Keyword Research is DRIVING ME CRAZY! What is your secret?

That's funny cause I love it. Here is a very quick overview of what I do when I build a niche blog. First, I brainstorm markets that will be around for a long time (money is being spent) and then enter the broadest term into the Google Keyword Tool and search for related terms.

I make sure I have many long tail related keywords. Gather keywords from the tool and go to Google and enter them in to see what the first three results look like, see what the ads look like, I also look at allintitle (anything under 10K is good to me). I look at affiliate ads.

It's a time consuming process. But once you know what to look for it moves pretty quickly.

Yep, keyword research does tend to be a long boring process. In my opinion, it is the single most important part of the process though. You have to find long-tail keywords with high search volumes and low competition, either using the term in quotes or using the allintitle tags.

If you want to do your own keyword research, you can use the Google keyword tool since it is free and for me has been pretty accurate. I have heard good reviews of Micro Niche Finder (about $97) if you want to use that to make research a little easier. I have also heard good reviews of a new tool called Market Samurai (I think that's what it is called).

If you don't want to do your own research you have a few options. Find somebody that does have MNF and pay them to do research for you. There are some people in the WSO section that offer keyword lists too.

You have been a member here a few years now, so I'm going to assume that you are experienced and making some regular money. Investing in keyword research tools or paying somebody else to help with research sounds like a good idea to me. Good luck!

My secret?

I don't use it.

I'm successful, go figure.

It has its merits, but overall I feel that the entire concept behind keyword research (other than its micro-management benefits) seems to drive people away from larger, more profitable markets for a fear of competition, and into smaller, less profitable markets where you can "dominate".

I'd rather 1% of a city than 100% of an office.

I quite enjoy it. Admittedly it often takes much longer to do thoroughly than I anticipate, but it's still enjoyable none the less. My process is generally along the lines of:

- Use the Google tool to start brainstorming
- Build an initial keyword matrix of keyword "themes" based on my first pass. Use that to help map out the structure and hierarchy of my site
- Use Wordtracker to drill down further into the tail to find my long tail terms
- Use the WT keyword questions tool to find some content ideas that will work as good link bait on sites like digg

I bought Market Samurai when it first came out and loved it initially, I find myself rarely using it these days. I'm not entirely sure why, I think I've just found many of the metrics not as useful as I thought or just plain misleading. I've also built a customer system for aggregating and organising my lists of keywords from disparate sources like Google and Wordtracker.

Hope that helps,

Glenn

Markets are always changing. The keyword tools are often skewed sometimes the numbers are deliberately manipulated. These tools are not the holy grail and should always be taken with pinch of salt.

The real test is will you be able, motivated and committed enough to provide compelling content for your chosen market. If the answer is yes you will more often then not be successful.

First, I go to Google and start typing in some basic search terms for a niche, then Google will suggests some search terms, I pick one then I look at the bottom of the page results at the Searches related to:

for more suggestions. this will give you a good start.

Rick

Google free keyword tool, Market Samurai thats my secret lol

KwBrowse.com - A Keyword Map For the Whole Internet

Go here, type in a general term, and this site will work some crazy voodoo magic and give you awesome niche ideas

Free Google keywords tool, sort results by "cost per click" descending.

Dat's your target money making keywords.

If you'll get high on organics for these keywords but wouldn't have an idea how to monetize them - cash rich advertisers will find you

Gleb

You shouldn't do it if you hate it. You should find a company to do it for you. The cost is minimal and you can get it done in half the time it would take you.

If you do decide to do it on your own you should look at the Google Keywords Tool, Wordtracker and another tool I recommend Micro Niche Finder. This way you can compare what these tools say for a specific keyword. No one tool is 100% accurate(even Google's tools) so you try to get an average.

Then go to Google Trends and see what the trend is for your word(s). Most words will remain consistent traffic wise year after year(unlike some people said above), unless of course it is some fad(fads are great for quick income spikes), but if you want something long term avoid the fad keywords.

Finally go visit Ezinearticles.com and put your keyword into their search box... Look for articles that is found for your keyword. This will help you gauge interest in your keyword and see if it really is getting traffic(this is especially true for long tail words). Ezinearticles articles often will rank high in Google(obviously you can verify this) and it will give you an idea that if it is ranking high how much traffic the article received.

