So, I'm a marketing and advertising guy.  I know the value of SEO, and I understand the power of a site like Permies.  With that in mind, I have a couple of ideas that can help us create better gear review threads, or benefit more from our gear review threads.

The first thing that I feel we should add to gear review threads are keywords.  This is a very important SEO technique, that utilizes something called "long tail keywords".  To explain it simply, let's look at an example of the gear review post of Fiskar's Splitting Maul.  This post covers a few keywords that I see relevant.  Splitting Maul, Splitting Axe, and Splitting Firewood are the ones that jump out immediately to me.  I feel that it's worth Permies website's best interest to have someone go through these gear reviews, and do some keyword searches for relevant keywords.  Then, these keywords can be appended to the bottom of the first post, or in a separate comment.  I suggest separate comment, so that the first post remains unbiased.  This keyword research is best handled by software and websites which automates the process, and provides smarter results.  They provide keywords that aren't obvious initially.  To explain the keywords, we would be creating word strings (long tails) of things that people search for.  For the Fiskar's maul, they would include things like "best axe for firewood splitting", "best axe to split firewood", "best axe to split wood".  As you see these three have very slight differences, and you could make the argument that since those three terms (axe, splitting and firewood) are in the article, that this would be sufficient enough.  Yes, this will return results.  However, the results will be stronger if the page lists what the user searches for word for word.  This is why there are three variations saying the same thing.  Of course, the full keyword list would be longer than three terms.  These three are just a quick example.  

The second thing is using affiliate links.  Now, I know that Permies understands the value of affiliate links, because many of the products are able to be applied for and promoted for a specific percentage.  I contend that as we create more gear review threads, that Permies should utilize an amazon affiliate link to make money.  People are going to buy from the links on the website.  Why shouldn't Permies profit from it? The same affiliate links can be created for sites such as walmart and cabelas.  It would just take one person with access to the affiliate account to create a link to replace the product link in the review thread. Now, some people may have hesitations against Permies making money this way, but there is a solution for that.  The profits from the affiliate sales can be used to advertise the website, to sponsor giveaways, or to run some fun contests.  

We have the ability to create a powerful machine, if we utilize marketing correctly.  No, it won't make a ton of money.  No, it won't take a ton of time.  No, it's not going to cost any member anything extra.  The only thing is that the website can benefit from the work that we put into it.  There are a few other methods that I would use to help boost up permies.  I'm very passionate about SEO and marketing, and I really enjoy this website.  The realization came a week ago, when my friends were talking about their favorite websites to visit.  While my favorite site has changed many times over the years, I find myself enjoying this site the most currently.  We have a good community, and I would completely understand if the community does not want to take steps forward with marketing ourselves.  Some people (and companies) are satisfied with where they are currently.  There's nothing wrong with that at all.  I just see possibilities.

Thanks for your post.  We value your input.  

We do have some pretty spiffy plans for improving the review grids in the works.  The problem is there's only a finite number of developers and we have some pretty major issues to sort out first.  Writing reviews, and using the review grids ups their priority on their (amazingly long) to do list.  I think it's a bit like growing vegetables - if someone suddenly likes eating zucchini, I will focus attention and grow them again.  (not eggplant though - shudders).  Thank you, everyone, who's been working hard to get our review grid going.  

Have a look at our lovely book review grid

Publishers love this because they can see who to give free books to for review. It's been cunningly designed and organized for various reasons.  

The problem is, there's only so much room on the grid.  There are nearly twice as many reviews as will fit on the grid, so the system knocks them off the end.  If you've written less than four reviews, there's no guarantee that you'll make it on there (although your score would still be tallied).  For this reasons, until things are improved, we really want to keep the words as short as possible so as many people can fit on the review as possible.  

We have plans to improve all that and SEO.  But that's months away.



SEO - or googlelove as I will call it.  

At This Time (notice I qualify this).  At this time, it's the summary pages that we want to give and get the most googlelove to.  This is why we require that each thread starts with a summary of the product.  These have the affiliate links.  this template was made for book and dvd reviews.  There are about a dozen other reasons why we want to focus the googlelove on these pages.  Some reasons are complex enough I don't understand them, others are secret.  

I think it would be a big help to attract gear sellers to our site if there was a standard format to gear review threads.  It makes us look professional, optimize googlelove, shows new people there is a format, and makes it way easier for me to read.  

If someone wanted to make such a template that was gear specific, I could take it to the powers that be and they can fiddle with it to optimise it for the secret stuff I can't mention at this time, and we could implement it.  

