Doing keyword research

lieren

In this lesson you'll learn how to uncover large keyword lists, how to uncover more profitable keywords, and which free and paid keyword research tools are the best.

This is a lesson in general keyword research. The information here applies to both pay-per-click keywords and to natural search engine listings.

You don't need to use all the tools I mention here in your own research. If you're just starting out and not earning much yet, you'll probably be fine with the keyword research tool in Traffic Travis, or one of the following free keyword tools:

The free Wordtracker keyword tool
The Google Adwords free keyword tool
Traffic Travis
You can download this software for free from TrafficTravis.com

Using the keyword finder tool, you can quickly carry out essential research.

The tool searches and collates data from Yahoo, Ask.com, Wordtracker and the Google networks so that you end up with a large number of keywords related to word or phrase that you entered into the search box.

You can also view how often each keyword is searched for in each of the data sources.

The keyword finder is an excellent tool for researching related words and scrutinizing the popularity of search terms.

Let's take a look at an example:

I'm going to type in the term 'scrapbooking' and select the keyword sources that I wish to crawl.

Within seconds, Keyword Finder gives me a large number of relevant keywords and it also shows how popular the word is in each search engine, listing the daily search count for each word.


Let me wrap up this snapshot of the Traffic Travis Keyword Finder by giving you a couple of ways to use it to your advantage:

Use the Keyword Finder to search for popular products to promote. Keywords or keyword phrases searched more than 5,000 times a day in Google indicate a healthy market. Phrases searched more than 10,000 times a day in Google indicate a very strong market.
You can also use the Keyword Finder to build keyword lists for your pay-per-click campaigns, simply by selecting the keywords you wish to use and moving them to Saved. Then open up the Keyword sorter and assemble them into related groups. Traffic Travis contains tutorial videos on both the Keyword Finder and the Keyword Sorter so give these a whirl to learn more.
While the Traffic Travis keyword finder tool is first rate, it's important not to rely on a single source for keywords, as each source gets their results from different sources. Plus, some tools remove plurals and others correct misspellings, which skews your data.

Here are some more free tools you can use to build a comprehensive keyword list:

1. Google Free Keyword Tool
I'll type in "learn Spanish" and "learn Spanish online" and click "get keyword ideas". Google gives me a large list of keywords relating to these two phrases.



If you scroll down the page, you'll find another section called "Additional keywords to consider". These are phrases that Google deems to be related to the keywords that you typed in above, but don't actually include the exact words that you used. This is a great way of uncovering more related search terms you might not have considered.



You'll also notice that Google shows you indicators of advertiser competition, search volume for the month, and average search volume over multiple months.

2. Freekeywords.wordtracker.com
Wordtracker is available in both free and paid versions. We'll look at the paid version next.

To use the free version, all you need to do is type in a keyword phrase and click "hit me". For example, a search for "learn guitar" brings back the top 100 related keyword phrases.



The free version has a limit of 100 results, whereas the paid version brings back many more, plus it gives you other tools to play with.

3. Wordtracker (paid version)
The paid version of WordTracker is very good for finding related keywords that you might otherwise not think of, and it's considerably cheaper than Keyword Discovery, which we'll look at next.

Usually I go "Keyword Universe" and then "Popularity search". WordTracker will produce a number of keywords and synonymous terms, and give you the relative popularity of each term, much like Google's tool does.

Note that the numbers you see in WordTracker will usually be different to those you see in Google as they get their data from different search engines, but the relationship between the terms will usually be the same. So a term that ranks higher than another term in Google will also rank proportionally higher in WordTracker.

The good thing about WordTracker is that it doesn't lump terms together. So it's easy to see whether "dog collar" or "dog collars" is more popular, and words ending with "ing" will be differentiated.

It's this detection of variance in the keywords that I find to be the most useful feature of WordTracker.

4. Keyword Discovery
It isn't cheap — the standard version costs $69.95 per month. But due to the fact that Keyword Discovery compiles keyword search statistics from over 180 search engines worldwide, it is probably the most powerful and accurate keyword research tool available.

One of Keyword Discovery's best features is the provision of 12 month seasonal trends, so that you can see if the keywords that you are interested in are popular all year 'round — or just during a certain period.

For instance, if you were creating a costume website, you'd probably find that you should prepare for an increase in traffic around Halloween and also during the summer, when more people are having bachelor parties and so on.