This is great for letting you know before you invest time and money into getting a high ranking.

Overall there are a few things additional you can do but I don't want to have a 5 mile long post but I hope this helps.

After you do enough research often times you will get gut feelings about keywords, niches and traffic and surprisingly it is often fairly accurate.

Derrick

Hey Rich,

I made a whole video for a couple of people on my "Mastermind Team"...

Its free, No Opt-in or anything like that AT ALL...

I actually will be rebuilding this site for a launch with New Name and all in a few weeks so this site really is NOT setup "fully" yet, but I had uploaded some videos and articles and stuff and you are more than welcome to watch em' all..

I hope this helps and there are some sick tools that NO ONE TALKS ABOUT ANYWHERE! Keep em' our secret since this will be apart of my course...

Let me know what you think about the tools. As for the formula, I didn't lay it out as a "Step-by-Step" cuz it was for some team members but there are 7 tools that you will love for sure....

Update:: Here's the link...

eliteinternetmarketers.com/Ultimate-Keyword-Research-Tools-Formula

** Thanks "TheNightOwl" for pointing out that I forgot to place the link...
Talk Soon,
Kevin D

Anyone used Keyword Elite?

I'd be interested in hearing some feedback on that. Brad Callen has positioned himself as a big of a PPC guru and the way I see it, ya gotta know a bit about keyword research and picking markets to do that.

So I'd be interested in feedback from Warriors using that - as I assume the OP would.

Cheers!

TheNightOwl

I use several tools to do keyword research. Finding product is also part of my research process - I do it for other people.

There are 2 ways to look at keyword research.
1. when you are trying to figure out what niche to get into
2. When you have a niche and your trying to expand and develop it into a complete website.

Perhaps you are going too deep in your keyword research for new markets. Start with 20-50 words/phrases that are logical for thats niche. Pick a product to match and mini test it via ppc. If its a viable market you will know in a few days.

Then when you start to build the niche website, go into more depth with your keywords.
There is no point doing a huge amount of research until you know its a viable market.
Use your indepth words and phrases to build better pages with SEO value so you don't have to spend as much on PPC.

You can bury yourself in words to the point you don't get anything done and its overwhelming. Keep it simple.

Where do you want to use your keyword research? For SEO or PPC? IMHO, there are some differences in what kind of keywords you'll be using.

I am getting better at this and can see my traffic improving.

2 Things ...

1) It takes time! - This is what seperates the pack, as Michael Mason said it is the most important part of the process. You can have a smoking hot site and products but no traffic equals no sales ... so suck it up and keep going. I am sure it will get easier.

2) I think that Mr Eversons point about people avoiding competition is a valid one. A lot of people I have read have suggested uncovering a 'market' that no one else is in and call it a niche. My approach is different ... how about finding a competitive market where people are spending and then doing enough keyword research to find unexploited search terms ... this can be easier than you think ... but does take time.

Hope this helps

John

Everything about Keyword Research here http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...-research.html

Give Micro Niche Finder a try. Very cool tool at a reasonable price.

The WF never ceases to amaze me! Thanks to everyone who chimed in. In particular, the KwBrowse.com suggestion from Curtis - if you haven't checked that site out, you need to! And Kevin, that is a great video, although you lost me a little bit in the keyword density part. : -)

I definitely have some new tools to work with now. THANKS!

Derrick is right in my opinion. The more keyword research you do - the better you get and you start to get that gut feeling when you find the good ones.

Using too many tools to cross check makes it a chore to me - so I don't do that.

My long time favorite keyword tool stopped its usefulness when Yahoo stopped supporting the overture stats. My preference now is SEOBook because of the amount of info given but I also use Keyword elite and google's tool on occasion.

Keyword searches are not static so I may do the research again quickly when adding to a site - and often find the results are different.

kay

I admit I hate it, but I'm AM trying to have a better attitude about it. :-) And some of the posts on this thread have given me some ammo to get better at it, and like it more.

I'm going to check out that $7 WSO right now.

Thanks again, all.

Jan,

1) It's $17 and
2) That looks like an affiliate link. :-/ Would have been nice if you had mentioned that.

Thank you, Kay King! I use SEOBook free keyword tool, too, and find it very comprehensive with the links to google and more right there.

