When it comes choosing the right keywords or keyword phrases it can become a daunting task, some of the aspects you need to consider are search volume, competition & monetization possibilities. This article is designed to help you learn how to properly research a keyword or keyword phrase using free tools available on the internet and at the same time expand your knowledge on the concept of keyword researching.
Keyword Search Volume & Trends
One of the first things you’ll want to do when researching a specific keyword is to find out exactly how many people search that specific keyword each month, and then review the search trend for that specific keyword. Let’s start with the actual search volume. The best tool to use is one provided by Google itself, which is the “Google Adwords Keyword tool”. Many people will swear by other tools but let’s face reality; Google’s tool will provide the best information related to Google since Google has the best data to provide it.
When you go to that web page you’ll be able to enter a specific keyword or keyword phrase in a text box. Here enter you keyword or keyword phrase you want data on, then if required enter the captcha information and press the “Get Keywords Idea” button. This will generate for you your keywords and other related keywords. Look at all this data, and wow what a huge search volume. Now wait a second, you’re looking at the broad search volume and we want the “exact” search volume. This means we want the data for how many searches for this “exact” phrase or keyword only. On the right hand side underneath the “show\hide columns” drop down box you’ll see something called “match type”, now set this too exact and you’ll see the numbers change and yes they are going down.
You can play with this tool to find other related keywords that might have a higher search volume, now you’ll want to check the trend of the specific keyword using “Google Trends”. This tool will allow you to view the search trends for the specific keyword or keyword phrase you enter. Allowing you see if there are seasonally patterns, a decline or incline in search volume. This tool is essential to see where a keyword is search trend wise and probably where it’s going.
Keyword Competition Review
Great, we found a keyword or keyword phrase we like with a great amount of search volume, now it’s time to check the competition. This is rather simple; just enter in the keyword via a Google Search box and viola, results! Now, just because a specific keyword might return results in the hundreds of thousands if not millions doesn’t mean it’s too competitive. You’ll want to check the on-page optimization and backlinks of the first 10 to 20 websites listed in the results. Obviously you can just click the title in the search results to view the on-page optimization.
To view the backlinks we’ll actually want to use Yahoo! for this, unlike Google Yahoo! actually provides all the backlinks it’s located for a specific website; Google only provides a sample. This will give you a general idea of how many backlinks you’ll need to aim for or work towards to achieve the same ranking. You can view a websites backlinks via Yahoo! by using the advanced search operator called linkdomain. This is used like so: linkdomain:http://www.website.com and then it will load the results in the Yahoo! site explorer. Note, if you remove the www you may receive a different list of backlinks and you should always check both. These two methods will give you a general idea of how competitive a specific keyword is and how much work is required to achieve ranking for it.
Monetization of a Keyword
Let’s get down to business; because we weren’t doing all this work for fun, we’re doing it for profit! There are many different ways to monetize a specific keyword, from ad networks like Google Adsense to affiliate programs like found at Commission Junction or Linkshare. Generally speaking, affiliate programs will return far more returns than an ad network if there is a suitable program. Obviously you won’t market a beauty health care affiliate on an auto repair website. Make sure the affiliate program is as relevant to your keyword as possible.
If you do decided to go with a program like Google AdSense check the sponsored search results when you search that keyword or keyword phrase, see how many advertisers there are. Make a temporary Google Adwords account and see what the bidding amounts are for the exact match of that keyword and the broad match; then assume 10% of that is what people are paying on the content network of AdSense. Regardless which method you use before spending time in developing a website make sure you can monetize it properly.
