Using Keyword Research for Affiliate Marketing Success

Hey there sea changers and welcome to my post where we will discuss the importance of keyword research in boosting affiliate marketing success. Understanding the significance of keyword research in affiliate marketing is a fundamental step to ensuring your content reaches its intended audience.

As an affiliate marketer, your success is tied to your ability to appear in front of potential customers when they're searching for products or services you promote. This necessitates a strategy revolving around carefully selected keywords that align with user queries, specifically targeting your niche.

The easiest way I have always found to understand keywords is to think about the terms I use to search the internet. For example, if I wanted to know about the best fertilizers for growing roses for example, then I may just enter in “fertilizer for roses”, or “how to fertilize roses”. As you can see, these are two ways to ask for the same thing.

Check out my post: 10 Effective SEO Tips For Affiliate Marketers

Search Intent

Another term for the outline above is called “search intent”. For example, search intent in my roses example is classes as ‘informational' meaning I would be looking for information in terms of how to manage my rose garden. I am not looking to buy anything just yet, rather just want to know what to do.

Recognizing search intent guides you to choose keywords that mirror what your potential customers are looking for. Keywords can be categorized by the type of intent, such as:

• Informational – as we discussed above, seeking information about a subject – potentially pre-purchase
• Transactional – ready to buy – this may or may not follow an informational search, or simply be a case of “I know what I want to let me buy”.
• Navigational – searching for a specific website – either for information or to purchase.
• Commercial investigation – A more detailed information search which again may or may not be pre purchase.

Posts

Aligning your content with user intent ensures that your visitors are more engaged since you’re addressing their specific needs. This is most usually aligned with the types of post you write as well such as:

• Use lists – Use lists are where you provide information based on a product or problem that the reader already knows about, owns or is thinking about but is not sure how to use/fix it – generally Informational.
• Reviews – Reviews powerful post types where products are reviewed, either individually or compared with others, and an opinion given on your findings. Generally Commercial Investigation or Transactional.
• Instructions/how to’s – Instructional posts are aimed at providing good helpful advice on how to do things with products that your readers either may have already been purchased, been given or thinking about purchasing. Generally Informational.
• Buying guides – Run down of one or more products to allow for comparison for purchase. Generally Transactional or Commercial Investigation.

For this next section, consider the content that you have available to you as you search online. Some subjects such as travel or making money, are extremely popular meaning that there is a lot of competition amongst website to make the higher ranks.

Therefore, and in simple terms, as you build your site, the keywords you choose not only need to match the search intent of your posts but also have a little competition online as possible. This is known as keyword difficulty.

Keyword difficulty refers to the competition level for ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs) for a particular keyword. By evaluating keyword difficulty, you’ll understand how hard it may be to rank for a term. High difficulty keywords usually require more robust SEO efforts and more mature websites.

If your site is new or growing, you want to look for keywords that have two things:

1. Low competition – i.e. not many other sites are using these keywords
2. There is an interest – this means that you would want to make sure that there are people searching for those keywords online.

This is often referred to in affiliate marketing circles as ‘low hanging fruit' keywords. Let's look at an example for our rose example above.

The above keyword list, taken from AHrefs, shows a competition ranking of 11 (0 the least competition and 100 the most) and traffic of around 2k per month for the term “fertilizer for roses”.

So with the low competition and high traffic, “fertilizer for roses” could be considered a food “low hanging fruit” keyword.

As we discussed in the pervious section, effective keyword research is vital for any affiliate marketer looking to improve visibility and traffic. The right tools and analytical strategies can uncover lucrative keyword opportunities and give you a competitive edge.

And again as we saw above, keyword research software can definitely assist in this area:

Utilizing Keyword Research Software

Keyword research software is indispensable in uncovering keywords that are relevant to your affiliate marketing niche. Tools like Ahrefs (as displayed above) provide in-depth insights into keyword volumes, difficulty scores and SERP features. They also offer valuable data on click-through rates (CTR) and seasonal trends.

