Creative Services Company Blog
Effective keyword Research Example
While doing a little keyword research on a new project website (Hot Money Tips), I thought it might be a great time to show exactly what you can expect from my Keyword research service. I avoided doing this post with client projects because we don’t want to expose those keywords or ideas.
First of all, what exactly are we looking for with keyword research? I don’t just find a bunch of related keywords and hand that list off as the end product. That would be an almost useless list. Unfortunately that is exactly what many SEO (search engine optimization) and keyword research services do. Other factors must be researched. Without factoring in keyword popularity and keyword competition it’s just a crap shoot on what will work and what will be a waste of time. Effective keyword research requires digging down deep into the relevant keyword phrases.
To get started I need the basic main keywords and a short description of the subject. From there I find related keywords, check the competition as it relates to the number of potential monthly searches. Once completed, I use that data to recommend the best possible set of keywords for search engine results.
NOTE: If your keywords are is for AdSense sites, I can add that extra factor to the equation as well. With AdSense sites, we want the best possible CPC (cost per click) as it relates to competition and potential monthly searches.
Resources Used:
I use data from Google as well as competition from Google search. I am a long standing member of The Keyword Academy and use all resources available there as well. The end result is a very impressive and effective list of related keywords.
The Proper Keyword Research
Keep in mind, this is just a starting point in one of the most competitive online niches there is – finance. Even so, I was able to generate twenty keywords to focus on. For example, “save money tips” gets about 12,100 monthly searches on Google and the competition is relatively low. That’s pure gold in this business.
Because my project is a finance/money related site that includes AdSense ads, I began with these five simple keyword phrases:
- debt management
- finance
- financial advice
- money saving
- money saving tips
I quickly generated 441 related keywords. Proper keyword research for AdSense required me to remove those phrases too high in competition and too low in income potential which relates to search volume and estimated CPC. Filtering the 441 words with those factors resulted in just 20 keyword phrases.
- debtbuster
- professional debt management
- debt consolidation secured loan
- ohio debt consolidation
- debt management group
- debt settlement attorney
- california debt consolidation
- debt consolidation firm
- 401k rollover to ira
- money saving market
- commercial finance brokers
- franchise financing
- business finance brokers
- best ways to save money
- investing for dummies
- financial advisor marketing
- save money on electricity
- ways to save money
- best way to save money
- save money tips
Download the final report. Notice the final keyword research report includes the following data:
- Potential income using AdSense
- Difficulty rating
- Estimated CPC
- Top 4 competitors (including the URLs, page titles and Google PageRank).
If you would like more information on our Keyword Research Service contact us via our HelpDesk
You make a good point about hitting that balance between keywords that are too competitive, so a new website has no chance to rank for them, and keywords that are too obscure or pay so little that they’re not worth bothering with. I expect it’s fairly fluid, though, as others recognize the high-paying, low-competition niches and move in to take advantage of them, increasing the competition.
Been using adsense on my site. But so far, it is not making any headway for me in terms of its make money, earn money, or even save money potential. I guess, traffic is the problem. hehehe
Thanks for sharing. The research was helpful. In my case, I need to know the statistics if my keyword results are essential. In this way, I’ll be able to manage my site well.
Mike Williams @ woodworking plans´s last [type] ..Tips To Buy The Right Woodworking Equipment
This article is worth to read for. Very informative. Thanks for the useful tips. Keyword research is one of the most important, valuable, and high return activities in the search marketing field. Through the detective work of puzzling out your market’s keyword demand, you not only learn which terms and phrases to target with SEO, but also learn more about your customers as a whole.
Glad to see what you are doing with going through all of the keywords and weeding some out. But just because a keyword might have a low CPC, if it still has good traffic and low competition it can still be useful. Always that fine line of balance. It’s not easy:)
bill@AdsenseRecipe´s last [type] ..AdSense Recipe Review
Yeah it is important to strike a balance between high search volume and low competition. These days I find that the high search volume terms are just way too competitive, it’s best to aim for the medium to low volume terms. They are easier to win and add up quickly to some quality targeted traffic.
We are just undergoing a revamp of our student storage site regarding keywords and as has been mentioned in some of these comments, finding the right balance has been hard between the ultra competitive terms and then wasting our time on poorly converting terms. Any thoughts on how to track down longer tail keywords?
Is it me or did keyword research get harder? Almost every keyword with decent traffic is too competitive.
admin Reply:
August 2nd, 2011 at 6:51 am
A little hard work on competitive services is what separates us from failure and keeps a line of clients on our calendar. For this I am thankful.
As an internet marketer, I have tried both directions, adsense and keyword research in terms of traffic and content generation. For me, and based in my experience, it is worth going for the content and research in terms of traffic. In the long run, it pays off a lot more when you see that your potential clients ar reaching you and finding you because someday in the past, you did your homework and dug into Google in order to find those keywords that are vital for your target audience. Thanks for this great and useful post
admin Reply:
August 2nd, 2011 at 6:52 am
Very well said Carie, I completely agree.
I am interested to know how this site has done. I noticed you put potential earnings and estimated cpc.
In the year since this post was made how has the site performed?
Where are you ranking for your keywords now in 2011 etc?
To many people try and go for to competitive keywords and fail. I was one, it wasnt until i found out longtail keywords actually do give you enough traffic to build from.
Once you have one, build another, and another and keep at it!
i have downloaded the report and i can say it is great, for adsense earnings i put all my efforts in keyword research in my niches sites, however, i thing a bout building one authority site, your post added some good insights for me. thanks a lot.
markoo@room darkening shades´s last [type] ..room darkening drapes
Nice post.
Another way to search for related keywords is using the keyword tools included in the Google’s adward’s account. It will suggest related keywords automatically.
Great post, you really nailed it down! I think the basic problem with highly competitive keywords is the non matching context. If you can keep up the balance between content pattern and keywords you will get the results.
Keyword research is the absolute essential thign to get right whenever doing seo.
In the long run, it pays off a lot more when you see that your potential clients ar reaching you and finding you because someday in the past, you did your homework and dug into Google in order to find those keywords.