So a lot of people have trouble with finding good markets and keywords they can rank for and this is where SEMrush can definitely help you by stealing some of the big website’s keywords that they are probably not optimized for. Beyond stealing keywords though, I have been using it a lot to give me niche ideas as I describe in the video and first pointed out in my semrush review. At first I mostly only used the free version to spy on other peoples keywords but the paid version at $50 a month has been very helpful in giving me new niche ideas and keywords for my existing websites for the past 3 weeks. Ideally after finding a niche that sparks an interest in you (either because it interests you or because you see some $$ potential in it) you want to start entering keywords related to that niche in the google keyword tool and after you export quite a few keywords that seemed relevant to your niche (for pets as I show in the video, you might want to go for “dogs” “why do dogs eat grass” “what do dogs eat” “why do dogs eat poop”, I would not go for dogs in general but you could maybe do something related to dog food, that would be specific enough if you can find enough keywords. Yes, some of the previously mentioned keywords are under $1 CPC but they have quite a lot of searches so the volume would most likely make up for the lower CPC and also, you probably can have some articles targeting higher CPC dog keywords that will most likely raise up the ad costs of the other articles.
I forgot to mention but the cost % is also affected by the estimated position of the website on google, which is why you can find keywords with more search volume and/or CPC lower in the list, it’s because wisegeek does not rank #1 for them (and so get way less clicks).
The free plugin I use when looking at the PR and yahoo backlinks on Google is called SEOquake, theirs a version for Chrome and Firefox. Yahoo backlinks are not a great measurement of a website’s backlinks these days (not as accurate as it once was) but it works great for a quick check which is the goal here.
Here is a short list of example websites you can probably find good keywords for:
http://goarticles.com/
http://ezinearticles.com/
http://hubpages.com/
http://www.squidoo.com/
http://www.ehow.com/
And I still love using it to see what the other internet marketer websites are ranking for, a lot of time you can rank for those keywords too and you might not have seen them when doing a Google keyword tool search.
As a sidenote, for those who have the keyword tool dominator ($30 or 7 day trial) I have been using it again recently to basically put niche ideas into it and to later export into niche refinery to see if they have any potential. Basically let’s say SEmrush gave me the idea of the “dog food” niche. I would make KTD search Google for dog food & why do dogs eat grass. Then, of the results I would make it search again all the keywords that have more than 2-3k searches per month to hopefully find more keywords. This can easily be done without the tool, the only disadvantage is that it would take more time and it’s a bit annoying but it might be worth giving the tool a trial and see if it’s worth it to you. If you don’t use it, it’s as simple as sorting in excel all the keywords from the first research that have more than 2k search/month and then put a few of them at a time into the Google keyword tool and export the results to later upload them all to niche refinery.
If you have any feedback or suggestions on other videos you would like to see let me know in the comments! 🙂
cool. is the free version still useful or not? also is this a tool worth getting early, or later once youve started really getting into SEO?
also, whats the tool your using on google to check page rank, backlinks and stuff?
it looks like your basically cross referencing keywords with SEMrush, niche refinery and Google to pick the best ones, almost like gathering multiple opinions.
Yes the free version is used to spy on other people sites competing directly with me. They usually are ranking for less than 20 keywords so the free version helps me with that which is what I was using SEMrush for a long time. But to check the keywords of major article websites you need the paid version since the top 10 does not show much when they have thousands of keywords… It’s only worth getting if you do not currently have websites you are working on or want to create a few new ones and need inspiration.
The tool is the seoquake plugin.
And ya, seorush is to give keyword ideas that are probably easy to rank for. It also helps making you come up with niche ideas. When I found a keyword I like (from a competitors website or big article directories) I then go to google to make sure the search volumes are ok and that the competition is easy/medium. If I have a niche idea that I might want to do a website about, I use niche refinery to help me find the keywords with the most search volume and lowest competition in that new niche to see if I should create a website on it.
How are you able to see the number of backlinks a website has on the google search??
I mention it in the middle of post, it’s the SEOquake plugin for firefox/chrome.
oh sorry i didnt read it. but holy shit that tool helps so much. is the number of links pretty accurate from your experience?
