Here’s a badly kept secret… I haven’t used a keyword tool to get traffic in 10+ years. I think they turn you poor, lazy and stupid.
Alright, maybe that’s a touch extreme 🙂 but read on and you’ll see what I mean…
How Keyword Tools Work…
Keyword tools all work in the same kind of way, working from the same basic data (i.e. Google), giving you the same basic results. Some might put a clever algorithm on top to justify their cost, but really… it’s all an interpretation of Google data.
It spits out the basic searches people make and a few additional qualifiers.
- iPhone…
- iPhone charger…
- iPhone USB charger…
- best iPhone USB charger…
- best iPhone USB charger for pensioners… and so on.
:: By the way, if you thought that last phrase counted as ‘deep keyword research’ then you HAVE TO read this post in full! ::
Consider how we’ve had ~20 years of fairly sophisticated internet marketing by now. Do you really think the massive multi-billion dollar data and marketing corporations WOULDN’T have figured out how to buy up all the obvious online real estate by now?
Spoiler; they did… 10 years ago.
How “Demand Media” Stole The Internet…
Ever hear of Livestrong? Or eHow?
Almost everyone has, because they’ve been appearing for all kinds of searches for years. These sites (and several others) were owned by Demand Media, now ‘Leaf Group’, which was the first company to ‘scale up’ long-tail keyword ranking.
Their method was simple…
- Generate the biggest keyword list possible
- Pay $15-$20 for an article
- Publish
- Turn millions of trickles of traffic into an ocean
- Monetize with ad revenue
Sounds simple enough… but when we say ‘at scale’ we’re talking about publishing 5,700 pieces of content PER DAY.
We know long-tail searches make up for upwards of 90% of all searches made in total. So they bought up the market. Until Google realised the content was weak… rolled out the Panda update, at least.
So ‘Content Farming’ isn’t like it once was… but ‘Leaf’ are still going strong… strong enough to have recently been bought out for $323,000,000. Which means someone else thinks there’s more than $323m of value to be gained with their setup.
Robots vs. Humans…
Much like how you wouldn’t trust a GPS to plan a nice ocean-side drive, visiting the best eating spots, to take in the most stunning scenery…
… you shouldn’t trust a robot to do your keyword research.
For one simple reason.
You might get to your destination, on paper, and it might be efficient… But something gets lost when you remove ‘the human touch’ and trust in data blindly.
… got 114,000 searches per month? Awesome!
… costs $6.20 per click? Amazing!
Sounds like a hot keyword!
Sure, hot enough everyone in the Fortune 500 is already after it. Or maybe Google decided it wants to keep you on Google and serves up a ‘snippet’ search result from its Knowledge Graph instead.
Then again… is that keyword really going to give you the highest return on your effort? Is it more or less likely to result in an action or a sale?
These things are important to consider, which a keyword tool does not. Blindly ranking for as many keywords as you can (especially when it’s the same keywords everyone else is after) is generally a bad idea, because
a) you’ll fail, and…
b) It won’t make as much money as it could.
The Reality Of Your Competition…
When you’re using a keyword tool, you’re putting yourself up against 3 main types of competitor.
- Mega-Corporations
- SEO Agencies
- Black Hatters
Mega-Corporations, perhaps surprisingly, take the most human approach, because human sweat is valuable (read: expensive) and they have the money to hire professional content teams, to produce high production value content and market that content, to trigger whatever algorithms they need to, to get the attention they want. This includes Amazon, even Google itself.
SEO Agencies are sometimes really, really good at SEO – and they generate thousands to hundreds of thousands (sometimes millions) per month to fund what they need to get the rankings they (i.e. their clients) desire. Generally there’s a mixture here of human and automation. I can appreciate this.
Black Hatters are obsessed with ‘gaming the system’ and quite often manage to do so; using whatever technology they have at their disposal. Incidentally, this is the most robotic, automated approach.
In each case, you’re going up against someone you probably can’t beat. So, what to do?
I’d suggest using my method to discover the low competition, high value keywords nobody else is looking for! Do things smarter. Scale from there.
Fine, But Does It Really Work?
Yes.
Last year (2021) I generated $274,800 worth of FREE traffic, with a project I hadn’t touched for 2 years. The year before (2020), was $455,545. The year before that (2019) is when I was actively working on it and I generated $588,300 in free traffic.
What I mean by that – is if I were to PAY for that traffic through pay-per-click advertising, I’d be charged roughly $5 per click, because it’s a competitive, commercial niche. That’s one site, one side project, I’ve barely touched for years…
… still generating free, high-quality traffic every single day.
I do this across my entire business. More importantly to you though, I’ve taught this method to others and they’re able to BEAT mega-corporations with it…
Edward J. Winslow, generates top Google rankings using our method for discovering low competition, high value keywords.
It works GREAT for ANY niche.
It works GREAT for beginners.
It works GREAT for eCommerce.
It works GREAT for local businesses.
It works GREAT for affiliate marketing.
And we’ll do it for you using our tried-and-tested method IF you decide to join AmpiFire.
