Researching the Competition
Once you’ve gathered your list of keywords it’s time to look at the competition that is out there.
Don’t skip this
The competing sites for a particular keyword will determine how likely it is that you’ll be able to rank well and, subsequently, make money from your website. Do not skip this step!
Right now your keywords are ranked based on their searches. You need to find a main keyword that will serve as your “base” word. This keyword will be used for your URL as well as the main thrust of your marketing.
You may need to go low
Although it may seem like the keyword with the most searches per month would be a natural fit for this, this isn’t always the case. You may need to find a lower competition keyword so you can get your site ranked.
Armed with your list of 50 keywords, head to Google and begin typing in the phrases with quotes in order to see the competing results. The reason that you do it with quotes is because you want to make sure that you are looking at the sites that have been optimized for that particular phrase. This is your true competition.
For example, our keyword phrase with the most searches is “diy solar panels”. But that phrase has over a million competing pages!
There’s no way you’ll break into that top tier unless you spend years and years optimizing your pages. Although it will be helpful to have a post using the phrase “diy solar panels” on your site, you’ll need to find a different phrase as your base phrase.
It’s a numbers game
Poking around a bit, the phrase “how to make your own solar panels” looks like a good option. It has 14 searches per day according to the Google estimate and it has 11,000 competing pages. This is a good keyword term to use as the basis for our example affiliate site.
How many competing pages should there be? Generally speaking, anything around 10,000 is a great find. It is reasonable, however, to expect to break into a market that has 25,000 competing pages.
Obviously if you find terms with less than a few hundred competing pages you may have hit on a gold mine. I say may because competition is actually a good thing. Since people have been affiliate marketing for over a decade now, if there isn’t some competition for a phrase there’s probably a reason that is so.
Write down 20 to 30 terms
Write down the competing pages for all of you terms and throw out the terms that have too much competition. You should develop a list of 20 to 30 terms that have at least 500 searches per month and no more than 25,000 competing pages.
Divide the number of competing pages by the number of keyword searches to create a keyword index. Use this number to rank your keywords in the order that you will use them.
Researching the Competition
Once you’ve gathered your list of keywords it’s time to look at the competition that is out there.
Don’t skip this
The competing sites for a particular keyword will determine how likely it is that you’ll be able to rank well and, subsequently, make money from your website. Do not skip this step!
Right now your keywords are ranked based on their searches. You need to find a main keyword that will serve as your “base” word. This keyword will be used for your URL as well as the main thrust of your marketing.
You may need to go low
Although it may seem like the keyword with the most searches per month would be a natural fit for this, this isn’t always the case. You may need to find a lower competition keyword so you can get your site ranked.
Armed with your list of 50 keywords, head to Google and begin typing in the phrases with quotes in order to see the competing results. The reason that you do it with quotes is because you want to make sure that you are looking at the sites that have been optimized for that particular phrase. This is your true competition.
For example, our keyword phrase with the most searches is “diy solar panels”. But that phrase has over a million competing pages!
There’s no way you’ll break into that top tier unless you spend years and years optimizing your pages. Although it will be helpful to have a post using the phrase “diy solar panels” on your site, you’ll need to find a different phrase as your base phrase.
It’s a numbers game
Poking around a bit, the phrase “how to make your own solar panels” looks like a good option. It has 14 searches per day according to the Google estimate and it has 11,000 competing pages. This is a good keyword term to use as the basis for our example affiliate site.
How many competing pages should there be? Generally speaking, anything around 10,000 is a great find. It is reasonable, however, to expect to break into a market that has 25,000 competing pages.
Obviously if you find terms with less than a few hundred competing pages you may have hit on a gold mine. I say may because competition is actually a good thing. Since people have been affiliate marketing for over a decade now, if there isn’t some competition for a phrase there’s probably a reason that is so.
Write down 20 to 30 terms
Write down the competing pages for all of you terms and throw out the terms that have too much competition. You should develop a list of 20 to 30 terms that have at least 500 searches per month and no more than 25,000 competing pages.
Divide the number of competing pages by the number of keyword searches to create a keyword index. Use this number to rank your keywords in the order that you will use them.
Affliate guide
Articles in this section:
- Finding the niche, products and keywords
- How to do keyword research
- How to research the competition
- Where to find affiliate products