The "Dark" Side Of Keyword Research
- SEO |
I have been fortunate enough to do keyword research in hundreds of different niches.
To me, doing keyword research is like taking a glimpse at the consciousness of the world.
I get to see what exactly people are searching for. Beyond all of the hype about what's a hot niche and what's not, I get the opportunity to not only see what niches are popular, but also what specific areas within that niche is really on the minds of people.
But there is a negative aspect to this.
A couple months back I was working on this Adoption blog of mine. While doing the keyword research for it, I stumbled upon the following keyword phrase:
"home abortion methods"
Regardless of how you feel about the whole Pro-Choice/Pro-Life abortion issue, the fact that someone would risk doing an abortion at home is mindboggling. The chances of something going wrong during and after this "procedure" (especially infection) resulting in harm (and death) to the mother is high.
But what was even more sad was that my keyword research tool told me that 33 people each day were looking up that exact phrase.
(I just checked Google's Keyword Tool and they say that this phrase gets 1300 searches a month - which averages out to 43.3 searches a day).
I was and am very disturbed by this fact.
I did a little more digging and found several other related keyword phrases.
Just so you guys know, I am a HUGE fan oh horror movies, but this was making me quite queasy. I kept getting the image of some young pregnant girl, sitting in front of the computer, deparate for a "solution".
33 searches a day equals out to over 12,000 searches a year for this info.
So then I did the unthinkable and put the following phrase into my trusty keyword research tool:
"how to kill"
What I saw almost made me throw up. The top keyword phrase got over 700 searches EVERY DAY. The top phrase was:
"how to kill a fetus at home"
Now that's sick. I wish that I had never done the extra "research" and would have just left it alone. Knowing that that many people search for this phrase each day is really troubling to me as a human being.
I still love keyword research. But learning too much can have a lasting effect.
KateD
Roger Davis
Daniel Molano - LinkedIn Profile