Archive for the ‘Keyword Research’ Category
April 26th, 2009 | 
Author: Keyword research is one of those phrases that is banded around by the Internet marketing fraternity on a very regular basis. A lot is written and a lot is preached about keyword research. Tools and even monthly memberships are sold in a bid to feed our monstrous cravings for those precious keywords.
But truthfully how much do you really know about keyword research and what exactly are keywords? It is time to cut through the bull and give you some insight into not only how to conduct keyword research effectively but also show you the difference between keyword analysis for various marketing activities from Adsense publishing to affiliate marketing.
What is a keyword?
A traditional information retrieval system uses a keyword to index the essence of what a document is about. For example, a document who’s theme is about poodle training will use the keyword phrase “poodle training” as a reference or index term to the document for easy retrieval. Search engines are basically an information retrieval system for web documents and they also use index terms to capture the essence of what a web document is about. To put it simply, a keyword is used by google to index a web page who’s subject matter is about that particular keyword.
For example, Joe Bloggs has a website all about how to train a poodle. He has 5 articles published on the website and each one is about one aspect of how to train a poodle. Google will send a spider to his site and see that it is all about poodle training and will assess each article and work out what the main theme of each article is and index each article for a relevant keyword(s). Of course Joe paid close attention to his on page SEO and off page SEO and knows what keywords he wanted to go for and he hopes Google will see that. Of course Google then weighs up how relevant Joe’s articles are to the keyword(s) they are indexed for and will index his articles in a position that is deemed appropriate by the powers at Google in relation to other web pages on Google. Who wins this battle for position on Google is the holy grail of website publishers everywhere and is the subject for another post, another time!
Internet Marketing Strategies and Keywords
This is an important point and one that is often overlooked by various Internet marketers.. Keyword research for affiliate marketers is different to research done by Adsense publishers.
Adsense Publishers Keyword Research Strategy
- Find keywords that have a high advertiser spend (high Adwords bids)
- Find keywords that have low(ish) competition from other websites
- Find keywords that have a high amount of searches conducted
That is basically the fundamentals of keyword research for Adsense publishers.
Affiliate Marketers Keyword Research Strategy
For affiliate marketers and indeed information product creators the strategy for keyword research is very different and involves a lot more market research before any keyword research is done. Taking the example of Joe Bloggs and his poodle training website, he has decided that he wants to use the site to promote an ebook called “Poodle Training For Idiots”. He decides that he will write a review of the ebook. Joe needs to work out what the market is like for poodle training guides, who his target market consistes of and where they hang out online, forums etc.. Joe makes a list of the various questions people ask, problems they have and any other relevant stuff that people need to know about poodle training.
Armed with his list of questions, problems and discussions about poodle training he is now in a position to work out what keywords would bring his target market to his review of the ebook via google. In other words, Joe needs to work out what he wants to get his review page indexed for in Google to bring in a lot of potential customers.
His market research told him that a lot of people want to know how to potty train a poodle, so he starts brainstorming around the keyword phrase “potty training a poodle” through his keyword tool.
- He is not so concerned with search count, although it is good if it gets some searches
- He looks for keywords with a high advertiser spend
- He looks for keywords with average competition because a competitive keyword phrase is generally a profitable one in affiliate marketing
Do you see the fundamental differences between Adsense keywords and affiliate marketing keywords?
Affiliate Marketing Keywords and Buyers..
It is important to understand for affiliate marketers that they are solely concerned with finding keywords that would be used by buyers for the product they are promoting and then to actively get indexed and ranked highly on Google for those particular keywords. I ask you, who is the more probable buyer?
- Someone who searches on Google with the keyword phrase “poodle training”
- Someone who searches on Google with the keyword phrase “potty train poodle guide”
It is probably person number 2.. However, “poodle training” gets 50 times the amount of searches that “potty train poodle guide” gets but will only convert 1 out of every 100 people. However, “potty train poodle guide” converts 1 out of every 5 customers.. Do you see why search count isn’t so important as it is in Adsense publishing? With Adsense it is all about getting people onto your site in large quantities and then hoping they click an ad. Affiliate marketing is concerned with getting buyers for a product you are selling onto your site and not just tyre kickers.
