Hi everyone,
I hope you are all well and enjoying 2010 so far!
To kick things of this year I thought it would be a good idea to share, perhaps one of the biggest lessons that I have learned in my online marketing career, and that is to work smarter and not harder.
So, in this post I will be sharing with you some tricks that you can use, to ensure that you get the most out of your marketing, and work smarter than the bunch!
I see a large number of newbie internet marketers, in their over zealous enthusiasm to make money online, race in, head first and build websites that target any keywords they can think of.
Next they virtually burn themselves out doing SEO or burn their bank accounts out on Google Adwords, and sadly often to little positive effect.
One of the major reasons behind this, is that what most people fail to realize is that even if you have two keywords that get the exact same search volume, and are both directly related to the niche, and even be quite similar, they may not necessarily convert to sales at the same rate.
So with that said, it is a good idea if you’re an SEO marketer like myself, to test your keywords before you launch into a full blown SEO link building frenzy. This way you make sure you are targeting the highest converting keywords.
To do this you can set up a Google Adwords campaign and send traffic to your pages, using the keywords you are considering targeting for SEO and see what the results turn out like.
Some of you might not want to do this, as it can cost you anywhere from $50-$300 to test, but what you need to factor into the calculation, is that if you are targeting a keyword that converts at three times the rate of another one, then you will actually be saving money in the long term.
If you do have the cash to spend, another way to do this is to use PPC Spy tools and see if other marketers in your niche are using these keywords, and also what others, and for how long.
However I always like to make sure there is a free option available for everyone, and there is, that being your common sense!! You can have an educated guess at what keywords will convert to sales better than others, by just thinking about the mindset of the person who is typing that keyword into the search engine. I have mentioned this point before but it is so important that I really need to stress it again and again.
I like to refer to this as, how far down the sales line the person is. For example if they are ripe and ready to spend, then they might be typing words like: Buy XYZ, XYZ Review, XYZ Product, Best XYZ, XYZ Scam.
Obviously XYZ stands for the niche word, here’s an example : Buy Forex Trading Software.
However using the above example, the keyword: ‘Forex Trading Software’, would not convert as well as say: ‘Buy Forex Trading Software’. Its not that difficult to spot a keyword that a person, closer to pulling out their credit card, ready to buy is typing into the search box. However you would be surprized how many people just focus on the search volume, and don’t use their common sense, and consider the conversion rate.
One last point I want to add also, is that if you are working with a network that assigns you an affiliate manager, then do not be shy to ask them for as much information as you can, because they often have great statistics on how well different offers are converting on their network, and believe me this info can be like gold!
So in summary, one of the biggest lessons I learned in my career as an online marketer is to target keywords that convert. In fact with some really great converting keywords, you might only get 10 visitors a day only, but it can be the equivalent of 100 from another keyword.
That’s all from me, so remember to work smarter and not harder in 2010 by choosing your keywords carefully, you’ll thank yourself in the long run.
All the best
Matt
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Hi Matt,
Some good points here. I particularly like the suggestion of asking the affiliate manager for statistics on what keywords are working for other affiliates and any other relevant stats that they have. Could save a lot of time and narrow your keyword selection immediately.
Cheers,
Andrew Graham
Matt Carter Reply:
January 8th, 2010 at 11:07 am
Hi there Andrew,
Great to have your input the blog again. Yeah I find the affiliate manager
can be really helpful. However they usually wont tell you what keywords are converting, to be fair to other affiliates, but they will tell you what offers are converting well in their network.
Cheers
Matt
Hi Matt,
Thank you very much! I enjoy reading your posts. You always have dynamite information to share which helps
me with my online marketing and sales.
I save all of your emails so I can refer to them as often
as needed until I learn all of what you were teaching.
Happy New Year,
Victoria
Matt Carter Reply:
January 8th, 2010 at 11:08 am
Hi Victoria, thanks for your feedback and also for participating on the blog too.
I hope your business goes well in 2010!
Thanks
Matt
Great tips as always Matt. Choosing the best keywords is critical to succeeding in this business. I had not considered using Adwords this way to test for conversions.
I have never done any ppc myself. I usually get my traffic through SEO and Social Networking. However, I will have to test this out to see how well it works.
