3 Ways to Find Keywords With Potential

By Josh Williams
Aug, 09, 2011

Keywords are the foundation of any search marketing effort, whether it's paid or  organic.  Without good keyword research, a search marketing campaign will not succeed.  One way to perform keyword research is to start from scratch, looking for keywords that you think would perform well.  This kind of research, however, is based mostly on intuition and guesses, not actual data.  Chances are that you already have a wealth of data that provides insight into what is already working.  The following methods will help you find keywords that are already proven to perform and, with a little effort, could perform even better.

Keywords that Rank on the Second Page
 
One method to use to see a quick boost in traffic is to identify keywords that your site ranks on the second page for and focus on moving your site to the first page. If there is significant search volume and your site is on the second or third page, you've just identified a great target keyword. Depending on the phrase you're targeting and the competition you're facing, this might be easier said than done.  If the keyword is performing well or there is a lot of traffic to be had, the optimization is well worth the effort.
 
Keywords that Convert Well, but Get Little Traffic
 
Another way to identify areas of improvement is to look for keywords that are already converting well, but aren't getting a lot of traffic.  If your site doesn't have some sort of analytics tracking, it needs to.  Simply look through your keyword data for these kinds of keywords.  Keywords that convert well but have low traffic are generally very precise queries to help the user find what they are looking for. Pop these keywords into a keyword generator to get other ways to phrase that query and optimize for those keywords.
 
Keywords that Perform Well in Pay Per Click
 
Pay per click and natural search need not be enemies.  Pay per click is a great way to get a feel for a niche.  If you have the  budget and want to see how a keyword will perform for your site, use that keyword in a pay per click campaign.  Although click through rate and conversion rate won't transfer 100% from paid to natural search, you will still have a general idea of how your site will perform for a given keyword.
 
These are just three quick ways to identify areas of improvement.  What would you add to this list?