Search Engine Optimisation Process Part 1: SEO Tools and Market Research

This chapter will show you how to get started with your Market Research using free SEO tools. You will be able to analyse your Market, Competition and your own website.  Once you have completed your original analysis you can then begin your keyword research in our next chapter - The Search Engine Optimisation Process Help List – Part 2 Keyword Research

Download the Free SEO Tools

The first step is to put yourself in a position to:

• Analyse the market you are in or hope to get into.
• Analyse your own website to see your current strengths and weaknesses.

There are a number of SEO/Webmaster tools out on the web but my favourites are SEO for Firefox and the SEO Toolbar.  These are the best free SEO tools I have found. To use the tools you will need to use Firefox, which is a browser like IE, Chrome, Safari and Opera.  The difference with Firefox from other browsers is the amount of add-ons (additional functions) that can be downloaded for free.

Follow these links for your downloads:

1. The Firefox Browser – Follow the instructions from Firefox depending on your Operating System. This needs to be working before you can install the two below.
2. SEO for Firefox – There is a short video on this page explaining how to use SEO for Firefox
3. SEO Toolbar – There is a short video on this page explaining how to use the SEO Toolbar

Before we begin our SEO Market Research

A few words of caution before we start our SEO Market Research

1. Remember SEO should only be one part of your website Marketing Strategy. Due to (algorithm) updates from the Search Engines you may lose some search ranking unexpectantly.  It is always good to have a back up plan in the form of a PPC campaign and/or a Social Media Marketing including Twitter and Facebook.
2. Search Engine Optimisation is a time-consuming process and it can take a while, even a number of months to see the results.
3. SEO is a continual process, as this series will show.

Market Research

To look at the relevant market we can begin by opening Google (as it’s the largest Search Engine in the UK) and typing the words you think are most relevant to your market in the search bar (If you have a website already you may have relevant search terms that people have used whilst on your website in your analytic pages).  This is just to get an idea about the market and whether it is worth continuing.

For this example I am going to use the phrase “search engine optimisation” in Google.

In the top right hand corner of the Search engine results page are the results.  Results 1 – 10 of about 35,100,000 for search engine optimisation (0.25 seconds). This figure does not help to show which sites are more competitive, we need to narrow down the results to do this we can use search operators.

Search Operators

Now if I add some Search Operators into the search box (put the line below in the search box but change “search engine optimisation” for your words)

inanchor:”search engine optimisation” intitle:”search engine optimisation” intext:”search engine optimisation” inurl:”search engine optimisation” ADD PHOTO EXAMPLE

I can narrow the field to more competing sites, rather than a site which just mentions Search Engine Optimisation. The results now show:  Results 1 – 10 of about 226,000 for inanchor:”Search Engine Optimisation” intitle:”Search Engine Optimisation” intext:”Search Engine Optimisation” inurl:”Search Engine Optimisation”. (0.34 seconds).

We have greatly reduced the amount of competition, just by adding these operators and seeing which sites use keywords in more important areas on their website.  A big difference between 35,100,000 and 226,000.

It is possible to refine the results even more with additional operators to localise your searches.  (see Google guide link below)

SEO for Firefox

I know how many sites are competitive for Search Engine Optimisation (226,000) but who are the major players?  By turning on the SEO for Firefox and refreshing the Google results screen, for every result I can see information which is very important to search ranking.  I can look at the top ten sites and see:

• Age of the site
• Google’s Page rank
• Social Media links
• .edu .gov links
• Directory links
• Inbound links

These factors give an idea of how much work needs to be implemented to gain a decent Search Engine Ranking.  If the results are high it may be difficult to rank for that search term.  Where as if they are acceptable and the competition are not established it may be worth focusing on this market.

If you have your own website type your web address into Google, (leaving SEO for Firefox turned on) to see the current statistics for your site. This is a handy insight into areas that may need work.  Then for the next step input your original search phrase.

Keyword Traffic

Under the search box (where you typed your search) there is a link KW Research, click this link and you will arrive on SEOBook.com and the Keyword Suggestion Tool.  This is a very helpful tool and it is free.

We will return to talk about this  tool later but for now look for the column overall estimated daily amount. As it states this is a guide to the amount of traffic for the phrase you have entered. Look for your phrase in the column called Wordtracker, then look for your overall estimated daily amount you now have a guide to the amount of searches for that phrase.

Market Research and SEO Tools.

You should now have more of an idea about the market surrounding the searches you have entered, we have looked at the number of competitors, the strength of the main competitors and the amount of daily traffic for your search.

In the next section we will research keywords in more detail, but this exercise should have enabled you to have more confidence in some searches/markets which we can take a step further.

The Search Engine Optimisation Process Help List – 6 Key Areas

The links below need to be followed in a series (one after the other).  All set to move onto Part 2? Get ready to identify relevant keywords which can help drive more traffic to your site and increase conversions.  If you need any help contact me on Twitter @briancee1.  Enjoy!

These links will appear at the bottom of each page in the series

1. SEO Tools – Check your Site
2. Keyword Analysis Research
3. Web Content Writing – Web Copy
4. SEO Web Design – Search Engine and User Friendly Structure
5. Link Building – The Natural Way
6. SEO Service – Revisiting, Fixing and Optimising your site.

More free Webmaster and SEO tools

• Google Webmaster
• Bing Webmaster
• Wordtracker
• Keyword Discovery
• Yahoo Site Explorer
• SEOBook
• SEOMoz
• Bruce Clay
• Google Guide – Search Operators

Related SEO Tools Posts

To keep you in touch with relevant topics on the site below are links to my most recent SEO posts. 

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