |
student loan interest rates | interest rates | Transactional | 6501 | 9300 | 53 | 54 | 3 | 69 |
application for student loan | application for | Commercial Investigation | 4301 | 6500 | 64 | 54 | 3 | 63 |
apply for student loan | apply for | Commercial Investigation | 4301 | 6500 | 60 | 53 | 3 | 64 |
student loan forgiveness for teachers | forgiveness for teachers | Commercial Investigation | 4301 | 6500 | 58 | 100 | 3 | 71 |
bad credit student loan | bad credit | Commercial Investigation | 1701 | 2900 | 44 | 83 | 3 | 70 |
student loan hero | hero | Navigational | 1701 | 2900 | 49 | 19 | 3 | 53 |
student loan servicing | servicing | Commercial Investigation | 1701 | 2900 | 70 | 90 | 3 | 62 |
discovery student loan | discovery | Navigational | 851 | 1700 | 47 | 28 | 3 | 51 |
fsa student loan | fsa | Navigational | 851 | 1700 | 90 | 58 | 3 | 41 |
student loan providers | providers | Commercial Investigation | 501 | 850 | 66 | 53 | 3 | 51 |
where to get student loan | where to get | Informational | 501 | 850 | 76 | 55 | 3 | 47 |
check student loan balance | check balance | Navigational | 201 | 500 | 54 | 46 | 3 | 49 |
department of education student loan servicing center | department of education servicing center | Navigational | 201 | 500 | 78 | 58 | 3 | 42 |
student loan status | status | Navigational | 201 | 500 | 61 | 86 | 3 | 54 |
us student loan debt | us debt | Informational | 201 | 500 | 66 | 56 | 3 | 49 |
all student loan | all | Informational | 101 | 200 | 58 | 56 | 3 | 45 |
discover private student loan | discover private | Navigational | 101 | 200 | 53 | 21 | 3 | 36 |
how do i find my student loan | how do i find my interest | Informational | 101 | 200 | 59 | 86 | 3 | 51 |
student loan management | management | Commercial Investigation | 101 | 200 | 57 | 53 | 3 | 45 |
student loan resources | resources | Commercial Investigation | 101 | 200 | 49 | 83 | 3 | 52 |
where is my student loan | where is | Informational | 51 | 100 | 61 | 55 | 3 | 42 |
student loan corporation citibank | corporation citibank | Navigational | 11 | 50 | 36 | 94 | 3 | 45 |
student loan enquiries | enquiries | Commercial Investigation | 11 | 50 | 61 | 100 | 3 | 43 |
fafsa student loan consolidation | fafsa consolidation | Navigational | 11 | 50 | 99 | 53 | 3 | 1 |
federal student loan options | federal options | Commercial Investigation | 11 | 50 | 75 | 54 | 3 | 34 |
federal student loan terms | federal terms | Commercial Investigation | 11 | 50 | 81 | 90 | 3 | 31 |
get a student loan today | get a today | Transactional | 11 | 50 | 66 | 83 | 3 | 41 |
need student loan now | need now | Transactional | 11 | 50 | 71 | 83 | 3 | 37 |
student loan overview | overview | Informational | 11 | 50 | 79 | 94 | 3 | 35 |
student loan payment history | payment history | Navigational | 11 | 50 | 55 | 100 | 3 | 46 |
student loan website down | website down | Informational | 11 | 50 | 42 | 90 | 3 | 44 |
apply for student loan by phone | apply for by phone | Commercial Investigation | 0 | 10 | 86 | 86 | 3 | 11 |
apply online for student loan | apply online for | Commercial Investigation | 0 | 10 | 68 | 53 | 3 | 28 |
citibank student loan promotional code | citibank promotional code | Navigational | 0 | 10 | 38 | 94 | 3 | 28 |
student loan corporation sallie mae | corporation sallie mae | Commercial Investigation | 0 | 10 | 63 | 100 | 3 | 23 |
dsl student loan | dsl | Navigational | 0 | 10 | 51 | 90 | 3 | 38 |
how do i take out a federal student loan | how do i take out a federal | Informational | 0 | 10 | 80 | 55 | 3 | 22 |
how to pay student loan online | how to pay online | Informational | 0 | 10 | 52 | 55 | 3 | 32 |
student loan management app | management app | Commercial Investigation | 0 | 10 | 43 | 83 | 3 | 26 |
my student loan account number | my account number | Informational | 0 | 10 | 65 | 64 | 3 | 18 |
student loan servicing center pennsylvania | servicing center pennsylvania | Navigational | 0 | 10 | 52 | 88 | 3 | 38 |
