Keyword Research Basics – Will that keyword make me money?
Teaching effective keyword research is a *very* challenging task.
There’s more to looking inside the mind of the searcher than meets the eye.
First step is to grab a synonym dictionary or some method of
laterally brainstorming a ton of related words & phrases and then
organizing them by "intention".
Second step is inputting them into some fancy tool like Google’s Keyword
tool and looking for demand, and looking at what the results TELL you.
**THIS** is where people get lost, pay attention and profit!!
How can keywords tell you whether a market is profitable or not?
How can keywords give BIG RED FLAGS that this market might not be
any good, or that it might be smokin’ RED HOT?!?
Aaron Wall mentioned something in his blog the other day that set off fireworks
inside my brain. I realized that one big piece that is ever-so-hard to teach in
market analysis and keyword research is "keyword value".
Can we use it to market to this audience or not…
Some searches are completely useless when hunting for a new niche or
expanding the research of an existing business… example:
Navigational Queries – Looking for a specific site
Like "BMW" or "Walmart", their common searches that really only have
one obvious right answer and it’s not a search for knowledge, products
or services.
People Searches – Looking for someone
Authors, Artists, or celebrities such as actors and such. Serve little
purpose…
Thing Searches that are not monetizable (yes i know that’s not a word, but it is now!)
People searching for the names of organizations or specific venues or places
or physical buildings. Be careful when ASSUMING that a phrase being searched for
isn’t a person, place or organization, you’d be surprised. There are several acronyms
and abbreviations that can often share a double meaning.
And now.. For the good stuff…
Monetizable search phrases – Here we go!
News related searches – One of my favorites
I’ve made good money on this one. A topic hits the news that will surely
be discussed for a long time. All you need to do is buy a domain with the
topic in it, write a few pages of content (or let users do it) and boom, instant
traffic. Another option is to simply blog about what’s happening in the
news. You can easily see i do that from time to time as well.
Searches for Online Stores – Easy money
When someone searches for an online store, they ARE looking for that
brand or business, but if you have a review or other info about that store
and one of the products they may or may not carry, you could show up
for that search or simply affiliate the product at that store.
Brands or Manufacturer searches – I smell more affiliate cheques
Yes, these are also easy via SEO, but a little more controversial now via
PPC. In the past, it was possible to advertise ON these brand specific terms
as well as use their name in some way, now it seems that’s getting tight.
But you can take advantage of it VIA ethical conversational pages or
posts.
Informational Queries – Careful here…
Example "How do I…", "What is…" (I have 500 of these in my book Unstoppable
Keywords.. )
Yes, these folks want information and the challenge is, will they be willing
to pay for the information… Some common sense prevails here. Is there tons
of free information online? Would an expert charge for the info? What about
a novice? Consider that. Niche topics where there isn’t much info out there
can be a wealth of sales with a simple ebook or guide at a reasonable price.
Alternately, writing on informational searches and selling advertising on
your pages is another option.
Transactional Searches – My all time favorite
Example: "buy book about…" or "purchase xyz service" or "Hire…"
Yes, if your lucky to find one of these gems in a non-competitive market you
and you make your move before everyone else does, you’ll do well. These are
searches where people are saying TAKE MY CREDIT CARD, well not quite! But
practically almost doing so! They’re looking for something to buy and they
know they need to spend money, they simply need to find it. Find a grouping
of keywords that keep coming up with words like this and you’ll do ok.
Item Searches & conditions – Possible profit
The challenge with item searches… You never know if they want to buy local
or off the web, but regardless you DO know that these people want to spend
money, because you cannot get most physical objects free. Some phrases
are tough to tell if they’re looking for the object, or information ABOUT that
topic.. some examples…
"2009 Kia Rio5" "leather couch"
Ok Mr. Searcher, do you wish to buy one, or find out more
about one?
That question is answered with condition searches.. like "used" or "new"
Or "refurbished" etc.. That can indicate, ok I want to find one available
for sale online.
That’s it for now, but I hope that digs much deeper into the topic of
keyword research and how the specific phraseology can indicate what
someone is looking for and what their intention is.
Dan Deyette
Email me with questions or add me on facebook & twitter .
