Guest Post – Keyword Research Case Study for Beginners

Ok I am familiar with stadium cups. So I went to GAKT and used a filter of 1600 exact match searches. 

“Personalized plastic cups” looked interesting so I ran it through the Contexual tool to get a more real Adsense rate as per Hayden’s suggestion.

Adsense Suggested Bid(Contexual Tool): $3.64

Now Adsense is not on my radar right now although it’s a definite in the future. Currently in my short career I’m more interested in selling physical products online. I have contacts with factories/suppliers for personalized plastic cups and average sale is $97.50 at a 40% margin. So we are looking at $39/sale for a 1600 exact math keyword. But as a side note Adsense looks good at $3.64 though.

So I hit up SEOmoz to get their metrics. Below is a screenshot of SEO moz top 10 for personalized plastic cups.

One thing I notice is keyword difficulty at 39%. According to Hayden if keyword difficulty is under 40% it is easier to rank without back links or not much back links.

Next step is to get APA using NoHatSEO metrics. I’m doing this manually.

Step 1  Links to page Modifier Metrics

If PA=1 , it means 0 external linking root domains, make APA=40% from DA.

Else do nothing, leave APA as is.

The only site this applies to is the #9 site. All other sites stay the same.

1- 31

2-38

3-32

4-56

5-27

6-30

7-28

8-25

9- 58.20(97 -40%)

10-53

Step 2 Page Title Modifier Metrics

If no words or variations from KW match words in the title, then deduct 60% from APA. If 100% match then deduct nothing. Everything in between is calculated according to the formula in the attached spreadsheet.

I am doing this manually so we have to go 1 by 1. My potential target keyword is a 3 word keyword.

1- 1 out of 3= 33%, cups

2-100% match no deduction

3- 2 out of 3= 67%, plastic cups

4- 100% match no deduction

5-2 out of 3= 67%, plastic cups

6- 100% match no deduction

7-100% no deduction

8-2 out of 3=67%, personalized cups

9-100% no deduction

10-1 out of 3=33%, cups

Now we need to calculate according to the sheet:

1- 31X40.20%= 18.54

2-38X0= 38

3-42X19.8= 33.68

4-56X0= 56

5-27X19.8= 21.65

6-30X0=30

7-29X0=29

8-25X19.8= 20.05

9-58.20X0= 58.20

10-53X40.20= 31.69

Ok a comment. The only sites I’m concerned about is the #4 and #9 site. SEO moz has a check mark in the Page Authority and Page Linking Root Domains for site #4. For site #9 SEO moz has check mark in Domain Authority and Root Domains/Linking Roor Domains. But we’ll see how much or not Step 3 will reduce APA.

Step 2A

After that, if any number of words are not in the same order, deduct 5.

If there is any number of variations of words deduct 3.

These conditions are cumulative, that is: if any number of words are not in the same order AND there is any number of variations of words, deduct 8.

1- deduct 8, 18.54-8= 10.54

2-deduct 0 exact order, 38

3-deduct 8, 33.68-8= 25.68

4-deduct 0 exact order, 56

5-deduct 8, 21.65-8= 13.65

6-deduct 8, 30-8= 22

7-deduct 0 exact order, 29

8-deduct 8, 20.05-8= 12.05

9-deduct 8, 58.20-8= 50.20

10-deduct 8, 31.69-8= 23.69

Step 3 Domain Name Modifier Metrics.

This is a 3 word keyword so we have to use the metric pertaining to 3 word keyword.

There is no site that has keyword/s in top 10 so all numbers stay the same from Step 2A.

1- 10.54

2-38

3-25.68

4-56

5-13.65

6-22

7-29

8-12.05

9-50.20

10-23.69

The above is the bottom line APA of the top 10

Now exact match domain isn’t available so the next best thing is phrase match,
personalizedplasticcupsnow.com, personalizedplasticcupshq.com I’m thinking. 

The #4 site still stayed strong even though it doesn’t have keyword or any variations in domain name. The #9 site went down.  (Hayden’s comment: #9 may be artificially high with 40%.  I would generally say that massive sites with PA=1 and  DA >80 would probably get their APA at 30% or so of the DA, but I haven’t yet integrated this into my tool.  #4 should likely be #1 based on metrics but might be Penguined or OOPed or devalued a bit, would have to dig deeper into the backlink profile).

So I’ve identified the site, here’s what I want to do:

I want to create a sales type site. I’ll also have pages for content that I plan to add consistently such as tips, ideas, case studies etc, maybe customer testimonials. I want to start out with one cup style. It has multiple color options and decorating options(personalization) are per order. So there will be some processing on my end. I think it might be worth it if I can get to 1-3 position because of the per sales margin at $39 average.

1600 exact match searches ranked #1 will get 720 of 1600X2% conversion= 14.4 sales/monthX $39/per sale= $561.

Then less my expenses for outsourcing consistent content. My plan is to add updated fresh unique content every 24-48 hours for 1st 2 weeks then ease up to maybe once a week.  Why? Although this might not be a market that I’ll need such I want to give audience good stuff/info and I think Google likes updated content.

So now I’m looking into word press for this.  I have access to a nice image for these cups.

This niche is a go according to No Hat SEO’s keyword research and competition method using SEO moz. I have to say once you start doing this manually it gets easier. I’m not sure if SEO moz doesn’t show all of page title or not for each site but what I did what clicked on each site opening up site in another window. By doing this I saw some differences in page title from what SEO moz showed and what the actual website showed. I’m not sure that this matters. I was wondering about how competitors back  links would come into play with this. My conclusion in this matter is that Keyword Difficulty addresses this.

What was the mind blower for me was Hayden said that other tools don’t tell you what’s happening in the ‘back office’ of their results and calculations. With No Hat SEO’s process you learn that certain important yet basic SEO elements are part of these results and how they are measured. Such as page title. It’s no secret that page title is probably the most important element for on page optimization and No Hat SEO competition analysis puts certain weight whether or not keyword is in page title, partial, exact etc. This is why  I like this method versus other tools that just spit out results.