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Keyword research: Are you doing it right?

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gina.broom
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07 Dec 15 2:14 am

Keyword research: Are you doing it right?

I've noticed a lot of people asking whether or not they're doing keyword research right. So I've pulled together some of the best tips, both from the threads and from my noggin, to help you out!

If you can't see the advice you're looking for below, ask your keyword-research question in the comments below.

Tip 1: Get keyword inspiration from your audience
You can't pull your keywords out of thin air. Even if you think you can guess the words your audience will be entering into Google, there will be so many you'll miss if you don't pay attention to what they're actually saying.

Where can you listen to your audience? In the comments on blogs, threads on forums etc... Give yourself some time to read around. Make a cup of tea or coffee (or beer if you prefer!) and just read what your niche audience is saying. What do they struggle with? What do they want? Make some notes as you go.

Tip 2: Don't over-think it
This is a chronic problem when people start out. There is no "right" or "wrong" here. Just note down any keywords you think of or find to start with. Don't worry about whether or not you've got a perfect list, or you'll never get anywhere. Something is always better than nothing, so just give it a go!

Tip 3: Use tools to help refine your list
There are 3 main tools I'd suggest trying for your keyword research:

- AffiloTools (https://tools.affilorama.com/keywords/research)
This is the tool Affilorama has created, not only for keyword research, but for all kinds of affiliate marketing metrics. Head to "keywords" under "Research" in the left-hand side menu. Start entering the keywords you're finding here to test their search volumes. Generally: The higher the better.

- Traffic Travis (http://www.traffictravis.com)
This is a tool that's also very easy to use for keyword research. Just create a project for your website, add your keywords in the "Research" tab to get search volume numbers.

- Google Keyword Planner (https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner)
This is Google's keyword research tool. It can be a little more complicated to use and understand than the first two tools, and it's not build specifically for affiliates like AffiloTools is, but it's still a very useful tool.

When using the Google Keyword Planner tool, some people have complained that search volume numbers have changed dramatically when changing their search from "Google" to include "Google and search partners."

My advice? If you're researching keywords for SEO in the Google Keyword Planner, just select "Google" rather than "Google and search partners." Because that's the traffic you'll be targeting with the keywords in your content.

If you're doing research because you want to do paid advertising, then consider looking at "Google and partners". But for now, keep it simple with just "Google" selected.

Tip 4: Choose keywords that relate to each other, your audience, and buyers
How do you know which of the keywords on your list really are the best to target? Especially if you find a bunch of them, all with high search volumes?

It comes back once again to thinking about each phrase. Think to yourself, what is someone thinking when they enter this into Google? Prioritize the ones that you think your audience will find most interesting, useful, or valuable.

Also keep an eye out for any that you think might have high "buyer intent" (so any that people are likely to enter into Google when they're almost ready to buy something).

As much as possible, try to choose a set of keywords that relate to each other. That way, all the content on your website will tie in together. It'll be a coherent resource on your niche topic, rather than a chop-and-change of random information.

Use a combination of common sense, your instinct and your search volume research to decide which keywords are the most promising for your website. Again: Don't over-think it or worry about it too much.

Tip 5: Try some keywords and see how it goes
Once you've got your top keywords you can start creating content for your site. Don't second guess yourself and slow yourself down. Stick with what you've got.

When your content is up and running, then you can start to evaluate which keywords or topics are most successful for you.

You'll market your content and your website, and then monitor the traffic (with a tool like Google Analytics) to see which pages people stay on most, or where the traffic likes to go. You can then work on developing new keywords that target your strengths. But that's down the line. For now: Just get these first keywords nutted out.

Hope that helps anyone wondering about which keywords they should focus on from their keyword research.

If you have ANY further questions, ask away below :)
- Gina
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rebarner
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10 Dec 15 10:47 pm

 Something that has baffled me for years...
What do I do with the keyword list after I compile it? How do I use it? How do I put it into my site and make it useful?

Thanks,

Bob Barner
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Site Admin
gina.broom
Posts: 55
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10 Dec 15 11:32 pm

 Hi Bob,

Use your top keywords as topics for your website content. Keywords are basically phrases that people are entering into Google, so use them as clues: What is someone wanting to know or find when they type that into Google?

For example, if your keyword was "how to teach a dog to sit", when most people enter that into Google it's probably because they have a dog, and they want information on teaching it to sit.

So I would create an article for my website which shows all the steps involved in teaching a dog to sit. For SEO purposes, I'd include the phrase "how to teach a dog to sit" in my article heading, e.g. "How to Teach a Dog to Sit: The Ultimate Guide". I'd make sure to use an H1 tag for that heading. - I'd also use it in the meta description for the page.

