Researched Keywords vs Bought Keywords Debate

[DarianS]

We're talking about beginners here. As I am one myself I was always wondering what I should do.
Imo the keyword you're targeting it's the most important step for you to have a good site. So being a beginner, doing the keyword research yourself might get you into a money-pit-keyword.
Now, for sure researched keywords are better when you have experience and you know how a good keyword should look like, but when you're a beginner you might target a keyword and spend lots of money into it and get nothing out of it, so is it worth going out there and buying keywords?

What's the diff between bought and researched keywords?Are researched keywords always better?

Should a beginner buy keywords or spend lots of money learning how to research and then maybe fail in ranking?

Do experienced players buy keywords?

What's the actual difference between bought and researched? A researched keyword how much better is it? 30% 40%?

Sellers who sell keywords have tons of experience, so I'm thinking that when they found a gold keyword they're just gonna use it for themselves so for that reason many bought keywords are not really that good to begin with, but for sure better than what a beginner would find, right ?

Can you actually get a profit using bought keywords?

If you're outsourcing a lot and everything, do you also outsource the keywords research ? Meaning buying from a seller.

I'm sure there are more questions to be asked, so please chip in with your questions and/or answers.

Thanks!

 

[Holzr]

The secret to SEO and ranking and banking is Keyword research (+ niche research). This is so vital and people often brush aside and overlook. It's the first step of any new project and your choice of keywords determines the success or failure of a project before it's even started.

If you're a beginner then bought keywords are much better than researched ones.

Keyword research is a skill that takes a long time to master. Anyone can learn it but having the experience to know what keywords are good, which ones are false even if they appear good and which ones are not worth your time.

It's also a fluid skill just like SEO, there's constant changes and having an understanding of technical SEO (rankbrain etc.) Can help you immensely. What worked in keyword research years a go doesn't necessarily work now as the way Google displays SERP and interprets search intent is a lot different today.

Imo a beginner should spend his money on buying keywords, writing content themselves (to build up knowledge on the niche, learn about On page SEO and to keep costs low) and purchase links (high quality PBN and guest post now cheap links, if you're after white hat then don't use PBN links).

Keywords are the foundation of any website and buying them will ensure you get a good foundation to build your website on.

A lot of people have the assumption that sellers will keep and rank the gold keywords but that's simply not the case. There are millions of keywords in the universe and plenty of excellent keywords. If I wanted to "steal" the keywords I research for my clients I'd need a huge budget and way more time. It doesn't make sense because there's plenty to go around for everyone. Plenty of unsaturated and low competition keywords. I can't speak for others but I'm busy enough to focus on my own website and client work to start new projects taken from keywords I find for clients. So, you can rest assured that it doesn't make sense for sellers to take your keywords as there's so many good keywords out there.

Yes experienced players buy keywords. Especially if they are limited on time and on have a budget. Affiliate marketing can be passive and hands off so if you have the budget then you could outsource a whole site even if you are experienced in keyword research.

It's impossible to say what % bought keywords are better then researched ones. There's just so many variables.

It's also important to know that you get cheap keyword sellers which might have a database of keywords they just use a keyword difficulty filter for and sell them and then you get the other end of the market where people do custom research for clients and will spend time analysing SERP etc. (this is what I do, analysing competition etc.) rather just selling you keywords that are below a certain score. That's not to say cheap keywords are bad that's just what you'll likely receive.

Yes you can profit from bought keywords. It's not a magic wand though. You still need to put in the hard work but ranking will be easier and quicker which will reduce your cost and you'll likely see $ earlier.

Yes, many people will outsource everything from keyword research, site design, content and backlinks. Time is money. Just like how people hire people or get a cleaner for there house.

Feel free to ask away any questions, I'd be happy to help.

 

[Topiano]

Well, it really depends, Most of IM related tasks ranging from Link Building, Guest Posting, Keyword Research, Content writing and much more can be done by you if willing to.

To me, 3 major factors play a role in outsourcing your keyword research project.

1. Time: If you value your time a lot and wouldn't want to start using hours digging through thousands of keywords to find the golden nuggets. You could save time by putting someone to work.

2. Money: SEO is expensive, that's synonymous to the tools used in making up the research. They ain't cheap. The FREE ones out there are not the best because they don't make things easy for you. People tend to outsource their project because of the monthly cost of putting these tools to work

3. Experience: You can't beat this if you're new to Keyword research thing and SEO generally,

For example :

KWfinder will tell you a KW difficulty is 5, But it's best be 95 when you have to deep dive manually.
Ahrefs would say ONLY 10 links Needed - You might be needing over x3 of links to push that keyword to the desired position.
Same with SEMrush - You just don't want to trust their difficulties metrics.

Apart from difficulties report by these SO expensive tools, There are many other quick checks that an experienced KW research personnel will have a place before making such keyword a nugget.

To save all these hassles, That's why outsourcing seems the best but you feel comfortable and equipped with necessary tools (100%) you should do it yourself.

 

[Holzr]

Well, it really depends, Most of IM related tasks ranging from Link Building, Guest Posting, Keyword Research, Content writing and much more can be done by you if willing to.

To me, 3 major factors play a role in outsourcing your keyword research project.

1. Time: If you value your time a lot and wouldn't want to start using hours digging through thousands of keywords to find the golden nuggets. You could save time by putting someone to work.

2. Money: SEO is expensive, that's synonymous to the tools used in making up the research. They ain't cheap. The FREE ones out there are not the best because they don't make things easy for you. People tend to outsource their project because of the monthly cost of putting these tools to work

3. Experience: You can't beat this if you're new to Keyword research thing and SEO generally,

For example :

KWfinder will tell you a KW difficulty is 5, But it's best be 95 when you have to deep dive manually.
Ahrefs would say ONLY 10 links Needed - You might be needing over x3 of links to push that keyword to the desired position.
Same with SEMrush - You just don't want to trust their difficulties metrics.

Apart from difficulties report by these SO expensive tools, There are many other quick checks that an experienced KW research personnel will have a place before making such keyword a nugget.

To save all these hassles, That's why outsourcing seems the best but you feel comfortable and equipped with necessary tools (100%) you should do it yourself.

Exactly, one of the biggest mistakes beginners make is relying on scores or just looking at backlinks count. If competitors are using PBN links yet the score is 1 on Ahrefs you're screwed if you don't realize/know about PBN links. Also examing the quality of backlinks is important and overlooked.

 

[IG Professor]

I always prefer to do my own research. When I used to purchase keywords I found out that the seller simply put them on SEMrush and export to csv. I can do that too. lol

 

[MisterF]

This is the same as most aspects of IM, if not life.

Ask yourself; How competent are you that you know how to do this correctly?

If you've loads of experience and know how to do this, then you might as well do your own.


Then ask yourself; How much is your time worth?

If you are earning $20 an hour as a developer and you can outsource this job for $20..... Could you find the same results in an hour?

 

[DarianS]

Thanks for your answers, I appreciate it. I now know how to proceed further.