SEO is a word that is constantly buzzing around online, especially in the marketing arena. SEO, also known as Search Engine Optimization, is looked upon as an important element in improving your website rankings on search engines, obtaining the maximum visibility and thereby the most traffic onto your website as well. It is a very integral step in every online marketing strategy and is applicable across industries and disciplines.
What Is Keyword Research and SEO?
There are three main components to SEO namely, Keyword research, content marketing and link building. Among these three the keyword research forms the initial and the most crucial step for a successful SEO strategy. One can say that the amount of traffic that you get on your website is directly linked to the kind of keywords you have used in the site.
Keyword in simple terms refers to the word or the term your customers use to search for your product or service on the internet search engines like Google. These keywords form a part of the criteria taken into account by search engines while displaying results on any search, as it provides relevance to it.
Keyword research helps you in identifying these keywords that can make your website a potential candidate for search engine rankings. Here the keywords are the search terms that are most popular among your consumers and using them in your website and content will ensure your website a better ranking on search results.
While keyword research is generally carried out at the beginning of a marketing or SEO campaign, it is a continuous process where you have to keep verifying the latest trends in search terms, to keep yourself updated on the market behavior.
Why is Keyword Research So Important for SEO?
Benefits of keyword research are below.
- You understand what really brings in customers to your website, the search terms that are used in relevance to your product or service, helping you to create content that is more engaging and more useful.
- With relevant information using the right keywords, you have the potential to convert simple user traffic to a long lasting customer base. It is not only essential to have the right answer but equally important to provide answers to the right questions. Keyword research will help you understand what information your customers are seeking right now.
- With keyword research, you can analyze customer behavior and the evolving market trends. You will be constantly updated on the buyer behavior, and can modify your product description and other content based on the same.
And of course, the keyword research end benefit will get you in the top ten of the search engine results if you handle it effectively.
Keyword Research and Affiliate Marketing
When you are an affiliate marketer, your revenue from affiliate marketing depends on the number of visitors on your website and the amount which clicks on the links in your site. In order to increase the number of visitors, you have to make your website more prominent and visible in the online community.
While selecting a niche, you would have done a thorough search for its demand online and made a choice for the best niche considering your preferences. However, if you do not have anyone to buy the product from your page, then you are losing out on your revenue. By using the right keywords, you can have your website ranked on the top in search engine results which will, in turn, guarantee a better income.
SEO is a must do for every affiliate marketer regardless of affiliate marketing programs they are associated with and without keyword research successful SEO is near to impossible task.
Tools for Keyword Research in Affiliate Marketing
It is not simple to perform keyword research, and it could consume quite a lot of time and effort as well. Many different tools in the market can help you in finding the right keywords for your business or your niche website for affiliate marketing.
Before we look at the various tools available for keyword research, we need first to know that the keyword research can be tackled either the conventional or the competitive way.
- Conventional method involves using target keywords, reviewing it for effectiveness using keyword research tools, choosing them based on keyword difficulty, analyzing competition based on the keywords and so on.
- The competitive way, on the other hand, involves researching the keywords used by the competition and uses the competitive websites on the keyword research tool to find the metrics that will help you get the best list of keywords to use.
Despite the method you want to follow, keyword research is imminent in SEO for affiliate marketing, and you need tools to do it well.
Here we will take a look at some of the tools available for keyword research, both paid and free tools, that you can make use of.
Free Keyword Research Tools for SEO
It is important for the keywords to bear the right intentions when you want to be successful. For instance, when you want to buy a fitness gadget, you will search using terms like “best fitness gadget” or “reviews for fitness gadget”, etc. You can also use the term “fitness gadgets” to search, but you will find information on fitness gadgets in general rather than seeing the reviews or brand comparisons.
Your intent is revealed through the search term used and so is every customer. That is why you need to look for keywords that will help match the intent of the buyer.
When it comes to searching for keywords related to your field, you will find a whole gamut of tools online. It is true that some of them might give you limited data for free trials and offer you more premium service at a fee. Here we will look at a few free tools you can use for keyword research to help with your affiliate marketing.
Google Trends
If you are an affiliate marketer, then this tool is definitely a boon in disguise for you. You can make real-time campaigns, generate traffic with the hottest latest topics, analyzing trends, knowing the latest status of trends and much more. It gives more than five years of data for every keyword that you want to use and also lets you know its current relevance in the market. If you are looking to trending products and hot niche, then this is the best tool you can use.
Soovle
Ranked on the top for free keyword research tools, it helps to provide comprehensive and relevant results to your search. You can simply key in the word you want to use, and it will prompt you with relevant keywords including long tail keywords. It also has options to save your suggestions which can be used for gauging the current trends. It provides results from different search engines including eCommerce sites like Amazon.
LSI Graphs
If you want to search for keywords that are linked semantically, then this could be your ideal tool for keyword research. With years, the logic of ranking has been changing in Google and it has been including semantic keywords while gauging favorable results for the customers. So you have to include semantically linked keywords in order to be part of the Google ranking criteria. Additionally, studies show that LSI keywords have more influence in improving rankings through organic traffic.
Keywords Everywhere
This is a tool that you can use both on Chrome and Firefox and is free to install and use. The tool helps you find information that includes, cost per click, search volume for keywords, data from the competition through other websites, etc. It is an extension to your Google Chrome browser providing you search metrics on every keyword that you want to use.
