When do you give up on a keyword/website?

[evelyng]

I am wondering when to give up on a keyword. I have a few keywords in about 4 different niches that according to Google get 700 - 1000 exact searches a month. My keywords are on the first page of Google - between search results 5-10 (varies) - for 4 niches!

These keywords are still not making me any money - and they are in competitive niches, with a lot of other affiliates marketing them so I know they SHOULD have opportunities for income.

So if I'm on the first page, with no results (income) showing, do I work harder to get in the Google #3 spot, or trash the campaign as a non-buyer keyword and target something else?

If anyone wants to check out a few of my sites, I can PM you the links.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

[Dan Allard]

Are you getting enough traffic? If you need more traffic then keep trying to rank higher. If you're getting a lot of hits and none of those are converting it's time to review your landing page or consider new keywords.

Some keywords are general and people are simply looking for free information. Other keywords are 'buyer keywords' and most people typing them in have the intention to purchase something. So think about what your keywords are. If you're getting a lot of traffic don't ditch these sites though, consider other monetization options such as paid advertising or adsense, or like I said keep tweaking your landing page.

[wannabewarrior]

Can't wait to hear thoughts on this very good question. I've got a couple of sites like this also and can't figure out whether to fish or cut bait.

[100KAffiliateManager]

I can't tell you how many times I've "thrown good money after bad" so-to-speak. The reality is, it can be very hard to 'let go' of a site that you've put time & effort into, especially one that seems like it -should- be making money.

My own general rule-of-thumb is, if I've reached a goal i.e. Page 1, daily traffic, etc., and don't see adequate revenue 30-60 days afterwards, I'll halt further efforts. In some cases, I'll simply let the site sit, but as for spending time or money, that's where I'll draw the line.

[affilorama-portal]

How much traffic are you getting to your site?

Because without any visitors to your site, you’re most certainly not going to make any sales.

100 visitors a day is a pretty good number. If you’ve been averaging around 100 visitors a day for about a month, that’s around 3000 visitors per month. At least 10% of your visitors would click on your affiliate links. If not, then that says that not very many people are wanting to click on your affiliate links and that indicates that there’s something wrong. It could mean that your keywords are too general and does not work for your target market.

[aliva]

I will suggest you to make your website attractive and click o action text so you can make sales. I was facing same problem but somewhat i resolve this.

[rtailor]

SEO is not a fixed time job. It is a continuous job. You can slow it but not give up because you need this continuous process be continued to maintain your position on first page. Stopping the back linking process will bring down your SEPR.

[evelyng]

Actually, the site gets more like 10-20 visitors a day. I guess I was under the impression that if it was on page 1 of Google organic, that in itself would draw visitors. I do mostly article marketing, but now I'm at a loss as to how to get more traffic if getting to page 1 of Google doesn't do it. Keep writing I guess?

[madzstar]

I want to know. Do you have adsense on these niche websites or are you just doing affiliate marketing with them?

[evelyng]

The one I'm questioning right now is ad affiliate marketing site for laptop bags. It does not have Adsense on it, but others do.

[UMS]

If you are ranking between #5 and #10, you are only going to get a very small slice of the organic traffic. Given your keywords have an exact GMS of 700-1000, then 10-20 visitors a day is actually better than can be expected (you are probably getting some traffic from long tail keywords as well).

Depending on the type of product you are promoting, then you can typically expect a 1% conversion rate, ie: 1% of people who click on your affiliate link will actually buy the product.

What you need to do is look at your traffic stats in detail.

What percentage of visitors are clicking on your affiliate links?

What is your bounce rate?

If you are promoting Clickbank products, what is the figure for your "hops per order form impression"?

[PatrickC]

I'm pretty new to this area of SEO and have a questions. When you say ranking between #5 to #10 then does that mean it is 5th result on the 1st page of search? Can it be that the keyword doesn't have as much relevance to the landing page?

[Jeremy Banks]

700-1000 searches a month means it can't be THAT competitive of a niche. If it is forget it, searches around 1000 exact's a month should be EASY to rank for, if you are going after competitive keywords you might as well go after ones that get A LOT of searches

[ClaireFisher]

Originally Posted by PatrickC

I'm pretty new to this area of SEO and have a questions. When you say ranking between #5 to #10 then does that mean it is 5th result on the 1st page of search? Can it be that the keyword doesn't have as much relevance to the landing page?

I don't have the exact breakdown, but although 5-10 on the first page is nice, you really drop down below 12 or 15% of all total searches and down to I think about 2 or 3%.....or less by 10.

Humans are lazy, we only click the top 2 or 3!

[JMartin]

Well, if my goal is just Adsense, I give up when I'm #1-#3 and see I made a drinking mistake because 1) traffic is meh at best and more importantly 2) 8-cent clicks aren't exciting ever.

I guess the other scenario (again drinking mistake) is if I'm #4 or #5 and the traffic/cash just isn't worth the hassle of trying to topple #1-#3. At that point, I'll put it in park and collect.

[ClaireFisher]

I have a better idea, forget Adsense and promote a real product with a real compensation plan. Adsense is for hobby marketing.

[David Ogden]

Another way of looking at how popular a particular keyword phrase is to look at the number of of pages of PPC adverts appear in the results. Your organic search result is good if the keyword is popular, I would suggest keep on promoting until you reach at least number three. but as others have suggested if you are getting visitors but not converting you need to review your web content.

Perhaps your visitors are disappointed that what you are selling does not match the keyword that brought them your your site for example is they came to your site searching for Kitchen tools and you are selling garden tools they are not going to buy

[evelyng]

You guys are GREAT! Just for the record, my keywords match my site exactly, in fact, the keyword is in the domain name, so there I'm OK -.

But according to some very informative posts above, I'm not actually failing as bad as I thought I was, I'm doing about "normal" for my placement and traffic stats. So, for a few sites that I think still have promise, I'm going to try to bully out some people and get to that #3 spot (or better) if I can - after all, if I successfully sit in spot 5 or 6, it can't be that hard, can it?

I do put Adsense on some of my sites if they get traffic and not affiliate sales, but I also test this. At the very least, Adsense lets me know that my banners are being seen (but alternatively, that .03 cent click doesn't get me all excited!).

Anyway, I think you've answered my question. Position 1-3 is worth going after, and then if there is still no action, I'll give up and move on. .

Thanks so very much! I think I'll be able to work tomorrow now :-)

[junne]

If you are getting about 10-20 visits to your website daily then its good that targeted traffic is coming and if you are not getting conversions then wait and watch for a month or two.if not getting conversions then something is going wrong.

Deeply analyze what kind of keyword you are targeting is it informative or transactional which will give you a brief idea of what actually is going on and what to do next.