Part of the guide: Blog Traffic
Keyword research is and has always been the foundation of good SEO. If you target the wrong keywords, you’re not going to make any money. Keyword research really is one of the most important and high return activities you can do in the world of search engine optimization.
Many argue that you should only spend a few minutes finding a keyword, I say hours. By doing keyword research you not only find out which search terms to target with SEO, but learn a hell of a lot about your market as a whole.
With keyword research you can spot trends and see which keywords, services & products are in high demand. Keyword research allows you to gain an insight into the behavior of your target market.
I’m not going to go into the technical details here about keyword research, as you can learn that stuff elsewhere. However here are a few covert secrets:
As you should already know, keyword research tools like the Google Keyword Tool can show us how many searches certain phrases get, but they cannot tell us how valuable they are. The most important aspect to keyword research is being able to judge how valuable a keyword is; not how competitive it is.
Judging SEO competition is vital, but… I would much rather go after an extremely difficult keyword that I know will make me money instead of a dozen generic keywords just because they’re “easy”.
Ask Yourself The Question
Most importantly, ask yourself if the keyword you’re looking at is going to make you money. Is the keyword relevant to your website and will the people searching it be interested in buyers your offers? Does the keyword have commercial value?
That’s the big question and the easiest to answer. Simply Google the keyword and see how many advertisers there are on the side. If there’s a full page of advertisers, that means it’s got to be making someone money. To confirm your findings go to the Google Keyword Tool and check the average cost per click (CPC) of the keyword.
If a full page of advertisers are paying over $1 per click, it has serious commercial value. Another good indicator is ads above the organic listings. If there are ads above the organic listings at the very top, it usually means the traffic converts very well.
Analyze The Keyword
Once you’ve asked those questions and found a keyword that looks lucrative, you need to analyze it. I personally don’t spend too much time analyzing as it really doesn’t take long. Some people will tell you to check how many results there are on Google, how many sites have the keyword in title and all that crap.
To be very honest, you only need to work out why the top 10 ranking sites are where they are. When finding long tail keywords, you only need to analyze the top 3 ranking websites to work out why they’re ranking where they are. You should also glance at the rest of page 1 to checkout their on-page optimization.
So first you need to look at the on-page SEO of the top ranking websites using a tool like Market Samurai or Traffic Travis.
More importantly you need to analyze the link profiles of the top ranking sites. No matter what, you can’t deny the fact that backlinks account for 80% of search engine rankings. That’s my personal belief and I always prove people wrong who challenge it. (Sure you could argue that, but I’ve always been able to outrank other authority sites with backlinks)
Test The Keyword
Most SEO’s don’t believe in spending money on traffic because they can “generate it for free”. The truth is that’s total bullshit. SEO may be free, buy if you’re smart you’ll spend money. Why? Well because SEO takes time and if you’re still trading time for money – you may as well be working a damn J.O.B.
When you rank for a keyword, you’ll receive ‘free’ search engine traffic. The traffic costs nothing, but if you want to remain at the top of Google; you need to spend time or money to maintain the ranking. And… 90% of the time the money you invest in SEO will be returned in traffic and sales.
Now I can’t say the same about any other traffic source on the Internet.
To further my point, if you wisely invest $100 in SEO, you can generate a solid 100 daily visitors. Now how many visitors can you get from say a $100 Adwords spend? Probably about 100 visitors, once.
With all that being said, you need to spend money on Google Adwords to TEST keywords before targeting them. Barely anyone does this and the result is… bad conversions. Most people perform normal keyword research, go with their gut and start an SEO campaign for their chosen keyword.
When people finally rank for their target keyword, they expect the money to start rolling in – but it usually doesn’t. Why? Simply because the keyword isn’t right for their offer/s. So to stop you from wasting time going after a keyword that won’t convert, test it out with Google Adwords.
Start an ad campaign targeting at least 10 keywords you’re thinking about ranking for. Track which keywords make you the most money, most won’t make you any. After you’ve spent a sensible amount ($250) you should start your SEO campaign to rank for the best converting keyword.
