niche keywords

It is common knowledge among search engine optimizers that finding “niche keywords” is critical in our quest to drive visitors to a website. There are many keyword suggestion tools out there that claim to find niche keywords, but in practice generate keyword lists without any practical means or guidance to sort out niche keywords for us. In this article, “keywords” includes keyword phrases.

How do we define a niche keyword?

Surprisingly, there doesn’t seem to have been a single serious attempt to define a “niche keyword.”

The following definition is recommended: A niche keyword is defined as having a search volume above the threshold for the target location of a website with the potential to rank in the top ten on the search engine results page (SERP). ) for that locality (country).

Location

Although the Websites can be accessed from any location, the vast majority of Websites are directed to visitors from one country, state/county/province, or city/town. Only a minority of websites aim to provide information universally or seek sales internationally. Location-oriented searches form the fastest growing sector on the Internet, currently estimated at 12%. A search that includes a locality is more likely to convert on e-commerce and e-marketing websites.

When we search for niche keywords for websites based on localities, we need data on the number of searches performed for that locality and an assessment of the competition for country-specific search engines. The most popular search engine is Google. Examples of country-specific Google search engines are Google.co.uk, Google.ca (Canada), Google.fr (France), and Google.jp (Japan). In addition to having the largest search database and being free, Google’s keyword research tool has the advantage of providing both global and country-specific monthly search volumes.

Threshold Search Volume

The search volume threshold that is acceptable for a website depends on its purpose.

A global information website might choose a threshold search volume of 1,000 searches per month before considering creating a keyword-focused web page.

A website looking for customers within a locality might find the return on investment to be acceptable for developing a web page with a keyword that has the potential to attract even one additional customer per month.

Top 10 Positioning in Search Engine Result Pages

Few searchers click on web pages below the top ten on SERPs. While 42% of searchers click on the number one ranked webpage to perform a search, only 0.7% of searchers will click on the 11th ranked webpage and 0.07% on the 41st ranked website. In other words, if the number one website for a keyword gets 600 visitors, the 11th website will get 10 visitors and there will only be one click to page 41. From one point of view For SEO, a web page that cannot rank within the top ten positions for a keyword in the SERP will not generate much traffic.

Keyword Difficulty

Keyword difficulty is an assessment of how likely a web page is to rank within the top ten positions on a SERP for a keyword.

Competence

Traditionally, competition has been primarily assessed by the number of ‘hits’, which is the number of competing web pages. The Keyword Effectiveness Index – KEI – is the most popular formula for identifying “effective” keywords. It incorporates keyword popularity data (P = number of searches) and competition (C). The formula is P2/C.

Invariably, a search will return at least hundreds of competing web pages (results), and often millions. While the number of results will provide some indication of keyword difficulty, it is the strength of the top ten web pages compared to the potential page strength we can build on our website that will determine whether our page can reach to the first ten. The competitive strength of the top ten competing web pages for a keyword is not a direct function of the total number of competing web pages. The strength of competition from the top 10 competing websites for a keyword with only 10,000 competitors will be much greater than one thousandth of the strength of competition for a keyword with 10 million competitors.

From a search engine optimization perspective, every web page should be optimized around a keyword.

From the point of view of web design, we must consider three types of web pages:

1. Pages that are required to cover the topic of the website but are based on keywords that are so competitive that they are unlikely to rank on the front page and therefore will not attract visitors to the website. For example, a website advertising vacation accommodations may produce an excellent page on “Italy”. If you provide useful information, it will be appreciated by the visitors who come to the website. “Italy” is unlikely to rank high in the SERPs, no matter how much effort you put into it, and this page will not attract visitors from search engines.

2. The pages that are required to cover the theme of the website and are based on niche keywords and can attract visitors to the website; in practice, there are unlikely to be many of these.

3. Pages that are obviously not required to cover the topic of the website, but are built around relevant niche keywords from a keyword list initially generated by a keyword suggestion tool. The difficulty here is separating the niche keywords from the full list. We need to focus our valuable SEO time and efforts on niche keywords where we can successfully compete.

How do we find niche keywords from a keyword list initially generated by a keyword suggestion tool?

In 2004, it was estimated that Google included 200 factors in its ranking algorithm. In 2009, many search optimization optimizers believe that Google now uses more than 300 factors. It is unlikely that each of these factors has the same weight.

Using a retro analysis of the top ten ranking web pages for numerous keyword searches, the author identified the most important, yet underestimated, factor in Google’s algorithm that determines SERP positioning (HomePage PageRank or G-Factor-I) . Then it became apparent that a second factor (G-Factor-II, a hidden boost to the effective PageRank of homepages competing for a keyword) significantly influenced ranking.

Once I was introduced to G-Factor-I, identifying niche keywords by manually analyzing a list of keywords generated by my favorite keyword suggestion tool turned out to be time prohibitive. For a list of 50 keywords, the GI Factor must be determined for each of the top 10 web pages: 500 calculations. A unique, specially designed program, Keyword SEO Pro, has been commissioned. No analysis is required for G-Factor-II.

The most important question in search engine optimization

The most frequent question I get from website owners is “How can I get my web pages to reach the top of the SERPs for my keywords?” My advice may surprise you: Get out the “How”!

Then you have the most important question website owners and search engine optimizers should ask:

“Can I get my web pages to the top of the SERPs for my keywords?”

Using KeywordSEOPro’s combination of analyzing the GI Factor for a list of keywords and comparing it to the GI and II Factors for your own web pages, you will be able to identify your niche keywords and focus your SEO efforts accordingly. . A more detailed explanation is provided on the website.