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Ultimate Guide for finding niches and profitable keywords
From internet marketing forums, blogs, and my contacts on social media one issue has certainly come to light over recent months, marketers of all levels would like some valuable insight on the niche finding process and how to pick profitable keywords in order to bring in the organic traffic they crave. From personal trial and error experience I bring to you the best guide for finding niches and profitable keywords. I have outlined below what you?re going to learn.
- How to find a profitable niche
- The process of finding good keywords
- What tools I use to analyze keywords
- Competition spying and exploitation
How to find the right niche for your website:
Finding a profitable niche does not have to be a daunting task nor do you have to be regulated to saturated niches that will drain your piggy bank before you even turn your first dollar. When I start looking for a new niche the very first thing I do is put myself in the shoes of the searcher. Ask yourself first what would be interesting and/or useful for the visitor. Below I have outlined the key points of finding a good niche.
- Unless you have a writing team on standby you should always pick a niche you feel comfortable writing about. One of the first authority sites I ever built was based upon a family business I grew up with. If you?re going to own an authority site then the person writing the content has to be an authority on the subject you are talking about.
- Let me fill you in on a trade secret, whenever you feel a mind block when thinking of niches go to Flippa and search around for profitable websites. Scan through and look for niches you are comfortable writing about. Later I will show you how you can check the competition.
- If you?re thinking about offering a tangible or intangible affiliate product then I would highly recommend that you start off by looking at what products are available.
The process of finding profitable keywords:
This is by far one of the most confusing parts of making money online and ranking a website for newcomers and even some veterans. You even have people paying others just to tell them a keyword is good or to do the process I am about to show you below. I am going to reveal the exact process I follow for finding great keywords in just about any niche you choose. I have outlined the steps below.
Keyword Brainstorming:
Again think like the searcher when you?re brainstorming for a list of keywords. If your product for example is about ?carbon fiber flashlights? then look for keywords that relate to people?s desire for that product like strong flashlights, indestructible flashlights, and industrial grade flashlights. By doing this you?re talking in the average searchers tongue.
Learning the Metrics:
For the sake of this tutorial and the fact it?s free I will be utilizing the Google Keyword Planner. There?s really more than one way to pay attention to keyword metrics depending upon how you plan to monetize your website. If you?re going to use AdSense then a high CPC metric is important. It only makes sense that you want the most money per click, however if you?re just monetizing with a product or affiliate link then just pay attention to search volume and competition level. Keep these points below in mind when searching for valuable keywords.
- I can?t stress enough how important it is to think like the person searching. Don?t optimize and find keywords for search preferences, instead focus on what the consumers want. After all those search terms will most likely be better for your ROI anyway.
- Stay away from seasonal keywords. You want that search volume to be consistent and seasonal keywords bring in a big spike of traffic that quickly goes away. Making money on seasonal items is a whole different approach that I might outline in another guide for you.
It never hurts to take a second look to see what?s really out there. After all each niche/keyword slightly changed can have a different CPC or monthly search volume. This step is easy and all you have to do is take your keywords that you have compiled together and click on over to Ubersuggest which is a free online tool that suggest you keyword ideas.
After you have your broad keyword terms go to DMOZ and type in your broad keywords. This free search will display a list of websites reflecting those keywords thus finding niches within niches. It?s another method I use for finding Micro Niches within larger, more costly niches. So if a niche seems saturated or full of tough competitors then refine it down to a micro niche within a niche.
To do a simple check of keyword and niche competition just go over to Google and use a custom search modifier (?Keyword?) and place your keyword within the brackets then search. Pay attention to the first page of Google and look at the websites you will be competing against. It?s important that the sites are:
- Not more than 2-3 years old in age.
- The less you see that exact keyword in their site title, Meta description, or URL the better.
- Use Ahrefs browser tool bar to get backlink numbers. It does cost money if you want a full analysis but I think it?s an awesome toolbar. If you want a free toolbar then SEOQuake will do.
Long tail Keywords:
The whole point of utilizing long tail keywords is the fact that it brings in targeted leads even more so than standard high search volume keywords. Usually in order to create a long tail keyword we would add a modifying word to the beginning or end of the original keyword. For example if my niche and keyword was ?make money online? I could simply add ?How to? and target people wanting to learn how to make money online. Google can instantly help you out with long tail keywords?.
Its important to realize that long tail keywords make up 70% of Googles searches by users while plain keywords only hold 30% of the search volume. Utilizing long tail keywords is a must and I do it for just about every project.
(Not my picture but it explains search volume by keyword type well)
Profitable Niche/Keyword Checklist
- My Keyword has a CPC over $1 (Not important for some monetizing methods)
- The niche and keywords I have selected are not seasonal.
- By searching for keywords within keywords I have found the highest volume searches with the lowest amount of competition.
- I have compiled a list of long tail keywords to include within my content.
Spying on Competition:
Now it?s time to put on our spy gear and take a look at what our competition is doing exactly. After all if we are going to beat our competition we need to know something about them first. For spying on competing websites I am a big fan of SEMrush. Partly this is due to the fact that they have great keyword and backlink analysis with an awesome user interface. Best part is you can get a lot of data from them for free without signing up for one of their monthly packages.
However if you need a full list of backlinks for free without all of the flash I have come to know and love, then check out Online Link Profiler. This is an amazing free tool that will give you a lot of the same features of SEMrush without the hefty price tag. So remember all of those sites you checked the competition on through the use of Google Search? Well take the top 10 sites and enter them one by one in SEMrush or Online Link Profiler to discover where their backlinks are coming from. You can search via keyword to and find more possible competitors than your original list.
Another great benefit to this system is you can get an idea of where you can gain high quality backlinks just like your competition did. This reverse engineering strategy will show you where to post your content or insert backlinks for your new site. I always analyze my competitor?s websites before I jump into a niche!
In Conclusion:
One thing that I want to tell you before closing is that in all reality every niche can be a profitable niche if the demand is there. People tend to wright off competitive niches and while that?s smart if your budget is low it?s not always a good idea. Sometimes the most profitable niches are in-fact popular niches which means you will have a lot of competition.
For people just starting out I would recommend finding those micro niches within niches like I taught you how to do above, but if you have been in this business for a while take the challenge of ranking a site in a competitive niche, you may just reap the rewards of a popular niche!