You were never meant to do this alone
Reading this changes nothing. Doing it with people who show up changes everything. That is the whole difference between the people who transform and the people who keep starting over.
Start free →In Prosperity,
David Wood
P.S. Leave me your thoughts, comments and questions below.
Comments
Tyronne Ratcliff, March 6, 2012, 06:22
Great tips Dave, trying to find those “buyers keywords” is half the battle.
Olivia Martinez, March 6, 2012, 10:30
David, your insights on keyword research are spot on. It’s essential to find those valuable keywords that will drive traffic and conversions. Thanks for sharing!
Liam Johnson, March 6, 2012, 11:45
Excellent post! The importance of analyzing keyword value over competition is often overlooked. This guide is a great reminder to focus on what really matters.
Amelia Chen, March 6, 2012, 12:30
I appreciate the detailed explanation on testing keywords with Google Adwords. It’s a step I often skip, but I’ll definitely incorporate it into my strategy now. Thanks!
Jacob Brown, March 6, 2012, 13:45
Keyword research can be time-consuming, but your methodical approach makes it seem more manageable. Looking forward to trying out these tips in my next SEO campaign.
Emily Wilson, March 6, 2012, 15:00
Great advice on analyzing the top-ranking sites for on-page SEO and backlinks. It’s a crucial step that many neglect. Thanks for the reminder, David!
Benjamin Nguyen, March 6, 2012, 16:15
Thanks for the guide, David! I’ve been struggling with keyword research, but your tips on evaluating commercial value and competition will definitely help improve my results.
Isabella Smith, March 6, 2012, 17:30
Working on keyword research feels less daunting with your structured approach. The tips on testing and analyzing keywords are particularly helpful. Thanks for this valuable post!
Ethan Patel, March 6, 2012, 18:45
Your perspective on investing in SEO to save time and get better results is enlightening. I’ll rethink my strategy to include paid testing for keywords. Great post!
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Ask yourself if the keyword will actually make you money before you look at volume. Simple test, easy to skip when a big number gets you excited.
The best case against Philip’s read: search volume without obvious commercial intent is still worth something if the actual goal is authority-building, brand recall, or list growth rather than a direct sale on the same visit. This entire post is written from inside a CPC-and-buyer-keywords lens, which makes total sense for the offer it’s built to sell, but it never really engages with content built for reach instead of immediate conversion, the kind that compounds into trust over a year rather than converting in the first session. I don’t fully buy that as a complete strategy on its own, plenty of authority content never converts anything, but the post doesn’t even argue against the alternative. It just writes as if it doesn’t exist.
The claim that backlinks account for eighty percent of rankings is stated as settled fact with zero methodology behind it. What’s the sample, what’s controlled for, and over what time period? ‘my personal belief and I always prove people wrong’ isn’t a citation, it’s an anecdote with confidence.
Has the eighty percent backlinks estimate held up as ranking factors changed since this was written, or was that just what worked for you back then?
Sorry if everyone already knows this, but when it says to check how many advertisers are on the side of a search page, does that still work the same way now that so many results look different with all the extra boxes mixed in? I genuinely don’t know if that trick is out of date or if I’m just overthinking it.
The whole testing methodology assumes you’ve got budget to spend on ads before you’ve written a single word, which is a real gap the post doesn’t acknowledge. Some of us built an audience by writing consistently on keywords we believed in and let actual reader response be the test, slower, but it didn’t require capital up front.
I ran the $250 Adwords test exactly as the post describes before committing to an SEO push. Week one, three of ten keywords showed any real buying intent behind the clicks. Week two, I dropped four more. By week three I was down to two keywords worth ranking for, out of the original ten. The test works, it’s just slower and more discouraging than the post makes it sound.
Kelsey’s numbers are basically a funnel: ten keywords in, two survive to the ranking stage, an eighty percent rejection rate before you’ve written a single backlink. Worth drawing that as the actual process instead of the vague ‘test it and see’ language in the post. Most people skip the funnel and go straight to ‘rank for what feels right,’ which is exactly the failure mode the post is warning about, just not in those words.