To get started, identify a list of seed keywords that pertain to your products or niche, and then use the software to expand upon these terms, finding related keywords that can drive targeted traffic to your site. Other software tools here include:

• Jaaxy
• Semrush
• Neil Patel's Ubersuggest

Analyzing Competitor Keywords

Understanding which keywords your competitors are ranking for can guide your own keyword strategy. You'll want to use tools that allow you to enter a competitor's URL to see their top ranking keywords. For instance, analyzing the general comparison keywords that successful affiliate sites rank for can provide insights into what your target audience is searching for.

This information can help you to craft content that competes directly with what's already working in your market.

Check out my post: How to Research Competitors Websites

Leveraging Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are more specific phrases that are often less competitive but can lead to more qualified traffic. Tools such as Google Keyword Planner help discover long-tail keywords and including these specific phrases in your content can help you rank higher for these terms and capture a more targeted audience.

Remember, the goal is to match the searcher's intent as closely as possible for better conversion rates.

Once you have determined the keywords you wanted to use and understand their search intent qualities, effective SEO and content strategies will them allow you to turn this research into traffic. This process also ensures that your content aligns with what your audience is searching for, improving your site's visibility and driving targeted traffic.

Creating SEO-Friendly Content

To create SEO-friendly content, your focus should be on crafting valuable material that resolves the queries of your audience. We discussed above the types of posts that affiliate marketers can write and how that matches search intent. the next step here then is to ensure that your content is optimized with your chosen keywords, maintaining a natural flow.

This approach helps search engines understand the context of your content, thus boosting its rank in search results.

• Start with comprehensive keyword research.
• Produce quality, informative, and reader-engaging content.
• Use your chosen keywords in headings, subheadings and content naturally and structure your content for easy readability.

Check out my post: How to do SEO for a website

Keyword Placement Best Practices

Further to above, proper keyword placement is crucial for your content's SEO and includes:

1. Title: Incorporate the primary keyword preferably at the beginning.
2. Meta Description: Place primary and secondary keywords naturally within the 160-character limit.
3. First Paragraph: Use your main keyword within the first 100 words.
4. Subheadings: Spread secondary keywords across H2s and H3s.
5. Alt Tags: Describe images with keywords to improve image search visibility.

Consistency is key here and the rick is to maintain a sensible keyword density whilst avoiding keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is an unethical SEO technique where a web page is loaded with keywords in the meta tags or in content in an attempt to manipulate a site's ranking in search engine results.

This practice involves including an excessive amount of keywords within the site's content, meta tags, and backlink anchor text in an attempt to artificially increase a page's ranking in search results. However search engines such as Google and Bing are awake to these process and will usually remove offending pages or sites from their results lists.

As with anything to do with an online business,  continuous monitoring and adaptation are crucial for success. Tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console provide insights into your website's performance, including traffic sources, user behavior and of course, keyword rankings.

This process involves examining various metrics and data points to evaluate how well your keywords are performing in terms of attracting and engaging your target audience. Here's a more detailed look at how to analyze keyword performance:

Traffic Analysis

• Volume: Measure the amount of traffic each keyword brings to your site. High-performing keywords will typically drive more organic search traffic.
• Quality of Traffic: Assess the quality of the traffic by looking at metrics such as bounce rate, time on site and pages per session. Lower bounce rates and higher engagement metrics often indicate that the traffic is more relevant and interested in your content.
• Conversion Rate: Track how often visitors coming through specific keywords complete a desired action, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter or filling out a contact form. This helps identify which keywords are not just bringing traffic but are also contributing to your business goals.

Ranking Fluctuations

• Position Changes: Monitor changes in your keyword rankings over time. Improvements in rankings can indicate successful SEO efforts, while drops may signal issues or increased competition.
• SERP Features: Take note of any Search Engine Results Page (SERP) features (like featured snippets, local packs, or knowledge panels) your keywords may trigger. These features can significantly impact click-through rates (CTRs).

Then, based on your analysis, prioritize keywords and content that offer the best opportunities for improvement or the highest return on investment. Furthermore, use insights from your analysis to optimize existing content, refine your keyword strategy, and improve your site's technical SEO.

