Traffic Sucking Keywords

[fthomas137]

One of the most confusing points for internet marketers is the discovery of a good keyword set. I personally have heard just about every recommendation on the planet and half of them conflict with the other half!

I've been performing analysis for some time and I'm sure that I'll change how I do things from how I explain them here in short order too. For me keyword analysis is a growing talent, imho.

Anyhow, let me cut to the chase on how I search a niche, find traffic sucking keywords and I'll gladly answer questions in comments from you on this thread.

1. I will usually come across an idea like, let's say, table lamps. (Just off the top of my head - looking at my table lamp, lol.)

2. I'll think about the primary keyword noun, table lamps, and make sure that I've thought of stronger alternative. I'll stick to what I have here.

3. I've downloaded a free tool from 100% Free SEO Software | Traffic Travis, Traffic Travis, and I use it's SEO keyword tools to hunt for 2,000 keywords. I'll warn you that I purchased the professional version, so you may have a limit of 200 keywords. I'm truly not sure.

3a. Why 2,000? Well, it's the limit that traffic travis will do and I like this tool to hunt and peck around for alternatives. Sometimes the profitable niche is a subniche or like niche that you'll come up with. Also know that you'll come up with a lot of 'dud' keywords. That's fine, we'll sort them out soon enough.

4. I like to remove any keywords that are less then 2 keywords. I use traffic travis to do this. (Yes, you'll have to experiment with the app to figure it out).

5. Next, I'll use the traffic travis keyword sorter to sort thorough the keywords. Now, I just look at all the keywords and look for interesting subjects from the list. I'll do a broad keyword search in traffic travis (tt from now on), and just sort them out. As I pull out lists, I remove the keywords from the original list.

6. I started by looking for 'table lamps' - 400ish matches.
Then 'table lamp' - another 100ish matches.
I saw tiffany, so I search 'tiffany' - 270ish matches.
antique lamp - 43 matches.
antique lamps - 16 matches.
floor lamp - 29 matches
floor lamps - 38 matches
wrought iron - 13 matches ( you can see that I"m looking for nouns that have searches in the list)
stained glass - 26 matches
----I'm going to stop here as it pretty much illustrates the point. I'd normally keep on until I use up most of the keywords. You can see how I went from table lamps to stained glass... seems random, but I've found some great and profitable niches doing just this.

7. I now use a pay for tool that displays broad competition, broad daily searches, exact daily searches and broad adwords pay per click cost. The tool I use is Market samurai (MS for short).

8. I'll just plunk about 200 of these keywords into MS and run searches on them. Why don't I use MS to do the keyword searches? I find that I can find keywords and niches outside with TT where MS doesn't. And I'll normally search all the keyword groups that I come with from TT. But for now, I'm just going to focus on the group from 'table lamps'.

9. In this case, I'm checking about 400+ keywords. It will take maybe about 5 minutes in MS. Next, I'll prune this keyword set by removing anything that has more then 200,000 competitors, has to have at least 20 SEOT searches and has a broad to phrase match of less then 10%. (The broad to phrase match of less then 10 is usually useless keywords.)

10. This prunes the list from over 400 to around 34. Here's where the interesting stuff starts. I'll look at this greatly shorten list and look at a good combination between the broad search, exact search, competition and adwords cost per click.

From these statistics, I can normally find great niches within the keywords. Let me tell you some of the keywords I would persue to the next step.

dale tiffany table lamp 325 broad searches, 16 exact searches, 3200 competitors, adwords cost per click of $2.23.
Couple this with:
dale tiffany table lamps 79 broad searches, 24 exact searches, 2920 competitors and an adwords cost per click of $1.97.

I would persue this stream of thought, looking for more info on what keywords revolve around dale tiffany table lamps. Now, they may end up in a dead end, as I cannot find at least 30 good keywords to build a set of articles around, but that would be the next step.

Now, why do I consider broad and exact daily searches? I've had times when I've taken the broad searches to heart. I'd think, wow! I have found a keyword that is searched over 300 times per day. I would build a site around this theme and when I'd get ranked for that keywords, I would see maybe 5 visits a day on that keyword. And that is in the #1 spot in google.

