Keyword Analysis Questions

11 replies
Morning everyone

Was hoping I could get some opinions/feedback/thoughts on identifying niches via keyword tools. (or actually, maybe I'm just hoping you'll say 'that looks good - stop scratching your ass and get busy').

The first ebook I picked up on internet marketing was andrew hansen's "niche marketing on crack". I realise it's over a year old now but I'd imagine the same principles more or less apply. In it he advocates identifying a niche with at least 200 searches a month (via overture) and with ideally less than 50,000 competition.

So I've been using googles keyword tool and have identified some luxury items where in some cases the number of searches ("2 or 3 word phrase") outnumbers the number of competition by a margin of 3-1. And it's fairly substantial traffic, like 135,000 searches with 46,000 competition.

So....bearing in mind this is an actual physical product sold from an online store, is this something I should be jumping on?

thanks once again!
#analysis #keyword #keyword analysis #keyword tools #keywords #questions
  • Profile picture of the author Tenzo
    Based on those numbers, without knowing the niche or keyword, I would go for it. One of the great things about NMOC is how quick it can be to implement. So I think it would be more than worth it to set up a quick NMOC style site and put it to the real test.

    There have been a handful of posts recently about automating blogs-this would dovetail nicely with Andrew's material, and enable you to put together a "set and forget" asset pretty quickly. If you see sales, run the numbers and ramp it up if possible.

    Regards,
    Kevin
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  • Profile picture of the author StefanieH
    It sounds like it has potential and could be worth testing. Before you do, though, check out the store(s) you'd be sending the traffic to and make sure they look good. It's tough to sell luxury products if the store doesn't look very professional.
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  • Profile picture of the author dndoseller
    I don't touch anything with less than 5,000 searches a month. But I pick unique phrases that don't have a single result with the exact phrase. I think 200 is kind of low to build a site around.
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  • Profile picture of the author dyoung707
    I have been using Keyword Elite to find niche keywords as it does an excellent job of narrowing down niche markets by providing loads of information quickly. The price is a little high, but they have an excellent affiliate program. Also you might consider Site Build it as it covers all aspects of finding your niche market with brainstorming and competition tools. the more info available, the easier it is to jump on the best keywords and niche. As you know, this is the most difficult part and time consuming stage of getting started.
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    • Profile picture of the author joefission
      I'd agree that 200 searches a month is incredibly low. If you rank at #1, you can expect 40% click-through, giving you 80 visitors a month. If your offer converts 1 in 200, you're looking at a sale every three months.

      I also shoot for something in the neighborhood of 3,000 to 5,000 searches a month, with under 20,000 exact phrase competitors. I can usually grab first page in a month with this kind of profile.

      But I would not hesitate to jump all over a niche (in a big way) if I found 135,000 searches a month with 46,000 competition. A few things I would look at as a sanity check:

      1) Are you sure you're comparing apples to apples? That is, make sure your keyphrase makes sense as a phrase and not just a broad match.

      2) Is the keyword actionable? That is, are the people performing this search looking to take an action, e.g. make a purchase, click a sponsored link, etc.

      3) Are the top competitors behemoths that you'd never stand a chance of pulling traffic from? If the front page of Google is made up of sites with thousands of inbound links, you'll have a little added difficulty moving up the SERP's.

      Good luck, and if everything checks out, work that niche!

      Shaun
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  • Profile picture of the author JJOrana
    It's something you should look into. My concern though is how you analyze the competition and how you measure the search volume.

    Numbers in tools are deceiving if you don't know what you're doing.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tenzo
    Keep in mind that Andrew's suggested benchmark of 200 searches a month was with the old Overture KW tool. My understanding is that it gathered data from yahoo search, so was a lot less than google. If I remember correctly(and I'm not sure I do), a rough estimate was that google searches would be 10x, so that 200 searches would be 2000.

    Regards,
    Kevin
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  • Profile picture of the author Davegfx
    Hi yeah, tenzo hit the nail on the head, the overture searches (200) would be roughly 8-10x that amount in google (apparently). So, basically, let's say 2000 searches minimum.


    Shaun:

    1. I think so. I'm searching the phrases in "" and it's for a specific product
    2. It's a luxury item which I don't think is very affected by the economy. Additionally, there are PPC ads (although not overly competitive). I
    3. No, the first page competitors are mainly just online stores with the page a direct listing of the product.

    How is this measured. Would it be inbound links regarding that specific term, or is it basically just inbound links in general to the site?


    ste25:
    authority websites. How do i tell this? They all seem to be just store listings. Am i looking at the PR of the specific page that google results is bringing up or am i looking at the homepage PR? www.brandname.com - brandname.com

    Thanks!
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    • Profile picture of the author joefission
      Originally Posted by Davegfx View Post

      Hi yeah, tenzo hit the nail on the head, the overture searches (200) would be roughly 8-10x that amount in google (apparently). So, basically, let's say 2000 searches minimum.


      Shaun:

      1. I think so. I'm searching the phrases in "" and it's for a specific product
      2. It's a luxury item which I don't think is very affected by the economy. Additionally, there are PPC ads (although not overly competitive). I
      3. No, the first page competitors are mainly just online stores with the page a direct listing of the product.

      How is this measured. Would it be inbound links regarding that specific term, or is it basically just inbound links in general to the site?


      ste25:
      authority websites. How do i tell this? They all seem to be just store listings. Am i looking at the PR of the specific page that google results is bringing up or am i looking at the homepage PR? www.brandname.com - brandname.com

      Thanks!
      What ste25 and I are talking about is about the same thing. You just want to see how likely you would be to rank highly, and you can do this by checking to see what others who are ranking highly are doing.

      You can check inbound links by going to Yahoo, and entering a query like this:

      link:http://www.targetdomain.com -targetdomain.com

      This says to find all pages linking to target domain that are external to it, i.e. don't count any interlinking pages in the number.

      Shaun
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  • Profile picture of the author jbode
    There are a lot of factors to consider when selecting keywords, if you fail to find good keywords don't plan on getting the bulk of your traffic from Search engines.

    The most important thing to consider when searching keywords for keywords is are they keywords a buyer would search for, this is actually very easy to do using a free service provided by MSN - the commercial intent tool, and by using a few add on words to your main keywords you can usually get a good idea of what keywords to target.

    You must then consider the amount of traffic for that keyword phrase and how easy it is to rank for it. Once again easy to do with free tools.

    If it is really easy to rank for a keyword why not go for it regardless of how much traffic there is for it. You can also get a general idea of all of this information from a Google search alone (if you want to quickly check a keyword phrase you think might be good).
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  • Profile picture of the author Davegfx
    thanks ste, shaun, jbode!

    jbode - i checked out that tool on msn and it looked pretty handy. The terms i tested had a commercial intent of .85 and over but I was unsure what you mean of a few add words. What specifically are you talking about here? words like "buy, online, where to buy?" that sort of stuff?
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