Working online, keyword research is one of the first steps that you have to master in order to jump into the game, and create a successful
SEO strategy. After all, if you are not targeting terms that people are looking for, you will rip your hair out trying to get people to see your website.
This is the area that many people struggle with the most. In fact, it can even stop you dead in your tracks if you are not careful. So, how can you overcome this struggle, and create a site that will get the traffic that you need?
First of all, you need to start with the basics. A little research into your niche, and what information people are looking for. Don't just look for keywords or derivatives of the basic niche.
For example I was looking at a site the other day in the "Get your ex back niche." Owning a few sites in this market myself, I always like to keep an eye on what other people are doing.
As I looked at the pages, every single page was targeting "win back ex, get ex back, etc...
Now, you can go this route. However, within this niche, those keywords have so much competition, you can spend months trying to get any rankings at all.
The people who build up sites targeting only those specific keywords clearly don't know the niche, and you can easily leave them in the dust. Check out some of the
popular niche forums and see what the people who are interested in your topic are looking for.
Think about it, if someone is starting a thread looking for answers to a problem, they are probably searching for those answers elsewhere, including in search engines. You can use this to your advantage. Take a notepad, and write down the topics people are looking for information on. In the relationships niche, this could include problems such as jealousy, cheating partners, broken hearts, and other problems that people face in the relationship.
By targeting specific problems, you are going to be more likely to convince someone to buy a product from you. Also, check out the merchants sales page, if you are promoting an affiliate product. most sales pages are written to target multiple keywords. You will be more likely to ramp up your success strategy by targeting the same keywords that the product you are promoting is.
Make yourself a list of about 20-30 keywords to start with. You should be able to compile this list within about 15-20 minutes.
Next, head to the
Google Adwords Keyword Tool. Now, there are many paid tools that you can buy, but you don't need to waste your money. The free Keyword tools available will give you everything that you need to succeed.
Start out by plugging those keywords into the search box. Make sure you have the "use synonyms" box checked, fill out the captcha and search.
Once you get the search results, I recommend that you pay the most attention to the global monthly searches.
When you are just starting out, look for keywords that have around 1000 searches monthly, or if you are posting on a blog that is updated frequently, you can go as low as 500 searches monthly. The reason for this is the number of visitors that you will be seeing based on these keywords. You want enough visitors to make it worth your while, but you can easily rank for these lower searched terms.
Most people see them as too much hassle to try to rank for, so they ignore them. The funny thing is that these keywords are often going to convert better to sales.
As you look at the keywords, look for problem specific keywords, and product specific keywords. If people are looking for the name of your product, then there is a good chance that they are ready to buy it already. They just need you to push them over the edge.
Look for keywords of 3 word phrases or more. These long tail keywords are more likely to target a specific need that people are willing to spend money to fix.
As you get yourself started, make yourself a list of 20-30 keywords to start with. You can always come back and get more later. If you build too big of a list, you will overwhelm yourself with all the content that you will be trying to write. Keep a small list, and write 2-3 articles on each keyword. Then, once you run out of keywords, go back and get some more.
Once you get your list of keywords, let's take a look at profitability. Go to
Google Search and plug in each of your keywords. Don't mess with quotes or anything like that. Don't worry about how many other sites are showing up, we will check on that in just a minute.
What you do want to look at is the right hand side of the results page. Are there any AdWords ads on the page? If people are paying for these ads, then chances are, they are making money on the keywords. Once you complete that, now you need to look at your competition.
I recommend using the
Traffic Travis Keyword Analysis tool. it is a free tool that you can download right away ( as long as you are not on one of those silly Macs)
You are going to get a lot of information, that will help you determine how hard it will be to rank for that keyword. First of all, you will see the top 20 sites. It does not matter how many more sites are targeting the keywords. If you can beat the top 10, then you have already beat all the rest anyway.
Look at all the on page
SEO factors. IF the top pages all have all the on page
seo in place, then you will need to make sure that you do as well.
Next, look at the number of links to the page. Now, with redirects, and other methods of link cloaking, this count will never be accurate. However, I find that if I double the number of the most links shown, I usually wind up pretty close to the top. This is a good place to start, over time, I will review it, and go back and build even more links.
The main problem people have with keyword research comes at this point. They get hung up on over analyzing everything, and get scared of the competition. This leads to analysis paralysis.
Don't get caught up in this paralysis. The most important thing to remember is to choose something and move forward.
Keyword research is one of the biggest
website marketing secrets that you can learn. Don't put off your success any longer. Get started with your Keyword research right away
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Online Keyword Research Basics