I was frustrated with this, so I started looking at the exact search numbers and found out to my surprise that they were showing maybe 10 daily searches on the exact phrase when it had 300 broad daily searches.

Now, I look at the competition simply because I always want to get the low lying fruit first. Anything under 30,000 competitors. But I will persue keywords with competition as high as several million competitors, ONCE, I've established the site and I have google and/or yahoo's interests.

As to the adwords cost per click, I want to see competitors willing to spend money on this niche. If I don't see at least $1 for most keywords and several dollars for some, I'll not bother either. Experience has shown me that these keywords are not worthwhile either.

With that combination in hand and if I can find at least 30 traffic sucking keywords, I'll move to the next step and start building a website! I personally have had some excellent success with this method. A little unorthodox, but works very well.

So, if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

[Zeus66]

I like it! Very solid action plan. You should have bundled this up into an ebook and charged, what, $17 for it to Warriors? LOL But good on you for sharing it gratis!

This is how most new article marketers and all part-timers should go about it. This or some close variation, anyway.

If you're more familiar with the ins and outs and you have the time, though, you can also try to take down the really highly searched keywords. I'm continually amazed when I do in-depth keyword research by how many really "underserved" keywords are out there just waiting to be conquered. And quite a few can be found that get a ton of searches. I threw up a... I'm gonna be honest here... totally crappy little mini-site about one keyword I found that gets almost 1 million monthly searches at Google. It has competition, but it's not outrageous. This was probably 9 months ago or so. Since then I've steadily added some of my own and a lot of Angela's and Paul's backlinks. Hard work, to be sure, but not overly time consuming. Now it ranks in the middle of Page 1 at Google for that million keyword. Major traffic coming my way! But you have to find those keywords and then be willing to invest a lot of time doing grunt work (or outsourcing it which means $$$) and waiting awhile to get there.

So... your blueprint here is the bee's knees for all newcomers and most oldtimers, too. Excellent!

Johns

[fthomas137]

Thanks Johns for the compliment.

In part that's how I came across this method. I have two sites with exactly 1 keywords each on them. Just never got around to finishing them, and one draws around 50 uniques per day and the site is only about 8 months old.

I performed the method I just mentioned to take it from a 'single' page site to a true site and believe that it will be a great performer this time next year.

Yep, I've found that if you don't get the keyword research 'right', then you are wasting your valuable time and money!

Thanks again,

Frank

[quickcash]

Thanks for the share,

I am looking to enter niche-based area of internet earning and this will help! Bookmarked!


Thanks again!

[stevendennis]

hey great post there.thanks for sharing idea on keyword suggestion!!!!!

[willz605]

I do keyword search similar to this.....better to read how you do it though..

thanks

[fthomas137]

Yep, thanks all. But one of the important things to always look for is the 'exact' keywords searches. It really helps to validate the important of the keywords.

Heck, I'm glad that I explained it good enough to be understandable!

Frank

[John Dufresne]

Great post, thank you for sharing.

[ramone_johnny]

Originally Posted by Zeus66

I like it! Very solid action plan. You should have bundled this up into an ebook and charged, what, $17 for it to Warriors? LOL But good on you for sharing it gratis!

This is how most new article marketers and all part-timers should go about it. This or some close variation, anyway.

If you're more familiar with the ins and outs and you have the time, though, you can also try to take down the really highly searched keywords. I'm continually amazed when I do in-depth keyword research by how many really "underserved" keywords are out there just waiting to be conquered. And quite a few can be found that get a ton of searches. I threw up a... I'm gonna be honest here... totally crappy little mini-site about one keyword I found that gets almost 1 million monthly searches at Google. It has competition, but it's not outrageous. This was probably 9 months ago or so. Since then I've steadily added some of my own and a lot of Angela's and Paul's backlinks. Hard work, to be sure, but not overly time consuming. Now it ranks in the middle of Page 1 at Google for that million keyword. Major traffic coming my way! But you have to find those keywords and then be willing to invest a lot of time doing grunt work (or outsourcing it which means $$$) and waiting awhile to get there.

