Is this ABC Keyword Research - or even ABC Dumbed Down Further....

Sarge85

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Should preface I sprung for Ahrefs for a month to do this....

  1. - Compile list of Competitor Sites with DA (MOZ) or DR less than 25
  2. - Open up their Top Pages
  3. - Quickly Scan for pages where they rank >10
  4. - Pop that keyword into Google, look at SERPS -
    1. If another site <DR 25 - target that keyword
    2. If 1st page SERPS are all >25 - move on...
  5. Rinse - Repeat.
 
Yep, that's a great move for new sites. It's better than the Keyword Golden Ratio idea too, because they're pre-qualified as keywords you can rank for that actually have some volume.

This is a fast way to do any keyword research if you're pressed for time, small site or big site or not. Another move is, when you find the keyword you want to go for, find all the other keywords that page ranks for and work those into your content for extra long-tail / same-tail volume.

The only problem with doing this exclusively is you go toe-to-toe every time you make a move instead of finding some new, innovative keywords. You can find some crazy stuff nobody has gone after yet with nutty volume and take it down. Eventually your competitors come for you but you'll have the "first to market" advantage and be getting natural backlinks from ranking before they even know the term exists.

I recommend, while you're doing this, to shoot for keywords here and there you don't think you can rank for. In the current Google environment, you never know when you'll be "chosen" or "blessed" and take the entire pie, including every variation and long-tail.

Doing this gives you a barometer to know what you can reliably rank for. If you're always only doing DR lower than 25, you'll never know when you're ready for the DR 50 leagues.
 
The year was 2020 and everyone was still doing keyword research like it is 2002...

You are missing a huge step which revolves around revenue. You need to add a filter for intent. Just because your competitors are ranking for a term doesn’t mean getting traffic for that term will generate you revenue.

Example: if your competitor is ranking for “what time is it in Arizona right now?” Are you really suppose to dedicate time and resources to create that content? NO.

“What’s the address for Pizza Hut in Phoenix, AZ?” Again NO.

“How do I apply for a refund for XYZ?” Again NO.

You are in business to generate revenue and profits, every aspect of your online game-plan needs to have that underlying macro goal involved, directly or indirectly. Otherwise in a year from now you’ll have a ton of useless traffic that doesn’t convert.

You should also have a customer profile target (Market Research) for each content piece so you can visualize who you are going after with each content piece AND an “expertise level” in mind for that customer - are they a newbie, advanced, or expert level consumer for your product/service. That way the content you create is targeted and sounds like it is written directly to solve their problem = higher conversions.
 
Sarge85 said:
Should preface I sprung for Ahrefs for a month to do this....

  1. - Compile list of Competitor Sites with DA (MOZ) or DR less than 25
  2. - Open up their Top Pages
  3. - Quickly Scan for pages where they rank >10
  4. - Pop that keyword into Google, look at SERPS -
    1. If another site <DR 25 - target that keyword
    2. If 1st page SERPS are all >25 - move on...
  5. Rinse - Repeat.
Click to expand...

This is way too robotic way of doing the research frankly.

Also, keywords do not work like back in the 2012 anymore, when you could pick a longtail keyword and snipe it with a 1 page website and for that one keyword only. There are certain authority sites in the basically every niche, which rank for pretty much everything, regardless whether they target the keyword or not. And even if you try to snipe the exact keyword they are not going after, it will take a lot of resources and time until you outrank them, depending on their authority. Thus you have to build your own.

The ideal way to do it is to find a niche which isn't way too saturated. Keep in mind, everything is saturated nowadays, you just have to find something that isn't that bad. You can use metrics for this if you want, but those can be unreliable. Overall, it all comes down to a gut feeling.

Once you pick your niche, pick every keyword with buyer intent there is within that niche. Ideally "best" or "buy" type of keywords, etc. Even keywords with pathetic search volume around 50 - 100 a month. You would be surprised how much traffic can crap like that bring in. (It's_not_much_but_its_honest_work.jpg). Once you have hundreds of articles shotgunning longtails like that, over time and with a few decent backlinks you will start outranking the big sites that are not targeting these. Or at least rank decently under them.

Bottom line is, there is no need to search for keywords like a machine that, metrics wise, fit within a certain criteria. Rather than particular keywords, target entire niche.

Obviously, there are exceptions. There are always exceptions.

And also, keep in mind, that keyword research is the most important step of your campaign. If you screw that one up, your project is already doomed before it even started.
 
Most of the search queries are probably fresh anyways, and not like "shoe laces". I wouldn't care too much about search volume.

I'd group many together, and if it's about a product or a real thing/problem, there will be volume.
 
What I'm finding lately is that the big dogs - Wirecutter, Medium, etc... all have their "best X for Y" keywords for just about everything -

What I'm now starting to realize is that several sites are getting into this "Best X for Y" posts, even when their core market has nothing to do with what they are writing about. IE- PC Magazine writing about beauty tips, or Popular Mechanics writing about Books...

+ Buyer intent words also seem to be bogged down by Amazon, Target, Walmart.... For instance, If I try to put "my widget keyword" on sale or "my widget keyword" deal or whatever - commercial websites rule the day.

It could be that I'm just in an oversaturated market. But as you said - some of it is gut. I see opportunities. Also, I 've used the TASS approach and if I believe in their approach - I've spotted low difficulty keywords, with low authority sites ranking for them - so I'm trying to squeeze in.

I also see decent sites, with surprisingly no monetization methods on them, and low traffic. I'll be honest -- I'm feel like I just want to snipe their content, shift some words around, and make $$$$.

Anyway - like its been pointed out - low volume searches can still generate results - and what I think I really need to do is just figure out how to reword my "Best "keyword widget" for X posts in such away that I slip under the radar of the Wirecutter sites of the world - if thats even possible.
 
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