When you are putting the finishing touches on your keyword research list there are a few other things you should consider that may help you refine your focus even further. You know, all too well, that not all traffic is good traffic. The quality of the traffic you receive matters a great deal when it comes to making sales. Limiting your competition is one of the best ways to ensure that you are making the sales you've worked so hard to earn.
Finding the right keywords makes this a lot more likely because it will not only draw in your target audience but will also limit the amount of websites you are competing with. It is much easier to find your way to the top of a list that has only 5,000 competing websites than it is to work your way to the top of the search engine rankings when there are 13,000,000. You want to make sure that the pool of competition is as small as possible so that you can rise to the top rather than feeling like a fish trying to swim upstream against a Niagara Falls of competitors.
So, how do you refine the focus and limit your competition? Instead of creating a website that is dedicated to ice cream makers, create one that is dedicated to the KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Attachment. By making this change you are still getting a topic that is fairly well searched BUT you are also reducing the competition from 1.5 million competing sites to just over 7,000. That is a HUGE difference. Even then though there are some that will argue that is unfavorable odds for competition and will require significant effort to optimize. How much work you are willing to put into the SEO process will determine whether or not this is a good keyword choice for you.
At the end of the day, the less competition you have, the greater the likelihood that you will be able to rise to the top of the search engine rankings with consistent effort. The more competition you have, the more effort you will need to make for those favorable results.
Use keyword research tools to help you find out how well searched a term is before deciding to use it on your site. Keep in mind that seasonal keywords are seasonal. If you want an accurate idea of what to expect it is a good idea to begin researching during the “off” seasons for these search terms. You should also be aware of the possibility of defining your keywords too narrowly. The result for this would be heading to the top of the heap for keywords that get little or no traffic.
If you have a site that offers a product or service that might appeal to local audience or international audiences be sure to include that in your optimization efforts also. For example, you could target the keyword “toys” and you would be competing with nearly 400 million websites. If you narrowed the focus to “toys made in America,” you would be refining your keyword competition to 13,000 sites. If you change it to “toys made in USA” you will have twice the competition of made in America but 5 times the search volume. Little things like this can make a world of difference when you are refining your keyword selection process.
It is well worth your time and effort to develop a winning system for keyword research. One popular system that is used by many to narrow down and refine keyword research is a three step system that involves using various online tools to assist in the process.
The three step process may seem complicated at first glance but is rather ingenious when it comes to developing profitable keywords within a narrowly defined niche.
Step 1
Use the Google Keyword Sandbox to generate keywords.
Step 2
Enter those keywords into the SEO Book Tool for search engine marketing in order to learn how many people are searching for those keywords.
Step 3
Search for the keywords you are considering on Google. This will give you the opportunity not only to see how many sites you will be competing against but also the chance to take a look at what the competition is offering their visitors, the products they are promoting, and whether or not you believe you can do better.
The overall goal, of course, is to have keywords that are often searched but offer less competition. This is the key to converting your traffic into sales and the goal of most Internet marketers. There are simpler methods for achieving the same goal but most of those cost money. As far as utilizing free methods, this three step process is the best one available at the moment and easy to use once you get the hang of it.
Even if this strategy isn't one that you are interested in implementing for your business plan you need to develop some strategy that works for you. Failing to do so will leave you without a reliable method for testing keywords, tracking the results, and discovering whether or not some keywords are performing better than others. It will also cost you a great deal of time focusing on campaigns that offer too much competition or are receiving too few searches. Either possibility results in fewer sales and far less profit.
Even after you've made the effort to find the keywords that seem perfect you need to measure your efforts carefully in order to determine which keywords are actually converting into sales. Once you find out which keywords are most profitable you can launch more campaigns that drive traffic searching for those keywords to your website(s).
You will learn over time that those who are searching for specific keywords are more likely to convert into actual sales than those that type in others. It's important to learn to identify the buyers from the casual surfers or information seekers and learn to tailor your marketing campaigns to attract those vitally important buyers. This is something that will come in time and by paying close attention to where your keywords are leading your visitors and which keywords are taking them there. Putting the three steps mentioned above to work for you while performing keyword research is a great start.
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