SEO is not dead, but it’s not healthy either! 
Your job as a content marketer is to give life to the old SEO practices, and get the best results from it.
Don’t be scared of Google updates. Embrace it. [tweet this]
Most people only research keywords because they want to rank their web pages in Google top 10.
But trust me, the most important part is profiting with your chosen term; making money and getting loyal customers.
If all you’re after is taking over the first page of Google, with no plans for converting such traffic into customers, this post is not for you. Go see your grandma…
On the other hand, if you’ve been searching for ways to generate profitable and easy-to-rank keywords, without going through the traditional hassles, this post is for you.
In fact, I thought about you when I was hitting hard on my keyboard.
Wow, my first slideshare presentation ever, is live. Yes, I used the same content in this post but I’m so happy. Please watch it before you read further:
Do you really need to target a specific keyword?
Well, there is no straight answer to this question. Because I’ve seen a lot of my content pages ranking in Google homepage, even though I didn’t target particular key terms.
I simply researched and wrote content that’s interesting, informative and valuable to the end-user (the target audience).
But there is a caveat here. The truth is, if you want to take responsibility and ensure that each content you write will performs well in Google and other search engines, I strongly recommend that you target a specific key term for your content.
When you’ve a keyword in mind and in the title, it’d help you to increase the conversion rates for your products and services.
One of the mistakes I made when I started this blog was writing articles in every topic, without a plan on how to profit with it.
It doesn’t matter what the article or video is about, make sure that it’s tailored to suit your product or service.
That’s why targeting a specific keyword is vital from the very beginning – Of course, as time goes by and you gain authority in your niche, you can just write a post out of experience and your instinct.
If you agree that targeting a particular keyword for your content is important, here are 6 simple ways to generate hot and easy-to-rank key terms right now:
1. Target local search queries
This is pretty straight forward. I want you to also know that local search queries have the potential of generating hoards of targeted visitors to your website.
Remember, the essence of targeting these local searches is to produce quality and interesting content, dominate the first page of Google and sell your products. [Tweet this]
Sure, you may have other reasons for starting a business online, but mine is to build a strong brand and make a living.
You already have a lot of local search queries in your niche. But unfortunately, you’ve been neglecting them.
Local search queries are those keywords that have the name of the city or town or state as the prefix or suffix in any given search phrase.
Does that make sense? Here’s an example: Most potential buyers prefer to patronize companies in their own geographic location.
So when someone in New Jersey wants to buy a web hosting service, he or she would go to Google and search for “best web hosting in NJ” or “web hosting company New Jersey.”
If you’re a “freelance writer in California”, you could optimize your website content with that local search query and when a potential client searches for it in Google, your page will pop up. It’s easier to rank for local search terms because the competition is less.
Also, most of the people who target these terms don’t produce quality and SEO-friendly content on a continual basis. That’s your edge over them.
Extra nugget: Now that you know what local search terms looks like, you can easily use the Google keywords tool here to generate 10, 20 or even 100 of such phrases in record time.
2. Dig into your seed keyword
A seed keyword is the opposite of a long-tail keyword. For instance, if you’re a social media expert and wants to rank for that term, you’ll need to dig more because of competition.
In other words, take a single or double keyword and reshuffle it. This way, Google keywords tool and other private tools can extract phrases that are easy-to-rank and contain qualifiers that have buyer insight in them.
So, how can you dig ‘seed keyword’ to generate better, long-tail and easy-to-rank key phrases? First, you need to identify what your seed word is.
When I’m building niche sites, the first thing I do is to find out if potential buyers are searching for the product name or the company that made it.
If you dig more into your seed term, e.g “content marketing tips,” you’ll be surprised by the results. That seed term will produce alternatives like:
- – Content marketing tips business
- – Website content marketing tips
- – Content marketing tips blog
- – Content marketing tips free
- – Content tips for marketing
Whatever your niche may be, don’t complain that all the right keywords have been taken by your competitors. Go the extra mile and dig deeper.
Dig into social media, SEO marketing, article writing, blog marketing and other seed keywords. I’m sure you’ll find a lot of profitable and hot terms that you can rank for easily.
3. Use FAQ phrases 
FAQ is an acronym for frequently asked questions.
FAQ’s started as a list of answers to common questions that members of a particular group are asking.
Ecommerce and tutorial sites are typical examples of where you can find these common questions.
Answer sites like Yahoo! Answers and Quora are also great portals to find such key queries.
Interestingly, FAQ’s can make up a good list of profitable and easy-to-rank key terms.
If you can lay your hands on and use them on your content headline and body, it’d instantly boost your rankings.
And not only that, FAQ phrases are useful data because search engines use them to gauge the authority of a particular website. The truth is, search engines – Google is concerned about solving her users’ problems.
Google wants to rank content pages which are relevant and informative to the searcher (you and I).
