Questions about keyword searches

[Pinster56]

I am a complete newbie at affiliate marketing, but I am determined to learn all I can make it work for me. I have already purchased one domain and unlimited hosting, bought Wordpress 4 in 1, and have someone building me an Amazon affiliate site, just to get my feet wet. However, I want to build my own niche sites moving forward. My current question is about finding a niche market using keywords. I am looking at keywords using the Google Keyword Tool. My question is how do I interpret the information it is giving me? If a word such as “xxyy supplies” shows a high number of searches, but also high competition, should I stay away? Is the ideal niche product show high number of searches, and low competition? I need to learn these things, as any info is helpful at this point. Thanks!

[wisconsin]

I would suggest that you find a niche that is popular and then start writing posts that are well optimized for the low competition, long tail versions of the more popular keywords in that niche. These keywords won't be high volume but if you can quickly rank on the first page of Google for 25 keyword phrases the cumulative volume may be worthwhile. Furthermore, long-tail keywords are higher converting because they are what people search for when the are closer to being ready to by. Here is an example; Let's say you want to sell cameras. Likely in the Google Keyword tool the word "Camera" is the highest volume search term in the category, but it's not really a "buying keyword". People might search for "Camera" then, "Digital Camera", "Canon Digital Camera", "Canon Sure Shot Digital Camera", "Canon Sure Shot S-95", "Cannon Sure Shot S-95 in Chicago"... The more long-tail (multi-word, specific) the lower the search volume, BUT there is usually lower competition and therefore much easier to rank for AND the conversion rates are much higher. If someone enters "Cannon Sure Shot S-95 in Chicago" and you are on at the top of the search results, you have a very good chance of making the sale if the page you direct them to is about that specific product and you make it easy for them to buy from you. And don't focus on the search volumes that Google provides, those are loose estimates. 10 does not mean 10 searches a month and 0 does not necessarily mean zero. Get a few keywords ranked, watch the actual hits and make decisions about the other keywords that you will pursue after analyzing what is happening with your traffic.
I hope this helps.
Chris

[stevedevane]

You might also want to focus on subjects that interest you. It will make it easier to write good content when you're building your sites.

[UMS]

You really should concentrate on your keyword research before building a site.

Getting your keyword research right is like laying solid foundations for a building. Do it wrong and your building stands a good chance of never being completed or falling down in a heap.

Google Adwords Keyword Tool is a good place to start with keyword research if you understand 2 critical points:

1. Always ensure you look at the exact match figures and not the default broad match figures.

2. The competition column has nothing to do with how hard it is to rank for a particular keyword.


In order to know what competition you are up against, you need to know how strong your competition is for the top 10 results (no point in trying to rank for page 2 onwards).

My advice would be to download the free version of Traffic Travis and use the feature that will analyse the top 10 sites for a particular keyword and gives it a difficultly rating (don't rely on the rating being 100% accurate, but in general, it's reasonable and certainly much better than randomly guessing)