Niche Site Case Study 2: Making a Keyword Plan

Last update, we set up the backbone of our new niche site. The next step is to get to the nitty gritty – writing a keyword plan for the main article.

A keyword plan is the key to the success of my niche sites. Making sure I use absolutely excellent on-page SEO (read what this means and other terms in the glossary) is how I ensure the maximum amount of traffic to my Amazon link rich, buying guides.

In this update, I am going to discuss how I make a keyword plan for the main article. By main article, I mean the main buying guide for the product you decided on in step 1.

If you haven’t read my other niche site case study updates, you can find them all here. They will help you build your own niche site and follow the progress of my own, new niche sites.

Step 4: Make keyword plan for the main article

Find all keywords related to your main buying keyword

The first step is to find all keywords related to your main buying keyword. Your main buying keyword is the one you found in step 1. Basically, “best <product name>”.

You simply enter this into a keyword research tool (I recommend KeySearch) to find all similar keywords and download them in a CSV file. You then need to go through and remove all keywords that aren’t relevant.

The easiest way to illustrate this is with a video. In this example, I’m going to pretend I am building a keyword plan for “best bread machine”.

Once you have filtered out all the non-relevant keywords, you have your keyword list!

You can read more about using KeySearch to find keywords here.

Click Here to Download a Checklist of all the 7 Steps to Building a Money Making Niche Site!

Write your keyword plan

The next step is to make your plan using this keyword list. This is basically planning the structure of your guide for the product you selected and where you will use the keywords in the article.

First, start by thinking what you will include in your guide. I recommend you look at competing articles to see how they have structured their articles (do this by searching for your main keyword in Google and looking at the top 10 articles).

Generally, I include:

• A buying guide – what to look for when purchasing the product
• Comparison chart
• Short product reviews of top items

I might have other sections depending on what my competitors are doing, my product and my keywords.

I then either use Excel or Word and I write my article sub headings – using words from my keyword list where possible. I also work out which product reviews I am going to include in the article and write subheadings for these too.

I work out which products to review based on two things:

• My keyword list. I am more likely to include products that are on here.
• Their popularity on Amazon. I like to use products that are rated 4+ on Amazon and have been reviewed by many people.

I then add keywords from my keyword list into each of the sections of the article ensuring I use every single one. I also write a meta-description and the title of the article using my very best keywords – basically buying keywords with large number of searches.

This is a straight forward process but it is not as quick as it might sound – at least not if your keyword list is long.

Our niche sites

It’s now been about a month and a half since we finished our niche sites and started link building. We are still link building using our new PBN sites.

So how are they going? All information below is about the last month. The numbers in brackets are their figures from my last update, a fortnight ago.

Site 1

Ranking for: 247 keywords (145 )
Main keyword is ranking: 30 on average (45), currently 27.
Sessions from organic search: 105 (51)

Site 2

Ranking for: 80 keywords (25)
Main keyword is ranking: 105 on average (155), currently 95.
Sessions from organic search: 47 (25)

Site 1 was finished about two weeks before Site 2 and has also had more links built to it.

First sale and problems with Amazon affiliate account

We had our first sale on Site 1 which we were very excited about. Unfortunately, this excitement was short lived when our Amazon affiliate account was closed.

It is a new account and they do a manual check of the site once the first sale goes through. Their reason was “Your web site includes the unapproved use of Amazon.com trademarked words, images, or reviews”. It does not, so I am confused. Still, I made some changes to images and ratings and re-opened the account.

There has been another sale now so we are holding our breath, hoping the account is approved this time.

This seems to be a common problem. Many people are writing about it online. I am sure we will be approved eventually and the silver lining is that I will tell you how!

Time and money spent on step 4

Time Spent: 3-4 hours per site
Money: US$0

Our recommended keyword research tool, KeySearch, costs $17 for a month. I already have a lifetime membership for this so it did not cost me anything.

Don’t be disheartened if this step takes longer for you – that just means you have lots of great keywords which hopefully means you have more chance of success!

Find all niche site case study 2 updates here.

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Read step 5: Writing your main article here.

I would love to hear your thoughts below about writing a keyword plan! Any questions?

Find more posts on my case studies and niche sites here.

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