Are you volunteering to make this template?  

We have the ability to create a powerful machine,

I think this is true and I'm thrilled that you're eager to help.  

William, is there an easy way to learn how to use keywords to optimize a post so that it is easily picked up or a place to learn how to do this?

Anne Miller wrote:William, is there an easy way to learn how to use keywords to optimize a post so that it is easily picked up or a place to learn how to do this?

Anne, there are a couple of ways that this can be done easily.  I will take you through several of the free resources that I know about (of course, there are some software solutions that make things easier and quicker).

Google Keyword Planner - https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner - This is the best free keyword tool.

Here, I threw in the keyword of "splitting maul" to see the results for the Fiskar's axe.  Then, I click Avg Monthly searches, because you want to pay more attention to the terms that people search for more often.  "log splitter", "wood splitter", "wood splitting maul", "log splitter wedge", "splitting axe", "wood splitting wedge", "firewood splitter", "fiskars splitting axe", "how to split wood", "manual wood splitter" are all super relevant to the tool and not contained verbatim in the post.  These can either be added on as a list of keywords, but the best method is to use them conversationally in the article (especially the highest search results).  

There are also some negative keywords in here.  These are terms that are applicable to the conversation about axes, but do not apply to the fiskars.  "felling axe", "small axe", "hydraulic wood splitter", "tree felling axe","wood handle axe" etc.  These are best used conversationally in the article, but very seldom.  You don't want to over saturate with keywords that don't apply ..... but they can add a ton of value to a conversation.  Look, this fiskar's log splitter is not a tree felling axe.  It has a log splitter wedge built into the head, so it's not the best felling axe.  This wood splitting maul is an efficient firewood splitter, but it's not going to be as fast as a hydraulic wood splitter.  The Fiskar's is much cheaper than one of those machines.  I just wish that this was a wood handle axe, because I do not like the vibration of the composite handle.  


Another good site is https://keywordtool.io  This site has a free feature, but they keep some metrics hidden to get you to upgrade to pro.  What is unique here, is that you can search both Youtube and Amazon to get some unique keywords.  Without the ability to filter the search volume, you just have to use your judgement on which are the best.  I searched "splitting maul" youtube results, so that you can see the difference of what people look for on these different sites.  "splitting maul vs axe", "splitting maul or axe", "splitting maul best", "best wood splitting maul", "best splitting maul review", "splitting maul how to use".  It's simple to see with these results that what people look for on youtube are versus, how-tos, and reviews of items.  The amazon search comes up with some different purchase variations (8 lb, 6lb, 12lb, head only, sheath, steel handle, wood handle). Just remember that using these free tools, you are going to get limited search results.  For what we need it for, that's adequate.

https://ubersuggest.io/ is another free keyword search tool that seems to give very similar data to google keyword planner.  It also gives you the data to sort by search volume and CPC.  I like to look at the highest search volume, but I also pay attention to what has the highest CPC.  CPC is cost per click, and is the cost for advertising that exact keyword.  So, when you input "splitting maul", and look at the highest CPC, you see the term "best log splitting maul" is much higher than the others at $4.58 PER CLICK!!!  Oddly, this only has 10 people searching for this term each month.  The highest search volume term is "log splitter".  This gets searched an average of just over fourty thousand times each and every month.  The cost per click is 71 cents per click.  This is the cost for google to show ads for this keyword.

You may ask why a term may have such a significantly higher CPC, and there are two reasons.  First, it's likely a highly effective selling term.  What I mean is that people who search this term are likely looking to purchase now.  They want to know which maul is best for log splitting, because they are going to buy one today.  Another reason that terms get high in CPC is competition.  Sometimes companies latch onto a term and just fight against each other for business.  Each CPC is a bid.  If I'm willing to pay 45 cents per click, and you are willing to pay 50 cents, then you are going to win the clicks.  Once I realize that I'm not getting clicks, and I decide to move up to 55 cents per click, you can see how this becomes a bid war for customers.  This happens with some inefficient terms that don't make sense, because sometimes companies are desperate for business, and they don't have the best SEO business sense.  

Some of you people are a bit more visual than others.  If that is the case, then I can suggest the website https://answerthepublic.com You put in your keyword just like the other sites, but they give you a graphical representation of the results.  Here's the image they produce for "splitting maul"  

I hope these have given you some ideas on how to find keywords to help promote your businesses, hobbies, and our lovely site here =)

William, thank you very much.  I will now how something to keep me busy.

I just want to promote our lovely site though I know some others here can use this to promote their biz, etc.