Sunday 19 August 2012

How to do Keyword Research the Easy Way

Keyword research is one of the first things that most internet marketers should learn. Whether you’re doing PPC, SEO, article syndication, or anything else- keyword research is a good, good thing.That said, I’m amazed at how complicated people can make it sometimes! I see it all the time; a new marketer goes through the follow stages-

1)Learn about IM
2)Get excited about making tons and tons of money
3)Jumps in without really learning the basics
4)Fails
5)Comes back to learn the basics
6)Gets confused (sometimes about keyword research, sometimes it’s something else)
7)Tries again (maybe)
8)Gets frustrated
9)Quits

Does that sound about right?

Now I know that some parts of IM are confusing and require constant learning. But keyword research isn’t one of those things. When it comes to selecting good keywords, here are the 3 principles I live by:

Principle #1: Look for Buying KeywordsThis is probably the most important of the 3 principles. You can make money without buying keywords, but it won’t come as easily.
So what’s a buying keyword? There are a few things to look for:
Product namesProduct name + review, reviews, scam, discount, coupon, cheapBuy, cheap, discount, best + product type (best vacuums, cheap washers, buy red high heels, etc.)The people typing in these keywords often have a credit card in hand, ready to spend some money. They’re either ready to buy, or doing research right before they buy. These are the visitors that convert like crazy! If someone is looking for a Fat Burning Furnace review, they’re thinking of buying Fat Burning Furnace. It’s as easy as that.

If you focus on buying keywords, you really don’t need many visitors to your site every day. Your visitors will convert much better than most, so making good money won’t take thousands and thousands of visitors.

Principle #2: Look for Desperate PeopleI know that sounds bad, but I don’t know how else to put it!When you’re desperate, you have a problem that you want fixed now. Doesn’t that sound like someone who might buy your product? After all, your product does solve problems, right?Let’s say that someone’s having marital problems, and things are getting bad. They might go to Google searching for something like:
I need to save my marriage
My wife is leaving me
My wife left me
My wife doesn’t love me anymore

Anyone typing in those kinds of things is asking for help. They have a severe problem, and you can help them fix it with your product.**HINT** Most desperate buyers will either have health, finance, or relationship issues. People don’t get desperate about World of Warcraft or shoes.

Principle #3: More Doesn’t Mean BetterMany new marketers think that when it comes to visitors, more is better. While you might still make some sales, you always want to niche down at least 2 or 3 levels.For example, let’s say that you’re promoting Fat Burning Furnace. Do you think the keyword “lose weight” is good?The truth is that it’s okay, but it’s still not very great. You have no idea who is typing that into Google.
They may be 5 pounds overweight or 500.
It might be a woman who has never worked out a day in her life, or a guy who works out every day and just can’t shed that last layer of fat.
But really, you can’t even be sure if they’re trying to learn how to lose weight!
That is probably what they want, but it’s not what they typed into Google.
Now, let’s take the keyword “how to lose weight”. You’ll get fewer searches each month, but at least you know what they’re looking for. However, you still run into the fact that it’s not specific at all.Finally, let’s look at someone typing in “how to lose weight for new mothers.” This won’t get tons and tons of searches each month, but at least you know who is searching for a solution. Now you can really target your audience, explaining how Fat Burning Furnace is the best way to lose weight for new mothers because of X, Y and Z.

Conclusion
There is more to keyword research than this- but when you really get to the core, this is pretty much all you need to know.Now I admit that when you throw in SEO or PPC competition, you get into a whole new ballgame. Competition is fierce for a lot of keywords, but you can still find some gems out there.If your game is SEO, then I can’t recommend highly enough that you get a good keyword research tool. My personal favorite is Market Samurai but there are some other good ones as well.Thanks for reading, and I hope this article helped clear up some confusion about keyword research!

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