Keyword Metrics for Success

Research and Analysis Metrics

Micro-niches are identified as the number one keyword receiving at least 80 searches per day and websites containing that keyword being less than 30,000 globally. The key is to find that sweet spot on the matrix of high traffic and low competition. To do this, find keywords which match the following criteria:

At least three keywords other keywords within the micro-niche with similar criteria must also be identified, if not, start over.  Top ten competition for the top four keywords has to be penetrable within the time allowed (usually no more than 30 days). Once you find five total keyword phrases you can begin to create a website, market, and begin testing.

Metrics to consider are:

  • Domain age
  • # of back-links to domain
  • # of back-links to page mentioning the keyword
  • # of back-links from .gov or .edu domains
  • Exists in Yahoo! Directory?
  • Exists in BOTW (Best of the Web) Directory?
  • Exists in DMOZ (ODP) Directory?

Need more web directories?

If the competition has a young domain age, a low number of back-links, and does not exist in any of these directories, then the market is penetrable.  If the opposite is true, stop and start over.

Check to see that related products are both available to be sold and are being sold by others.  If either is not true, stop and start over.

If both of those tests pass, then make sure the products are giving a referral amount that you deem acceptable.  If not, stop and start over. Otherwise, you now have products in a penetrable micro-niche that are profitable to sell.

Marketing and Testing

Begin by setting up a place to place your products.  This is where your marketing efforts will point back to.  It can be a Squidoo page, Blogger, or WordPress.com or WordPress running on your own domain.

If you are using Blogspot or WordPress, install Google Analytics to track traffic.  If using Squidoo or Hubpages, there are tracking mechanisms built into the site. You can’t manage what you are aren’t measuring so track everything you can.

Use the following chart to give you an idea of how to setup your web site for maximum keyword use and Google dominance.

Once you have content on your primary landing pages and sub-pages, begin to create back-links to your site by placing links to the domain, the blog posts, and the the product pages on social bookmarking, social media, and in blog comments in your related market.  Be sure to add links from .edu and .gov domains. You can search Google specifically for blogs on those domains manually by using the following syntax:

site:.edu “post a comment” –“comments are closed” “[enter your keyword here]”

Track the incoming page hits.  Testing for viability can begin only after your product’s page is receiving at least 200 hits per day.  If you are not getting 200 hits per day, then try these things first:

  • Increase the number of blog posts on and off the site using other services like hubpages and squidoo – then promote all of the new posts again
  • Make sure you are promoting on at least 30 different sites for each post – you can use services like ping.fm or trafficbug to assist with this task
  • Pay to have your site listed in the Yahoo! Directory
  • Pay for Google Adwords or Bing (Microsoft) AdCenter
  • Add pictures with descriptive text to get hits from search engine’s image searches
  • Add video to Youtube with links and comment on other videos in your micro-niche
  • Make sure you are posting to Twitter and Facebook regularly and engaging in conversation, not just promoting

If after 30 days or at your own set threshold, you are still not receiving 200 hits or more per day, your product is not viable.  Consider selling your website on Flippa or Sedo.  You have just found one of your 1 in 8 failures.

If you do have over 200 hits per day, but are not getting conversions, first try changing out your ad copy, images of the products, and/or placement of the two on the page.  If after changing all three of these variables and still your conversion rate (revenue) is below your expenses, then sell your domain and start over.  If not, you have a profitable online business.

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