Start with seed keywords

I’m sure there’s no need to waste time persuading you that keyword research is one of the highest return SEO activities that is essential for your marketing success.

There’s also no shortage of great articles that give you very detailed instructions as to executing a professional keyword research, ranking high for thousands of targeted search terms and vastly improving your traffic from Google.

But here’s an interesting observation: each of these guides will give you a somewhat different set of instructions.

Not that any of them is advising you wrong, it’s just there’s no universal approach to executing keyword research.

It will vary based on:

• Your website (authority, number of pages, quality of content, etc);
• Your goals and objectives (branding, exposure, traffic, leads, sales);
• Your budget, resources and deadlines;
• Your industry and competitive landscape.

This is why you might find it hard to relate to a random step-by-step guide that you stumble upon.

So I’m going to take a different route and give you a keyword research framework that can be easily adjusted to whatever your goals and resources are.

And I guarantee that the tactics and methods described below will vastly improve your traffic from Google.

At least we’ve grown search traffic to this very blog by 2.4x in one year by doing it:

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1. Start with seed keywords

Seed keywords are the foundation of your keyword research. They define your niche and help you identify your competitors.

If you already have a product or business that you want to promote online, coming up with seed keywords is as easy as describing that product with your own words or brainstorming how other people might search for it.

For example, let’s say you’re launching an online store with GoPro accessories. The Google searches (keywords) that you would first think of are:

• GoPro accessories;
• gadgets for GoPro;
• GoPro add-ons.

That’s a no-brainer, right?

But what if you’re looking to start an affiliate marketing website, and you have no idea which niche to pick or which products to promote?

The challenge of “picking a niche” deserves a big and detailed guide of its own. But generally, there are two ways to approach this:

1. “Monetisation first” approach

Start from exploring available monetisation methods. Pick a product or an offer that you like. And then think of search queries that people might be using to find it in Google.

For example, Amazon has an extremely popular affiliate program. So all you need to do is browse their website until you discover a product (or a category of products) that you’re willing to promote.

Another option is to scout affiliate marketplace sites like ClickBank or CJ, that connect product owners with affiliates.