Ultimate Keyword Research (Free guide)

Though I'd share a pretty comprehensive guide to keyword research that a close friend used to build a PR6 Authority site.

I Am now looking to do the same and would appreciate any advice you could give/ ways to make it more efficient and effective.


ULTIMATE KEYWORD RESEARCH


Step 1.

- Brainstorm a basic keyword list via speaking to people who are part of your niche, expand using:
✓ - Research into publications/magazines to find jargon.
✓ - Speak to a few people and find out what their core needs are.
✓ - consider the following subcategories:
✓ - publications
✓ - organization names within that niche
✓ - Competitors names/related terms
✓ - products
✓ - advice/instructional posts/"how to's" variations
✓ - Events/ competitions and non profits
✓ - Disciplines/ styles/ famous teachers and methods within that niche
✓ - miss spellings/typos (wordtracker is useful)
✓ - regional keywords (e.g UK uses 'car hire' Vs US uses 'rental car'
✓ - Longtail / plural / singular / phrases / Split, merged and hyphenated words / Related words/ synonyms

- Find total list of keywords related to niche (using Google Keyword tool cycling/wordtracker/Market samurai). remember to use 'Global search' to get an idea, but use 'local search' to get a more accurate search result.
- Cross reference both lists to Google trends to see which are trending/have highest yearly %increase in searches
-Filter this list through MS/ wordtracker to discover:

= a master list of you niches local and global keywords. Inc their search volume and trending data.



Step 2.

- Sort those keywords by most searches, most competition and natural groupings.
- Give each grouping a relevant name. Place into an excel doc with each micro niches keywords as a column.

= Your niche's micro niches (aka categories for your authority site)



Step 3.

- Expand each micro niche's keyword list via google cycling/ Wordtracker/ MS)
- Filter list for obvious buying terms (based on term and search volume) either , '*' them.
- Compile a list of top ten selling affiliate products in each niche (using top 3 affiliate marketplaces) visit competitor's website and note their: meta tags, # of backlinks, anchor text (use MS to get their backlink anchor text) top ten posts, keyword density of articles, post frequency (averaging a 6 month period), Age of domain and PR.
their back-links/optimized keyword links are all buying terms. add them
- '*' the backlink anchor text and keywords, add keywords to the relevant column in your micro niche's keywords list, they are buying terms for each micro niche.
- Filter all '*' buying terms via MS and WT for relevance, OCI, Competitiveness etc
- Cross reference for trending data from google trends

= FOCUSED buying terms for each micro niche, titles for your first blog posts.



Step 4.

- Google search your niche's top 100 keywords (mix of local and global, one at a time), note the top 20 results. These are your niches competitors.
- Google search your micro-niches top 50 keywords (mix of local and global), note the top 20 results. These are your micro niches competitors.
NB. there will be duplicates listings (this is why we are only doing 50 of the micro niches.)
- Explore competitors page source for: meta tags, # of backlinks, anchor text (use MS to get their backlink anchor text) top ten posts, keyword density of articles, post frequency (averaging a 6 month period), Age of domain and PR.

= your Authority site's top 20 competitors & top 20 competitors in each category.



Step 5.
- Input a competitors' domain into the Google Keyword Tool = Listing of the keywords they use on their site. Note the groupings and the top 100 keywords.
- Repeat with each competitor in turn.
- Save keyword results to separate excel spread sheet.
- add/cross reference to your master list/micro niches/products '*' any matches.

= a supplemental keyword list for your competitors terms that directly relate to your micro niches. these can be used this to increase your micro niche keyword research list, repeat step 3 for these new keywords if needed.


RESULTS.
incredibly detailed and total keyword research for your niche. consisting of:

1. Master list of keywords for your niche with trending info, search volume, competitiveness and sub groupings.
2. Complete competitive analysis
3. List of buying terms sorted by category for your niche/micro niches
4. List of the top selling products in your micro niche, as well as, each micro niche.


These results can be further filtered and cross referenced to create a mammoth excel spreadsheet with:


1. Master list of all keywords (With searches + trending info) Filtered by:
Niche
- high traffic/Most competitive keywords for each niche
- high traffic/least competitive keywords for each niche
Micro niches (these will form the sites categories)
- high traffic/Most competitive keywords for each micro niche
- high traffic/least competitive keywords for each micro niche
- Trending

2. Master list of micro niches (With trending info)

4.Master List of keywords for my competitors
5. List of competitor's keyword filtered into:
Niche
- high traffic/Most competitive keywords for each niche
- high traffic/least competitive keywords for each niche
Micro niches
- high traffic/Most competitive keywords for each micro niche
- high traffic/least competitive keywords for each micro niche
Trending
- Master list of competitors keywords that are rising Vs Sinking
(Broken down into top niche and micro niches, at least 20 for each site.)


This may seem like a lot of work. but you only have to do it once for your authority site and then you can build and work safe in the knowledge that you have a rock solid foundation. Time taken? 2 weeks, 5 hours a day.


Feedback appreciated

Great guide for beginners. Nice post.

F**k. That's a bit thorough.

RedMango said:

F**k. That's a bit thorough.

Click to expand...

HAHA that's the idea

this is a great guide! is there any way you could provide some images so we can have an idea of how you organize your spreadsheet?

For anyone wanting to build an authority site, this is almost a perfect guide. Only thing I would add is some extensive use of wonder wheel and other tools like that. If there's a way to work content targeting these keywords in without forcing it, it is good for passing relevant juice throughout the site and can serve as bait to get relevant links.

This is also what you need to do for PPC. The name of the game here is grouping, targeting and pricing.

Great info. A lot of either wrong or less than useful stuff gets posted here. This is dead on.

awesome guide for keyword research.. I've been doing something similar and am now coming up with a list instructions for my VA when I saw this..

Great guide my friend, very detailed!