Keyword research isn't important at all - unless you want people to find your lens! Posting on SquidU, sharing a lens with your squid-buddies, even Tweeting a lens only goes so far. The goal is to get traffic from the web, from public, from people you never knew you needed to meet. These are the ones who don't necessarily leave star ratings but who (hopefully, if you have a good lens) click out on your links and even make a purchase now and then. Can't earn money for yourself or for charity without those clickouts, and you won't get clickouts if you don't get traffic which found you because of, that's right, great keywords.
Keyword research is essential if you want traffic and sales. It's just that simple. Short term sales can come from your fans. I've got lenses that sold something the first month because they saw the lens on my newsletter or on a forum. But recurring sales mostly come through search engines in my experience.
I've got people who click through to my lenses from my website, but they buy far less often than people who come through google do. Makes sense: people who come for google are the ones who decided to LOOK for precisely what I am selling. Which means they aren't just interested in the topic, but in the product as well. (which is why making lenses about products is essential if you want to make money on squidoo).
[If you're going to feature this, can you link to my newest lenses? See: http://www.squidoo.com/katinka-hesselink/ - I've got a link plexo there in which I collect all the lenses that are less than a month old.]
Doesn't mean that building links isn't important: it is too - in many niches keyword research is only going to bring you traffic if you combine it with links. But in any niche you need keyword research to get a reasonable amount of traffic. I do put up content just for the sake of it - many times - but that's another story. That's usually more for the sake of self expression or archiving something. And even then I make sure the title is keyword rich so people looking for that information or inspiration are likely to find it.
The impoirtance of keyword research depends on the reasons why you are publishing - whether it be a Squidoo Lens, website or a blog.
For example, if you are just posting to get something off your chest and you are not bothered about traffic, then rant away. Say exactly what you want to.
However, if you are after traffic then it is essential that you research your keywords in order to know how to pitch your article/lens/blog and give it the best chance of being found. You need to do the research so you can narrow your niche, to give the lens the best chance of ranking high for those keywords.
It is also important to do this research not just before you start writing the lens. You need to do it even BEFORE you grab the URL.
Everything else can be tweaked and amended as you research. But grab the wrong URL and you are stuck with it OR if you have not yet published and you realise you have made a mistake, then you can delete and start over.
Keyword research isn't important at all - unless you want people to find your lens! Posting on SquidU, sharing a lens with your squid-buddies, even Tweeting a lens only goes so far. The goal is to get traffic from the web, from public, from people you never knew you needed to meet. These are the ones who don't necessarily leave star ratings but who (hopefully, if you have a good lens) click out on your links and even make a purchase now and then. Can't earn money for yourself or for charity without those clickouts, and you won't get clickouts if you don't get traffic which found you because of, that's right, great keywords.
ReplyDeleteKeyword research is essential if you want traffic and sales. It's just that simple. Short term sales can come from your fans. I've got lenses that sold something the first month because they saw the lens on my newsletter or on a forum. But recurring sales mostly come through search engines in my experience.
ReplyDeleteI've got people who click through to my lenses from my website, but they buy far less often than people who come through google do. Makes sense: people who come for google are the ones who decided to LOOK for precisely what I am selling. Which means they aren't just interested in the topic, but in the product as well. (which is why making lenses about products is essential if you want to make money on squidoo).
[If you're going to feature this, can you link to my newest lenses? See: http://www.squidoo.com/katinka-hesselink/ - I've got a link plexo there in which I collect all the lenses that are less than a month old.]
Doesn't mean that building links isn't important: it is too - in many niches keyword research is only going to bring you traffic if you combine it with links. But in any niche you need keyword research to get a reasonable amount of traffic. I do put up content just for the sake of it - many times - but that's another story. That's usually more for the sake of self expression or archiving something. And even then I make sure the title is keyword rich so people looking for that information or inspiration are likely to find it.
The impoirtance of keyword research depends on the reasons why you are publishing - whether it be a Squidoo Lens, website or a blog.
ReplyDeleteFor example, if you are just posting to get something off your chest and you are not bothered about traffic, then rant away. Say exactly what you want to.
However, if you are after traffic then it is essential that you research your keywords in order to know how to pitch your article/lens/blog and give it the best chance of being found. You need to do the research so you can narrow your niche, to give the lens the best chance of ranking high for those keywords.
It is also important to do this research not just before you start writing the lens. You need to do it even BEFORE you grab the URL.
Everything else can be tweaked and amended as you research. But grab the wrong URL and you are stuck with it OR if you have not yet published and you realise you have made a mistake, then you can delete and start over.