Introduction
Once you have decided what topic you are going to base your affiliate website on.
You will need to complete a full review of a number of products in that field.
The goal for each specific review of a product is to get it to rank on the first page of Google for your choose keyword.
If you succeed, you will naturally rank for related keywords.
The keyword is the words and phrases that a searcher will type into Google.
When writing reviews I generally choose the make + model number of the product e.g. Beldray BEL0019. If the number of monthly searches for a specific model is low (in this case zero), I would use make + generic term e.g. Beldray Steam Cleaner(in this case 1000).
Alternatively, if the search volume is too high I would place a modifying word such as “best” in front of the keyword or “review” after the keyword.
After selecting the keyword I write a comprehensive review of that product based on that keyword.
Installing Keywords Everywhere
To search for keywords to review you will first need to install Keyword Everywhere. This will show you the average monthly number of searches for a keyword.
Keywords Everywhere is a browser extension for Chrome or Firefox. You will need either of these browsers installed to run this extension.
You can obtain Keywords Everywhere at the following address https://keywordseverywhere.com.
You will be sent an email link with an API key to which allows you to obtain the search volume data. (Could give full instructions on how to install).
How Keywords Everywhere Works
As you enter a keyword in the Google search box. Keyword Everywhere will show the average monthly search volume of a keyword below the box.
If you click on the keg icon this will run showing the monthly search volume for the last year. This is particularly useful where there are season variations or to spot trending products.
Installing MOZ Bar
We are also going to install Mozbar so that we can see what the competition for our keyword is like on the first page of Google Search results.
You will need to download the Mozbar from https://moz.com/products/pro/seo-toolbar
This is another chrome extension. When running it gives you the Domain Authority (DA) and page Authority (PA) for each site listed in Google search results.
The Domain Authority is how big and credible the domain is, the higher the better. The Page Authority is how good the individual page is.
Procedure to Select Keywords
There are two stages to my procedure to decide whether a keyword is suitable to write a review for the first page on google.
Firstly, we will use Google search operators “inanchor” and “intitle” to decide how competitive a keyword is likely to be.
Secondly, we will examine the Domain and Page Authority of websites in the first ten results for the keyword in Google.
Using inanchor and intitle
Use KeywordKeg to find the monthly search volume of a keyword.
I look for keywords with an average monthly search volume of over 1000.
This is sufficient volume to enable your site to receive clicks if it is ranking on the first page.
In the case of the keyword phrase, “Beldray Steam Cleaner” there are average of 1000 searches per month.
Next, type the keyword into Google and note the number of results. You are looking for results that are less than 1,000,000.
Next perform an “inanchor” search. This is the number of pages with links pointing to them containing the keyword or phrase. Under 1000 is best, definitely under 100,000.
In the case of “Beldray Steam Cleaner” there are 9,440 results.
Next perform an “intitle” search. This is the number of sites with the keyword in the title tag. This will give an idea of the number of sites competing for the keyword. The lower number of results the better.
In the case of “Beldray Steam Cleaner” there are 3,740 results.
Now combine the two terms and do an intitle:”keyword”inanchor:”keyword” search. This will give an indication of the serious SEO competition. The lower the number of results the better, needs to be less than 1000.
In the case of “Beldray Steam Cleaner” there are 2510 results.
I will sometimes consider products where there are fewer than 1000 searches per month in some case. If the keyword is not to competitive you can end up ranking high on the first page and still receive some visitors to your page.
Using Domain and Page Authority
If our keyword passes the first test, we can next look at the competition on the first page of Google results using the installed Mozbar.
For each keyword found, check the top 10 sites to see if there are any affiliate sites.
These are easy to identify, as they are usually Amazon Affiliate Sites and will have somewhere on the page, possibly at the bottom of the post. A message “Steam Mop Reviews is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme…”
If there are any Amazon affiliate websites, it is likely that you will be able to rank on the first page for this keyword if you write a better review.
As a guide if there are sites on the first page where both the DA and PA are less than 40, you should be able to rank on the first page.
Add the results to the “Products to Promote” spreadsheet. (Need to show a copy of this in Google Docs)
We are combining both of the above methods to decide whether to write a review around the selected keyword. The Products to Promote” spreadsheet, combines two methods to calculate whether it is worth putting up a product review for this item.