Keyword Research Tips and Tools

Hi - just for my benefit and for others on the forum I was wondering if you could detail what a good KEI result is.

Thanks,

Peter

***

Hi Peter,

Great question. I'm sure members will appreciate it...

Wordtracker says a KEI of over 100 is good. The higher the KEI, the better the keyword (because it gets more searches, and has less competition).

However, if you're looking for a business idea, you should be looking at CLUSTERS of keywords around a theme.

For example, a keyword cluster around the topic of feeding ferrets might be:

"what to feed my ferret"
"diet to lose weight ferrets"
"natural food for ferrets"
"food tips for ferrets"

... etc.

You shouldn't base an entire business on ONE keyword with a KEI of 100+. That's risky.

When I look for keyword clusters, I look for keywords with a KEI greater than 10.

How many keywords need to be in a cluster for it to be a viable business idea?

That depends...

If you find a cluster of keywords that all have KEIs over 100+, then you'll need FEWER keywords — because you've found a group of keywords that get LOTS of searches with not a lot of competition.

If all the keywords in your cluster have KEIs of 10 to 15 (for example), you'll ideally want MORE keywords in your cluster before deciding it's a viable business option — because you're either faced with fewer searches or more competition.

I hope this helps!

Jennifer

Another general guideline when you're interpreting your results in Wordtracker is to try to make sure that each of your keywords has fewer than 1,000 sites in the "competing" column.

So here are the numbers to remember:

KEI: 10+

24 Hrs: 100+

Competing: < 1,000

But not all of the "competing" sites listed will be real competition, so in the next step I'll show you how to find out for sure...

Step 3. How to REALLY find out who your competition is

To really find out who you're up against, just take your refined keyword list into the search engines. You can actually jump to the search engine results directly from your Wordtracker results.

Start checking out the websites that appear on the first few results pages for your keywords. Take note of your first impressions:

• Are they selling an entirely different product that happens to use the same keywords? If so, they're not really competition. Going back to the golf example, "golf clubs" could refer to a club you join so you can play golf, rather than the actual golf club you use to hit the ball.
  
  
• Do the sites look professional? Do they have clear navigation and compelling salescopy? If the only competing sites look sloppy or dodgy, there may still be an opportunity for you to capture eyeballs with a better-designed site.
  
  
• Do they have opt-in forms? This is a sign of how well they're capitalizing on their market — as well as how many devoted customers they might already have in their corner!
  
  
• Are they offering the same product for free? If they're offering information for free that you want to charge for, it's going to be a tough sell! However, you might be able to create a free product based on your keywords and use it as an opt-in offer.
  
  
• Are they heavily trafficked sites? You can get a good idea of how much traffic they get by looking at them with the Alexa toolbar, another great Internet marketing research tool.
  
  
• Are the sites well optimized for your keywords? Check their sites to see whether they are maximizing the keywords, or just ranking for them by accident! If so, you might be able to beat them with some smart keyword placement on your site!

By now you should have a pretty good list of possible keywords. Now you want to pare it down to the best performing ones. Here's a little-known method for testing the waters to see which ones will work best for you (shhh!)...

Step 4. Test your keywords using pay-per-click ads

Testing your best keywords is another important step in your research. And the best way to do this is to buy pay-per-click (PPC) traffic. By testing the same ad with different keywords, you'll be able to:

• Get results fast. You'll see very quickly what kind of traffic numbers each keyword will generate.
  
  
• See which keywords convert best. Sometimes the most valuable keywords aren't the ones that bring in the most traffic. You can check your stats to see which keywords turn into sales most often.
  
  
• Refine your list to your top-performing keywords. Once you've figured out which keywords perform best, you can drop the bad ones, leaving you with the cream of the crop.

Now that you have a list of hot keywords, it's time to include them on your website and in your content.

Step 5. Use your top-performing keywords EVERYWHERE to capitalize on droves of targeted traffic

On your website, your keywords are what the search engine spiders will look for in your text and your HTML source code to categorize your web site and rank it appropriately.

By including the right keywords in a number of strategic "hot spots" on your site, you can give the search engines an accurate representation of what your site is all about. The best spots are:

• In your domain name, if possible. Search engines REALLY like URLs that are saturated with keywords! Take a look at your best-performing keywords and come up with a list of URLs containing them. Next, check if the domain name is available by entering it into MarketingTips.com/domains.
  
  
• In your website title tag. This is the text that appears in the bar at the top of a browser window. Your title tag looks like this: <title>Insert keyword-rich site description here</title>.
  
  This is the most important area of text in your website because search engines look at it FIRST when they spider your site.
  
  
• Your site's headlines and subheads. Using your keywords in your web page's headline and subheads helps your visitors see what your site is all about right away.
  
  
• Throughout your web page content. Include your top keywords in the first and last paragraphs of your content (two or three times if possible), and and a few more times throughout the rest of your copy.
  
  
• In your ongoing pay-per-click campaigns. If you build special "landing" pages for your top-performing keywords, you can write salescopy that laser-targets the people who search on those words.
  
  For example, for the keyword, "winemaking kits," your landing page can specifically target "brew-it-yourselfers." But on the landing page for the keyword "gifts for wine lovers," you can expand your copy to include other items like gift baskets and corkscrews.