I was wondering why no one mentioned it and thought maybe it isn't as great as I thought.

Thanks for reaffirming!

I've been using Brad Callen's Keyword Elite for awhile, I love this tool. The software is a little expensive for some, but it's worth it's weight in gold.

I use googles keyword tool, every keyword in exact match

In my opinion, guessing the keywords and just writing articles that make sense seems to work fine for SEO. I'm probably missing out on a bit of traffic, but it stops me from dealing with being driven insane.

I use a product called Micro niche finder. This product is very fairly priced and has a lot of cool tools. Just do a google search and check it out. I used to use niche inspector but I can't get it to work anymore,Besides it cost more. I was an affiliate for this product at one time. I never got paid for the sales!

Easy way: Use mid-tail, desperate keywords (such as "how to ___") in a popular niche.

Lots of buyer traffic.

Then, WRITE *ONE* really good ARTICLE using these keywords, submit it, and see how it does.

THEN if it performs, build your site. If not, change the keywords and submit another article in the same niche. Failing that, switch niches.

Dip your toe in before you build your boat, son.

<3

Just to give you my short list here is what I use:

SEOdigger.com
Keywordspy.com
Market Samurai
PPCwebspy.com

Not sure if that helps direct you, just thought I would share.

Hi Rich,

I have never done this before, but I would recommend my current WSO (in my sig). It covers most of what's been mentioned here, and the bonuses sound like they would be exactly what you're looking for.

All the best,
Michael

Hi Rich,

I created a free video detailing some of the best free keyword research tools that are available on the internet.

You can view online video Free at http://keywordvideo.lancasterpaguide.com

I hope that helps,

John

If you are ultra lazy just use Market Samurai.

I totally understand your frustration. However, keyword research is the foundation of Internet Marketing. Here is how I find keywords.

1. I first go to magazines.com to research different markets to get ideas on hot niches. This website is a goldmine if you have not used it. Companies spend millions researching markets so why not pull from their efforts and ideas.

2. Once I have a niche, I head over to Google Keyword Tool and plug in keywords pertaining to that niche. You want to start out broad and work your way down to narrow down your keywords helping you target a smaller niche.

3. Once I have narrow down my keywords I head over to Google and do a search for each keyword in quotes "keyword". This will allow you to see how many websites are listed for your keyword. The goal is to find keywords will 5000 or less websites. This makes it pretty easy to get listed on Google's first page for that keyword.

I think the problem is you'll probably using tools that are inaccurate. With that you're getting results that ....inaccurate.

These paid tools (at least most of them) are just crap. I found multiple niches that these tools yelling it's "TOO MUCH COMPETITION".

Spend two minutes about my blog posts and this will enlighten you:

=> Keyword Tools Conspiracy Theory | Taknique

Usually the way I eliminate the long boring process is by finding targeted long-tail keywords with high search volumes and with low competition, by checking the keywords in quotes or title tags. The Google keyword tool is great because its free and incredibly accurate. Its the only one I use for keyword research, although some have recommended the paid source tool micro niche finder which can speed up the process a little more. I'm pretty sure that some warriors are offering to do keyword lists in the WSO section as well which can save you some time. Good ideas to investigate and some great suggestions so far!

Has anyone tried to search for keywords for a foreign country of from another language?

I use wordtracker and it’s great, but the results outside the UK or US are useless!

Anyone knows of a product that can determine true search volumes?

Even with google trends, the results are off, I am guessing they are not feeding their results for the google domains from other countries. There are a lot of opportunities, but without the right data you go in blindfolded.

How much is Market Samorai?

Can't find it on the sales page (very frustrating). Looks like you have to opt in to find out.

Rich Scherlitz

I now enjoy kw research as i'm using Micro Niche Finder - it rocks and makes what can be a somewhat mundane process quite enjoyable and rewarding!!!

My secret is that I use Keyword Spy. Its a program you pay for, you can get the trial version though, and I use it to totally dominate my competition. It has information abot all your competitors keywords and ad campaigns, their daily budget etc.

Hope that was helpful!

We'd suggest doing some focusing on longtail keywords.