UberSuggest
Another free keyword tool, this provides you insights into the different strategies used by your competition and others, which can be used by you to improve your current campaign. It offers long tail keywords to head terms, along with volume, competition and the trends in every season for the keywords you are looking for. Furthermore, it also gives you content ideas, data on backlinks and much more, making it a one-stop destination, definitely for beginners in affiliate marketing.
Adwords Keyword Planner
If you are just looking to get a look at the bid on each of the keywords, then you could use this free tool. It will give you information on the keywords that are more used, more bid upon, the current value and the latest trends, etc.
SERP Robot
You might have a list of keywords, and you might want to check on how they are ranked on your website. If that is your requirement, then this free tool is just for you. You can simply key in the domain name and the keywords (up to 5 at a time), and you will be presented with a list showing their ranks (in the top 100) and the pages where they are featured on your website.
Google Suggest
This is nothing but the Google that we use every day where we key in the search term that we want to look for. As you start typing, you will see Google suggesting varying topics or keywords in relation to the search terms. This is based on the different searches done by visitors to Google and gives you an insight into what others are also searching for, concerning your topic. In a way, you can say, Soovle is trying to present the data like that of Google Suggest and Google trends in a single picture.
And, there may be many other tools available online for free which you can use to start on your keyword research. The above are the most popular and reliable free ones though.
Paid Tools for Keyword Research
There are also tools which offer you premium services for a fee. These tools provide you with features that you cannot get on free tools and are much more effective in terms of results providing valuable input to improve your marketing strategy.
If you are looking for more organic traffic and better rankings, then premium tools are definitely your best bet. Here are some tools which offer you keyword research and other features at a specific rate.
Moz
When we speak of keyword research, the discussion will definitely involve a mention of Moz, an expert keyword explorer. The interface is quite easy to read for anyone and hence is loved by both amateurs and professionals. There are visual representations for numerical values on search volume for keywords, ranking opportunity, keyword difficulty and keyword priority, which makes it an easy to understand tool for all. Additionally, you get suggestions on keywords, a detailed SERP analysis, etc.
There is a 30-day trial period with two queries per day for free. Their basic package costs between $99 and $249 per month.
SEMRush
This tool allows you to perform the usual keyword research like any other tool but what distinguishes is the fact that it also helps in tracking the keywords in your competitor websites and its ranking. You can, therefore, find the keywords that are making it big for your competitors and which makes it a weapon that you would be happy to have.
It comes with a 14-day free trial and is offered for about $99 per month.
Ahrefs keywords explorer
In terms of localization and offering diverse search results, Ahrefs is definitely on the top for keyword research. There are keywords for nearly 200+ countries, and you can choose based on the algorithm you are comfortable with. You can search as is your main keyword or use phrases that have the main keyword or use the Google auto-suggestions for your keyword or phrases that were matched with your keyword recently, etc. Each of the algorithms will have thousands of suggestions for you to look into. The search volume is accurate, and it offers humungous suggestions.
The price ranges from $99 to $399 depending on the plan that you opt in for.
Longtail pro
Even the keywords that the Google Keyword Planner can miss out on, get captured by Long Tail Pro, which is a huge achievement in itself. You would need a Google Adwords account as it will access the same to get the best possible keywords for you. For every seed keywords, you will definitely get about 800 keywords with details on their PPC, competitiveness, search volume, and the top pages ranking on Google for the keywords as well.
There is a trial period for one week post which the cost will be around $25-$45 depending on the package you choose.
Serpstat
Serpstat is a combination of 6 different tools, which also includes keyword research. For every keyword you type, you are provided with nearly 500 phrases with the keywords you have given. There is also information on keyword difficulty, PPC competition, search volume and CPC. There are filters to help you find the information you need in no time and with accuracy. It also offers missing keywords and grouping keywords to make the most out of your search.
With 30 searches offered as a free trial with limited features, the paid versions are available to you at $19 to $299 per month.
KW finder
It is quite similar to Google Adwords in terms of functionality and features. While the results are not as precise as the other tools explained above, if you take the time to put in the required effort, you can get the desired result on KW finder as well. There are suggestions on keywords along with difficulty, CPC and other metrics provided to you. It helps in finding long tail keywords and you can search in 40 different languages.
And there are many other tools in the category which provide you with immense and in-depth analysis on keywords for your business and niche, with details to help you move forward. There are trial versions in almost every premium tool post which you can decide if you want to continue using it or not.
Looking at the opportunity to generate massive profit from affiliate marketing, paying a monthly premium for a premium product will not affect your balance sheet much.
However, if you are just starting as a beginner in affiliate marketing, then it would be wiser to focus on the free tools rather than spending money on premium ones. It all depends on how aggressively you want to achieve your success and you have enough knowledge base to do so. In other words, it is a waste of money to spend of subscriptions without knowing how to use it at its full potential.
Conclusion
When we speak of affiliate marketing, we cannot avoid SEO or keyword research. In fact, the very first step in affiliate marketing, where you search for your niche starts with combing through multitudes of websites searching for the most popular one. If you are looking for organic traffic and climbing up the ladder of search engine ranks, then you need long tail keywords to help you in the endeavour. The keyword research tools help you find the latest trends in the market, across multiple forums, provide you with information on your competition and more.
Keyword research is an unavoidable and highly important step if you want to succeed in affiliate marketing.
References:
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-do-keyword-research-ht
https://www.conductor.com/learning-center/keyword-research/
https://yoast.com/keyword-research/
https://www.affilorama.com/market-research/doing-keyword-research
https://www.semrush.com/blog/5-best-keyword-research-tools-for-startups/
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