where to pay my student loan | where to pay my | Informational | 0 | 10 | 68 | 100 | 3 | 22 |
student loan counseling center | counseling center | Commercial Investigation | 0 | 0 | 58 | 83 | 3 | 23 |
deadline for student loan application | deadline for application | Informational | 0 | 0 | 68 | 60 | 3 | 16 |
educated borrower student loan | educated borrower | Commercial Investigation | 0 | 0 | 54 | 83 | 3 | 24 |
get subsidized student loan | get subsidized | Commercial Investigation | 0 | 0 | 64 | 90 | 3 | 22 |
how do i find my student loan account number | how do i find my account number | Informational | 0 | 0 | 55 | 100 | 3 | 26 |
how much student loan can i have | how much can i have | Informational | 0 | 0 | 71 | 55 | 3 | 14 |
how to check the status of a student loan from direct loans | how to check the status of a | Informational | 0 | 0 | 86 | 90 | 3 | 11 |
how to find out who is my student loan lender | how to find out who is my lender | Informational | 0 | 0 | 60 | 60 | 3 | 19 |
how to get your student loan money | how to get your money | Informational | 0 | 0 | 39 | 56 | 3 | 22 |
student loan information eligibility | information eligibility | Commercial Investigation | 0 | 0 | 85 | 86 | 3 | 11 |
is financial aid a student loan | is financial aid a | Informational | 0 | 0 | 72 | 60 | 3 | 15 |
national student loan data system for parents | national data system for parents | Commercial Investigation | 0 | 0 | 53 | 22 | 3 | 10 |
national student loan database contact number | national database contact number | Navigational | 0 | 0 | 57 | 64 | 3 | 20 |
nslds student loan login | nslds login | Navigational | 0 | 0 | 73 | 46 | 3 | 11 |
subsidized loan and unsubsidized student loan | subsidized and unsubsidized | Commercial Investigation | 0 | 0 | 57 | 94 | 3 | 24 |
what is a national direct student loan | what is a national direct | Informational | 0 | 0 | 66 | 64 | 3 | 17 |
+ Google Keyword Planner results:
Keyword | Modifier | Type | Avg. Monthly Searches (exact match only) | Competition | Suggested bid |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
student loan application | application | Commercial Investigation | 1K – 10K | 0.98 | 22.37 |
student loan bankruptcy | bankruptcy | Commercial Investigation | 1K – 10K | 0.42 | 9.48 |
how to get a student loan | how to get | Informational | 1K – 10K | 0.92 | 10.59 |
student loan help | help | Informational | 1K – 10K | 0.96 | 15.48 |
student loan deferment | deferment | Commercial Investigation | 1K – 10K | 0.35 | 10.31 |
alaska student loan | alsaska | Navigational | 1K – 10K | 0.54 | 2.21 |
south carolina student loan | south carolina | Navigational | 1K – 10K | 0.45 | 23.59 |
texas guaranteed student loan | texas guranteed | Navigational | 1K – 10K | 0.5 | 17.34 |
student loan interest rates | interest rates | Transactional | 1K – 10K | 0.7 | 10.11 |
student loan consolidation rates | consolidation rates | Transactional | 1K – 10K | 0.94 | 17.44 |
student loan refinance | refinance | Commercial Investigation | 10K – 100K | 0.96 | 34.57 |
student loan consolidation | consolidation | Commercial Investigation | 10K – 100K | 0.98 | 22.52 |
student loan calculator | calculator | Informational | 10K – 100K | 0.42 | 5.41 |
student loan gov | gov | Navigational | 10K – 100K | 0.28 | 16.42 |
iowa student loan | iowa | Navigational | 10K – 100K | 0.23 | 9.08 |
student loan forgiveness | forgiveness | Commercial Investigation | 100K – 1M | 0.58 | 3.38 |
what is a student loan | what is | Informational | 100 – 1K | 0.6 | 8.75 |
how can i get a student loan | how can I get | Informational | 100 – 1K | 0.97 | 7.71 |
how to get a private student loan | how to get a private | Informational | 100 – 1K | 0.96 | 14.82 |
student loan app | application | Navigational | 100 – 1K | 0.83 | 11.89 |
student loan cancellation | cancellation | Transactional | 100 – 1K | 0.41 | 4.5 |