I'd also use the phrase a few times in the content (not forced, just because as it's the topic, it'll probably come up once or twice). Then when Google 'crawls' the content, it can see that there's a lot of information on that topic on my page. So when someone searches with that keyword, my article will be more likely to come up which means more traffic for my website.

The better the content, the better your chances, so I'd focus on making the best gosh-darned article on teaching a dog to sit.

So once you have a list of your top keywords, use those to build content on your site that will thoroughly answer the questions of your audience. That way, your website will become a valuable resource in your niche, it'll be easier to market, you'll get more traffic, and eventually you'll start coming up higher in the Google search results when people enter those keywords as their search phrase.

Other keywords you have might be more vague, like "dog training", so it might not be as obvious what to write about. But you can still get an idea of what topics to pursue, especially if you look at all your keywords together to get a bigger picture.

So:
- Use your keywords as topics for the content on your website
- Include them in your (H1) heading for the page, the meta description, and in the content (when they fit in naturally)
- Make the best content on those topics you possibly can, so they're valuable resources for anyone searching in Google for that information


Hope that helps :)
- Gina
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abmelis1
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11 Dec 15 1:02 pm

 Before it was more simple to use the system of google to check keywords but today I find it less easy to use it. Even so when I was using the old system of Google I slected some keyword with a very low amount of researches due to a personal mistake. It is tricky!
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hcfgrizzly
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11 Dec 15 1:33 pm

 Hello Gina,
Thanks for your tips, I will put them to good use. :D
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Affiliate Manager to The HCF Affiliate Program (30-50% RevShare - Special Niche Market)
== > http://affiliates.hcfaminoscience.com/
 
rebarner
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11 Dec 15 6:06 pm

 Thanks, Gina! I'm just getting started here and am putting together a squeeze page site in the golf niche now, just to prove to myself that this works. Eventually, I plan to convert it to an authority site.
I remember, in the old days, people putting keywords in meta tags. I guess Google killed that idea and made folks provide decent content for their rankings. Not a problem. I can do that!

Bob
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isatish888
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21 Dec 15 1:41 am

 Really exited about this simple keyword research methodology. Thank you.
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cqureshi
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06 Jan 16 7:23 pm

 First step to keyword research is brainstorming and then checking high and low competition keywords using Google Keyword Planner...For more take a look at http://onlineshouter.com/why-is-keyword ... -blogging/
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sgannon
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19 Jan 16 4:57 am

 That was a good article and response Gina... cheers
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nuasoft
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19 Jan 16 6:44 am
rebarner wrote:Something that has baffled me for years...
What do I do with the keyword list after I compile it? How do I use it? How do I put it into my site and make it useful?

Thanks,

Bob Barner


The best thing to do with your keyword list is to use the keyphrases in articles, especially in the titles of them.

Avoid "keyword stuffing" just make sure that some of them are used a few times in the article and most importantly make sure the article reads naturally.

The days of having a specific "keyword density in your content are long gone but this can help you rank for most lower competition long tail key phrases.

Another thing you can do is use the keywords for Pay per Click programs such as Google Adwords.
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Find out how I tripled my web traffic in 3 months.
http://www.nua.ie/free-gift/
 
rofiqcse
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20 Jan 16 6:38 am

 Thanks Gina for the useful articles.I like this.Thanks.
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tecnologyuruguay
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26 Jan 16 4:40 am

 Just I had raised this issue because I believe that a good strategy for use of keywords is fair and necessary to obtain a good traffic of visitors.
Thanks.
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PremiumMember
buecker70
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31 Jan 16 7:48 pm

 I am still confused as what niche to go with. The subjects that interest do not seem to have enough products to go with and then when I do the gravity on them I get confused and don't where to go from here. Am I making any sense to this. I really want to do this but maybe am going about it in the wrong way. HELP
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lozofpac1
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08 Feb 16 10:58 pm

 Hi Gina,
Thanks for your article. I'm a newbie here at Affilorama. I am going thru the Affilo Blueprint course and hope Im on track. After picking a Niche, finding Five products and completing the Keyword research using both Affilo Tools and Traffic Javis I have ended up with 126 keywords that rank above 200 and are easy, Relatively Easy or Medium. Is this normal? It seems like a lot of keywords? Any suggestions?
Hope I got it right as its taken me 3days to build this list. Do iI just trust my research and move onto the next part of the program and start getting content written around these keywords?
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PremiumMember
monika.bb
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05 Jun 16 11:41 am

 This is a great post. Thank you.
I learnt a lot from it.
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magentoocodewire2015
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04 Jul 16 6:10 am

 Amazing information gina. Thanks for sharing this with us. Really keyword research is the major work in SEO to promote the website at the top list.
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