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Thank you for the response Mike but I'm not asking an editorial question. "What is...Actinide?" is just an example. I'm curious to know if the ellipse or other punctuation effects the weighting of my title or if Google basically  ignores it. When I search similar patterns with and without the ellipse I get the exact same search results.

I went to that URL listing the stop words in the Internet Archive, and it's had the same content for at least five years now. Years ago, Google did have a notice when it ignored common words, but I don't remember it as being this restrictive even a long time ago. I would consider that list vastly outdated. Here's some information from Google itself: http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=136861 Words that are commonly used, like 'the,' 'a,' and 'for,' are usually ignored (these are called stop words). But there are even exceptions to this exception. The search [ the who ] likely refers to the band; the query [ who ] probably refers to the World Health Organization -- Google will not ignore the word 'the' in the first query.

Following on from Johns response; "You should have an instinct for which of these will convert best." Once you have a list of these keywords you could always carry out an old-school KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) check on each of them. 1. Check the Adwords tool for the number of monthly searches. 2. Run a regular google search and note the number of returned results which is diaplyed just below the search bar. i/e 'About 1,799,900 results (0.13 seconds) - This is your competition. 3. KEI = monthly searches x monthly searches ÷ competition The KEI theory is that the higher the KEI the more effective your campaign will be. Initially the figures don't give you a very clear picture but if you include the KEI check as part of your regular research and combine the results with your other keyword analysis and "instict" you will end up with a more rounded view. If, for instance, you were choosing between two different keywords to use as your main target keyword and one of them had a KEI of 2.3 and the other had a KEI of 176.4 then I would be opting for the second keyword choice.

Well Google collects our data, why should you not collect theirs. Put a button on your web site but dont make it easy to find, add some small print including your terms of use, and a disclamer that if search engines dont want their data scapped they can opt out by pressing the button, make them fill out a few forms, verify themsefls, make them wait 4 weeks then send them a no-reply email that does not address their concerns properly, so they have to go thought it all again.

I use several tools for rank tracking: 1. CuteRank - Simple and easy to use keyword rank checker and best of all, it's free. http://cuterank.net/ 2. Market Samurai - Great software for keyword research and includes a keyword rank checker. http://www.marketsamurai.com/ 3. SEMRush.com - I don't really use this site for keeping track of my keyword rankings over time, but it is invaluable for discovering new keyword opportunities since you can see all the keywords your site and your competitors' sites rank for. One way it helped me is that on one of my sites, I discovered that a random PDF was ranking #1 for a popular keyword but since I was only using Google Analytics to track my website visitors, I had no idea the PDF was getting any traffic. So I redirected the PDF to an actual page with the GA tracking code, website navigation and a contact form in order to convert some of those visitors in potential customers.

Thanks for the input. For the sake of clarity (specifically, my clarity), could you give me an example of a keyword 'theme'? Thanks again.

Done a bit of googling on this but can't find any suitable tools. The only approach I can think of is to attempt to guess the URL of the product feed e.g. http://www.websitename.com/googlebase.xml. Obviously this is a bit of a long shot!

Well, you kind of have to weigh your options. The dangers of using meta keywords is that your competitors can read them and, and then they will know how to compete with you. You are basically giving away some of your proprietary information. Now having said that, there are still people who use meta keywords. Read this article. You basically just have to deiced if you getting your products placed on buy.com is going to make you enough money to be worth it. Sorry, I know I didn't give you a yes/no answer, but hopeful you have enough information to make an educated decision. -Bryant Jaquez

I agree with Egol. Conversion rate would be a deciding factor. Current position and ease of improving that position would also be a factor. Cost of maintaining a position should also be considered. If all things were equal and you are looking at pure traffic numbers... Keyword A - 3,000 at 19% = 570 Keyword B - 20,000 at 7% = 1400 Go for Keyword B.

Hi Wayne, I'm following up on older questions that are still marked unanswered. Did you ever figure this one out? I'm curious to hear what happened here.

You are correct in using a more specific match type other than broad. At an exact match level, your time would be best spent on the After Effects term. However, with something like "Photoshop Courses" i could see a lot of phrase match type of variants, like "free photoshop courses" "photoshop courses online" and a whole myraid of those type of terms that would be relevant to target for you.  So maybe take it up to a phrase match level and make a  decision based on that.

