Virtually every niche website available today started with a single keyword. Whether or not keyword research was the first thing done when choosing a site, finding the “winning” keyword was usually the green light needed to get started.
But is a keyword really enough to decide to create a site? Can you choose a niche based solely on a single search metric?
And more importantly, when you find an interesting keyword, how do you turn it into a niche website that will one day make you money?
This is actually something that many people struggle with. Most of the failed sites I started as a beginner were due to poor keyword research, but there were also a few sites I messed up after finding a good keyword.
I’ve seen many sites started by others that have had the same problems, so today’s article is going to cover some of the things you can do differently, or if you’ve never started a site before, some of the things you should consider when planning your very first one.
First things first – What type of keyword is ideal?
As I will show you later, no keyword is ideal. You really want a whole group of keywords. However, to find the group, you must first find a keyword.
This keyword could theoretically fall into different categories, but I’ll show you the type of keyword I usually start with when searching on Amazon or another niche site.
A good keyword should:
- Be a shopping keyword
- Be popular
- Be classifiable
Be careful, I recommend KW Search as an easy-to-use keyword research tool.
Buy keywords
These do not necessarily have to contain the word “Buy”. A shopping keyword is simply something someone types into Google if they might want to buy something.
Compare “running shoes,” which can be about anything, with “best running shoes” and you’ll see that the latter has much more purchase intent.
Popularity
I like to start with a keyword that has had over 1,000 searches because this usually suggests that there will be plenty of other keywords and interest in the niche. However, you can just as easily start with a keyword that has 500 or even 250 searches.
There are too many variables involved to rely solely on search volume. What if the product gives a huge commission? What if there was virtually no competition? What if there are hundreds of different keywords you could rank for on the same site?
It’s always worth exploring further, so don’t just rely on the popularity of a single keyword.
Ranking
It may or may not be a real word, but the reason I choose “ranking” over “low competition” is because it’s easier to measure. I’ve found low-competition keywords in the past that were still difficult to rank for, and vice versa.
A classic example is where a keyword appears to have low competition, but that competition is across all e-commerce sites. You probably won’t get an affiliate site ranked alongside them.
Typically, you want to find a keyword whose top sites are affiliate sites, or even less relevant authority sites.
So when I find a keyword and think, “Okay, this looks like a keyword that Google will rank affiliate sites for,” I don’t immediately reject it based on the strength of the competition.
Further analysis will be necessary later.
Good Keyword Examples
We’ve covered the “best” keywords, and these are ironically, usually the best ones to focus on.
Here are some other good examples, again using the term running shoes:
– Premium running shoes
– Running shoe reviews
– (brand) review (example: Nike air review)
– best (brand) (example: best Nike running shoe)
Depending on the niche, there will also be other variations. These examples are just to get you started. You can read more at good and bad keywords here.
Dig Deeper and Build the Site
Once you’ve found one or two keywords that look promising, it’s time to think about how this could make a good niche site.
This is where people often go wrong. It’s too easy to find a keyword and think “Yes!” » and then move forward with the site, even though it may not have been the best plan.
Typically this is when the keyword is too narrow and you build an entire site around it.
An example might be something like the term: “Best Running Shoes for Plantar Fasciitis.”
This is a decent keyword that deserves further study. The mistake many people make is creating an entire site around running shoes for plantar fasciitis.
You will only have limited success before reaching the cap on this site.
So here’s how to do it:
1.) Do additional research to find similar keywords and expand the site’s reach. In this case, you might find other running shoe keywords, or even other plantar fasciitis keywords.
Perhaps you could create a “shoes for plantar fasciitis” site or a “running shoes for different conditions” site.
The idea is to go broader, but not too broad when you have a bunch of unrelated keywords.
2.) Do this research by putting your keywords into Long-Tail Pro, SEMRush or even ubersuggest.org and seeing what other related keywords appear. Then analyze these keywords for their merits and strengths.
3.) Search for available products and search for keywords that relate to them, such as “reviews.” This gives you the ability to link to 5-10 products from one “best of” article.
4.) You can also find more informative keywords. You don’t have to have EVERY keyword on the site as your shopping keyword. If you could find things like “How to run with plantar fasciitis,” that would greatly complement your other keyword.
This is what the site could look like:
Plantar fasciitis angle:
– Best running shoes for plantar fasciitis
– Best Hiking Shoes for Plantar Fasciitis
– Best shoes for plantar fasciitis
– How to run a marathon with plantar fasciitis
– Review of shoes for plantar fasciitis
Running Shoe Disease Angle:
– Best running shoes for plantar fasciitis
– Best running shoes for flat feet
– Best running shoes for varicose veins
– Running shoes for verucas
– How to run with sore feet
I haven’t checked the metrics for these keywords, they are here as an example.
Why is it better
Besides the obvious reasons (more keywords = more content, more visitors and more money), there are a few other things to consider:
1.) You hedge your bets.
If you rely too much on one great keyword and never rank for it, what happens next? I have some sites where my favorite keyword just doesn’t make it past page 2, but the niche is wide enough that I still get thousands of visitors and make a lot of money from that site.
2.) The old EMD strategy is dead.
The idea of finding a keyword and creating a site around it comes from the days when people could buy a domain name that matched the keyword, like bestshoesforplantarfasciitis.com. Google has closed this gap, meaning there is no longer any real advantage to choosing just one keyword.
3.) More content = more ranking.
The more content your site contains, the better Google will view it. So even if you create content for other keywords, your original keyword will rank higher because it’s on a more comprehensive site.
I typically start an 8-10 page site, and once it starts ranking, I build from there.
Final Tip – If you are not sure what content you would have, abandon it
If you’ve followed the steps above and you’re still not sure what content you’d like to create around a keyword, chances are you don’t have enough to complete it.
As mentioned earlier, it’s too easy to rush into niche selection and jump into a site idea just because you found one or two good keywords.
Now you CAN build sites without doing any keyword research, but you should still have plenty of content ideas. Without it, no niche will really be large enough to get the ROI you’re looking for.
While there may be a handful of exceptions where a single keyword makes you a lot of money, experience tells me that it’s best to stay away from single keyword sites.
And as always, if you’d prefer to get our help building a site for you, you can learn more here.