Matt Carter Reply:
January 8th, 2010 at 11:10 am
Hi James,
Also good to hear from you again too. Yeah PPC is a good way to test that keywords are converting, but it is not essential, you can use other methods I mentioned.
Cheers
Matt
Hi Matt,
Happy New Year.
This is a very good point , getting the rite keyword will save you time and money.
When i started working on-line i worked all the hours i could with very little to show for it.
thanks
jasvir
Matt Carter Reply:
January 8th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Hi Jasvir,
Yeah I know it can be hard when you start out online, as there is so many things to learn and so many things that can go wrong. Hopefully you are picking the right keywords now and things start to pick up for you.
Thanks
Matt
Matt,
I am one of those people who is missing out on high CTR and now I know why. I am changing my adwords keyword with buy and review and order and best infront some of my critical keywords.
I think you just saved me a lot of money. Thanks for the good quality information.
Trevor Ambrose
Matt Carter Reply:
January 8th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
Hi Trevor,
Glad to be of help to you
Thanks
Matt
Thanks, Matt, for the helpful info.
What program do you recommend for tracking conversions in PPC campaigns?
Happy New Year. Justin
Matt Carter Reply:
January 8th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Hey Justin,
No problem and great to see you on the blog
Cheers
Matt
Matt Carter Reply:
January 8th, 2010 at 3:52 pm
Hey Justin,
Sorry I didn’t see your question until now. Stats Junky is probably the best all round conversion tracking tool on the market
Thanks
Matt
Thanks Matt for the helpful post. I enjoy searching for keywords.
Happy New Year!
Matt Carter Reply:
January 8th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Hey Linda,
Yeah I kind of enjoy looking for keywords too, it can be kind of addictive…lol..
Cheers
Matt
Hi Matt,
great post again, thank you for sharing. Looking forward to getting 2010 all up and going, got some new sites up so now its time to drive traffic. You are so right keywords are essential and good tools to help find those words. Roll on 2010 and many happy Adword campaigns
Gail
Matt Carter Reply:
January 8th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Hi Gail,
Fantastic that you have some more sites up, I really hope you can get that traffic and turn it into sales!!!
Keep up the good work
Cheers
Matt
Hey Matt
A great tool if you really are unsure of what words are “buyer” keywords is http://adlab.microsoft.com/Online-Commercial-Intention/ I just wrote a blog post on it myself this week :).
Thanks again for the great advice.
Cheers
Shari
Matt, Great advice! I believe if you can just try and put yourself into the mindset of a person actually searching for your keyword and what they might type in to find it, if they were wanting to actually buy something. That keyword would probably convert better than just blindly looking at the search volume for a keyword and not focusing on that aspect.
Matt Carter Reply:
January 8th, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Totally agree with you Rick!
Hi Matt
Thanks for another great tip. Do you feel that it would be a valid strategy to put one of the market leaders in your niche into Keywordspy and then optimise your site for the ten keywords that keywordspy provides for free?
Matt Carter Reply:
January 8th, 2010 at 7:08 pm
Hey Greg,
I think it is better to do your own keyword research and then target what you think you are capable of getting, in relation to how developed your link building and SEO skills are.
There is no point in copying a market leader unless you intend on knocking them off their perch in Google.
If you are talking about PPC then looking at a competitors site and keywords they are using can be a good start, so you can test keywords out. But remember nothing beats learning the skills so that you know a good keyword and then also know that you can profit of it, and this comes with practice.
Great question though
Matt
Hi Matt
Nice bit of info.
Matt, I read the other day,that google only takes 15 % of all keywords entered over the net search engines, if this is the case my Where is the other 85% coming from ,and should we be looking for keywords in other engines not just Google
Best Regards
Steve
Matt Carter Reply:
January 8th, 2010 at 8:40 pm
Hi Steve,
Not exactly sure what you mean, but from what I know Google get the most traffic, which is real visitors online, and they are the ones typing in search phrases, so Google is the one to focus on, in fact I think they have 70-80& of the market
Cheers
Matt
Thanks Matt, I got interesting information from your post.
For example is always better to target a buyer keyword instead of a normal one.
Anyway I will try to evaluate which target keyword converts better.