student loan tax | tax | Transactional | 100 – 1K | 0.25 | 47.05 |
medical student loan consolidation | medical consolidation | Commercial Investigation | 10 – 100 | 0.93 | 0 |
federal student loan options | federal options | Commercial Investigation | 10 – 100 | 0.75 | 7.45 |
student loan consolidation faq | consolidation faq | Commercial Investigation | 10 – 100 | 0.76 | 15.94 |
how to figure out student loan interest | how to figure out interest | Informational | 10 – 100 | 0.38 | 10.52 |
how to apply for a student loan online | how to apply | Informational | 10 – 100 | 1 | 20.61 |
how much is my student loan payment | how much is my | Informational | 10 – 100 | 0.22 | 20.96 |
need a student loan now | need now | Transactional | 10 – 100 | 0.99 | 12.02 |
need student loan today | need today | Transactional | 10 – 100 | 1 | 9.8 |
Tier 2 conclusion:
Google Keyword Planner largely uncovered a pretty even percentage of all 4 keyword types (30% Informational, 20% Navigational, 30% Commercial Investigation, and 20% Transactional). GKP also continued to provide a broader set of top-of-funnel keyword opportunities: student loan bankruptcy, student loan gov, student loan help, how to get a student loan, etc.
Moz Keyword Explorer largely uncovered Commercial Investigation and Informational queries. MKE also continued to provide a broader set of long-tail keyword opportunities: student loan forgiveness for teachers, student loan providers, student loan status, how do i find my student loan, etc.
Where this is the end of the road for Google results, Moz has some other filters up its sleeve:
Let's explore the other available Moz keyword filters and examine the discovered keyword results (keywords with unique intent).
Exclude your query terms to get broader ideas: 25 keywords
Most results are longer-tail queries around college tuition, educational expenses, private school tuition, etc. This evenly resulted in Informational, Navigational, and Transactional keyword results:
Based on closely related topics: 35 keywords
One of the more evenly distributed (search volume) results in this example. Most keyword results are around other types of loans or grants: payday loan, pell grants, auto loan, private loans, etc.
Based on broadly related topics and synonyms: 74 keywords
Results are mostly three words or longer and revolve around more specific types of loans; great lakes student loans, wells fargo student loans, student loan chase, etc.
Related to keywords with similar results pages: 187 keywords
Results are mostly long-tail Commercial Investigation queries around loan payments, student loan consolidation, student loan forgiveness for teachers, student loan payment help, etc.
Are questions: 111 keywords
Last, but certainly not least. The crème de la crème of an FAQ page.
Results reveal long-tail student loan questions (mostly Informational), like: can you file bankruptcy on student loans, do student loans affect credit score, are student loans tax deductible, where can i get a student loan, etc.
TL;DR
Conclusion:
Google Keyword Planner has limited search volume data, but continues to provide a broader set of top-of-funnel keywords (high volume, low competition <-- ad metric). Despite the "closely related" filter resulting in a more even percentage of all 4 keyword types, it provided fairly similar results (35.4% duplicate) to "broad." Commercial and Informational keyword types were most commonly found.
Moz Keyword Explorer provides more accurate search volume data, while providing a broader set of long-tail keywords (mid-to-low volume, low competition). The many keyword filters provide a wide range of keyword results (17% duplicate in first two filters) and keyword types depending on which keyword filter you use. However, Informational, Commercial Investigation, and Navigational keyword types were most commonly found.
