What is the minimum dialy searches you will go for when promoting a keyword?

[steadypay]

I've read differing opinions and I guess it depends on a few different factors such as other competition, how much a reward you would get for making one sale (ROI right?), and such..name other factors cos I'm still leanring this and it is my reason for brinign it up.

So what is generally the lowest amount of searches that you will go for when promoting a keyword and does it change depending on other factors and if so what factors and why etc. ?

[Alexa Smith]

Yes, it all varies a bit, as you say ...

For myself, I've productively been as low as 300 searches per month, but I do tend instinctively to think of 500-per-month as some sort of "cut-off". Perhaps I shouldn't, really ...

[johnmags]

In my case, I don't go lower than 1000 global monthly searches. However if the competition is too low then 500 to 1000 searches are good enough.

[hashbury]

It can vary greatly for me.

If im going to build a site using a long tail keyword domain, I prefer no less than 1000 exact searches. However, If im targeting a heavily promoted niche like something in health or fitness, I would go as low as 700 exact searches per month.

If im just creating for articles for my sites, I would go as low as 700. If im going after a more competitive niche I would go as low 500 maybe. I do run across very good selling keywords at lower searches, sometimes under 300. If I think it will convert very well, I will go after it.

Once you start doing this for a while you will get an idea of what works best for you. It took me about three months to figure out what works best in my niches.

[JamesMSpacey]

I'm at 1000 when I'm doing research, but only to keep the kind of results I get manageable. If I get traffic from other phrases I haven't targeted I'll go for these if they're over 50/mth

[Liam Hamer]

I've gone as low as 20-30 monthly searches, because I don't 100% trust the search volume figures that come from Google. In my experience, sometimes they are less, sometimes they are more. Besides, something below 100 will definitely go in the category of 'low hanging fruit' because most people will think it's not worth targeting. I should stress that I'm mostly talking individual posts/pages/articles here and it's not often I target keywords with extremely low volume with entire domains.

[Hamida Harland]

I used to look for keywords with at least 500 searches, but these days I don't have a minimum.

As an example, one of my low volume keywords only gets about 140 searches per month according to the Google keyword tool - I'm ranked no.1 for that keyword, and I actually get about 100 visits per week directly from Google. At a 1 in 12 conversion rate, that one keyword is making me about $700 a month consistently.

Another example - an article I wrote for one of my sites in 2008 is ranked no.1 on Google for a keyword that gets (according to the Google keyword tool) about 36 searches per month. I've been making 1-3 sales every month (at $50 per sale) for the last 2 years.

I could give hundreds of examples, but I think you see what I'm talking about. My criteria for a keyword that gets less than 500 searches a month are as follows:

• Must be a buyer keyword (means higher conversion rates) eg. buy, order, discount, sale, coupon, free trial, trial, where can i buy, in stock, free shipping, price, cost etc. All these should be in relation to a product name e.g. buy proactol, proactol discount, and so on.

• I must be able to rank no. 1 or 2 for it (normally keywords with fewer searches have alot less competition, so if you have some basic SEO knowledge this shouldn't be difficult)

• The possibility that keyword search numbers will rise. I watch out for new product releases, trends etc. where the keyword searches might rise in time. I've had quite a bit of success targetting brand new Clickbank products that I think will be popular - you can keep an eye on what's being released at CBengine.com.

Low search volume keywords can be a real goldmine, so don't discount them. If you can rank for a keyword (and it's one where there's a high possibility of making a sale) then it won't hurt to spend half an hour writing an article for that keyword.

[christopher jon]

I like to aim high.

I typically like to go after keywords with a high search volume per month that also come with a lot of long-tail bonus keywords.

My philosophy or strategy is I want to get the most out of every article or blog post I write. 500 to 1,000 words gives you a lot of room to play with when it comes to keywords.

Here is a little example just for you!

This is quick and dirty but let's say I want to start a Make Money Online Working From Home blog.

Make Money Online has an overall daily estimated search traffic of 4,524 between all of the major search engines. That is the kind of number I like, BIG. Lots of people searching and more importantly lots of people searching using a large variety of search phrases.

So what I'll do is use my keyword tool and pick out a couple more long-tail keywords that I can include in my articles.

How To Make Money Online: 1,799 daily
Ways To Make Money Online: 825 daily
Make Money At Home Online: 351 daily
work at home: 2998 daily
work at home opportunities: 972 daily

My lists are longer than this and have more variety but I think you get the point.

Ok, now that I have my list together I'll start writing my content and mix in these keywords and phrases.

I'm not concerned with ranking #1 or even top ten for all of these keywords. The real traffic comes from long-tail searches.

I'm building a site that is tightly focused and littered with as many variation of my keywords as I can get.

Stick to keywords and niches that have a lot of traffic and cast a wide net of keywords and phrases and the traffic will follow.

That's my top secret system.

[oneplusone]

Originally Posted by steadypay

I've read differing opinions and I guess it depends on a few different factors such as other competition, how much a reward you would get for making one sale (ROI right?), and such..name other factors cos I'm still leanring this and it is my reason for brinign it up.

So what is generally the lowest amount of searches that you will go for when promoting a keyword and does it change depending on other factors and if so what factors and why etc. ?

This should be in the SEO section.

Please post in the correct section...

Why are your posts disappearing?

[isaacsmithjones]

Personally, I don't tend to go below 500 either, but the key is to look for buying keywords.

If you use those, you conversions will shoot up, so the number of searches won't have to be very high.

[GeorgR.]

200 daily minimum.

You will get two sales from this, assuming a rather "meh" conversion of 1:100 and assuming its an average clickbank offer.

For CPA offers (email submits etc.) conversion rates can be as high as 65%, then you can go with low volume and still make "some" cash...but personally i dont see the point in making web sites with 500/month. Even a crappy autoblog can get 15 uniques a day. Wasted time, IMHO.

[Richard Van]

Originally Posted by Liam Hamer

I've gone as low as 20-30 monthly searches, because I don't 100% trust the search volume figures that come from Google. In my experience, sometimes they are less, sometimes they are more. Besides, something below 100 will definitely go in the category of 'low hanging fruit' because most people will think it's not worth targeting. I should stress that I'm mostly talking individual posts/pages/articles here and it's not often I target keywords with extremely low volume with entire domains.

This.

If I'm targetting a keyword and it's a buying keyword like "I want to buy a [whatever] now and I've got my Paypal details ready" I don't care if it gets ten searches a month, if I can get my site in front of those eyeballs, I make money and as Liam pointed out, often with little in the way of competition.

For me it totally depends on the keyword and the competition, then I'll make a decision. No point being bound by rules, you'll leave dollars on the table.

[JSProjects]

I agree with you Richard. If it's a buying keyword and I can hit the top of page 1, I'm much more willing to go after it. Even if there's just 10,20,100 searches a month.

[steadypay]

I'm thinking 1st focus on the big/most promising keywords and juice them then once I have those setup then fire off an article for the smaller ones at my leisure.