Keyword Research is a lot of C.R.A.P.

It should be really simple he said. “I just want to be number one on Google for the word diet. I don’t really need anything else” he continued, “so I would think I could probably get a discount right?”

Well aside from the fact that there are about 457,000,000 search results for the single word “diet”, I try not to over promise…so I asked him if Tuesday was soon enough.

“Really? You can do it that fast?”

Nooooo…not really. In fact no one who hasn’t already done it is likely to do it in the foreseeable future. At least no one who isn't already on the first page of the search results.

“I understand, so we need to get on the first page first right?”

Well yes, but that’s probably not going to happen either.

“Why?”

Because you have a $500 budget, and I would bet that most of the other 457 million competitors also have at least that much to invest…. and there is only room for 10 of them on the first page.

That’s a lot of crap! How am I supposed to sell anything?

(I was hoping he would say that)

That’s exactly the problem… not enough C.R.A.P!

At last…the perfect opportunity for me to launch into my homemade acronym! No charts or diagrams or Instagrams or telegrams… no grams at all. Just words. Let’s start with C.R.A.P.

The "C" is for Commerciality:

I proceeded with; If you were number one for the keyword “Diet” on Google, could you make money on it?

“Yes! Of course”

OK… check… one down.

The "R" is for Relevance:

Is the word “Diet” truly relevant to your goals? I mean are the majority of people who are searching on the word diet really looking for what you offer?

“Well, some of them are. It’s not actually a diet, it is more of a dietary supplement. It’s for left-handed scuba divers who go below 20 fathoms.”

Then you might unnecessarily be competing with Jenny Craig, and Nutrisystem for people who are looking to loose weight, and WebMD and Wikipedia for people looking for information. You would also be competing with every website that has ever mentioned the word diet. There are probably descriptive search phrases that are more “relevant” to your target market.

The "A" is for Acceptable Levels of Competition:

There are almost half a Billion pages that are already indexed on Google for the word diet, the competition looks pretty stiff. I recommend that we take a look at other less competitive keywords that are somewhat obtainable. After all, wouldn’t you rather capture 5% of 1000 searches than 0% of a million?

“Good idea”

Thanks.

The "P" Popularity:

Are there a reasonable amount of people searching on the word diet?

“Of course”

Then you have two out of the 4 requirements, so you are only half full of C.R.A.P. You would want to find multiple, targeted, less competitive keywords, that accumulatively will get you more targeted traffic than the single word “diet” ever will. Once you’re full of C.R.A.P there’s no stopping you.

So this is doable right?

No.

Why?

Because you still only have $500 to work with.

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About Chuck Bankoff
Chuck Bankoff has been a Digital Marketing strategist since 1999 and is an International speaker, author and trainer to Internet Consultants on 5 continents. Chuck manages a team of website development and web presence optimization specialists from the Kreative Webworks office in Capistrano Beach, CA. Join him on Google+