Pros:
Moz Keyword Explorer: | Google Keyword Planner: |
---|---|
The keyword search volume accuracy (IMO) is the most impressive part of this tool. | The ability to view monthly trends, mobile versus desktop searches, and geo-popular areas is wonderful. |
Better UX. | Can add negative keywords/keywords to not include in results. |
Keyword suggestion filters reveal far more keyword results. | Sorting by 100 keywords is a nice cadence. |
The “are questions” filter is incredibly useful for things like FAQ pages and content marketing ideas. | Google Sheet download integration. |
Saved keyword lists (that can be refreshed!? Say whaa!?) | Average keyword bid (for further competition insight). |
Detailed SERP data for SERP feature opportunities. | Monthly keyword trend data (on hover). |
Organic competition metric. | Ability to target specific hyper-local areas. |
Ability to prioritize keywords which influences the Potential metric (for smarter keyword prioritization). |
Cons:
Moz Keyword Explorer: | Google Keyword Planner: |
---|---|
The Min Volume | Max Volume | Difficulty | Opportunity | Importance | Potential can be overwhelming. | Search volume ranges are widely skewed and bucketed. |
No Google Sheet download integration. | Individuals who start adding keywords from the bottom up of a list (scrolling up) will miss newly populated results. |
No “select all” option. | Broad & Closely Related filters tend to provide very similar results. |
The list of 1,000 keyword results can be daunting when doing lots of keyword research. | No SERP feature data. |
Inability to target specific local regions. | Can’t save lists. |
Clunky, slow UX. |
Which is right for you?
I’d consider where you want to target people in your sales funnel, and where you need to improve your current website traffic. If you have wide top-of-funnel traffic for your product/service and need to better provide long-tail transactions, check out Moz Keyword Explorer. If you need a brief overview of top-level searches, take a look at Google Keyword Planner results.
Which do I use?
I'm a little ashamed to say that I still use both. Checking Google Keyword Planner gives me the peace of mind that I’m not missing anything. But, Moz Keyword Explorer continues to impress me with its search volume accuracy and ease of list creation. As it gets better with top-of-funnel keywords (and hopefully integrates competition up front) I would love to transition completely over to Moz.
Other keyword research tips:
I’ve also been a big fan of ubersuggest.io to give your initial keyword list a boost. You can add your selected keywords directly to Google Keyword Planner or Moz Keyword Explorer for instant keyword data. This can help identify where you should take your keyword research in terms of intent, sub-topic intents, geographic, etc.
Answer the Public is also a great resource for FAQ pages. Just make sure to change the location if you are not based in the UK.
Would love your feedback!
- Please let me know if you can think of other ways to determine the quality of keywords from each tool.
- Any other pros/cons that you would add?
- What other tools have you been using for keyword research?
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Sunday, October 30, 2016
Bonfire Night recipes - hot dogs, chilli and sausage rolls with a twist
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/bonfire-night-recipes-hot-dogs-10266156
Drink spiking warning from Hersham woman who ended up in hospital on night out
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/drink-spiking-warning-hersham-woman-12095774
Abellio received £120,000 from Surrey County Council to keep buses running until December
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Young filmmakers invited to apply to train at Shepperton Studios
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Woking's old fire station ready to come down as redevelopment takes over town
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Diwali Woking parade will brighten town as community marks festival of lights
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'Situations Vacant': What job roles were being advertised in 1963
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Winkworth appeal for £45,000 to repair arboretum’s 19th century boathouse
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See behind the scenes as BBC show Flog It! is filmed at Watts Gallery in Compton
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Shopping centre car parking prices to be hiked up in Staines
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Woking has the highest density of takeaways in the county, according to new figures
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M25 revealed as the UK's least favourite motorway in a new poll as drivers brand it 'road to hell'
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Liberty award for parents of Cheryl James who fought for answers
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Michael Gove left son, 11, alone in hotel for six hours while he went to showbiz party
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Countryside campaign group welcomes decision to revisit Guildford's draft local plan
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Council invites further bids to lease Electric Theatre in Guildford
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Jimi Hendrix, Cheryl Cole, Oasis and Frank Sinatra among celebs pictured at Heathrow over the decades
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Circus animals in Surrey: You have to see it to believe it
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/nostalgia/circus-animals-surrey-you-see-12092016
Saturday, October 29, 2016