By thoroughly analyzing keyword performance, you can identify what's working, uncover areas for improvement, and refine your SEO keyword strategy to better meet your objectives and serve your target audience.

And there it is – my outline for using keyword research to assist with affiliate marketing success this year. I hope it has been helpful and as usual, please do not hesitate to comment below if you have any questions, need some advice or have any experiences to share.

Do you want further assistance with any of the above or need help to build your own affiliate website or identifying successful keyword opportunities?

Are you looking for a comprehensive training platform that can give you step by step training, 24/7 support, tools to develop and host your very own website, ongoing assistance with SEO and social media and access to some of the best online marketing minds on the planet, then click on the following link to read more about Wealthy Affiliate.

Until next time

Have fun

Paul

Note: If you make a purchase from this page, there is a very good chance that I make a commission from it – these commissions do not increase your sale price. This may include sales made via Wealthy Affiliate.

Introducing Wealthy Affiliate, My #1 Recommendation for Setting Up Your Own Online Business

When I started, I knew I wanted to work online, but had absolutely no idea where to begin! You see I had watched friends of mine run a sales party to sell essential oils and someone asked if they could just sell them online?

Then, as I sat on the bus heading into my office job, I started to wonder if I could do just that, sell essential oils online.

Anything to stop having to catch this bus to and from work every day right!

The trouble was, as I mentioned above, I had no idea how to even start.

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So I did that, joined Wealthy Affiliate that was it, and the rest as they say, is history!

But it doesn’t come without work!

That is the key here! I began on their starter membership and did the training! I then joined as a member and did some more training!

Each night after work, I would do a little more, then a little more.

And to cut a long story short, after 10 months I realized I didn’t really like writing about essential oils, so I sold the site for about $2000. But I had learned so much that I started another – about fishing and camping!

Then, after 18 months (by which time it had earned me close to $10k), I was offered $17k for the site, so I sold it too.

Now, through my travel blog, I’ve been able to fund my passion for travel and explore different places around the world.

In the past few months, I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to some amazing destinations, including Bali, Los Angeles, Dallas, Vancouver and Las Vegas.

The success of my travel blog has allowed me to fully fund my travels and explore new destinations with my family.

Try the Wealthy Affiliate as a Starter Member and Build your First Hub!

As you start your journey, Wealthy Affiliate is there for you with the most comprehensive training package I have ever seen – And as I have mentioned, I have used a few in my professional career trust me.

To get you started, Wealthy Affiliate has recently introduced the Hub.

The Hub

The hub is an AI based niche and website creation tool that will get you up and running with the foundation of your OWN business in just a few minutes. This includes:

• Your website – hosted and inclusive of a WordPress editor
• Your brand
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• Your blueprint
• A task list that is going to help you drive the creation and growth of your business moving forward.

The hub makes the website creation process simple which allows you to get started on the training with a solid base and understanding of the processes.

All you need to do is choose your subject – which is known as your ‘niche’ – and follow the steps on the screen.

Oh, and as you run through the training below you may realize that what you created above is not exactly what you want. That’s ok, you can just create a new hub!

Access All the Tools You Need to Start Your Online Business Here

Wealthy Affiliate Training

Then as you continue your journey, the Wealthy Affiliate Hub is there for you with the most comprehensive training package I have ever seen – And I have used a few in my professional career trust me.

Above we discussed the use of the Hub to set up a website. Once you have done this, you will be able to access the “Step-by-Step Core Training”.

This is available to all members including starter members and will give you everything you need to know to continue to create your online business.

Member Training

There are also Live weekly classes taught by REAL industry experts on a range of topics like artificial intelligence (AI), SEO, YouTube, WordPress, PPC marketing and more.

Great, What Else Does Wealthy Affiliate Have To Help You?

So, let’s keep this short, Wealthy Affiliate is a one-stop-shop platform that provides:

• The Hub – this is the starting point and uses AI processes to assist you in determining your niche and creating your brand.
• Complete training programs to assist with the development of your own affiliate marketing website in your own niche.
• Website creation and publishing tools including access to WordPress editors and themes.
• AI Content article design and content creation
• Domain name purchasing (you get a free domain when you upgrade to the Premium membership).
• Website hosting, security and backup.
• Online help and chat forums.
• Weekly live training events.
• 24/7 support.
• Keyword access tools.
• SEO assistance.

