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Finding the Right Niche Keywords to Target

December 17, 2007 | Author: Rob | Filed under: SEO and Marketing

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So you’ve spent the weekend figuring out what you’re passionate and somewhat an expert on. If you haven’t already done that I suggest you read this first. Now it’s time for another equally important part; figuring out which keywords to target!

Choosing the right keywords can play a large part in success or failure so this part is not to be overlooked. You want to choose keywords that target what you’re niche is about but aren’t overly competitive. Terms that are too competitive are often a waste of time as ranking for them would take years and a very powerful site. Other terms which are in the middle of popularity are often a lot easier. Another approach is to go for ones with almost no search volume and almost no competition.

If you chose 25 terms that got ~5 searches a day and you were competitive for all of them you’d get more traffic realistically then say a term that gets 2000 searches a day but you’d be on page 500! Also don’t be scared of long tail keywords that are 4-6 words. They may be your diamond in the rough.

Here is a list of websites that will help you find the right terms.

Adwords Keyword Selector

Visit this site and see how much people are bidding, searching and competition for any term. I’d go for ones in the middle with mild competition and roughly equal searches. Also since Google doesn’t disclose how much of the adwords bid price it passes onto the adsense publishers you can’t assume that since it says $5 a click you’ll get $5 or even $1. Keep that in mind when choosing your key terms. In other words don’t be mesmerized by the prices. Pick terms you think your niche could rank for. You’ll do much better.

Digital Point Keyword Suggestion Tool

This is a free service that is a personal favourite of mine! It’s simple put in a keyword and see how often its’ getting searched daily. Remember aim for the middle of the pack if you want traffic. As stated above I love this tool and use it all the time. It doesn’t give you competition just searches so it’s not complete by any means but heck it’s free and gives you an idea of what’s out their. I’ve stressed this and I’ll say it again. Don’t get caught up in the big searches it will most likely get you no where. All those sites in your niche that have been around for years with solid user bases are targeting those. Maybe one day but to make your entrance I suggest the side door!

WordTracker

This is the grand daddy of them all. It allows you to search for terms, then it brings up suggestions then you can see the KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index). The higher the KEI the better the term. They recommend going for terms with a KEI of 10 or above. Personally I go for ones much higher and when you find them market them and keep them to yourself. I’ve found some in the past over 2,000! Click here for a great explanation of how KEI works. Wordtracker also has a free program that shows how often related terms are searched similar to Digital Point’s.This program has a free tour which searches MSN and you can correlate it to the other engines. It’s quite expensive to purchase for any length of time but a year would be my recommendation if you’re serious as it comes to ~$0.82 a day. That’s cheaper then a muffin in the morning and it has 0% trans fats!

There are obviously other methods out there but these are the ones I’ve used in the past. It’s wise to run a quick search before you make a new post when choosing a title but it’s most important to pick one or two terms that you want to rank for your blog / website in general. These are the terms you’ll use for directory submission, blog roll exchanges, your signature links in forums. Anywhere you put a link to your site with that term will help you in your rankings. That being said don’t get spammy and obviously stay away from bad neighborhoods. Search Engines in 2007 and onwards are a lot smarter than before so if you’re doing niche marketing I wouldn’t waste my time with general links. Get links with your key term in them on sites that are relevant to your niche.

Best of luck and plan as much as you can before beginning as it’s always frustrating / depressing to have to go back and change things. Einstein said something along the lines of … If he had 1 hour to figure out how to do something he’d spend 58 minutes pondering the best approach and then 2 minutes executing. Makes sense no?

This entry was posted on Monday, December 17th, 2007 and is filed under SEO and Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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