So... your blueprint here is the bee's knees for all newcomers and most oldtimers, too. Excellent!

Johns

I like your style!

[fthomas137]

Ya know, it's funny when you learn something when you are explaining 'how to do it'!

I performed the search on 'table lamps' off handedly and have discovered about 3 or 4 nice little niches with it. To give you a heads up, remember I had mentioned that 'dale tiffany table lamp' was a pretty good keyword?

I'll normally research a 'high broad search keyword/low exact search' keyword to see if there are other keywords in there. Well, that's exactly what I did with the 'dale tiffany table lamp' keyword.

At this point though, I'm getting lazy and just use market samuria on a new tab. Well, turns out that there is a fine nichy niche just with dale tiffany lamps in general!

What did I learn, you ask? Well, searching things like 'table lamps' is too 'obvious'. I think that I'm going to search on all my stuff. Like yesterday, I was looking to purchase a new toilet for one in my house that's acting up. Did a bit of a search for 'toilet reviews' and didn't come up with much.

Hmmmm. Excuse me, I've got to go research the 'crapper' niche! TTFN!

Frank

[gus89]

These are indeed some great tips. I havent used the tools you suggested but in essence the tactic is pretty much the same. I would also like to add that sometimes it is important to distinguish between the so called "buying" and not buying keywords. For example, a keyword that contains "overnight delivery, free shipping, cheap and other simmilar words indicates that the person searching to buy.

Or in the above case, a lamp keyword that has a colour or model number in it shows that perhaps the person searching might be doing so with his/hers credit card on their desk...

[fthomas137]

Originally Posted by gus89

These are indeed some great tips. I havent used the tools you suggested but in essence the tactic is pretty much the same. I would also like to add that sometimes it is important to distinguish between the so called "buying" and not buying keywords. For example, a keyword that contains "overnight delivery, free shipping, cheap and other simmilar words indicates that the person searching to buy.

Or in the above case, a lamp keyword that has a colour or model number in it shows that perhaps the person searching might be doing so with his/hers credit card on their desk...

You are absolutely right gus89. I didn't even approach that, but critically important. I've also found that the longer the keywords get, the stronger the buying mood.

Frank

[homebse]

Thanks for the detail you have provided about your process. Very well explained.

Do you always get a domain for your primary keyword?
Have you ever used the keyword as a sub-domain?
How do you feel about dashes in the domain name if your primary keyword is not available?

[petelta]

What do you find is enough exact searches a month to qualify?

[fthomas137]

Originally Posted by homebse

Thanks for the detail you have provided about your process. Very well explained.

Do you always get a domain for your primary keyword?
Have you ever used the keyword as a sub-domain?
How do you feel about dashes in the domain name if your primary keyword is not available?

Ahhhh, good questions. I'll be posting information on that sooon. Look out for traffic sucking domains....

Originally Posted by petelta

What do you find is enough exact searches a month to qualify?

I will normally shoot for about 30-50 keywords that I'm satisfied with a minimum of 10 exacts per day (300 per month). And I like to see some of my primary keywords get more then 50 exacts per day. In my example, I'll be expanding upon it and one of my primary keywords gets 375 exact searches daily. That is unusual, but very, very excellent! Again, I'll be explaining more soon.

Frank

[fthomas137]

In my previous post, I had mentioned that I found one keyword that got 375 exact daily searches. Now, this was the tipping point for me. I'm not going to elude to what that keyword was, yet, as I've decided that this social experiment was just that an experiment.

So, I just registered a domain name and setup the basics of the website and I'll initially start by targetting the keywords with the higher exact searches and extremely high broad searches with competition less then 30,000.

The whole idea is that the site should be indexed within a the week and be ranked for some of my primary keywords within the month.

You should be searching for much the same results. Now, what did tip me to create this site was the adwords cost per click. Most of them were between $1 - $4. That's not bad. This is telling me that there is some money in this niche, even if it's just an adsense site in the long run.

