There's a 89% chance you're doing this wrong

November 14, 2023

Wassup?

If I had to say that I had one superpower (besides time travel), it would have to be keyword research.

The truth is that the majority of people suck at doing it correctly. I have audited hundreds of sites and consistently, poor keyword research is the culprit for (or no) growth.

If you want to get better at keyword research, listen up.

Pull from multiple sources

The main problem that I see is that most inexperienced bloggers depend on one tool for ALL their keyword research.

NEWSFLASH… keyword tools are often wrong and WAY off.

you doing it wrong

So, to mitigate that disaster waiting to happen, you need to get keywords from more places. I’ll get more into what places to look at later in this post (but you can check out my favorite SEO tools here).

But keep in mind that you need to start making a list.

I start with a simple Google Sheets document. It’s easy and free. I will even break out Apple Notes. Also, easy and free (catching a theme here?)

Collect keywords in a few categories:

  • Money keywords

  • Links keywords

  • Traffic keywords

Money Keywords

Money keywords are just what they suggest, keywords that will make you money.

This includes:

  • Round-Up List posts (Best X for Y)

  • Reviews (X Review)

  • Cost (how much does X cost)

Once you have a decent size list (20 to 30), then it’s time to write. Since these keywords will make you the most money on your site, they should be prioritized FIRST.

This also makes it easier when you are creating other supporting content to internally link to these important pages.

Links Keywords

Now, I know that “links keywords” are grammatically incorrect, but there is a reason for that. These types of keywords’ entire existence is to attract backlinks.

These can be very simple question articles that rank #1 for some low-competition keywords. But it can also be keywords that are popular in your industry.

Get one of the biggest players in your niche and use a tool like Ahrefs or Ubersuggest to see what articles have the most links on their websites.

Using an Ahrefs report like the “best by links” report, you will see the topics that are popular in your niche and will make it easier when you pitch for guest posting.

Remember, the goal of these articles is NOT to rank. But the work you put into them will work out in the long run when you have awesome content that other tangential niche websites would be GLAD to link to you.

Traffic Keywords

The last type are traffic keywords. These keywords are there just to nab traffic.

This will include a lot of strictly informational and more “top of funnel” or TOFU (thanks @mattdiggityseo) keywords.

Think of words that begin with “should, can, how, why, could”

A ninja trick for this is to simply go to Google, type in your primary keyword, and type the aforementioned words BEFORE the word. This will allow Google’s auto-suggest to do its job and give you the most popular search terms in your niche.

But there is something to be careful of…

Determine your business reason

This is another trap that newer SEOs fall for…

Going after keywords simply because it will increase ‘traffic’.

People love to share their graphs on Twitter/X (by the way, do you follow me on X?) of their sites steadily increasing in traffic, and it’s a great dopamine hit…

But is revenue increasing as well? In a lot of instances, it’s not.

Traffic is meaningless if it cannot generate significant revenue.

I once chatted with Jason Mills from the Affiliate School YouTube channel and he was telling me how he was making $6,000 on a site that had less than 10,000 monthly page views.

So, I caution you. Do not just go after keywords because there is “traffic” associated with it.

Determine the business reason that content exists. Will it lead someone to a sale of your products or affiliate offers? If not, you probably shouldn’t be writing it.

This will also prevent you from having to write thousands of articles. With a sound strategy, you should be able to make significant revenue with less than 50 or so articles.

Tools I use

So, what tools do I use? Other than this vast list here…

My main weapons of choice are:

Those are free and paid options. Google is free, Ahrefs is stupidly expensive, and LowFruits hits that spot right in the middle.

Next steps…

Let me know how you are making out with your business. Were you doing keyword research wrong?

Or would you like me to take a look at your site? Just hit reply and let me know!

Chat soon,

Chris Myles

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