The platform has been active for over 15 years with the original developers and owners, Kyle and Carson, still extremely active in its day to day operations – especially as they rollout their AI capabilities.

You Can Try it Yourself For Free

Now of course I can tell you all about how Wealthy Affiliate works (because it does) until I am blue in the face. But every other program out there – including the shams and scams – will tell you the same thing!

So how about you just try it for free yourself. The Wealthy Affiliate Starter membership is free to join and gives you access to everything you need to get started – all without the need to spend a cent!

With the starter membership, you get:

• 1 Limited Business Hub
• 1,500 AI Word Credits
• Try the AI Author Platform (BETA)
• 1 Practice Website
• Jaaxy Starter
• Limited Help & Support
• Core Niche Training (8 Classes)

And of course I will be there to help you every step of the way as well!

Look, in the interest of transparency, whilst Wealthy Affiliate does offer a free starter membership, this is designed to give you a look around, have a practice and see if it is worthwhile for you – which is a really great option.

However, as with all new businesses, you will need to make some investment so if you are serious about making money online , you will need to upgrade to a premium membership as this will give you access to all the tools you need in the one spot to succeed!

Afterall, every business needs tools to grow!

Access All the Tools You Need to Start Your Online Business Here

So How Much Does This Really Cost?

Wealthy Affiliate does not use upsells once you join – but as I mentioned in the video, to succeed here you will need to invest in a membership. There are a couple of options that provide access to all the tools, training and assistance that you could need – and a free domain as well.

Wealthy Affiliate offers a trio of membership tiers, as detailed on their pricing page.

You can opt for the Starter membership at no cost, the Premium membership for $49 per month or the Premium Plus+ membership for $99 per month. That’s the full extent of it – and you can absolutely build your website without having to spend another cent.

You won’t encounter any unexpected additional charges or covert fees and as a Premium member, you’re equipped with all the essentials to initiate, develop and expand a thriving online enterprise.

Those who opt for the Premium membership are provided with

• Hosting for their websites
• A complimentary domain name
• Access to hundreds of hours of current expert tutorials
• Various marketing and research tools
• Personal guidance from seasoned professionals in the field
• And much much more

And for those of you who want to make a serious investment into your future, there are some yearly options as well below to give you peace of mind that you have a whole year ahead of you to get stuff done!

Access All the Tools You Need to Start Your Online Business Here

And Don’t Forget the Personal Coaching

Once you join, not only do you get plenty of assistance from me, but you also have access to expert coaching, support and mentorship from real industry experts.

I mean, you can have access to all of the top-tier affiliate marketing training in the world, but inevitably, questions arise, particularly during the initial stages.

With an exceptionally dynamic and engaged community that boasts over 2.7 million members, Wealthy Affiliate offers an environment where you, as a member, can fully immerse and leverage this network.

You’re never alone; you have the collective wisdom of an entire community at your fingertips, ready to assist at any moment.

Plus, there’s always-on, rapid-response website support to handle any technical queries you may encounter.

Wealthy Affiliate Works: Real Results From Real People

As I have mentioned a number of times, Wealthy Affiliate has helped me make real money online though its training and tools.

I have made money each month as well as a sale for $17,000.

But again, those promoting other programs will tell you the same thing!

So let’s get away from me and see what others are saying:

To start with, Wealthy Affiliate has a 4.9 out of 5 Star TrustPilot rating, which is a remarkable accomplishment in any industry, let alone the online business industry.

And here are some of those reviews:

And this is what people are saying within Wealthy Affiliate as well:

So, Let’s Make a Decision!

Let’s be frank, you have read this far so why not go all in, click on the button below to get started on the way to your very online business.

Access All the Tools You Need to Start Your Online Business Here

And once you are in and have had a play around with the hub, look for the little envelope on the top right and there will be a message from me. It is of course automated so respond to let me know you are there and we can start this journey together.

(oh, and the profile is mine so you can find me that way as well)

See you there

Paul