Effective Keyword Research

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makethatmoney

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What is the most effective way to go about researching keywords?

I've read various ways to research KWs, but no matter what I try it just doesn't seem to be effective.

The only method I haven't tried in depth was this:

Monday check "Keyword A" and look at the top 10 advertisements/LPs
Tuesday check "Keyword A" and look at the top 10 advertisements/LPs

etc throughout the week or upwards of 2 weeks.

Create a spreadsheet of re-occuring instances of the advertisements/LPs

If it shows up continuously they are probably making money with that word.

Is that effective? The time I tried I just couldn't find a simple way to track it and my system quickly turned into chaos.

How do you do it?

Any insight would be very helpful. Thanks!
 


I'm not looking for the best system ever, I'm looking for something effective. Obviously what I'm "doing" I haven't found effective. I'm wondering if I could get some insight.

Jagoff.
 
I've read various ways to research KWs, but no matter what I try it just doesn't seem to be effective.
Click to expand...

What do u want to do with the KW ?
Do u just want to increase ur PR by optimizing ur keyword ?
or do u want to optimize ur site such that ur adsense earning is maximum ?
or do u want to optimize keywords for PPC advertising ....?

depnds on what u want, different steps can be taken ...
 
The good ol' Google Adwords Keyword tool is still king in my book.

Start off with a handful of obvious keywords and take a look at the selection Google gives you as a result. Save them to a .csv (Excel) file or .txt.

From that list, you'll get some more ideas, which you in turn can re-enter into the tool for more related suggestions.

Do this a few times until you have a set of keyword lists to work with as a start.

Copy all the words into one spreadsheet and look for patterns, groups, segments/categories, etc. You should be able to roughly group the keywords by looking over them a few times.

If you're worried about what words convert well... Well, Google also tells you the competition level for each word. In their tool this is just a green bar, but in the spreadsheet you will see it as percentages. 100% means high competittion (Duh!) and if the word also has a high number of montly searches - chances are a LOT of people are making bank on those words and they convert.

Take out irrelevant words and focus on building a GOOD list before building a BIG list. Quality over quantity. The keyword categories or groups you came up with should become the base for your next move; identifying how to structure your campaigns and adgroups.

Also, for each keyword group: use a typo tool (plenty of them on the net) and generate typos or misSpeLingS of the most popular words. No need to bother with misspelling of the 16-word longtails (yet) ;)
 
Thanks a lot. I enjoy reading your blog and will continue to do so. Always helpful and you have also posted some great stuff here.

+rep to you :)
 
Agree 100% with Images post. I suggest using seobooks keyword tool alongside the G tool. This way you have an idea of what kind of traffic the other engines get. This gives you an idea, even if its a somewhat low traffic niche, how much overall potential you have to scale.

Also, while using other peoples ads does give you some sort of insight -- it can also be misleading at times. Don't jump into a niche head first based on this alone -- dozens of times people are testing themselves (and losing money for the data.) You're right, the longer their ad stays up the higher the chances they are profiting ... but you never really know.
 
Right Spades. I meant to go into more detail and look at the landing page as well. Notice any changes that may occur. If it is a similar ad and the same LP, chances are if they are sitting 1-3 for a few weeks, they are making money especially in a niche where #1 costs $2+ to sit.

Good insight, and thanks to you as well for the additional tips.

I've been reading and researching for months about how to go about all of this, and even had small success with a few campaigns. However, I have never built a campaign with a landing page and done split testing with the ad and page long enough to make any income.

Lack of startup investment is a drawback, but I'll keep plugging :) Thx
 
maybe a little inspiration...

No worries. We all have to start somewhere -- If you don't have the cash flow to throw into PPC right away you might wanna try organic to learn the ropes.

There's nothing worse than the feeling of losing money on a tight PPC budget. Success comes with numbers and a ton of testing which usually means losing a bit of money.

Trust me I know how it all feels. Originally, I didn't want to pour money from my 9 to 5 into PPC so I setup a dozen or so organic sites and monetized with both offers and adsense. Eventually my earnings grew to $2k/month which I invested straight into PPC. I was fortunate enough to start a couple successful campaigns and scale them. This all led to me quitting my 9 to 5, opening my company, and going full-time.

Just figured it might be a little inspiration knowing that you can literally start with NO outside investment.
 
Awesome. I currently have 1 organic blog that I'm building. Working on creating some other sites in that area as well as I invest small amounts into learning PPC.

Thanks for the insight :) I would love some recurring cash from organic sites.
 
Images

Great recap on the PPC strategy. Sometimes when you are new at something it can easily get overcomplicated.
 
Exactly. Another drawback is wanting to make it a complete one-man-show, but that's hard when you lack design skills.

Time to hit the books I guess :)
 
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