I just started my adsense campaign and but still learning about this SEO things…
How To Do Keyword Research For Search Engine Rankings
Recently I have become interested once again in making a nice residual income with Google Adsense. Because I have just begun school holidays, which means nine weeks of free time for me, I have set myself a goal to build 15-20 content sites utilizing Google AdSense as the main source of income for each. It was actually visiting Garry Conn’s blog that inspired this, so a big thanks to him.
It is a proven fact that visitors from search engines are the most valuable and targeted traffic a website can get, and therefore, for content sites, investing time into keyword research is crucial in order to rank well in search engines, bringing in the most valuable traffic possible. For content sites, the optimal keywords to focus on are the medium to long tail keywords, as many webmasters skip all medium competition keywords and optimize straight away for the long tail keywords, sometimes creating more competition in long tail keywords than in some higher traffic, shorter keywords.
How To Properly Conduct Keyword Research And Optimize For These Keywords
- Find Smaller Niche Markets - I spent an hour today just wandering around my house analysing every item I saw for the potential of a market online, and realised that the number of markets is unlimited; from white goods to linen, gardening to posture, the potential for an adsense income is endless. Take the time to find a good market which you have some knowledge in that you feel people want to know more about. People use search engines to find answers… know whether or not you can provide the answer.
- Search For Optimal Keywords Using Multiple Tools - Once you have selected your niche market, run it through three different keyword tools: Google’s Keyword Tool, WordTracker Free Keywords, and SEOBook Keyword Suggestion Tool. The reason why I say run it through three tools is because no tool can be completely accurate, so by comparing the results across multiple keyword tools and selecting those keywords common to most or all of the keyword tools you will have the best chance that those terms are the terms being searched for instead of a term that showed up in one tool and won’t bring any traffic. When analysing keywords to optimize, I usually keep those with less than 20,000 results with the function: “keyword”; that also have less than 2000 results with the: allintitle:keyword function. I don’t remove those keywords with little search value, because although there may be very few visitors who come from that keyword, they are still worth more than not being there.
- Combine Similar Keywords Into One - Because I’m not much of a writer, I like to minimize content writing time to as little as possible. Therefore, by combining similar keywords to include both in one page, the amount of writing is reduced. Say for example you are targeting the keywords “Australian Plants” and “Australian Animals“; I would combine these to create a page titled “Australian Plants And Animals“, therefore having to write less content to create a good sized article, killing two birds with one stone.
- Buy The Domain Name After Deciding On The Keywords - The trick in this is to take the most occurring keyword in your list of targeted keywords and buy the domain name with this keyword in it as the primary word. By doing this, search engine ranks will increase overall as more webpages will contain the part of the targeted keyword more frequently in the URL.
With all that done, all that is left is to create quality, unique content, making use of title, heading, and alt tags, and to build some links.
When I get my first of the 15 sites up I will show you it and tell you how it’s going, and step you through exactly what I do from start to finish of creating my second website.
Tags: find niche markets, Keyword Research, keyword tool, search engine rankings, targeted keyword
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30 comments - add yours
Hajib
November 29, 2008
Norhafidz
November 30, 2008
Great tips Simon,
I used Google Keyword Tool a lot in analyzing, well no one knows Google better than Sergey and Larry 
Norhafidzs last blog post..I Changed My Tagline and Blog’s Title
work from home ideas
November 30, 2008
Hi Simon,
I agree with you that keyword research is so important for SEO and to get to Google Top 10. Combining 2 keywords into one and showing it in your title is a good practice to follow.
Peter Lee
Ben Pei
December 1, 2008
Starting with a right keyword is important too.. Or else you will never see results..
Ben Peis last blog post..Making Money With Residual Affiliate Income Opportunities
Blogging from Scratch
December 1, 2008
Before creating sites, I do keyword research. But i have some concerns in it because the topics that i could discuss is only limited to those keywords
Blogging from Scratchs last blog post..Site is for sale and November Income Report
Balkhis Sweet Monday Link Love - 12/1/08
December 1, 2008
[...] How to do keyword research for search engine rankings [...]
Dan
December 2, 2008
Hey, some good advice there Simon thanks! I agree with the amount of niche areas you could go into - its astonishing how many there are actually that are probably still available to be top in!
Dans last blog post..Craft Your Way To Success
Busby SEO Dewaji
December 2, 2008
I use Google Keyword Tool too. I think you forget to mention Google insight
Busby SEO Dewajis last blog post..Dewaji is The Contest Winner
Tom - StandOutBlogger.com
December 2, 2008
I use micro niche finder for my keyword research. It’s been really good!
Chris Mueller
December 2, 2008
Great post. i recently started doing the same thing. I did in fact take it one step further in the research process. I took the keywords and then ran them through Google’s Adwords tool to see how much someone would be paying per click. I figure based on my experience that Google pays approx. 50% per click to the publisher, I would then be able to better estimate if the website was going to be somewhat profitable.