Pirbright: Man 'involved in physical assault' with woman in her dressing gown
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/local-news/pirbright-man-involved-physical-assault-12097665
Oxted crash leaves motorcyclist with serious injuries
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/local-news/oxted-crash-leaves-motorcyclist-serious-12097466
Windows smashed as missiles thrown at bus driving through Redhill
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/local-news/windows-smashed-missiles-thrown-bus-12097335
Guildford female driver-only taxi service launched to provide 'reassuring' service for passengers
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Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish remembers Eagles fan Harry Davies as team prepares for Liverpool game
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Escaped horses try to find pastures new...in someone's driveway in Chertsey
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/escaped-horses-try-find-pastures-12095329
Naturists oppose Warlingham flats plans, fearing residents could see their NAKED bodies from the windows
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Smyths Toys Superstore opens at Crawley retail park ready for the Christmas shopping rush
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Bobby Vee's life 'saved' by Guildford man during fall from stage at Florida prizegiving
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/local-news/bobby-vees-life-saved-guildford-12096067
National Cat Day: YOUR super cute felines in pictures
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M25 30-year anniversary: Road plays 'vital role in getting people to their destinations easily, quickly and safely'
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/m25-30-year-anniversary-road-12093430
Friday, October 28, 2016
M25 30-year anniversary: Nine other things that happened in 1986
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/m25-30-year-anniversary-nine-12093953
Halloween: Send us your little horrors snaps for our gallery
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New Heathrow runway 'could be built on ramp over M25'
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/new-heathrow-runway-could-built-12094866
Uber loses legal case over minimum wage and holiday pay but taxi app will appeal decision
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/uber-loses-legal-case-over-12095501
Fifty Shades of Grey collection produced by Raphael Mazzucco revealed at Guildford Castle Fine Art
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Halloween 'Hotter than Hell' pizza launched at Morrisons
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Guildford Craggy Island climbing instructor spared prison after grooming 13 year old
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Review: Scare yourself silly with tales of Hampton Court Palace's ghostly residents
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M25 30-year anniversary: Brief history of service stations along 117-mile ring road
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Hinchley Wood homeowner speaks of 'carnage' after discovery of WW2 bomb... that turned out to be a rock
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M25 30-year anniversary: The 'alternative' southern route that could have diverted through Brooklands and Fetcham Downs
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Halloween Zombie Pub Crawl for night clubbers
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Guildford 'Great Wall' railway station proposal appeal 'staggers' resident groups
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Night-time burglary at Wrecclesham church leaves 'great sadness' in community
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Nine of the scariest Surrey sightings to send a shudder down your spine this Halloween
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Love Starbucks' pumpkin spice latte? Here's how to make your own at home
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South East Coast Ambulance Service claims no deaths resulted from 'Red 3' pilot scheme slammed for 'putting public at risk'
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Woking Liberal Democrat election agent found with child pornography facing jail
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M25 30-year anniversary: See how the Surrey stretch came together and when the county's junctions opened
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Fines for down 32% in Surrey for drivers using mobile phones at the wheel
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Tulley's Shocktober Fest: Watch Get Surrey reporters get the life scared out of them
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/tulleys-shocktober-fest-watch-surrey-12087901
National Cat Day: Let's see YOUR photos of your fabulous feline friends
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/national-cat-day-lets-see-12089480
M25 30-year anniversary: Motorway Archive heralds early days of 'wonderful road'
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M25 30-year anniversary: Do you recognise the Surrey M25 junction from the picture?
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/lifestyle/quiz-you-recognise-surrey-m25-8122927
How to Craft the Best Damn E-commerce Page on the Web - Whiteboard Friday
Posted by randfish
From your top-level nav to your seal-the-deal content, there are endless considerations when it comes to crafting your ecommerce page. Using one of his personal favorite examples, Rand takes you step by detailed step through the process of creating a truly superb ecommerce page in today's Whiteboard Friday.
