Is Keyword Research Rocket Science?

You are wrong.

I would say keyword research is more like playing that game with 3 cups with a little ball under one of them.

You can be good at it -- but you'll still lose some times.

There is skill researching the words - you can find words with zero comp and they still don't work.

Or you can find one that seems not-great and it works amazing!


But -- if you've got the time - if you keep trying you'll get a winner eventually

I don't think so. You however, have to be willing to sacrifice your time in the keyword selection process and the ranking process as well.

Learn it and stop being a lazy ass, or you can fail to succeed for the rest of your life.
Its your choice.

Keyword research has nothing to do with being a rocket scientist.

But its by far the most important skill any IMer can have.

I take at least 2 days out of every month, and spend those entire 2 days doing keyword research and competitive analysis.

When I first started doing it, I wanted to jump off a bridge.
It is excruciatingly boring. It is time consuming. It is monotonous. It sucks.

But I told myself "this is a good thing, cause it probably means that most marketers aren't that good at it".

And once you begin to develop your research skills, you'll realize how much leverage you have because its truly like finding gold.

A great keyword researcher will build up his own database. I do mine in excel. But I don't just track searches per month, # of results, etc etc. I do extensive competitive analysis for each keyword. So I know all the sites on page 1. How many links they have. What types of links. How strong their site is. If there are videos, how many links they have, etc etc.

After doing it for almost a year now, I have a huge database of crude gold.

But even after you have crude gold, it has to undergo one more step of refining.

So before I actually target a keyword, I do another level of research and analysis. I make damn sure all my ducks are in a row and I know what I'm doing.

The way I see it. What keyword research REALLY IS is knowing how to pick battles. And I use Don King as an example in my own mind. That guy knew how to line up fights that Tyson would always win. Not just win, but crush his opponents. So in a way, you have to become like Don King. And its not just enough to know how strong your opponents are, but how strong YOU are.

Also, don't forget that market research is a part of keyword research. I always check for PPC ads. How many people are advertising. I check other markets like amazon and ebay. I see if there are products in certain niches that are selling. The more data I can get about a keyword or niche, the better I'll always be in the end.

And I can tell you. Once you have a huge data base of refined keywords. It will take a huge weight off your shoulders. I have used lots of software before like long tail pro and other programs, but nothing competes with the creativity, innovation and persistence of the human brain.

So use your brain. God gave you one for a reason.

-Red

OP keyword research though important is one of the easier parts of SEO.

There are so many tools on the market that can help you with it.

Just take the time to learn it like Red said and it will pay you dividends many times over.

keyword research is not difficult, all you need is a good keywords research tool, google keyword planner is new and is very accurate and good for your keyword research.