Earlier this week I was thinking about how I used to do keyword research and have to admit that I had a good laugh at myself. Here are the basics of my old approach:
- Find a technology related keyword
- Check search volume using Wordtracker – the higher the better
- Check number of results in Google when I searched in quotes – the lower the better
After getting smashed on the rocks quite a few times, I have learned to use a much more solid approach. Here are a few of the huge weaknesses the were eventually exposed in my old methods:
Google Search Result Numbers Don’t Show Us Much Of Anything
Almost everyone does a quoted search in Google to check competition levels. This type of search basically shows us the number of pages that are making some sort of attempt to target the keyword we’re examining. The problem is that this doesn’t really show us a whole lot.
Earlier today I found a keyword that has over 400,000 results with the search in Google. That characteristic would have disqualified this keyword by a long shot with my old method. What’s funny is that the first 5 listings are all PR0 pages that have exactly 0 Yahoo page links. I’ll be ranked first for that keyword by this time tomorrow.
Embarrassingly I used several different versions of this technique for three years before I finally dropped it. Guys sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself and it just goes to show that the mainstream is often way up a creek.
Targeting Keywords Is Dumb Unless You Know How Much You Can Make With Them
Time and time again I have targeted keywords that I can’t make anything with. What happens? I get ranked #1 and there’s either no traffic or the traffic is worthless.
The Google Adwords Keyword Tool provides you with both search volume and estimated CPC, so really there’s no excuse for not knowing exactly what you’re getting yourself into. Yes, at times the Google tool can make mistakes but overall this tool is a lot more accurate than what we used in the past. This means that you can make a pretty decent estimate of how much each keyword can make for you.
Remember that you can get about 40% of the Google search volume with a #1 ranking, assuming you’re #1 in all data centers.
Now that I know roughly how much I can make with a keyword before I go after it, I don’t waste as much time getting ranked for garbage.
Staying Within One Niche Is Usually A Terrible Idea
For a few years there almost everything I did online was related to technology or gadgets. I had sites about cell phones, GPS devices, digital cameras, and other similar topics. What’s funny is that once I branched out a little I saw that the click-through rates on ads in other industries are often ten times higher than technology click-through rates! The prices I started getting for clicks also went up drastically.
When you have a tech-related site, you often have trouble getting click-through rates of even 3%. Most other industries are a lot better than this. If you’re trying to get paid for clicks, almost anything else will leave you better off.
What’s Funny Is That I Still Made Money
If you asked me, I’d say that those are some pretty dang big errors. Guys what this will show you is that with enough effort, you can make money pretty much no matter what. Once you iron out the wrinkles, everything will get a lot easier for you.
I did the best with what I had at the time and learned how to make my approach better.
Tags: google, Keyword Research
I agree with the tech-related issues. Even if you get the traffic the visitors are savvy enough to know what’s an ad and what isn’t and will avoid clicking altogether.
An error I made earlier this year was finding a keyword that had a huge CPC value, but neglected to heed exactly how much traffic it could bring in. Similar to your efforts, the site still more than pays for itself every month even though I haven’t touched it since June. Imagine if I had dug a bit deeper, as I now do!
Dang Will we all have some of those!! It’s pretty fun when you get a huge click though – even though it doesn’t happen often on a site like that.
Court,
Thanks for the info on doing quotes. I’ve looked at page rank, but always disqualified myself from the niche if the quote number was too big. This will help a lot.
In doing my own research lately, one of the terms I’m ranked #1 for has more “competition” than the big keyword I’m after and yet I only have one post and a couple links to the “competitive” keyword, so I’ve found what you are saying is true.
OK, I agree with the technology thing. It is actually a logical thing, I don’t remember the exact expression, but was something like don’t sell vegetables to the greenhouse owner (something like this).
However you don’t say much about how you improved your methods. I mean you say something about Yahoo links but you don’t say how to use it and how to evaluate your direct competitors using Yahoo links, to see how you can beat the competition in ranking high.
This kind of info would be very important to a lot of folks.
HubSpot has a keyword tool that identifies up to 500 keywords combinations or allows you to scrape a related site and then renders them with a grade that show the difficulty for organic search+ number of searches; pretty helpful in this kind of situation http://www.hubspot.com Full Disclosure: I work for the company
Court I shot you off an email a couple days ago. Can you get in contact with me when you get a chance.
