Keyword research for your niche
The next step in choosing a good niche is researching the keywords. Let's take a look at what we mean by keywords and why they are important.
What are keywords?
They are words or phrases that people use to find your store. If you have a coffee store, then some example keywords would be:
- espresso coffee machines
- best coffee beans
- how to grind coffee beans
- should I keep coffee in the fridge
What do we use keywords for?
Keywords have a few uses.
They help us to understand our niche more and find opportunities for creating articles, content, product categories etc.
We can also aim to rank in Google and other search engines for these keywords. Each page in your store (e.g. the homepage, categories, product pages etc.) can target different keywords.
We may also use these keywords in PPC (Pay-per-click) advertising, such as Google Ads or Bing Ads.
What makes a good keyword?
The obvious answer is traffic volume... but that doesn't tell you the whole picture.
We are also interested in the profitability of the traffic. Some keywords (e.g. "Chicken Soup Recipe") may generate a lot of traffic, but the visitors are not looking to buy anything.
Other keywords (e.g. "Chicken Soup Recipe Book") show that the visitor is looking and ready to buy a product and therefore will generate much more income even if the traffic is lower.
We look at traffic volume, buying potential, and competition to find good keywords.
We are also interested in the competition for that keyword. It will be nearly impossible to rank in Google for a keyword like "treadmills" because big fitness brands dominate it.
However, you can more easily get success (and higher converting traffic) with keywords like "under desk folding treadmill".
Finding keywords for your niches
We will do some quick keyword research and add three main keywords to our spreadsheet. This will help us understand the niche a bit more and give us a good idea of what people are searching for.
We will look at more in-depth keyword research and SEO optimization later in the traffic section of this success training.
I personally use the Google Keyword Planner tool, which is free and easy. It requires a free Google account:
🔗 https://guides.freshstore.app/article/598-google-keyword-planner
Choose "Discover New Keywords" and enter one or more keywords to get started. The tool will suggest more keywords and show you a summary like this:
I am looking at the "Keto Cookies" niche in this example. I changed the country to "All Locations", as noted in the screenshot. The results are interesting...
Competition is rated as "High" on most of these keywords, and the YoY (Year on Year) change is down for all but one keyword. This indicates the niche is decreasing in popularity.
You can also see an example of keyword profitability. Note that the keyword "keto cookie recipes" has the lowest competition because these searchers are not looking to buy anything.
Note the slightly seasonal trend in popularity. There is more traffic around the winter months when people tend to try new diets for the new year or to get ready for summer.
Let's take a look at another niche, "Educational Toys":
This niche has a strong seasonal trend because toys are bought for Christmas presents.
The competition is consistently high on these keywords shown, although there is potential. If you dig in further, you will likely find a few easy-to-achieve and profitable keywords like "teaching teddy bear".
You can also see there are specific products ("lego education wedo") that have a lot of traffic in this niche. This type of keyword is profitable and great for affiliate stores.
Keyword research is not just about keywords - it's a quick way to learn more about the niche, including trends, recent changes in popularity, and the products you can promote.
For each of your niches, browse through the keywords suggested and get a feel for the niche. Enter three example keywords into your spreadsheet and make some keyword notes with what you have found.
Don't try to be perfect; we will decide on the exact keywords later.
You should now have your niche research spreadsheet with your keywords added. Now, it's time to take a look at content ideas.