The game of Boggle and keyword research have a lot in common.
I discovered this unlikely relationship this past weekend, while engaged in a heated game of Boggle with some close friends.
Exciting, I know.
For those who haven’t revisited this game for some time – here is the Cliff’s Notes:
- You shake the board to stir up the letters.
- You set the timer.
- And then you make as many words as you can by joining letters that are touching each other on the Boggle board.
So, the best strategy is to find words next to letters that allow you to branch out, like -s or -ed.
If you see the word rat you can branch out to rats, or if an -e is close by you can create rate, and then rates, and rated.
If you are lucky enough to find another -r, you can do rater and raters.
And so on and so forth.
I took everyone to the cleaners that night.
What Boggle and Keyword Research Have In Common
It occurred to me that Keyword Research is very similar to a game of Boggle.
You start with a word – or a topic.
You create a page about this topic and then start to build.
Let’s say your topic is pens.
Your site will not be found with only one post about pens.
But, like in Boggle, if you build on that topic – you will start to see the traffic begin to trickle in.
Ballpoint pens, gel pens, blue pens, black pens, refills for pens, Bic Pens, Pentel Pens …
And when you have exhausted your pen keywords, you can move on to other related words and start your Boggle strategy all over again.
Permanent markers, red permanent markers, silver permanent markers, Sharpie permanent markers.
You get the idea.
Go Play Some Boggle!
Check out the Boggle iPad app – it’s excellent and addictive – and after just a few games, you will see exactly what I mean. (Right now it’s only 99 cents – I think I paid around $4.00 for mine, so this is a pretty good deal)
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