As an affiliate you are also a digital marketer. Your job is to get as much targeted traffic to your website as possible, in order to drive quality leads toward your affiliate offers. Simply having a website isn’t enough, you need visitors and plenty of them. People that visit your website through a google search are some of the most targeted visitors you can receive; they have searched for something very specific, in relation to the content on your website. This is why SEO, (search engine optimisation) is such a good investment of your time. The starting place for SEO lies in performing successful keyword research, here’s our guide:
Create a List of Potential Keywords
Before you do anything, you need to think about what people might be searching for in order to find your website. How would you describe your website or the things you are promoting on your website? From this, come up with a list of potential keywords, some very specific and some more general. Think about the different ways in which people search, for example voice search queries will differ from those that are typed. Search queries will also differ between various devices.
Look At Existing Traffic
Use Google Analytics or Google search console to see which keywords are already delivering visitors straight to your website. Although this data is rather limited, for example a large amount of data might be shown as ‘not provided’, you can still gain some valuable insight. This data will help support your initial ideas for keywords.
Use the Keyword Planner
Once you have your keyword list, you will need to use the Google keyword planner to learn which phrases and words are searched for the most. This will tell you which keywords will therefore generate the most traffic, if you could rank your website higher on Google. The keyword planner is part of the Adwords tool, so you will need to sign up for an Adwords account to access this. The keyword planner can also be used to help you extend that list, offering further suggestions for related keywords.
Keyword research cannot be overlooked, it provides you with such insightful data to support your overall SEO strategy. It will shape the content you create on your website, it will highlight your key competitors. There is so much to discover when you start researching exactly how your customers are finding your website.
