Keyword research: What's a good amount of global searches?

[K Meier]

Hi there,

so I am looking to buy a few domains and optimize them for certain keywords.

When I look at the keywords in AdWords, I see the global searches.
Some have 5'000, some 20'000 some 100'000.

What is a good amount to actually get traffic? I assume 5'000 global searches a month is very low, while a million is way to high since the competition would be very high as well.

What do you guys normally aim for?

[Clayton Rice]

Originally Posted by Londrag

Hi there,

so I am looking to buy a few domains and optimize them for certain keywords.

When I look at the keywords in AdWords, I see the global searches.
Some have 5'000, some 20'000 some 100'000.

What is a good amount to actually get traffic? I assume 5'000 global searches a month is very low, while a million is way to high since the competition would be very high as well.

What do you guys normally aim for?

It all depends on what you're trying to do with your traffic. If you're going to sell something, choosing a keyword with low global searches isn't a bad thing, assuming you can produce a solid CTR from that. It often means you can easily rank for that keyword - but you'll need to check something like Market Samurai to see for sure (or I would).

[K Meier]

I am using Niche Finder and it displays it all very well. I think I will go for keywords between 10'000 and 100'000 that have CPCs over $7 and search results below 200 Million.

Does that sound alright?

[ARVolund]

There really is no hard number for me. It is always a balance between number of searches, competition, and how easy I think visitors will convert.

Also it depends on if I can find a number 4-10 of closely related keywords that I can put on the same site. I find a lot of good ones this way that others overlook because they think the traffic will not be high enough. For a single keyword probably not but get a group of them together and it works out pretty well as the competition is usually lower making them easier to rank.

For competition the only things that matters is the sites on the first page. Can I get beat the guy (or gal) at #10 and #5. If so how the total number of results means absolutely nothing. If I do not think I can (or if it would be too expensive in time and money) then again even it the total results is real low does not matter. The only competition that matters is what is on the first page.

Then there is conversions. Is the keyword a buying keyword that is going to convert well? If so you do not need as many searches as a more general keyword that is going to convert a smaller percentage of visitors.

[n_touch]

I agree with travistate, it is all about what you are wanting to do with that traffic. I am sure there are long tails out there that may only get 5 searches a day average but have a higher conversion rate than those that are being searched 100 times a day. You have to play with them to determine the ones that are going to work best for you. There is no set number that you should shoot for. Of course you want more searches, but at the same time you want high conversions as well.