Long-tail keywords are keyword phrases made up of anywhere from four to fifteen keywords. Here's an example:

Short keywords: ski vacation
Long-tail keywords: honeymoon ski vacation aspen colorado march 2009

You can see that the long-tail keywords are WAY more specific and focused than the shorter keywords. This makes them perfect for connecting with your niche market!

(A niche market is a group of people searching the Internet for a solution to their problem, and not finding many relevant results.)

With long-tail keywords, it's much easier to get your target market's attention because there's less competition for it.

Long-tail keywords are the key to success for a couple more reasons, too.


First, they're easier to rank for. Try this:

Search ski vacation, and then search honeymoon ski vacation aspen colorado march 2009.

For the short keyword search, there are well over a million sites listed on Google -- Yahoo has over 200 million! For the second, long-tail keyword search, there are about two and a half thousand. That's a lot fewer websites you'll have to climb past to get to the top spot in the search results!

Second, people tend to use long-tail keywords for searches when they are getting close to making a purchase.

A person's buying cycle can be broken down into three phases:

• Interest
• Research
• Purchase

As people get closer to the purchase phase they tend to use longer, more specific keywords in their searches. This means that the traffic you get from your long-tail keywords is far more likely to make a purchase from you than the traffic you get from your short keywords.

Here are some things you can do to get the most out of your long-tail keywords:

• Create a landing page for each long-tail keyword cluster. Someone who uses a long-tail keyword is looking for very specific information. If they follow a relevant-seeming link only to discover that it leads to a vaguely sort-of related page, they'll leave.
  
  Keep your landing pages focused on ONE problem statement. Use one to three very similar long-tail keywords that address that problem, and include synonyms as well. For instance, along with "honeymoon ski vacation aspen colorado march 2009" you'd include a couple of other honeymoon-related keywords, but not keywords about ski vacations in general, or family ski vacations.
  
  Search engine spiders--particularly the Googlebot--love websites with lots of pages, so with your new set of landing pages you'll be able to please both human and robot readers!

• Optimize your landing pages for each long-tail keyword cluster. Be sure to use the keywords you are optimizing for in the important places in your code: page title, meta description, headers, and image alt text.
  
  Your title tags are particularly important here. In your keyword tool, look for the top three 24-hour results for each cluster. Use those in your title tags (up to 100 characters).
  
  Make sure the phrases also appear naturally in the content of the page at least three or four times, along with synonyms. Watch for duplicate content too. Most of the content on each page should be unique. The goal here is to get to the #1 spot in natural search results.

• Mix your long-tail keywords with short keywords. Short keywords play an important role, too! Short keywords drive a high volume of less-focused traffic to your website, providing an opportunity for you to ask for your visitors' email addresses.
  
  Short keywords are also really good for establishing your business as a brand -- people who recognize your business name or URL from the early phase of the buying cycle are more likely to click on it later on, when they're getting ready to buy. Getting to the #1 spot for your short keywords isn't the priority (although it's great if you can do it!), but the closer you can get to the top, the better.

Long-tail keywords are ideal for connecting with your niche market, they're easier to rank for than short-tail keywords, and they launch you into a person's buying cycle at exactly the right time.

start small and targeted and expand

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When you go to Market Samurai and click on the full version tab, then scroll half way down the page before all the comparisons of full and free you will see it says $149 one time fee. Not sure if there is a special offer prices somewhere else.

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For keyword research I would definitely reccommend Kim Roach's Google Domination free video. She has market research down to a fine art.

There are tons of software packages for free (google keyword tool) along with paid stuff (SEO Elite comes highly recommended but I've never used it personally).

However, here's a simple tip that I think works really well and I use it personally.

1. Create a keyword list using google's free tool. Mix, match, and come up with tons of relevant keywords.

2. Go to goole.com and search for that keyword.

3. Count the number of ads

4. If there are a lot, there is competition. Competition only exists b/c money is being made. PLAIN AND SIMPLE!!!!

5. If there are no ads for that keyword, keep trying. If a lot of the keywords on your list don't have ads then you might consider getting new keywords or the market might not be what you think.


This method works for almost every single market. There aren't too many things that are TOTALLY new that you can't find anything on. Rarely (think Bill Gates) do people create new markets altogether. This method will help the 99.99999999999% of people who are building on what is already out there.

Cheers,

Brad Spencer