Do you want to drive maximum traffic to your site? Do you strive for search engine domination? Do you want to rank on page one for as many relevant keywords as humanly possible in your niche?
Well, sure – who doesn’t? If your answer is yes (and I really have no doubt it is), then you need to learn how to find profitable keywords. Finding keywords will not come easy to you at first. But practice makes perfect, and the more you try your hand at finding keywords to build your blog around, the better you will get at coming up with the most profitable keywords in your niche.
In finding hot keywords, there are three things you need to keep in mind.
1. The keywords you find must be one that people search for, to ensure that your site will get traffic. It doesn’t do you any good to optimize for a search phrase that no one is looking for!
2. The keywords you find should not be very heavily targeted, so you will get a better chance to rank highly in the search engines for it. (Tip: Keyword phrases often easier to rank for than single keywords. We call these long tail keywords.)
3. The keyword (or keyword phrase) that you use should be a problem-solving or solution-offering keyword. Most people who search on the internet are looking for a solution to a problem. Keywords of this type are known as ‘money’ keywords. They are searched for by people who are already in a buying mindset. They are looking for solutions; they are willing to pay for it; and they are simply using the search engines to consider their options.
For instance, if you are thinking of entering the acne niche, you might want to look for keywords like, ‘how to treat acne’ or ‘acne cure’ or ‘treatment for acne’. That way, you will be targeting traffic that is already in a buying mindset.
Now, there are many keyword tools available. Some of them can be used for free, and others cost money to use. Despite what you may have read somewhere, many gurus continue to use Google’s keyword tool. It’s a great tool, and it’s 100% free: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. This tool was designed to assist advertisers with Google Adwords (pay-per-click) promotions, but you can use it simply for your research.
Here is how you use it.
1. Type in your niche’s most general keywords and then hit the ‘Get keyword ideas’ button. The tool will then churn out different keywords and show you useful data relating to them – the number of times a certain keyword was searched in Google last month (left column), for example, or the approximate average of searches on the keyword monthly (right column).
2. Take a look at the column on the right that I’ve circled. It’s a good rule of thumb to focus on finding keywords with a minimum of 1,500 searches monthly. Pick out the keywords you think show promise.
3. Make a Google search of all the keywords you found. Add an ” on each side of the keyword you will be searching. This will narrow your search results to include just the entire keyword phrase “google adwords”, not just “google” or “adwords”.
The results that Google gives you will show you the level of competition that you will have to fight for top search engine ranking for. It’s always a good idea to aim for keywords with 50,000 results or less. Do not be too cocky about taking on competition. The heavier the competition, the more difficult it will be for you to move to Google’s first page.
It’s not difficult to search for top keywords. It just takes a little time and focus.
Of course, if you intend to make money through an Adsense campaign, you may also want to take a look at the Estimated Average Cost Per Click of the keywords that you find. The average CPC gives you an estimate how much you can expect to be paid for the keywords that you use in your campaign.
Now you know how to find profitable keywords. Use what you know to start searching. Good luck!
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Lisa – thanks for this post. Another tool I use is the SEO Keyword Tool add-on for FireFox. I typically will write my post/page first and then see how well I do after I’m done.
The Google tool is great when building new sites, especially if I’m building a site for an industry I am not all that familiar with.
Thanks for sharing this post!
Hi Michelle – Thanks for stopping by! I agree, the SEO Keyword Tool for Firefox is awesome. I also use Wordtracker’s free keyword tool for quick research, and sometimes Market Samurai for more in-depth research. It’s great to have choices.
This is a good tool indeed, very easy to apply to when you are surfing the net. I use iSpionage keyword tool, i got used to it and i find it effective. Nice stuff though!! Cheers!