So far it has worked pretty well.
How to Blog
December 2, 2008
Exciting, I’m interested to see how much success you’ll have. I’ve always wanted to do that but I just haven’t had the time, depending on how successful you can be, I may have to. Thanks for sharing, and Google Adwords Keyword Tool is one of the most useful tools on the internet, but so few people know about it, good job getting the word out.
How to Blogs last blog post..What is Twitter Flipping?
Me Debt Free
December 2, 2008
This is a really useful post. There’s not a lot I could add to that.
I think choosing a keyword rich domain has a lot of benefits. From my experience of analysing Google searches for my sites, those domains that have good keywords in them nearly always seem to come out on top.
Choosing niche can be interesting. You could choose a high paying niche but then spend hours and hours SEOing it - but the rewards will be rich. Or a lesser paid niche which doesnt need as much effort but doesnt pay much at all. The trick, is to find the niche that pays well AND is easy to promote! Then keep it to yourself! LOL
SEOcialize - Search Engine Optimization
December 2, 2008
Great list, and getting a keyphrase domain name like you say helps so much when building niche sites. I also use the YSM keyword tool as well, similar to the Google Keyword Tool.
SEOcialize - Search Engine Optimizations last blog post..Matt Cutts Whitehat SEO Tips for Bloggers
Car Trader
December 2, 2008
There’s such a lot to do with the keyword research that it forms one of the very basic steps in SEO. Using good keywords in title and the meta tags is a great idea to have high SERPs.
Hugo Santos
December 3, 2008
i don’t fimd keyword research that difficult… for me the trouble is to write content for something i don’t really know that much.. .lool
Hugo Santoss last blog post..Emergency Room Final Considerations
Simon
December 3, 2008
@ Hugos - that’s the same with me - I’m such a lazy writer
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Web Design Beach
December 3, 2008
Good tutorial. It will be interested to see your live experience with experiment that you are making. With that quantity of site, i am sure you will hit some gold nugget.
Mike Collins
December 3, 2008
Simon, you should also take a look at the top sites for your keywords and see if you can compete with them. Even if there are fewer than 20,000 results with quotes, it won’t do you much good if the top 10 sites are all high PR, authority sites that have been around forever and have tons of backlinks.
Mike Collinss last blog post..Why Do You Blog?
Erwin Tan
December 5, 2008
I simply can’t work without Google Keyword Tool. It’s amazing that there are alot of people who don’t use them actually.
Erwin Tans last blog post..Unleashing The Niche Genius In You
Kenney @ How To Make Money Blog
December 5, 2008
Great post. Right on point. I love using Google’s keyword tool because it shows the number of searches now too.
Ben Pei
December 7, 2008
There is so much you can do for keyword research. Building backlinks is the next big step to take..
Ben Peis last blog post..Blogging With One Hand
how to
December 10, 2008
I love to use Google keyword tool for my projects to gain my seo experiences. There are lot niche can be explore more.
how tos last blog post..Travel sickness
Matt Helphrey
December 12, 2008
I use Google Adwords free keyword tool as well and love it. Very useful. I also check my competitors back links by using Yahoos Site Explorer.
Thanks for the very informative post!
Matt Helphreys last blog post..Develop a Link Building Strategy
Me Debt Free
December 12, 2008
There are some great keyword tools out there but I agree that the Google tool is about the best (considering its free).
However, it does get confusing when you find a keyword that is shown to have a number searches then try another keyword tool for the same keyword only to find it shows no searches.
Cash Gifting Exposed
December 17, 2008
Great SEO tips Simon, I recently got ranked for one of the celebrity keywords, and getting awesome traffic from Search Engines. Keep it up…
Cash Gifting Exposeds last blog post..ALS Cash Gifting
Contest Arbitrage - Link Building Through Contest Sponsorship
January 2, 2009
[...] this method you can also have some control over your anchor text (although don’t use just one keyword the whole time, Google will penalize you - John Chow experienced this first [...]
Me Debt Free
January 3, 2009
I will be interested to see how you get on constantly building and maintaining (content + backlinks) 15-20 sites. I think it can be done with the help of outsourcing, but I cant see its possible with one person doing it.
vivek
January 3, 2009
keyword search is very important before choosing the domain.
can u tell in detail giving the time required to set up the site and after what time it starts paying and how much can be expected giving any niche as an example?
thanks
Alice
January 5, 2009
Informative post! I think, any successful business runs by targeting a niche segment today. Catering to the general market may not reveal the same results. If one can identify their niche segment, then there is the opportunity of increasing the quality of your marketing efforts. Likewise when finding relevant keywords, select terms or phrases that target a niche segment.