Video Transcription
Howdy all and welcome to a special edition of Whiteboard Friday. My name is Rand Fishkin. I'm the founder of Moz, and today I want to talk with you about how to craft the best damn ecommerce page on the web. I'm actually going to be using the example of one of my very favorite ecommerce pages. That is the Bellroy Slim Wallet page. Now, Bellroy, actually, all of their pages, Bellroy makes wallets and they market them online primarily. They make some fantastic products. I've been an owner of one for a long time, and it was this very page that convinced me to buy it. So what better example to use?
So what I want to do today is walk us through the elements of a fantastic ecommerce page, talk about some things where I think perhaps even Bellroy could improve, and then walk through, at the very end, the process for improving your own ecommerce page.
The elements of a fantastic e-commerce page
So let's start with number one, the very first thing which a lot of folks, unfortunately, don't talk about but is critical to a great ecommerce process and a great ecommerce page, and that is...1. The navigation at the very top
The navigation at the top needs to do a few things. It's got to help people:
- Understand and know where they are in the site structure, especially if you have a more complex site. In Bellroy's case, they don't really need to highlight anything. You know you're on a wallet page. That's probably in Shop, right? But for Amazon, this is critically important. For Best Buy, this is hugely important. Even for places like Samsung and Apple, critical to understand where I am in the site structure.
- I want to know something about the brand itself. So if this is the first time that someone is visiting the website, which is very often the case with ecommerce pages, they're often entry points for the first exposure that you have to a brand. Let's recall, from what we know about conversion rate optimization, it is uncommon, unusual for someone to convert on their first visit to a brand or a website's page, but you can make a great first impression, and part of that is what your top navigation needs to do. So it should help people identify with the brand, get a sense for the style and the details of who you are.
- You need to know where, broadly, you can go in the website. Where can I explore from here? If this is my first visit or if this is my second visit and I'm trying to learn a little bit more about the company, I want to be able to easily get to places like About, or I want to be able to easily learn more about their products or what they do, learn more about the potential solutions, learn more about their collections and what other things they offer me.
- I also, especially for ecommerce repeat visitors and for folks who are buying more than one thing, I want to have this simple navigation around Cart. I don't, in fact, love how Bellroy minimizes this, but you want to make sure that the Search bar is there as well. Search is actually a function. About 10% to 12% of visitors on average to ecommerce pages will use Search as their primary navigation function. So if you make that really subtle or hard to find or difficult to use, the Search feature can really limit the impact that you can have with that group.
- I want that info about the shopping process that comes from having the Cart. In Bellroy's case, I love what they do. They actually put "Free shipping in the United States" in their nav on every page, which I think, clearly for them, it must be one of the key questions that they get all the time. I have no doubt that they've done some A/B testing and optimization to make sure, "Hey, you know what? Let's just put it in front of everyone because it doesn't hurt and it helps to improve our conversion rates."
2. Core product information
Core product information tends to be that above-the-fold key part here. In Bellroy's case, it's very minimalist. We're just talking about a photo of the wallet itself, and then you can click left or right, or I think sometimes it auto-scrolls as well on desktop but not mobile. I can see a lot more photos of how many cards the wallet can hold and what it looks like in my pants, how it measures up compared to a ruler, and all that kind of stuff. So there's some great photography in here and that's important, as well as the name and the price.These core details may differ from product to product. For example, if you are selling a more complex piece of technology, the core features may, in fact, be fairly substantive, and that's okay. But we are trying to help. With this core product information, we're trying to help people understand what the product is and what it does. So wallet, very, very obvious. If we're talking about lab equipment or scientific machinery, well, a little more complicated. We better make sure that we're communicating that. We want...
- Visuals that are going to serve to... in this case, I think they do a great job, but comprehensively communicate the positioning, the positioning of the product itself. So Bellroy is clearly going with minimalist. They're going with craft. They're a small, niche shop. They don't do 10,000 things. They just make wallets, and they are trying to make that very clear. They also are trying to make their quality a big part of this, and they are trying to make the focus of the product itself, the slimness. You can really see that as you go into, well obviously, the naming convention, but also the photography itself, which is showing you just how slim this wallet can be in comparison to bulky other wallets. They take the same number of cards, they put them in two different kinds of wallets, they show you the thickness, and the Bellroy is very, very slim. So that's clearly what the positioning is going for.
