Keyword Marketing Research: How to Do Keyword Research

Keyword marketing research is an important step in not only developing an affiliate blueprint but also in setting up a website that will generate a consistent flow of traffic from the major search engines: Google, Yahoo, Live, and Ask. When you do keyword research you end up analyzing keyword phrases for two reasons. The first thing you're trying to do is plan out your website. Remember you will eventually grow your site to around 250 or 300 pages. It helps to have a blueprint of how you're going to reach that level and which pages will be linked together.

The second reason you do keyword research is to see what people are looking for related to
your website topic. Are people looking for products or services to buy? Are they looking for information, or tips, or help? What questions are people asking via the search engines? This information comes in handy as you look to monetize your website with affiliate programs. Analyzing the needs and wants of people searching within your topic area will tell you the type of merchants and affiliate programs you want to join forces with.

I'm going to give you 2 options for how to do keyword research. My preference for keyword marketing research is option number two, but I have used both methods and I feel they give similar results in terms of the level of accuracy. Let's take a look at each option:

Option #1 - The first method of keyword marketing research is provided by Site Build It! and is fully explained in days 2 and 3 of the SBI Action Guide. SBI developed a system that has spidered billions of web pages to go along with a keyword tool that generates words and phrases related to your site concept. The SBI keyword tool provides demand, supply, and profitability for each of the words and phrases it generates. As you can see in the upper right-hand corner of this page, SBI is at the top of my list of web business tools. I recommend checking it out especially if you want a detailed explanation of how to do keyword research.

Option #2 - I like to use Google to give me three pieces of keyword marketing research information: keywords and phrases that are related to my website topic, the average monthly Google searches for each of the keywords generated, and the number of search results for each of the keywords.

To do keyword research go to the Google Keyword Tool and type your website topic where it says "Enter one keyword or phrase per line". Click on "Get keyword ideas" and allow Google to generate keywords related to your website topic. Click on "Approx Avg Search Volume" to rank the keywords from highest volume to lowest. Find the keywords listed under "Keywords related to term(s) entered" and scroll down until you see the download option. Click on one of the download options(I personally prefer to use the Excel option) and save the file to your desktop. Open the file and eliminate all unrelated and bogus keywords and keyword phrases. Resave the file.

The next step is to brainstorm a list of keywords and phrases related to your website topic. Make the list as long as you want. I would suggest starting with at least 15 different keywords and phrases. Query the Google database for each of the keywords on your list. Do them one at a time. For each one sort from highest to lowest volume, download the results to your desktop, eliminate unrelated and bogus keywords, and resave the file.

At this point in your keyword marketing research you have used the Google Keyword Tool to generate lists of keywords and phrases related to your website topic. Google has provided you with the average search volume(demand data) for each of the keywords and phrases. The trick now is to get the supply data which is really the number of search results Google supplies for each keyword and phrase. You can either go to Google and type in each keyword and phrase one at a time(be sure to use quotes) to get the actual number of search results or you can try to find another keyword research tool online that will allow you to upload your files and get the job done automatically(you'll have to buy the keyword tool). I often just go ahead and do it manually, especially when I'm growing my site and need to name just a few more pages. I do have an outdated keyword research tool I use when I need Google search results in bulk. I bought the tool in 2006 and have barely used it other than for giving me Google results which it still does an accurate job of doing. If you don't want to buy a keyword research tool that provides Google supply and you don't want to go through the process manually then I recommend utilizing keyword marketing research Option #1 further above.

Once you have Google demand and supply for each of the keywords and phrases you need to compare the two values side by side. You're looking for high Google demand keywords that have low Google supply. The reality is that you might not find any high demand, low supply keywords. You will find medium demand, low supply keywords and you will find plenty of low demand, low supply keywords. High demand, low supply keywords are gems. If you find one be sure to use it.

As a keyword marketing research rule of thumb I don't keep any keywords or phrases that have a Google supply of over 5000. In fact it is rare I use a keyword with a Google supply of over 3000. Most of the keyword phrases I target have a Google supply under 1000, while some keywords I use are in the 1000 to 2000 search results range, and just a few over 3000. As far as demand goes I'll consider using any keyword with an average monthly search volume of over 100, but I do make sure I include some keywords with demand over 1000.

With keyword marketing research complete, the next thing you should to do is put together a blueprint of your website. The process of planning the individual pages of your website is covered in the article "Affiliate Website Blueprint".

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