If you want to start a blog/website you'll need to do keyword research to find relevant terms that you want to be found for in the search engines.
When you are a newcomer to the online world and looking to get your blog set up so you can build an online income for yourself; you’ll need to understand what keywords are and how to find them.
First, What Are Keywords?
Before you can understand keyword research you need to understand what keywords are. Keywords are simply words or phrases that people search for on the Internet in search engines like Bing and Google.
Actionable Example:
Go to Google.com and type in “Dog Food” without the quotes.
Notice that search results are displayed based on what you typed in?
So people search for keywords in the search engines and results are then displayed.
What Is Keyword Research?
Keyword research is very simple when you understand the purpose. You want to find words and phrases that are relevant for your industry or niche. The reason (again) is because you want people to be able to find your website in the search engines when they search for a particular set of keywords.
To find these words and phrases (again, keywords) you need to do keyword research. So what are you specifically looking for during keyword research?
Well, you’re looking for what people want.
Example:
If someone types in “dog food” into a search engine we know they are looking for “dog food” but what exactly do they want?
Do they want information about dog food?
Do they want to buy dog food?
Do they want to know what dog food brands exist?
Do they want to know the ingredients of dog food?
That’s where keyword research comes in handy! If we can see what people are searching for we can have a better idea of what they want and then we can give it to them.
We can find phrases which are called “Long Tailed Keywords” that can help us understand more about what people are searching for.
What Is A Long Tailed Keyword?
Simple. It’s a series of 3 or more words that give us a more accurate description of what people want.
Examples Of A Long Tailed Keywords
- Where To Buy Dog Food
- Dog Food Brands
- Buy Dog Food Online
- Shop For Organic Dog Food
Notice that the keywords above are much more descriptive than “dog food?” This gives us a more accurate idea of what the potential visitor to your website is looking for.
So How Do You Do Keyword Research?
Luckily there are free tools and paid tools that can help us with this. The first tool I suggest learning how to use is the free Google Adwords External Search Tool. It’s simple to use and will help you figure out how often people are searching for specific online terms.
Please note: Keep in mind all tools provide an ESTIMATE only. None of them are perfect and at times it’s possible for them to be slightly off. But, being close is good enough for now. Later in the keyword research demonstration I’ll show you how to look a bit deeper and figure out how to find things that might be slightly under the radar.
Before you start doing keyword research you need to have a particular niche in mind that you’re interested in. Need help with that? See my choosing a niche tutorial.
Quick Tutorial:
#1. Fire up the Google Adwords Tool with me
You’ll come to a screen that looks like this: (Click Image To Enlarge).
A. Set the filter on the side to "Exact Match."
B. Type in your keyword or phrase you'd like to investigate
C. Check this box as it will make sure all the words are closely related to your search
D. Click search
Next, you'll see results be pulled up in the tool. (Again, Click To Enlarge).
A. In this column you'll keywords that relate to the original topic
B. Ignore this for now. This simply shows competition for people who are paying to advertise with Google. You're not doing that.
C. This column shows how many times this keyword is searched monthly in Google (on average). Keep in mind it's an estimate and chaces are the searches are actually higher.
D. This is for local searches. You don't need this column.
If you want to see how to analyze your competition in the search engines you’ll need to use video #2 here.
Now you want to find a primary keyword phrase. A primary keyword phrase is a phrase or topic that you want to build your website around.
Action: Spend as long as you need finding your primary keyword phrase and move on only after you’ve found it.
After you’ve found a primary keyword phrase you now have the main topic your blog is going to focus on.
Whether it’s a small niche style site like “Grooming your dog” or a broader topic like “staying healthy” it’s up to you.
Keep in mind that broader niche markets are harder to break into at first; but are more rewarding over time. But, when you see competition abound it means that there is some serious money in that niche market.
So my personal suggestion if it's your very first blog, start with a long tailed keyword for your niche market when you are brand new to all of this; then attempt to tackle the larger niche markets when you have your feet wet and are making money in smaller niche markets first.
Once you are sure what your primary keyword phrase is you can now setup your blog. If you’re worried about competition check out my advanced easier keyword research area where I show you a tool that will help you do that. If you need help setting up your first blog I created a video to make it easier for you.
Great job!
Keyword Research Part II: Additional Keywords To Grow Your Site
After your blog is setup you need to do more keyword research so that you can start creating blog posts about your particular topic.
There are a few ways to figure out what to write about in your industry. The first thing I suggest you do is to look at what other blogs and websites in your industry are writing about. This can help give you a better idea of what to write about. Before you can create content though, you'll need topics to write bout.
Actionable Task:
Go visit 5 other blogs/websites in your niche and write down 10 topics they are writing about.
Next, you need to do a bit more keyword research. Now you need take each of those topics that you wrote down and do some more research.
Actionable Task:
This can be done using the Google Adwords Tool again.
I.e. if one of the topics you wrote down was grilling salmon; you would enter that into the box on the Google Adwords tool.
(Click Image To Enlarge)
Below you’ll see a new list of keywords that shows up.