- Potentially here, we might want video or animation. But I'm going to say that this is only a part of the core content when it truly makes sense. Great example of when it does make sense would be Zappos. Zappos, obviously, has their videos for nearly every shoe and shoe brand that they promote on their website. They saw tremendous conversion rate improvements because people had a lot of questions about how it moves and walks and how it looks with certain pieces of clothing. The detail of having someone explain it to you, as I'm explaining ecommerce pages to you in video form, turned out had a great impact on their conversion rate. You might want to test this, but it's also the case that this content, that video or animation content might live down below. We'll talk about how that can live in more of the photos and process at the very bottom at the end of this video.
- Naming convention. We want price. We want core structural details. I like that Bellroy here has made their core content very, very slim, just the photos, the name, and the price.
3. Clear options to the path to purchase
This is somewhere where, I think, a lot of folks unfortunately get torn by the Amazon model. If you are Amazon.com, which yes, has phenomenal click-through rates, phenomenal engagement rates, phenomenal conversion rates, but you are not Amazon. Repeat after me, "I am not Amazon." Therefore, one of the things that Amazon does is they clutter this page with hundreds of different things that you could do, and they built that up over decades, literally decades. They built up so that we are all familiar with an Amazon page, ecommerce page, and what we expect on it. We know there's going to be a lot of clutter. We know there's going to be a ton of call-to-actions, other things we could buy, things that are often bought with this, and things that could be bundled with this. That is fine for Amazon. It is almost definitely not fine for you unless you are extremely similar to what Amazon does. For that reason, I see many, many folks getting dragged in this direction of, "Hey, I want to have 10 different calls-to-action because people might want to X, Y, and Z." There are ways to do the "might want to X, Y, and Z" without making those specific calls-to-action in the core part of the landing page for the ecommerce product. I'll talk about those in just a second.
But what I do want you to do here is:- Help people understand what is available. Quick example, you can select the color. That is the only thing you can do with this wallet. There are no different sizes. There are no different materials that they could be made of. There's just color. Color, Checkout, and by the way, once again, free shipping.
- I am trying to drive them to the primary action, and that is what this section of your ecommerce page needs to do a great job of. Make the options clear, if there are any, and make the path to purchase really, really simple.
- We're trying to eliminate roadblocks, we're trying to eliminate any questions that might arise, and we want to eliminate any future frustration. So, for example, one of the things that I would do here, that Bellroy does not do, is I would geo-target based on IP address. So I'd look at the IP address of the visitor who's coming to this page, and I would say, "I am pretty sure you are located in Washington State right now. Therefore, I know that this is the sales tax amount that I need to charge." Or, "Bellroy isn't in Washington State. I don't need to charge you sales tax." So I might have a little thing here that says, "Sales Tax" and then a little drop-down that's pre-populated with Washington or pre-populated with the ZIP code if you know that and "$0." That way it's predictive. It's saying already, "Oh, good. I know that the next page I'm going to click on is going to ask me about sales tax, or the page after I enter my credit card is." You know what, it's great to have that question answered beforehand. Now, maybe Bellroy has tested this and they found that it doesn't convert as well, but I would guess that it probably, probably would convert even better with that messaging on there.
4. Detailed descriptions of the features of the product
This is where a lot of the bulk of the content often lives on product pages, on ecommerce pages. In this case, they've got a list of features, including all sorts of dimension stuff, how it's built, what it's made from, and what it can hold, etc., etc.
What I'm trying to do here is a few things:
- I want to help people know what to expect from this product. I don't want high returns. Especially if I'm offering free shipping, I definitely don't want high returns. I want people to be very satisfied with this product, to know exactly what they're going to get.
- I want to help them determine if the product fits their needs, fits what they are trying to accomplish, fits the problem they're trying to solve.
