Internet Marketing – Keyword Research Tools
Posted on 09. Nov, 2009 by GrooveAdmin in Uncategorized
In our last post we laid out the basic steps required to develop an online business from end to end. In this article we will continue with that theme, focusing on the first step of your online empire, selecting keyword research tools for determining buying key phrases.
Many people will be thinking right now “Why isn’t finding a product the first step?” Its a valid question. The answer is that for many beginning internet marketers they are less concerned with what they are selling than they are with making money online. So for them its more a matter of finding the traffic then finding a product to serve that traffic.
Keyword Research Tools
There are a plethora of keyword research tools. We will look into a popular free one, the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, and a popular paid one, Market Samurai.
Tool #1 – Google Adwords Keyword Tool
This free tool is part of the set of tools that are part of having a Google Adwords Account.
Google is always fiddling with their tools, trying to make them more useful for their customers; their keyword tool is no different. The basic premise of their keyword tool is you can enter in a customer’s search phrase into the search box at the top or a competitor’s website and google will crunch you some key phrases to look at. With the keywords comes a wealth of information for the savvy marketing person to use. In the default view you get a list of other related Keywords, the amount of Adwords Competition, Average CPC cost of a click, and the total volume of local and global monthly searches as well as the search trend for that keyword.
Why Is this Information Useful?
Related Keywords – Most small websites do not make their money off of just one keyword. Usually you have atleast a half a dozen. For a shopping portal thousands is more common. When you are figuring out what keywords you are going to use you are looking for a cluster of atleast a dozen keywords that will drive traffic to your website to find the same product. Some keywords will be obvious to you and others will not. This tool gives you ideas for your research.
Adwords Competition – A keyword with high competition means that many people think it is work advertising against it. It is a sure sign of a buying keyword.
Average CPC – Much like Adwords Competition, a high Average CPC is a good indication of a buying keyword or of a keyword for a very profitable niche. Marketers are always looking for a keword that has Average CPC and high search volume.
Global Monthly Searches – This is the average monthly search volume over the past 12 months.
Local Monthly Searches – This is the search volume statistics for the most recent month.
Local Search Trends – This is a chart showing how the search volume fluctuates over a month.
The nice thing about the Google Keyword Tool is all the information you need to make an informed decision about advertising is present at a very basic level for a new online business. Do other tools provide more useful information? Sometimes. But if you are looking to take action on a new website, this is the place to start. By looking for the right set of circumstances, something we go into in our keyword training courses, you will have a very profitable set of keywords from this tool in a very short period of time.
Tool #2 – Market Samurai -
This tool comes in a free trial as well as a registered (paid version). The feature set for keyword research is the same for both versions.
Like many of the paid internet marketing tools Market Samurai has a strong portfolio of features related to keyword research. From Adwords specific metrics to Comercial Viability as well as Competition Analysis, it is all present. You can choose from Broad, Phrase and Exact Match just like the Google tool. It will also provide you related phrases just like the Google tool as well as commercial competitiveness and search volume. Where it excels is allowing you to mix and match the metrics you want to see which makes keyword research easier to do for a marketing specialists. There is no need to run the query with all features enabled for initial keyword research. Once you have your prospects list then you can turn on the full features against them if you prefer for a more in depth analysis.
Features Google Keyword Tool Does Not Have You Should Want
SEOC - This is the amount of competitive pages in google search for that term. A key decision point for marketing.
SEOTC – The amount of competitive title pages in google search for that term which usually indicates some level of SEO being performed for that term.
There are many more features that are used in advanced internet marketing analysis in Market Samurai which are covered more extensively in our keyword training coursework.
Keyword Research Tools – Conclusions
There are many tools available on the internet in a variety of prices and feature sets. We strongly suggest that you sample as many as possible until you find a set that you like which fits the way you work. There is significant development effort going into these tools and the work is accellerating. Get on some marketing mailing lists and try the tools out.
Internet Marketing – What Is A Buying Key Phrase?
Not all search terms are equal for generating revenue for an online business. Some terms are for people researching how to do things at home while others represent information searchs for details on a particular product the searcher already owns. What we need to find are keywords that represent searches to BUY a product in sufficient volume to market a business arond them. Also some keywords may represent buyers intent but are so competitive that it may not be worth your time, resources, and budget to pursue them. So the things that we need to consider when researching a keyword are:
1. Search Volume
2. Buyers Intent behind that keyword.
3. Search Term Competitiveness.
4. Your Marketing Time, Resources, and Money.
Our next article in our series will cover determining what is and is not a buying key phrase for your online business.