But I've discovered that I know very little about table lamps. With that, I did a good search on the Internet and found very little information that I liked about table lamps. Time to head to the library!

TTFN! (Ta, Ta, for now!)

Frank

[eBusinessChamp]

Hi,

I love the thread. I will definitely be adding this strategy to my list for keyword research (which is pretty limited to MS these days)...

One question I can't seem to get a straight answer on, when MS gives back 50 seo broad searches, and say 10 exact searches, does this mean we'd be looking more at 10 visitors a day rather than 50?

I just can't get my finger around it.

The way I go is select many keywords with competition under 40,000 and with SEOT of > 20. Sort out the best 30 + keywords, get articles written and start promoting.

The site I am testing this on is still very new, so not sure what kind of traffic results to expect....

Let me know from your experience!

ALl the best,

Ron

[fthomas137]

Originally Posted by eBusinessChamp

Hi,

I love the thread. I will definitely be adding this strategy to my list for keyword research (which is pretty limited to MS these days)...

One question I can't seem to get a straight answer on, when MS gives back 50 seo broad searches, and say 10 exact searches, does this mean we'd be looking more at 10 visitors a day rather than 50?

I just can't get my finger around it.

The way I go is select many keywords with competition under 40,000 and with SEOT of > 20. Sort out the best 30 + keywords, get articles written and start promoting.

The site I am testing this on is still very new, so not sure what kind of traffic results to expect....

Let me know from your experience!

ALl the best,

Ron

The quick answer to your question is yes. I base my keyword research on exact numbers. I've played the 'broad' numbers game for over two years before I saw the light.

The long answer is to expect about 10%, on a good day, of the exact number. At the beginning, this is more realistic. There are many excellent techniques to get a focused site. Most newer people make the big mistake on trying to make an authority site, like 'dog training' where your site should begin as a tight niche site and if it proves itself, grows to an authority site. If you'd like to ask me more questions Ron, please send me a PM and I'd be glad to answer what I can.

Frank

[Big JP]

Originally Posted by fthomas137

6. I started by looking for 'table lamps' - 400ish matches.
Then 'table lamp' - another 100ish matches.
I saw tiffany, so I search 'tiffany' - 270ish matches.
antique lamp - 43 matches.
antique lamps - 16 matches.
floor lamp - 29 matches
floor lamps - 38 matches
wrought iron - 13 matches ( you can see that I"m looking for nouns that have searches in the list)
stained glass - 26 matches
----I'm going to stop here as it pretty much illustrates the point. I'd normally keep on until I use up most of the keywords. You can see how I went from table lamps to stained glass... seems random, but I've found some great and profitable niches doing just this.

What do you mean by matches?

Also, do you then use these keywords as your niche's to build sites around? or use them to build a site around "table lamps" from your post I assume you build sites around the keywords generated from "table lamps" instead of using them to build a "table lamps" site, correct?

If so, do you then follow your same keyword research technique to find even more keywords so you can then build a site around it, which I think is what you are saying, but just want to be clear.

[cranem]

Just a note to thank you, fthomas137, for the great info on keyword searches. I'm a newbie, and trying hard to learn from you more experienced folks. I've just learned some useful things from you!

[TheDebtEliminator]

Hello Frank,

Great information and will follow your research for keyword plan.

I use PPC and maybe this will allow me to find some low hanging fruit.

Best Regards

[eBusinessChamp]

Hi Frank,

Thanks for the answer...

The exact searches don't look too promising in terms of numbers :P

I was actually targeting low competing keywords with broad search phrases that have 300+ searches a day.

I look at the exact, that number drops to 20-30 in some cases. (Sometimes more)...

I guess the trick stays the same, target the keywords that actually sell

[fthomas137]

Originally Posted by Big JP

What do you mean by matches?

Also, do you then use these keywords as your niche's to build sites around? or use them to build a site around "table lamps" from your post I assume you build sites around the keywords generated from "table lamps" instead of using them to build a "table lamps" site, correct?