Other methods for finding keywords
Keyword research tools are one way of finding keywords, but there are other useful methods too. The downside to keyword popularity tools is that they don't necessarily tell you which terms people are using when they want to buy.

For instance, it's possible to have search terms that are very, very popular, but are poor markets to try to sell to. For example, "hairstyle" related keywords are incredibly popular, but most of the people searching on them are simply looking for pictures and other free information. They're not usually interested in buying anything.

That's why I recommend you look at the advertiser competition in a market before you get too excited about a popular search term. If there are no other advertisers, there's a good chance there isn't any money in that market.

But that assumes you already know what you're looking for.

If you're just brainstorming keywords that might be profitable, there's another resource you can use that is completely free: forums.

Forums
Forums are places where people go to discuss issues, ask questions, and talk about things that are stressing them out. By browsing forums related to your general topic, you can get a good idea of the sort of things that concern your target market and "where their pain is".

For instance, on a dog related topic you might find that a lot of people are searching for "german shepherd". This doesn't mean they're interested in buying anything however; and if you were spending money on pay-per-click promoting this topic you might find yourself losing money because people are simply searching for photos or something similar.

However, if you go into a forum, then you'll see topics like "stop dog aggression" or "antisocial dog". These are people who are looking for information because they have a need — they have "pain". These people are much more likely to purchase something to ease their pain than someone who is just looking for dog pictures or general information.

So forum topics and discussions are not only good for brainstorming, but they can give you a valuable insight into what your market is thinking. They're also a great place to get ideas for article subjects, review topics, and product topics — all sorts of things.

You could use keywords related to these topics in your pay-per-click keywords, leading visitors to a page reviewing a number of products that solve their problem. Or you could use their questions to target your landing page.

In either case, it'll seem like you really understand the issues facing your market, and that's good.

Remember, once you've got an idea about a particular issue facing your market, plug a bunch of appropriate words into Google and see if people are advertising on them already. If they are — then good. If they're not — have a think about why this might be.

Also, try to use specific words that your competition might not think of.

At Affilorama, we're big fans of forum research and use this method all the time for our own products. Make sure that you don't take this suggestion lightly — it really is a great way of getting to know your target market, what they are really interested in and where their pain is.

Localized ads
When you plug your keywords into any of the keyword tools we've mentioned, you're bound to find results specific to a certain region.

For instance, if you enter the word "dog", you might see that a lot of people are searching for "dog schools california". You can still make a play for these keywords even if you're not promoting a product or service located in California itself.

If I saw that "dog schools California" was a relatively popular search term, I would be tempted to create a pay-per-click ad saying something like "Dog schools in California recommend these eBooks".

The ad still uses the words "dog schools California", and the visitor knows that they'll be taken to a site about eBooks so those who click are still reasonably qualified.

It's a logical assumption that people interested in dog schools might also be interested in eBooks on dog training... so I'd make a site reviewing dog training books (ostensibly recommended by dog schools in California). Remember to test these things though.

Online Shopping Sites
Another way of getting ideas for markets and search terms is by taking a look at online shopping sites such as Amazon, eBay and ClickBank.

For example, if you were creating a keyword list for the weight loss market, then you could search for "lose weight" in Amazon and find weight-loss related book titles and author names. If you click on the book descriptions and comments from readers, you'll discover even more keywords that are very important to the weight loss market.

People searching for specific things are much more targeted — They know what they want enough to plug the name into a search engine. Therefore those search terms are likely to have higher conversion rates.

For instance, if you were focussing on "weight loss", you could look up weight loss books or DVDs on Amazon.com, and then write reviews of those products.

You could then make money either by signing up to Amazon's affiliate program and earning a small commission if somebody purchases through your link — and when I say small commission, I mean very small!

Or alternatively you could have "supplemental" reviews of the "top 4 ebooks related to this topic", and then hopefully earn a considerably higher affiliate commission through those.

Clickbank is an excellent place to find related eBooks that pay much higher commissions than Amazon.

In any case, by focussing on search terms containing specific product names or author names you're able to get more targeted traffic to your site, and that's a very good thing!

ClickBank and eBay are also good places to finding products and authors you might like to focus on. Remember to take the names you find and plug them into your keyword popularity tool to see if many people are searching on them.