How to Do Keyword Analysis to Determine Why Your Niche Site Visitors Aren’t Converting

Up until I got three of my sites to rank, I thought the hardest part of making money from a niche site was ranking. Not true!

The good news is that if you are close to ranking your site well, that’s awesome. Stick with it! Phase 1 is almost over.

The bad news: you need to make sure that you give your search visitors what they want because those search visitors will leave you with a high bounce rate, low average time on site and $0.00 earned.

I’m about to show you the money I am earning from two of my niche sites. The first one is a very focused affiliate site, about five pages, completely static and reviews a product. Currently it ranks for the product name and “product name review” keywords in the top 10 of Google with very low exact search numbers:

Now let’s take a look at what my broadly targeted .biz domain has earned through Google Adsense. Keep in mind that this its main keyphrase receives close to 8000 exact searches (US) a month. It ranks around #5 in Google and has received about 930 unique visitors in the last month:

Nothing ground breaking. Perhaps you have a niche site or two that is performing just as underwhelmingly as mine are.

How do you determine whether you should give up on your niche site, what the best monetization method is and what your next step should be?

I wholeheartedly believe that if search engine visitors are finding your site, no matter how finicky, if you are not giving them what they came searching for, you won’t make any money.

Where You Should Start

To start with, you need to analyze what type of keyphrase you are selecting. Is it an informational topic? Is it a product specific keyphrase? Here are some examples:

-”internet business ideas”
-”how to get a six pack”
-”playstation 3 review”
-”bookmarking demon review”

As for “internet business ideas”, that’s what I would classify as a “broad” niche site. As in, could it get more specific? Sure. We could break down this keyphrase further down: e-commerce sites, Amazon affiliate sites, your own physical product site, perhaps even freelancing. People are coming using a general keyphrase but expect more specific content from your site! These search visitors could get tired of seeing crappy sites with lots of Google Ads and affiliate offers slapped all over the place. They are here for research purposes (“ideas”).

Not necessarily immediate buyers but could purchase products if you can demonstrate how they can achieve results they want by using them. Best way to impress? Great content. Great lead magnet. You can definitely make money here but you need to do your work and set yourself apart from the competition. Kapeesh?

Making our way to “how to get a six pack”, what a specific topic! It doesn’t ask us how we can get “fit” (fit could mean lose weight or gain muscle). The search visitors are looking very specific information. Since they are in the “mood” to look up something regarding improving their health, it is very possible they would also be up for products that could help them achieve their six pack goal. At this point, though they may be looking for free information, they may be very motivated to achieve those results. You’ll only know by testing and I’m sure there are plenty of affiliate products that could do well.

“playstation 3 review” indicates a great buyer keyphrase. “review” indicates that the search visitors are probably wanting to buy a Playstation 3 but want to check out a review before purchasing. If you present an online savings price (Amazon affiliate), they are likely to buy through your Amazon affiliate link. I know that my buying habits have drastically changed in the last 3-4 years and now I buy 70% of my electronics online. Best way to earn? An honest Playstation 3 review + how much blast it is to have one (increase their yearning to buy one!) + give Amazon affiliate link.

Lastly, we have “bookmarking demon review”. A software product that can be downloaded so you can create social bookmarks right away. Again, this is probably the last step before the search visitors completely make up their minds regarding the software. If you can show them why it’s worth their money, they’ll more than likely buy it from you. How do you help search visitors make up their minds? Show them how the software has helped you gain rankings or traffic + provide obvious affiliate link.

Know the Type of Keyphrase You Are Selecting

If you know the type of keyphrase you are selecting, then you will know how much work you have to put into your site. For instance, choose a specific kephrase (i.e. review), then all you have to do is create a small, 4-5 page review site based around the product.

Select a broad keyphrase and realize that you’ll have to put in a lot more work into the site. A great idea is to break down the main keyphrase into more specific keyphrases. These can end up being categories on your site. You can map content around these specific keyphrases and rank for multiple keyphrases.

Know What Your Search Visitors Want

You would think this would be really obviously but even I have trouble with this. If you have a broad keyphrase, this can become overwhelming as you may feel there is a lot of ground for you to cover.

You not only need to give the search visitors what they came looking for but also intensify their desire to learn more on that topic (if broad keyphrase).

Also, are your search visitors tech savvy? If so, they’ll loathe ads and will be keen to navigate from a site that is littered with ads. It helps greatly to also know who your audience is!

Know How to Monetize Your Niche Site!

You can choose to monetize your niche site in several ways: Google Adsense, Amazon (or another physical product) affiliate, Clickbank products, your own products, affiliate ads, or other types of ads.

Just because you can slap them all on your site doesn’t mean you should.

I believe today’s search visitors are very savvy. If it’s a general informational topics, Google ads may work great. That’s how Pat Flynn monetized his site and to date, has been earning around a $1000 per month from it. His site is about security guard training and these ads worked out well for him.

You need to determine if your site is more suitable for affiliate ads (affiliate links in posts), e-mail list (offer helpful affiliate offers every few weeks), Adsense, etc. Sometimes, it can be hard to determine which one to start with. That’s fine. Test something new every week or so. The only wrong thing you can do is to completely abandon your niche site if you didn’t see results with one monetization method!

Why All of This is Important

Chances are, you are reading this because your niche site isn’t earning you money (or not as much money as you’d like). There is probably a mismatch between what your search visitors are looking for, what you are providing and how you are providing it.

Make sure to go through the following checklist to review your money making plan:

__Do I have a broad or specific keyphrase?
__What do my search visitors want?
__Is my information quality and engaging to the visitor?
__What is the best way to monetize my niche site?

The answers to these questions are crucial and will determine the fate of your niche site. I had been testing Google Adsense on my .biz domain but I have to go with my gut feeling and create an e-mail list for the site. In order for that to happen, I have to offer an amazing lead magnet as these visitors are straight from the search engine and I only have a few seconds to catch their attention.

I can only do that with great content. How about you?

Which Keyphrase Should You Target?

That entirely depends on how much work you want to put into your site. Understand your keyphrase before you settle on one! As you can see, specific keyphrases lend to little guesswork as to what your visitors want from your site. As for broad keyphrases, there is a lot more work to do but the potential of earnings could be much larger in the long run!

How about your niche site? What do you need to do to earn decent money from your niche site? Lastly, in your experience, what type of sites have been most successful in earning you a good income?

Keyword Research Simplified

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