So you’ve done keyword research with Wordtracker — now what?

Grant asks:

"I have come up with an idea for a boat motor flushing tool that has the potential to solve/reduce two problems for neighbours of trailer boat owners:

1. Noise pollution

2. Exhaust fume pollution

I tried searching for "Outboard motor maintenance," "Boat motor accessories" in word tracker. Best KEI I could get was a 4.7. Does this mean a successful product for the above problem would be a flop on the internet?"

Grant, I’m so glad you asked this question!

Keyword research with an online tool like Wordtracker plays such an important role in building a successful business… when it’s done properly. However, so many beginners just don’t know how to do keyword research — and it ends up being their biggest stumbling block.

What is "KEI" — and how important is it?

"KEI" is one of the numbers you get when you do keyword research with Wordtracker. It stands for "keyword effectiveness index."

KEI shows how many searches are being done on a keyword, compared to the number of sites that appear in the search results for that keyword. Generally speaking, you want to look for keywords with a high KEI, as it means there’s a lot of searches being done but not a lot of competing sites out there.

However, Internet marketing beginners often get too hung up on "KEIs" and think an idea is a flop if they can’t find a bunch of keywords with 100+ KEIs.

Alternatively, they think they’ve hit the jackpot if they find a keyword with a KEI of 400+ — even if that KEI only gets 5 searches a day!

The truth is, KEI is a great guide — but a terrible master.

KEI gives you some idea of whether a business idea is worth pursuing, but it never gives you the whole picture. For example, one of your keywords might have a KEI of 1.66 because it has 19,200 sites competing for 40 predicted daily searches. Another keyword might have a KEI of 1024, because there are NO competing sites (but only 7 daily searches).

Which keyword do you think will be most effective in driving the greatest number of visitors to your site?

The keyword that gets 40 searches a day — even if it does have a much lower KEI!

In the grand scheme of things, 19,200 competing sites aren’t a whole lot. Most of those sites might not be your actual competitors at all. Maybe they don’t offer a product for sale… or the product they do sell does a lousy job of solving your market’s problem… or they aren’t properly optimized for the search engines. By using strategic search marketing techniques you could easily go up against them and come out at the top of the listings!

So, Grant, don’t let low KEI keywords get you down. The number you want to focus on is how many searches are being done. As an example, if you can accumulate a large cluster of similarly themed keywords that together have 300 or more daily searches being done on them — and each of those keywords has less than, say, 20,000 competing sites — then you’re probably on to something.

(So long as you check out the quality of the competition and make sure that the market isn’t flooded with companies providing perfectly good solutions to your target audience’s problem!)

Make sure your keywords accurately describe a problem

Something else you need to remember is that your keyword phrase should clearly describe the problem your product is going to solve.

Make sure you try to describe these two problems in as many different ways as possible. The words you use may not be the ones your target audience uses. You’ve got to find out how THEY express the problem if you want to find the keyword phrases they’re using with the search engines.

And that leads us to next stage of your research, Grant…

Your market knows best! Find your target audience online and TALK to them

Once you’ve done some preliminary research with Wordtracker — regardless of whether you think you’ve hit the "KEI jackpot" or not — you need to find your target audience online and discover what THEY have to say about the problem your product is going to solve.

In your case, I’d say your target audience is small boat owners. However, when searching for them, you need to be as specific as possible. Are they small boat owners who have motors of a specific size and only go boating in lakes? Then look for them — not just anyone who owns a boat.

Here’s where to look:

• Google Groups (http://groups.google.com) Google has a discussion group for pretty much EVERYTHING, so it’s a great place to start out. Plug in keyword phrases related to your market and the problem your product will solve (e.g., freshwater boating, outboard motor pollution, complaints about my noisy boat) and see what comes up.

• Online forums 
  Go to Google or Yahoo and plug your keyword phrases + forums into the search bar. (Grant, you might want to try searches on phrases like "freshwater boating + forums," "lake boating + forums" or even "pontoon + forums," depending on which keywords have the most traction with your target audience."

  Look for forums that target your audience as specifically as possible. For example, don’t waste your time on boating forums that cater to ocean-going yacht owners or people who are interested in buying boats but don’t have one yet. They’re not your target audience.

• Blogs 
  Go to Google Blog Search (http://blogsearch.google.com) or Technorati (www.technorati.com) and search for your keywords. Then explore the results to see if any bloggers or commenters are talking about the problems your product is going to solve.

As you do your research, look for groups, forums, and blogs with recent entries and lots of activity. Be sure to avoid marketing forums or blogs. You want to find real people who are having real conversations about something you’re really interested in.

When you find a good forum, group, or blog, join the discussion. Ask people if they’ve ever had complaints about their outboard motors, and what they’ve done about them. Do they wish they could find a solution to these problems? Would they be willing to pay for such a solution? Do they know of any solutions that are already available?

Their answers will help you determine whether there really is a demand for your product.

Not only that, you’ll be able to discover the exact language people use when describing these problems. Then you can go back to Wordtracker and start researching the phrases your audience actually uses to see if they yield better results than your initial research did.

Finally, you’ll also be able to see which companies are advertising on these forums or blogs. Some of them might be your competition — but others might be companies that you can form lucrative joint ventures with!

So in closing, Grant, I wouldn’t throw in the towel just yet. Wordtracker is just the beginning… There’s a lot more research you need to do in order to discover whether your business idea really is a winner or not.

Good luck with your research, Grant!  And remember, as you do your research keep your eyes open for other business opportunities.

You may discover that your initial product idea might be a "flop" after all — but you may stumble upon a completely different idea that will lead you to online success!