You can also use your top-performing keywords in all your advertising and distributed content, such as articles and press releases — all of which add up to more and better targeted traffic.

One caution, however. Keyword popularity DOES change over time. So use the Internet marketing research tools we talked about on an ongoing basis to make sure that you're still bringing the most targeted traffic to your site.

6. Final thoughts

As you've seen, there are no shortcuts when it comes to finding viable keywords... but using Internet marketing research tools like Wordtracker, this critical aspect of building a successful online business is quite manageable — and FUN!

Just remember to:

1. Generate a list of 100 to 200 keywords, using as many different ways you can think of to describe the same thing!
   
   
2. Take your list into Wordtracker and look for 10 to 15 "keyword clusters." Each "word" should have a KEI of 10 or more, with roughly 100 searchers per day, and, ideally, fewer than 1,000 sites competing under those keywords.
   
   
3. Check out your competition! Is there already someone dominating a small niche leaving no room for anyone else? Or is information being offered for free that would make selling a product difficult? What sites are already ranking for those keywords, and can you beat them at their own game?
   
   
4. Test out your keywords using pay-per-click ads. This is the fastest way to find out just how well different keywords will perform.
   
   
5. Put your top-performing keywords in your website and in ALL your online content. Pay particular attention to your title tag, heads, and the first and last paragraph of copy on your website. And don't be afraid to include your keywords in as many types of marketing materials you can!

That should keep you busy for a while! But I guarantee that once you've worked your way through these five steps, you'll see a HUGE increase in your traffic.

Now that you've learned all about the exciting worlds of keyword research, you may find that you're hungry for more information on how to use it to build on your success.

If you used your research to identify a niche market, you'll probably want to know how to use keywords to create top-performing salescopy or get your website noticed by the search engines.

Or if you already have a website, you might want to learn the more advanced keyword strategies for driving even more qualified traffic to your site, or creating backend products and compelling opt-in offers to grow your email list.

Even if you're an Internet veteran, you'll want to learn about the hottest, most up-to the minute strategies for using your keyword research to generate better and BIGGER profits.

And when that time comes, you'll definitely want to check out the brand-new 2007 edition of our Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet course. This freshly updated and expanded version launches in just a couple of weeks, so keep your eyes peeled for it.

The Internet marketing industry changes at warp speed, especially the areas of SEO and email marketing... and our latest version is chock full of the most up-to-the-minute techniques and strategies.

*** Inside the Internet Entrepreneur Club forum ***

Did you find the information in this newsletter useful? This is just a small sample of the kind of information that's being hashed out in the Internet Entrepreneur Club forums EVERY day! On a final note, I'd like to leave you with a response generated by the lively discussions in our IEC forum about keyword research...

Keyword research is the critical, first step on the road to finding a viable niche market, but it's not the final destination. As IMC expert copywriter Jennifer Boulet points out, there are some other things to consider...

"Here are some other factors that affect the viability of a business model:

1. Who is your competition in that market space? Sure maybe there are only 2 competitors. But you need to figure out whether or not these guys have already dominated the market space. I've seen plenty of examples of really tight niche markets, where there are lots of searches, but one or two websites have already won the loyalty and traffic of buyers... making it much more difficult for a little guy to step in. One example of that is kiteboarding. A couple of websites have already taken over this market space, gaining support of all the big kiteboarding brand names (who are paying them for advertising, and selling products off their websites)... You'd be hard pressed to step into that market space now. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's no longer an easy win.
   
   
2. What are you going to be able to realistically sell the product for? And, what's it going to cost to get set up to sell it via the Web? Obviously, with any new business you need to expect to price test. However, with enough research, you should be able to at least GUESS what range your price point will fall into. Once you've figured this out, you need to estimate your start up costs. Again, this takes research because every business model is different. Can you reduce costs by investing your own elbow grease?
   
   How do your start up costs compare to your potential profits? How many of these products do you need to sell before you're profitable? Look at how many searches are being done per month... And LOW BALL your traffic and sales conversions to start (assume 1/100 to 1/50 depending on how tight your niche is).
   
   Are these numbers you can live with?
   
   
3. Are your clients REALLY going to be willing to buy the product online? There are lots of products that people come online to RESEARCH but that they buy locally. Granite countertops, pianos, common household items and food products are all difficult to sell online. Maybe it's too difficult/expensive to ship. Maybe they can't wait to buy it (common foods). What's the benefit of buying this product online vs. just buying it locally?

... These are some of the key factors you need to consider.

They should help give you a ROUGH idea of what the income potential of a particular business is. But again, it will be very very rough.

For example, keep in mind that your estimates here don't consider traffic sources OUTSIDE of the search engines. Maybe with some hard work you can drive traffic by giving away free content to other sites (as I've seen many businesses do successfully)... Maybe once the website is up and running, you can secure a really great joint venture partner.

For more info on researching niches, I highly recommend reading previous threads in the Wordtracker section of the Sales Copy & Website design portion of this forum. You'll find lots of great info along these lines there, too..."

To get the hottest, most up-to-the-minute information on EVERY area of the fast-paced Internet marketing world, you can connect with our team of experts in our Internet Entrepreneur Club forum, too.

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