- I want to help them, lead them to answers quickly for frequently asked questions. So if I know that lots of people who reach this page have this sort of, "Oh, gosh, you know, I wonder, what is their delivery process like? How long does it take to get to me because I kind of need a wallet for this trip that I'm going on, and, you know, I'm bringing pants that just won't hold my thick wallet, and that's what triggered me to search for slim wallets in Google and that's what led me to this page?" Aha, delivery. Great job. You've answered the question before or as they are asking it, and that is really important. We want answers to the unasked questions before people start to panic in the Checkout process.
You can go through this with folks who you say, "Hey, I want you to imagine that you are about to buy this. Give me the 10 things in your head. I want you to say out loud everything that you think when you see this page." You can do this with actual customers, with customers who are returning, with people who fit your target demographic and target customer profile but have not yet bought from you, with people who've bought from your competitors. As you do this, you will find the answers to be very, very similar time after time, and then you can answer them right in this featured content. So warranty is obviously another big one. They note that they have a three-year warranty. You can click plus here, and you can get more information.
I also like that they answer that unasked question. So when they say, "Okay, it's 80 millimeters by 95 millimeters." "Man, I don't know how big a millimeter is. I just can't hold that information in my head." But look, they have a link "Compare to Others." If you click that, it will show you an overlay comparison of this wallet against other wallets that they offer and other wallets that other people offer. Awesome. Fantastic. You are answering that question before I have it.5. A lot of the seal-the-deal content
When we were talking before about videos or animations or some of the content that maybe belongs in the featured section or possibly could be around Checkout, but doesn't quite reach the level of importance that we've dictated for those, this is where you can put that content. It can live below the fold, scrolling way down. I have yet to see the ecommerce page that has suffered from providing too much detail about things people actually care about. I have seen ecommerce pages suffer from bloating the page with tons of content that no one cares about, especially as it affects page load speed which hurts your conversions on mobile and hurts your rankings in Google because site speed is a real issue. But seal-the-deal content should:- Help people get really comfortable and build trust. So if I scroll down here, what I'm seeing is more photos about how the wallet is made, how people are using it. They call this the nude approach, which cleverly titled, I'm sure it makes for a lot of clicks. The nude approach to building a wallet, why the leather is so slender, why it adds so little weight and depth, why it lasts so long, all these kinds of things.
- It's trying to use social proof or other psychological triggers to get rid of any remaining skepticism. So if you know what the elements of skepticism are from your potential buyers, you can answer that in this deeper content as people get down and through this.
SEO for ecommerce pages
SEO for ecommerce pages is based on only a few very, very simple things. Our SEO elements here are keywords, content, engagement, links, and in some cases freshness. You hit these five and you've basically nailed it.- Keywords, do you call your products the same thing people call your products when they search for them? If the answer is no, you have an opportunity to improve. Even if you want to use a branded name, I would suggest combining that with the name that everyone else calls your things. So if this is the slim sleeve wallet, if historically Bellroy had called this the sleeve wallet, I would highly recommend to them, "Hey, people are searching for slim wallet. How about we find a way to merge those things?"
- Content is around what is on this page, and Google is looking for content that solves the searcher's problem, the searcher's issue. That means doing all of these things right and having it in a format that Google can actually read. Video is great. Transcripts of the video should also be available. Visuals are great. Descriptions should also be available. Google needs that text content.
- Engagement, that is going to come from people visiting this page and not clicking the back button and going back to Google and searching for other stuff and clicking on your competitor's links. It's going to come from people clicking that Checkout button or browsing deeper in the website and from engaging with this page by spending time on the site and not bouncing. That's your job and responsibility, and this stuff can all help.
- Links come from press. It can come from blogs. It can come from some high-quality directories. Be very careful in the directory link-building world. It can come from partnerships. It can come from suppliers. It can come from fans of the product. It can come from reviews. All that kind of stuff. People who give you their testimonials, you can potentially ask them for links, so all that kind of stuff. Those links, if they are from diverse sets of domains and they contain good anchor text, meaning the name of your actual product, and they are pointing specifically to this page, they will tremendously help you rank above your competition.
- Freshness. In some industries and in some cases, when you know that there is a lot of demand for the latest and greatest, you should be updating this page as frequently as you can with the new information that is most pertinent and relevant to your audience.
All right, everyone, thanks for joining us. We'll see you again hopefully on Whiteboard Friday. Take care.
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