Goodbye,
Alessandro Zamboni
Matt Carter Reply:
January 8th, 2010 at 10:08 pm
Hey Alessandro,
Great to see you on the blog again, I hope you are making some great progress with your online business also.
Thanks for stopping by
Matt
Hi matt,
thanks for the hint.
can we send ppc traffic to another website on SERP?
i think it’s much faster than creating our own website,domain article then find out if it’s successful or not.
what method do you use?thank you
Matt Carter Reply:
January 11th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Hi Aghper,
Well I suppose you could do that, but you are paying for traffic to someone else’s page, and you also have to take into consideration that your offer might not be the same, and what more you should make a few sales in the test, and that would be lost.
Up to you, but i think stick to your own sites.
Cheers
Matt
Thanks Matt: I always enjoy your tips. We all know how important targeting the right keywords are. I have always gone for the “low hanging fruit” since I’m no experienced guru and feel I haven’t a chance competing for the better converting keywords. I need to get braver if I’m ever to make any money.
I would like to learn PPC, I’m ready for it and I’m aware how important split testing is. But unless you know what you’re doing you’ll lose your shirt if you’re a newbie at PPC.
I don’t want to sign up for a whole course but I’m interested in seo and PPC. Who has the BEST tutorial? I am happy to pay for it but which one? Who can you trust? I trust your advice Matt
Please advise me on this one.
Thanks for all your great tips.
Joan
Hi Matt,
This is the first time I’ve commented on your blog but i’ve been reading a while.
I couldn’t agree more with the above post, it’s amazing the amount of people who are so hung up on search volume rather than commercial intent. The first thing a lot of people ask is ‘how many searches a month do you look for?’ and as you know this is an increadibly hard question to answer. Essentially, having 100 searches a month for a phrase where you know people are pretty much ready to buy is FAR better than a phrase with 2,000 searches per month who are just ‘site skippers’ looking for information. With your 100 you are likely to convert a much higher percentage than your 2000 people.
Thanks
Ben
I
Matt Carter Reply:
January 11th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
Hi Ben,
Great to have you join us on the blog, and you have added some great points there also.
I look forward to hearing from you again soon
Matt
I have to agree that the one area you cannot know without testing is conversions. I think the problem is that using PPC to test does scare alot of people especially when you are new because fear of losing money does hold you back at first.
Matt Carter Reply:
January 11th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
Hey Nigel,
Thanks for your thoughts!
Cheers
Matt
Hi Matt, how things in the big smoke (Sydney)?
Any how keywords, yes. I started out buying PLR and MRR products because I wanted them. I also bought copy campaigns and yet still stay away from PPC. Might give it go when I can afford it. In the meantime looking at SEO and keyword research for my next unique selling idea. Reading intently on Keyword selection and have buyer keyword generator tool and others.
Key words first then build site second, sounds fair.
Matt Carter Reply:
January 18th, 2010 at 8:30 am
Hi Richard,
Great to see you are getting the hang of it, and thanks
for sharing with everyone on the blog.
Matt
Matt
Thanks for all the great info. I really enjoyed the 12 videos. You’re providing tremendous value,especially to us newbies just starting to develop our plans for our online businesses.
You mentioned in one video to constantly keep abreast of industry trends, smart IM’ers. Can you discuss who you rely on, who mentors you and other thoughtful, sharing IM’ers like yourself.
Nick
Matt Carter Reply:
March 2nd, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Hi Nick
Mark Ling is one of the best marketers to keep up to date with, I recommend his stuff
Cheers
Matt
Matt,
Thank you for your guidance on keyword conversion rates. I appreciate your insight. I just thought ,if you didn’t already, to consider those people, too, that don’t yet have the funds to invest. Any advise for us to break the ice would be appreciated
Mark,
Thanks for a lot of good solid advice to “newbies.” I have high hopes of succeeding online–proceeding with caution, but proceeding.
I will tune in frequently for your tips and advice.
Matt Carter Reply:
April 17th, 2010 at 5:33 pm
Hey KC Correa
Your are welcome, and its Matt not Mark, ha ha!!
Cheers
Matt
you have a good understanding on keywords and their conversion rates. I hope your online business will be on boom