@Ovidiu–Court is saying that the amount of competition doesn’t matter if all of your competitors carry no weight.
If you got one good PR4 link (naturally of course) you could rush past all of them in a day or two.
It’s like king kong fighting 10,000 midgets.
AL
Court, thanks for the advice. Both of my major blogs are tech related and I have another that I just haven’t started posting to yet. This one is about as far removed from technology as it can be so I think I have to give that one a bit more importance.
This article was just what I needed… A kick in the pants to get going on the other one.
Thanks!
Court, Ive been following your blog and methods for a year now but I still can’t get that number 1 ranking, no matter how hard I try with any keyword with any competition. Its really frustrating you know, I even signed up to article marketer, its been 5 months now and i send out an article with my keyword as the anchor almost daily but im nowhere to be seen even on the first 10 pages. My keyword only has 450,000 competition and the no.1 has a PR of 4.
You mentioned in your post: “What’s funny is that the first 5 listings are all PR0 pages that have exactly 0 Yahoo page links. I’ll be ranked first for that keyword by this time tomorrow.”
You know what would be really helpful? If you could PLEASE explain to us how exactly you will achieve that number 1 spot by tomorrow.
It would mean so much and help us all a whole lot….
Court,
those are significant changes from your old method, I guess.
search volume: 40% is still the method for your sniper method OR only for authority sites or both.
Also, do you look at Broad or Exact match for search volume, for sniper site and authority site.
competing pages: glad you finally got this one.
From what I have learned about G is that they monopolize the whole Internet. It’s just horrible how they can just take something away even after some of us takes days, months, or even years to build up an empire.
-Mike
I figured this out myself a while back, keyword research can be complex, and the more information you have the better, while a low competition looks good it is crucial to look at page one results and the sites listed.
Luckily I learned to look at both the PR and the Yahoo links pretty early in the process. Court, do you have a new enitial step-by-step process that you go through that you would want to share?
Thanks,
Mikael
http://www.antphilosophy.com
I have been using the adwords keyword tool for research on my sites. I recommend using a variety of tools to make sure. I also came across and interesting article regarding the adwords keyword tool. It is important to realize that the numbers are not only search engine traffic numbers but also content ad impressions as well as impressions generated from around the globe. Just keep that in mind. The article is on the site listed below.
Court,
I haven’t been back to thank you for the webinar. I need to thank you because I learned so much. Due to your inspiration I have since found a search term that looks like it is relatively easy to rank for and the possible income (according to your equations) is huge. I am currently pursuing that avenue and I can’t wait to report back about how it is going!
Thanks and keep the info coming!
Tim
Thanks for this post. This is the mistake I made with my first (and only) keyword sniping blog. The numbers were promising but the first places were all taken by very strong sites.
Now I found a good looking keyword but the first place is taken by a PR5. All the rest are PR1 to PR3 and 80.000 results are returned. Do you suggest to go for it or leave it?
Thanks and keep up with this awesome blog!
Question from a beginner…can someone give specific instructions on where to research cpc rates? I am assuming that you can research these stats before picking a keyword to snipe….oops i mean become an authority on?
nm…just found it.
LOL… yah, i kind of moved on from your old style of keyword research you taught me (from CT.com)…. and i just today went through my old niche file looking up sites, and wordtracker is soooooo off on some sites….
Anyhow, i had some success with your techniques on 1 site (ranked #1 for it’s 2 main keywords….. 30,000 visitors in past 30 days, 98% organic) … it has made $6300 since May through Amazon’s affiliate program…
I also did well with LinkBuildingBible.com when i owned it… i sold it for quite a bit of $$$$, and so that was exciting (since writing about link building was the opposite of exciting)
Anyhow, just wanted to say thanks… i haven’t followed everything to the “T”, but i’ve adapted your methods and am doing quite well with Amazon (i wasn’t really feeling Adsense….)
By the way, those 2 #1 spots have Google Sitelinks for ‘em….. authority baby!!!
Google Search Result Numbers Don’t Show Us Much Of Anything?
1. well i use the information in the google keywords, not the results in google.
2. a good way is to see how good is optimised the first 5 sites and not the page rank of those pages.
even a page with 4 pr or 5 is not very well optimised and you can compete with them.
When I am checking competition I use intitle:”KEYWORD” & inanchor:”KEYWORD” and some other stuff.