Keyword Intelligence Book Review

I wanted to like this book. Honestly, I wanted it to change my mind about keyword research.

You see, I'm against it. No, that's not true: I'm very much in favor of it, but I don't do it myself. I explained why at length in my Why I don't use keyword research tools hub, but the short version is exactly what the author said in the foreword: "Many consider the the task of researching keywords to be tactical and a necessary evil because it is so time consuming and tedious".

Time consuming, tedious and not of enough apparent value to convince me that I need to subject myself to the pain. Maybe that's what I was hoping this book would do: convince me that the prize is worth the agony.

That's silly, though. I should only need my own brain to convince me of value. If I desire that my epic web page on the subject of Double Fooler Ding Bat Bolts be the top result on Google and Bing pages, it wouldn't make sense to have never used those five words wherever I could. Keywords are the plankton of the search engine whales who browse our Internet oceans. They are obviously the most important part of our frantic efforts to bring the whales to us.

And yet..

Whenever I try to motivate myself to do better in this area, I find myself up against massive ennui. I'm the sleeper, tucked comfortably in my warm bed and when the keyword alarm clock goes off, I bury my head in my pillows. I feel guilt - I know I should get up and tackle this issue, wrestle it to the ground, subdue it. Instead I groan and squeeze my eyes even more firmly shut.

That's what I hoped to find in this book. Motivation, or at least some assurance that the pain will be less than I imagine. Drag me from my bed and let's chase those keywords!

The thrill of the hunt

That's how some people see keywords. For them, it's a fascinating game. I imagine the author of this book might feel that way and perhaps that's the emotion I hoped to have this book evoke.

Instead, I found myself bored almost immediately. I began flipping pages, scanning quickly, looking for something that would grab my attention and draw me in. I didn't find it and that upset me.

It doesn't help that this is well illustrated with black and white snapshots of web pages and keyword tool results. I've been spoiled by the web and by e-books with color illustrations. When I get a physical book now, black and white pictures just annoy me. There is a Kindle version of this and I presume (but do not know) that it has color.

Let me just step aside for a moment and rant at publicists in general: I don't want these physical copies. I want e-books to review and I wish y'all were smart enough to understand that. Or maybe you are? Maybe it's some idiot above you that rushes out print copies to reviewers and holds back the electronic? Wherever the problem is, it's time to fix it!

Analytics

As I flipped past more boring black and white pictures, I came across the section on Google Analytics. Ahh, some common ground! I like Analytics and I even glance at the keyword part now and then. Could there be some new wisdom here that would charge me up and get me excited about digging in to Analytics keywords?

No. Unfortunately, the section ticked me off instantly by asserting that high bounce rates are always "bad". That's extraordinarily naive. It's true in the context of a funnel page, which is what this section went on to discuss, but bounce rates are a far more complicated subject than you'd ever think from reading those pages.

LSI?

I was astonished to find absolutely no mention of LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing). It is possible that I missed it in my scanning, but there is nothing in the index and something that important should be.

Why do I insist LSI is too important to ignore? It's because Google is already using it and the technology is only going to get better and better. If and when LSI intelligence reaches or even surpasses human capability, keywords aren't going to matter any more than choosing a font for your paragraphs. The results will be what you wanted even if the words you used aren't anywhere in the pages at all.

How can you ignore that in a book about keyword intelligence?

Keyword Tools

Ah, well: LSI is in its infancy, so let's move on. I found the section that discusses the tools of the trade interesting. If I ever can kick myself into gear, it would seem to make sense to invest in good tools. After all, keyword work is a battleground. It is a tautology to note that there is only room for one page full of results on the first page that Google or Bing will return, but it is easy to forget that any movement into top SERP (search engine result position) requires someone else to be moved out. In a battle, weaponry matters and keyword tools are weapons.

It should not be necessary to say that I own none. I'm a pacifist in these wars, but these battles have collateral damage. I have a few pages that enjoy good SERP and they are the pages that produce the bulk of my online income. I may be standing with my hands in my pockets ignoring the jockeying for position that these tools can analyze, but it still goes on. My pages can, quite literally, become the target of someone else's weapons. I should not be so dispassionate.

Incidentals

What I did appreciate about this work was its coverage of related subjects. Did you ever stop to think how keyword research should affect site design? I don't think many have thought deeply enough about that.

Do you think that mobile search is different and might require different strategy? I hadn't considered that at all, but a chapter of this book does.

How about branding and its relationship to the keywords that matter to you? That seems like it should be obvious, but apparently it really isn't.

Plan for inaction

I tucked this away on my bookshelf and sighed. I feel the guilt, I know this is important. Yet those soft pillows keep me in my bed, unwilling to act.

I took the book back out and have put it where I will see it frequently. I want its cover to nag at me, to keep reminding me that I'm being a fool. Every time I get near it, I want to hear a tiny whisper: "Read me! Read me!"

We'll see.