A). Find long tailed keywords (3 or more words together) that are fitting for your niche
B). Check the monthly searches. It doesn’t really matter how many searches the phrase has. Even if the phrase only had 100 searches per month you could still use it. Obviously the more searches the better for getting more traffic to your website. However, typically, the more searches, the harder the competition when trying to rank your site in the search engines.
As you can see just one topic can have several keywords. Grilled salmon showed me 100 results. If you want to dig deeper and find more keywords outside of Google’s keyword tool you’ll need to do some advanced research using a tool.
Because each topic you investigate will show at least 100 results you can turn a few topics into hundreds of posts for your site. The object isn’t to do all this at once! However, for now just pick out a few choice phrases based on each topic.
You should now have a main or primary keyword phrase and at least 10 additional long-tailed keyword phrases in which to build your website around. You can go ahead and save and export or write down all the keywords you’re interested in.
You will create a post around each of your keywords you just found. However, do this one at a time and create content for each post as you go. If you’ve never created content go read this post first and if you’ve never created a post and need help please take my 12 video step by step training course first here.
Anytime you need to do keyword research I suggest using the above tutorial and when you’re ready to advance your research a little further check out my advanced research using the Market Samurai keyword tool.
You can go ahead and stop here for now or you can continue on to a little more advanced stuff on keyword research.
Keyword Research Part III: Additional Phrases That Inform & Help You Sell Stuff
Buyer Keywords
Some keywords have a potential to make you more money than others. We call these types of keywords “buyer or buying keyword phrases.”
These phrases show a buying intent from the person searching for them. I suggest having some of these on your website if possible.
Here is a list of potential buyer keywords:
- Purchase
- Order
- Buy
- Buying
- Review
- Ratings
- Cheap
- Cheapest
- Best Price
- Deal
- Sale
- Top 10 (any top 10, 5 etc)
Essentially what people do is they type these phrases into the search engine with the usual intent to buy. i.e. “buy organic dog food online.”
Is there any question what the person searching this online wants to do when they type in that phrase?
Obviously, make sure every page on your website is optimized or the keywords you want that particular page to rank for. If you are unsure how to do this my friend Justin Lewis has a nice write up on that topic here.
What about the terms reviews and ratings though? Why is that a big deal?
People turn to the Internet to look for deals and reviews of products online before they make a purchase. In fact, according to Neilson Net Ratings 70% of all people trust anonymous reviews over radio and T.V. advertising. Pretty shocking isn’t it?
Let’s examine this further.
Let’s say someone wanted to know what the top recommended organic dog food brands are. They might open up their web browser and go to Bing or Google and type “organic dog food reviews.”
Why would they want reviews on organic dog food? In this case it’s typically to find out what the best brands are and make a purchase.
As a website owner this is where you can take advantage of this. You can create pages/posts on your website based around those types of keywords and rank them in the search engines.
The traffic you’ll get from this will be targeted traffic with a buying intent in mind. If the webpage your visitor arrives at has advertisements or your affiliate link included they are more likely to make a purchase through you.
This doesn’t mean that other keywords won’t make you money; because they will. However, we can unequivocally state that when someone types in a buying keyword; we know that most of the time their intent is to purchase something.
Factual Or Informative Keywords
Factual and informative keywords have some very distinct uses. Here are a few of their uses:
- Establishes you as an expert in your field
- Builds trust with your visitor (trust can lead to sales)
- Teaches or informs your visitor (this may lead to a buying decision)
- Supports the other pages/posts on your website
Here is a list of factual or informative keywords:
- Facts
- Information
- About
- Research on
- How it works
- How to (easily can lead to sales if you teach and recommend through these keywords)
The above list is just a few. I am sure there are far more possibilities in this keyword area.
This type of keyword is important to use on your website because it will show your visitor that you know what you’re talking about, build trust by establishing you as an expert and ultimately support all the other information on your website.
Having these types of keywords on your website also make it easy to reference your own writing. I.e. in this write-up you’re reading now about keywords you’ll notice I reference several of my other informative posts within.
Let me show you a practical use. Imagine you have a website about “organic dog food.” A visitor comes to your website and is reading a review you’ve created about a particular organic dog food blend. In the review you reference another post that you wrote called “facts about organic dog food ingredients” where you’re supporting why you recommend that someone buys this brand of dog food from your affiliate link.
The post is used to steer people away from harmful ingredients and brands that might hurt their pet. Now, imagine yourself as a potential customer reading that; you’ll likely buy for a number of reasons:
- Facts were presented; building trust
- You don’t want the other brand that may hurt your dog
- After reading the facts it’s convenient to buy
So you can see just having supporting material on your website can help influence buyers even though it’s not a buying keyword.
In conclusion it’s ideal to use both buying keywords and factual/informative keywords on your website for the best results. Keywords are critical for your website to be found in the search engines and without doing it you’ll basically be diving into a topic blindly and hoping for the best.
You can find more training here and also you can join one of my courses here and here. Enjoy and if you have any questions, ask below!
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About Michael Brown
[...] #1. Find a niche market to get involved in. (Niche means smaller part of a large market). I have an easy tutorial set up for finding a niche here. After you find a niche do some keyword research. [...]