Because when the searcher finds what he or she is looking for, they’d come back tomorrow and thereby clicking the sponsored ads (Adwords) on the right hand side as well as top and bottom left in Google.
If you run an ecommerce website or wants to rank for ecommerce related key phrases, here are lists of FAQs phrases to target. These are profitable keywords by the way:
- – Do you offer free shipping?
- – How do I use your shopping site?
- – Do you ship to Australia, Yes!
- – How do you calculate shopping cost?
- – Do I need to register before I can place an order?
Note: when targeting FAQs phrases, make sure that you’ve the right answers in place because it’s going to be a helpful buyer tool.
And if potential buyers are happy, they’d share your content, build social signals, link to your content and help drive targeted traffic to your website.
4. Take advantage of branded keywords
Every content marketer has a goal, and I’m sure you’ve yours as well. But as you get along in your business, things might look tricky especially now that Google is throwing various darts and changing their algorithm.
Of course, they can backup their claims of building an engaged and rich search environment, but it’s not going to favor the upcoming website owners.
As an online entrepreneur, it’s your duty to stand in the shoulder of those BIG brands and profit.
Google and other search engines HAVE fallen in love with Amazon, Ebay, Yahoo, CNN, INC. and a host of other brands including web 2.0 websites (squidoo.com, hubpages.com, blogger.com etc.)
Sure, these brand names might not be popular offline, but on the internet, they’re the leaders. The way to rank higher than your competitors is to take advantage of branded keywords.
I just discovered that Coca-Cola had done a lot of marketing research to help grow their profits. Find out here and here.
Now, you can harness that rich data to create awesome content, and give credit to Coca-Coca Company.
When this happens, it’s going to build an authority status, branded in a way that search engines would begin to regard your website or blog as the go-to resource for well-researched information.
If you’re new to internet marketing or lack the necessary skills to swim through the market, then you’ve to leverage on established brands.
After the death of Steve Jobs, Did you see how website owners used his brand intelligence to dominate Google? See here and here.
5. Focus on Negative keywords
Do you want to be on top of search engines no matter the competition? Then start using ‘negative keywords.”
To a large extent, making money in life is not easy. This is one reason why people are so careful with their money.
When a particular product is making raves online, most people will never buy it until they conduct their own indepth research. I don’t belong to this group. Lol!
When someone searches for “product name + scam” or “is this product safe” or “product name side effects” or “your product name + complaints” – that person wants to spend wisely.
This potential customer wants to know if the product in question is scam or not. Because if any of the customers who purchased it initially wasn’t satisfied, there is bound to be complaints and negative reviews somewhere on the internet.
How can you get such negative keywords? Sure, you can use any of those keyword suggestion tools, but the string you’ll search for must contain any of these qualifiers e.g scam, complaints, safe, side effects etc.
At the moment, I’ve a niche blog that’s generating well over 100 daily organic visits and I’m targeting a negative key phrase.
But the important thing is that I’m making money from those hits. Negative key terms are profitable if you properly optimize your content and pages with them – but please don’t stuff or wear blackhat!
6. Get long-tail with high search volume
Long-tail keywords are good and could rank faster than seed key terms. But most bloggers and internet marketers who target them don’t make decent income, because of low search volume.
Yes, if your long-tail keyword has only ’20’ global monthly searches and mine have ‘2000’ global monthly searches, I’ll generate more buyer leads and make more money than you’ll ever make. Why?
It’s because my long-tail key term has a high search volume. Since these types of key terms are easier to rank in Google within the span of 30 – 90 days, it’s better to target the ones that are searched frequently.
To rank a long-tail search term that gets 33 global searches monthly, you’ll need to write quality content, interlink the pages, build social signals and off-page links.
Funny enough, you also need the same amount of backlinks and social signals to rank a long-tail key term that receives over 1000 global monthly searches.
Here is what I mean:
Assuming that after a keyword research you did, you came up with these two search queries:
- – Small business web designer —- 300 monthly searches
- – Website design for small business —- 1900 monthly searches
If the first phrase is competing against 12,000 web pages in Google, and the second is competing against 12,500 web pages in Google, which one would you target in your content?
The second phrase (12,500 competitors) would yield better results for you over time in terms of how much you’ll earn and the leads you’ll generate.
So, keep targeting long-tail keywords that have high search volume, because over time you’ll build up an authority & high-traffic website.
Keyword research takeaway
Did you know that I actually discovered these 6 keyword research strategies in 2012.
And ever since, this blog and my other niche sites are growing rapidly in areas of organic traffic, email subscribers, conversions and income.
Stop struggling against your competitors. Learn how to do keyword research like a pro and begin to dominate Google top 10 quickly, no matter what Panda and Penguin is throwing at you.
What is your best strategy for generating profitable and easy-to-rank keywords?
And if you’ve challenges pertaining to this topic, please leave it in the comment below. I’ll answer all your SEO-related questions and help push your website to the top. See you ahead!
Top right Image Credit: Seeforlife