Marketing Article Keyword Research Continued

My last marketing articles post discussed using keywords to better target your articles. In this post, we will discuss why choosing keywords with fewer competing pages and a decent search volume isn’t always enough.

In addition to choosing a keyword phrase that preferably has fewer than 30,000 competing pages in Google and receives more than 100 searches a day, you need to look at 3 other elements.

1. You need to use common sense because your goal is to drive targeted traffic to your website that is motivated to buy, subscribe or take some other action that will put money in your pocket at some point.
2. You must see how many of the results on the first two pages are using Web 2.0 platforms to promote.
3. You need to see if there are any affiliate programs associated with the keyword phrase.

As an example, type “gallstone symptoms” into Google with the quotes and you will see there are approximately 2,380 competing pages for that exact phrase which is good.

The phrase “gallstone symptoms” only has one Adwords ad which can be a red flag that there isn’t much money to be made with this term.

Common sense should also tell you that people looking for the phrase “gallstone symptoms” are seeking only information where someone that types in “gallstone treatment” is looking for a solution to a problem.

One intangible that it takes practice to get good at it recognizing the Web 2.0 sites in the results on Google. Every time you see results in the top 20 from ArticlesBin, EzineArticles, GoArticles, WikiHow, eHow, HubPages and similar sites, you might have trouble beating them.

The action you want your reader to take won’t be taken nearly as often as you’d like if you choose the wrong keyword phrase for your marketing articles.