If so, do you then follow your same keyword research technique to find even more keywords so you can then build a site around it, which I think is what you are saying, but just want to be clear.

When I say matches, I'm talking 'exact matches'. Very important. This is your real traffic.

Originally Posted by cranem

Just a note to thank you, fthomas137, for the great info on keyword searches. I'm a newbie, and trying hard to learn from you more experienced folks. I've just learned some useful things from you!

You are more then welcome! Don't be afraid to ask questions as you need.

Originally Posted by TheDebtEliminator

Hello Frank,

Great information and will follow your research for keyword plan.

I use PPC and maybe this will allow me to find some low hanging fruit.

Best Regards

Again, you are welcome and hope that this will save you $$$ in the beginning and time. I wasted over a year before I discovered these gems.

Originally Posted by eBusinessChamp

Hi Frank,

Thanks for the answer...

The exact searches don't look too promising in terms of numbers :P

I was actually targeting low competing keywords with broad search phrases that have 300+ searches a day.

I look at the exact, that number drops to 20-30 in some cases. (Sometimes more)...

I guess the trick stays the same, target the keywords that actually sell

Yep. Look at it this way, as I know it can be disheartening, you are saving a LOT of effort and time by weeding out the ok or so-so keywords. When you come across a great one, you'll be like, yes! This is what all that extra searching was for! You'll find with experience, much of this can be streamlined and you'll come to great niches in a matter of an hour or two.

Frank

[cobwab]

I use Micro Niche Finder.

It tells me which domains, .com, .net. .org, are available and which ones to avoid.

[yankforlife41]

Thanks for the help!

[Hustle]

I loved reading it, Thomas!
Thats pretty solid action plan and it helped me too figure things out

Cheers,
Sarim.

[fthomas137]

Thanks guys for your compliments. I actually forgot about this thread and was amazed to find it booklinked by a few warriors as 'must reads'. So, I want to say thank you very much for your encouragements and I wish you all the best success finding 'traffic sucking keywords'!

Frank

[yeshuaisiam]

I kind of think of it like this. Be natural. Use the key word of your niche in every page possible on the site. Have good natural advertising. Update each page with some content every now and then.

I'm one who believes the day of the bots is coming to an end. Natural advertising and growth, good hard work, and the like is what will get you on top.

I see Ehow doing this a lot with demand media. Lots of good natural content, no spelling errors or grammar errors tolerated. They have a lot of top 10 pages.

[shonda]

Now even if you are not taking advantage of this super plugin, just remember that your title also appears in search engine results, possibly the anchor text when a website owner links back to your blog and your title appears on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter when pulled in from RSS feeds.So here are 3 quick ways to ensure your titles suck the traffic right from out under the other blogowners noses!First, be personable, include YOU in your blog title.People are always interested in the what's in it for me scenario, so tell them it's for them and they will want to read it, remember don't write your blog posts for the millions, target a specific group of people and your results will be much more fruitful.

[Omid]

I prefer Market Samurai, It has become slow recently but still my first choice. The reason I choose MS is because it lets me find the competition for say 100 keywords for click of a button otherwise I have to search them manually in Google to find out the number of competitors. The other things is the brief on-page SEO report for competitors' pages. saying above, MS is the best tool for keyword research.

Should mention that I've never tested Micro Niche Finder for a specific period of time since I feel MS is enough for my need.

[MediaPlanner]

Hi Frank, I'm interested in purchasing your "Learn Micro Niche Finder & Market Samurai to Find Wildly Profitable Keywords" videos. Any chance they're still for sale?

Please send me an email with your response and order link to: theloanguy2004 at yahoo as I might not see your response to this tread.

Monty

[fthomas137]

Originally Posted by MediaPlanner

Hi Frank, I'm interested in purchasing your "Learn Micro Niche Finder & Market Samurai to Find Wildly Profitable Keywords" videos. Any chance they're still for sale?

Please send me an email with your response and order link to: theloanguy2004 at yahoo as I might not see your response to this tread.

Monty

Hi Monty,

thanks for your interest! I've sent you off the link. Still definitely a hot seller.

Frank