Hello Sylvia, I think, a part of, the answer to your question is in the FAQ of the Keyword Difficulty Tool, the search volume data for keywords is collected from the Keyword Tool via the Google AdWords API ( ). So the data within the Keyword Difficulty Tool should be the same as in the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. We tested this a couple of months ago and from my own experience I can say that it is matching, but hopefully there is somebody around from the SEOmoz team to confirm your question. Happy analyzing!

Tom, it might be the same way that Acrobat Reader ranks first for the query [click here] even though those those words don't appear anywhere on the page or in the source code. In my results, I see only two out of the first 10 results that have anything to do with "click here". The rest are there because of anchor text or other factors. Think of how many web pages you see that talk about "To get Acrobat Reader, Click Here" with the Click Here hyperlinked to the download page. The search engines take that as a clue that the destination is about "Click Here". It's the same way that George Bush's bio page ranked for Miserable Failure, and how many other "Google Bombs" took place (though some are now no longer working). You might take a look at Open Site Explorer and the anchor text on the incoming links to see some off-site factors for the ranking in question.

Hi Adam, If you are just wanting to rank your keyword terms according to the number of searches per month, you can use any of a wide selection of free or paid keyword research tools. Probably the most well known and commonly used is the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. In order to get the estimated number of searches per month for the exact keyword terms you are seeking, type the list into the Word or phrase input field at the top (one term per line). Check the box underneath the input field that says O****nly show ideas closely related to my search terms. When you click "Search" you will see two separate lists. The first one will show you the exact terms you entered. You will now also see an option on the left of the screen to change from the default broad match to exact match or phrase match (I would normally be looking for exact match and local searches - USA by default). You can sort the list numerically by clicking on the column heading. To download just your list of terms, check the box to select them, then click "download" and choose "selected" from the menu that opens. This will allow you to save the list in a number of formats, including csv for Excel. The second list you see is a selection of "keyword ideas" which Google thinks may be closely related to the terms you entered. If you want to add some of these to the list you are downloading, just check the boxes before downloading "selected". If you want to change location (you are not in the USA), or just look at search numbers for mobile traffic etc, click the Advanced Options and Filters link underneath the word and phase input field. You should always keep in mind with any tool of this nature, that search numbers can never be exact, but it will certainly give you an indicative feel for the popularity of your terms. There will always be variations in search traffic from month to month, there are seasonal influences etc etc. As Ryan indicated, there are a number of other factors to take into account when assessing the keywords you are going to target and the Whiteboard Friday video he suggested is a great place to start. I would normally suggest that you also use the SEOmoz Keyword Difficulty Tool to help refine your list according to how competitive your terms are, but I believe there is an issue with that tool at the moment. The SEOmoz team are working on that, and you could make use of it once the issue is resolved. Hope that helps, Sha

Hi Jest, The help team generally doesn't read the Q&A forums, and only comes over here if one of the associates (like myself) flags the question. Sha Menz is correct in that the best way to get ahold of them is sending them an email in cases like this. They are aware of this problem, and are working to get it fixed. Watch the Twitter account for SEOmoz, as they will give updates about the status of this issue.

My advice for keyword research is too not just factor on exact match and broad match, you need to factor in other forms of research to supplement your data. You need to remember this data is only a guide from Google Exact match data is in no way an accurate determination of what traffic the specific keyword gets. MY advice it the following - Split up excel into the following: 1. line Exact 1. line Broad 1. line other research 1. line competitive analysis for the term. You need to pull information from various sources, do not rely only on Google. Kind Regards, James Norquay.

Here is a similar Q and A that I wrote a response to suggesting 4 tools which I have found immensely useful. Market Samurai also has some video tutorials that teach a really good strategy for finding great keywords. http://www.seomoz.org/q/what-keyword-research-tools-do-you-recommend-to-help-with-seo hope this helps.

Hi Jean, there are several tools to check rankings, or you can manually check them. Be aware that you might get different search result when manually checking them due to personalization and your location. However, if a manual check gives you nearly the same result as the SEOmoz tool does for one or two weeks ago, you can be confident that it is a bug and not a drop in your rankings. You can find lots of different tools discussed here: http://www.seomoz.org/q/what-rank-checking-solution-do-people-use

Hi Gabo, As Shelley advised, there have been a number of people experiencing some issues with the keyword ranking tool. Best to email the SEOmoz help team  help@seomoz.org and advise them of the problem you are having and the specific campaigns where it is happening. Sha