Keyword research is one of the, if not THE central aspects of making money online, blogging and e-commerce. Without proper keywords targeted traffic will not find your site in any of the search engines and you will lose out on subscribers, buyers and any other type of traffic you may be targeting. It's a fact that proper niche research and niche research, keyword research and then keyword analysis are the essential steps in having a successful online venture. Good keywords bring traffic and traffic brings money.
There are two parts to keyword research for any one website
1. The main niche research for the main keywords of the site that is done only once when initially creating and launching a new website.
2. Ongoing research for keywords that is conducted on an ongoing basis for internal pages for content that is constantly added to a site. This guide will focus on the main niche niche research and site wide keywords.
The purpose of this guide is to look at the search for keyword phrases as it pertains to making money online, and the best way to make money online is with affiliate marketing, where some commission is made by promoting particular products. Often times people can also launch review type blogs, where they just post about various products and make money with Adsense ads or other type of advertising that is peppered around their content.
Whether you want to build affiliate marketing sites or blogs, and make money with eBay products by using the very easy PHPBay wordpress plugin, or make money with Amazon with the excellent EasyAzon WordPress Plugin, or maybe you want to build a product comparison website with the CompariPress plugin, it starts with proper keyword and niche research.
3 Steps to Keyword Research, Niche Research and Keyword Analysis
There are 3 steps to finding the best keywords, niche research, locating the optimal keywords within the main niche and keyword analysis, here is a detailed look at these 3 steps.
1. Niche Research - Finding Main Niche Ideas and Markets
Overall, to start with you are looking for main niche ideas, for example, laptops, computers, televisions, kitchen appliances, weight loss, credit, mortgage...etc... words that are very general. There are millions of possibilities of things people are searching for. Below are some resources to find niche ideas.
Niche Research Resources
- My Simon - Top Searches
- Amazon Best Sellers
- Best Buy Top Rated Products
- Overstock Departments
- Ebay Pulse
- Bizrate Top Products
- Shopzilla Top Searches
- Yahoo Shopping Brands List
- Google Product Search
- Home Shopping Network Top Searches
- The Find
- Yearly Shopping Trends Report
- Clickbank Marketplace
- AOL Hot Searches
2. Keyword Research - Locating Optimal Keywords within the Main Niche
Most of the time the main niche keywords, such as those listed above, are way too competitive to even try to rank for. For example, the keyword laptop is really impossible to rank for, so we need to find more detailed phrases that people are searching for related to those products, such as cheap laptop computers, still competitive but much less so. So once you find those niches that are of interest to you it's time to use some keyword research tools to find the related longer phrases and keywords for those main niches. Basically you are looking for keywords that have high amounts of monthly or daily searches with the lowest amount of competition possible.
Good Free Keyword Tools for Keyword Research
Remember these tools are just estimates, but it's as good as it gets for getting an idea of the search volumes for various keywords.
If you have the money to spend I highly recommend you check out Micro Niche Finder, this is a premier keyword software suite that delivers a variety of useful features and comprehensive niche and keyword research.
3. Keyword Analysis - Crunch the Numbers
We want those phrases that have a good amount of search volume per month and also those that are low enough in competition to rank for. There are 3 things that you are looking for when it comes to keyword analysis:
I follow these guidelines when doing keyword research
- At least 10,000 + searches for all keywords per month
- No more than 100,000 competing sites in SERPS when searching allintitle:"keywords"
- No more than 1 or 2 PR 3+ sites in first page of SERPS for particular keywords. A lot of high PR sites is an indicator that the keyword is very competitive and it will be very difficult if not impossible to rank.
Follow Me on Twitter @: barrywheeler
(1 comments)
Why do you select no more than 100,000 competing sites? Does it have to do with how difficult it is to rank for the keyword choices?
I realize you’re looking for smaller niches that you can exploit, but doesn’t this mean you won’t be competing for some great profitable keywords?
@ Barry
Yes it does have to do with the difficulty. I am not saying I never go for kw that have more than 100K, but this guide was written for more of a newbie than someone who is seasoned and has a lot of link resources at their disposal.
Also, it’s not just the numbers, I also look at the 1st page results as well to see who is ranking. If a kw has only 20K competition, but page 1 is full of CNET, PCMag, and other such giants I would stay away. So it’s a combination of things really.
Actually, it’s funny, your comment reminds me that when I started this blog, I was aiming for kw- Internet Marketing Strategies because Internet Marketing was WAY TOOOO competitive, millions I think, but now my site is on page 1 for IM, so often times you can target the long tail that includes the shorter kw and rank eventually, but it took a lot of natural great links I received throughout the last couple of years.
Follow Me on Twitter @: robertlee1985
(1 comments)
nice post….the keyword research is a main thing for Website Optimization. By this method you can beat your competitors. and can bring the less competitive keyword to the front page of Google. hence the visitors comes to your niche and you gain profit. By the way, nice sharing…Keep it up.
several times in the past i tried to find good keywords but werent successful at all. what use to happen is that if i got a bunch of good keywords then i wouldnt be able to find a good domain name for them and if i find a domain name then i wouldnt get good keywords for them.
The whole game of online business depends upon the niche and keyword research.If you have command on these aspects you are king.
Thanks for the informative post. I have been thinking a bit about keyword research lately and this was helpful. I haven’t been arround this neck of the woods for very long, so I enjoy some nice information when I get it, that is when there is room in my head, for I have had a bit of info overload going on as well. I am also at the place where I am seeing new things in everything I read as my learning curve evolves, which is pretty cool. Thanks!
P.S., I like the 9 post rule.
The whole game of online business depends on niche.Rewarding niches are always competitive.Second step is keyword research and good keywords always have organic searches. For keyword research,one should be master to use the keyword tool.
Our future SEO will heavily depend on our choice of keywords, it is the start of everything that is why we have to make the proper research, use the right tools to do that and choose very well. Using longtail keywords will help us a lot too, these can get specific traffic to our sites.
Great article!
Keyword research is still a hugely underestimated area for many, as they only concentrate on perhaps three keywords in order to optimize their sites. A good post AND some great comments to go with it! Thanks.
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Good little article. So much to consider when getting into the IM world.. I am a late starter and have been gaining to much knowledge over the past two weeks… What have learned is that you can never stop learning in this type of business… there is just sooo much..
However, at the beginning, every little tidbit is helpful.. The keyword guidelines put forward by JR are the best advice yet. Thank you…Jay.
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http://t.co/QMVnrwpe Niche & Keyword Research & Keyword Analysis Step-by-Step Guide Article by JR at 2011-08-23 21:01:51
http://t.co/H4l4vZIF Niche & Keyword Research & Keyword Analysis Step-by-Step Guide Article by JR at 2011-08-23 21:01:51
http://t.co/NB181CoM Niche & Keyword Research & Keyword Analysis Step-by-Step Guide Article by JR at 2011-08-23 21:01:51