Not really, consider it an estimate. If you see “10” backlinks to that page then it means it is not heavily backlink’d (but the real number could be 100, which is still not that much). If you see 500+, the real number is probably in the thousands. The way I would use the plugin in the context of finding good keywords to rank for would be if you see an article directory (meaning anything from wisegeek to ezinearticles) ranking for a keyword and you check the number of backlinks and it’s very low, under 20 or so, that means it’s barely backlink’d to and you probably can beat it easily (easy =/ quickly.. it means without having to put too much time doing backlinks to that keyword).
I notice you’ve designed this site with Woo Themes, did you use one of the standard packages or get a club subscription. If I want to optimize my site for maximum click-thru rate, what kind of theme should i be using?
I know you recommended artisteer is there any specifc design tips you have?
I think this theme was part of a package of 3 or something. On most of my websites I only put 1 sidebar to the right. Theirs a couple of websites that I do one sidebar to the left and right but that’s about it as far as “design”. I just try to make it as nice looking as possible, artisteer themes just have great CTR because they do not look super flashy omg sexy but are a perfect blend of good looking while making your ads stand out (unless you use really weird colors I guess).
So the main factor that google ranks keywords to the number one postion is how many backlinks it has? or inbound links? or both?
hmm backlinks to a page and inbound links a page has should be two words to say the same thing. Anyway, ya it’s one of the main factors but on page SEO is important but it’s pretty easy to do (mention your keyword in the title, a few times in the post, maybe a picture with the keyword in the alt tag and that’s pretty much it).
One question i have about themes is that the google adsense/YPN plugin doesnt offer a lot of concisous choice about where to put the adsense ads. If you look at some affiliate sites you see these great adsense ads that are right below the header in a single line as well as midway down the page and in specific areas. Are there any plugins that give you more control over where your ads appear?
I do it all manually, though I have been tinkering with wp insert to automatically had an adsense ad on the top left of my article which I always use but for the othe rad slots I might want to use I do it manually still.
how do you do it manually, or does google explain that?
It’s a piece of code you insert in the html section of wordpress, Google helps you setup ads, choose the settings that fingerman shares in this post to start with.
what is your opinion on recipe niches?
I never tried them so I do not know. I know some people make good money off them but you might want to go beyond adsense for monetization. Build an email list, sell products etc.
Hey, bro. Do you have a email list?
I had previously added feedburner to my RSS to help those that wanted to subscribe but your comment made me remember that I can also let people subscribe by email to the blog so I added that option on the right sidebar. Thanks for the suggestion 🙂
I am following TKA’s 2.0 guide, and I am having trouble finding a good niche to rank for. Would it be advisable to try SEMrush to help me get a solid start?
Do you recommend working on multiple sites to start as well? I got a keyword from Becker and purchased the domain. I wanted to follow TKA’s guide accurately, but since I already have a good keyword, I could probably skip their steps on how to find a good keyword.
Thoughts?
well semrush is a good one to hopefully spark some ideas. Since all you need to do is scroll down a list of keywords a big website is ranking for it might spark some niche ideas. I don’t suggest just looking at the exact keywords they are ranking for but hopefully one of these keywords will spark some niche ideas for you and that keyword is probably a good one to consider.
And yes, work on multiple websites.
So which do you prefer now, Keyword Tool Dominator or SE Cockpit? I use Cockpit, but have a hard time finding keywords, and Market Samurai, is well, Market Samurai…. I know the tool is only as good as the user so do you have any tips you can direct me too? Iv been doing this for 12 months now and still havent been at the performance I want to be, I feel like im pressed against a ceiling.
Thakn you for the SEM Rush Video 🙂
I’m not sure about KTD these days, it’s been a long time since I’ve used it. SEcockpit is definitely better then MS.. But also much more expensive I guess (since MS is a one time thing).
Honestly, I just do my keyword research with the google keyword tool. I don’t go after keywords with under 2k search volumes or whatever in order to get an EMD like many people still like to do …