Hi everyone.

i'm just starting out on this venture, but have been researching and planning for the past few months. THere is soooo much to learn and so much information that i feel i just have to go for it.

I'd like to start a website and have been trying to find some niches. I found one that i am excited about b/c i feel i can really contribute some valuable info./advice and i also see it has being potentially profitable through affiliate marketing.

My problem is when i look on Wordtracker they tell me there are 150,000 competing sites with an estimated count of 453 searches per day. WHich is pretty good, correct? (please, correct me if i'm wrong). But when, i do a google search with the same keywords in quotes, it comes up as over a million sites. Or is google including actual web PAGES and not sites?

Also, unless i'm understanding it wrong, i've read conflicting information on using key words. Do you guys find it more helpful to use as many "top" key words as you can for a certain site. Or do those key words end up competing against each other in the search engines?

I hope my questions make sense. THanks for your time and advice!

Nicole

good questions. I was told it should be under 1 million sites and 200+ searches a day. But lets see what someone who knows what they are talking about says.

Hi Nicole,

I'm no pro, but I don't think you have to worry so much about the competition for your main keyword as much as you do for all your secondary keywords. I'll use myself as an example.

My site is all about chocolate candy. The main keyword "chocolate candy" has huge competition. But when I did my keyword research, I also looked at the supply and demand for hundreds of secondary keywords that would be keyword focused content pages off of my home page. For instance,

chocolate candy recipes
chocolate candy making
chocolate candy molds
party favors
chocolate fudge
chocolate fondue
chocolate gift candy, etc.,

You get the idea? If I can rank well enough for a lot of the other keywords, I won't have to worry so much about my homepage keyword.

I admit that the process of figuring out my niche site concept was made simple for me because of the program I am with called SBI. They have some really neat Brainstorming tools and step by step advice to help you narrow it down to the niche that is right for you. Anyone who knows me, online or offline, knows I'm crazy about SBI - ha ha. I know I wouldn't have had much hope of figuring all this stuff out on my own.

Anyway, I hope that helps you decide your niche. Maybe someone else will chime in soon with more specific advice on exact numbers and recommendations. I just wanted to point out that it is not just your main keyword, but the bigger picture.

All the best.

Like happywife said, don't focus on just one keyword. You can pick 2 or 3 keywords for each content page. That means if you have 50 content pages, then you would use between 100 and 150 keywords. So you don't need to find keywords with 200 searches a day...

If you use: allintitle: "Keyword" at google you will see how many websites there are optimized for your keyword (these pages have it in their title). That is the real number of websites that you are competing with.

Guido

Thank you! I will put all of your advice "to work" as i'm sure it will help greatly!



Nicole

What does SBI stand for and what is the web address?