Here is a conversation I recently had with Jeremy over at the SEO 20/20 forum. He makes a good point that you do not NEED theme zoom in order to use the basic keyword strategies that we teach.

I usually do not post "he said/she said" but this is a very honest and interesting point about keyword research tools!

Topic begins with this post:

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Sinkh askes:

Hi,

Charles has an interesting and different approach. Most advice in internet marketing says to pick a small niche, make sure you won't have too much tough competition, and then do keyword research.

But Charles, you apparently say: Pick a good and competitive niche and just do a page for each subcategory.

Surely this isn't always going to work. How on earth would you ever get into the top 10 for the word "golf?" The top 10 pages all have a PR of 6 to 8. Yet for the niche "golf swing tips," the competition is more along the lines of PR3 to 4.

Russell Responds:

This is because over time- using decent content- spread over a variety of different terms or what we call "sub themes" and latent themes at theme zoom . . . we have discovered that you will "work yourself into" broad themes over time.

By working on onsite and offsite promotion using primary keywords and later subthemes . . . you will cover a wide range of semantic topics.

As latent semantic indexing becomes more popular (or at least what most people CONSIDER latent semantic indexing . . . heh heh . . . ) you will be prepared and spread out over your topic in a reasonable amount of time.

Furthermore you will stand the test of time.

Russell

Jeremy Responds:

I don't think one needs Theme Zoom.

Its ok to choose a competitive niche just start adding
articles using the lesser searched keywords.

If you do good keyword research you'll find that just
about any niche has keywords that have hardly any
competition. These keywords will usually be 3,4 and
5 keywords long.

Then if you want to theme that page choose 3 to 5 other
related less competitive keywords, take out any duplicate
individual keywords and just sprinkle those unique keywords
in naturally into your article.

This works well and you'll get found for keyword combinations
that even wordtracker never mined.

The traffic adds up, for example, I have a site that has
200 pages and gets found by over 1000 different keyword
combinations. Now because those keywords have low competition,
I'll keep getting traffic and I won't lose my ranking because
most people will not target those less competitive keywords.

Russell Responds:

Of course you don't NEED theme zoom.

Just like you don't "need" paid keyword research tools of ANY kind.

Or software that automates manual tasks- like directory submissions. ; - )

But I wonder how many people would effectively and systematically) follow the steps you described above . . . with certainty.

What I find tricky is what you said about "if you perform good keyword research".

Apparently that is a relative definition.

Keyword research is not market research, for example.

Wordtracker is an ad-hoc database.

All keyword tools, including TZ are anecdotal at best.

And web-log-files seldom lie. Expanding keywords based on "unexpected terms" that visitors have used to land on your website is how GREAT content can help you automatically create more great content of market interest. (Topic or Theme Priority 1,2, 3 in TZ)

Here is an interesting article:

Beware the "keyword tool trap":

http://www.rightclickwebs.com/seo/keywords.php

- Russell Wright