Choosing a money-making keyword is as easy as 1-2-3:
1. High relevancy (CTR)
2. High keyword value (EPC)
3. Evaluate performance (RPM) and repeat
STEP ONE: HIGH RELEVANCY (CTR, or Click-Through-Rate)
The most important factor in keyword selection is the relevancy of the advertisements displayed to what your site visitors are looking for. Consider this: if you can increase your average CTR from 10% to 15%, that represents a 50% jump in earnings! If that's not reason enough to pay attention to relevancy, then please also keep in mind that domain parking company reviews all keyword submissions for relevancy. Setting non-relevant keywords can result in you being blocked from participation in domains Parking program, and the subsequent loss of your revenue.
Some tips for determining what visitors to your site are looking for:
- Check the Domain Details page (click the icon next to a domain) to find out what the most popular user queries are. Often this is an indication of what visitors to your site are (literally) searching for.
- Check Archive.org to see if the domain might have been previously developed, and target according to the content of the old website.
- Google the domain term and/ or the domain itself. Google knows everything.
Once you've identified an appropriate topic area, make sure you havent forgotten these two details:
- Don't forget the international users!
Check the Domain Details page to determine where most of your visitors are coming from. If most of your visitors are coming from France, choose a French keyword (and so on). If visitors are from many countries, make sure to choose a particularly strong keyword which will still have advertisers in many markets (see step two for tips on finding strong keywords).
- Dont' forget keyword sexiness?!
Keyword Sexiness? is a fun term to refer to the attractiveness of the advertising links for a potential visitor to your parking page. Some sub-categories within an interest area just seem to attract more clicks than others do. For example, suppose you have a domain related to small business.
You might choose entrepreneurship?, small business loan?, incorporation?, franchise?, home business?, etc. All are related concepts, but you'll find variation just because some have more appealing ads than others. Ask yourself, Would I click on one of these advertisements if I was a visitor interested in this topic??
STEP TWO: HIGH KEYWORD VALUE (EPC, or Earnings Per Click)
Everyone wants to know which keywords pay the most. The truth is that a number of factors effect keyword value, including (but not limited to):
- The geographic origin of your visitors
- Which ad is clicked on
- Seasonality (time of year) and time of day
- Relevancy of keyword to domain name
- Etc
Google claims that literally thousands of variables factor in to keyword pricing, so nobody (probably not even at Google!) knows exactly how keywords are priced. Thus, the best advice is probably to go back to step #1 and make sure your keywords are highly relevant!
If you're choosing between multiple highly-relevant options and need a tie-breaker, consider the Three Golden Rules of High Paying Keywords:
GOLDEN RULE #1: The most important factor in determining keyword value is the commercial potential of a single searcher in that area. To guesstimate commercial potential multiply value of a sale times conversion rate.
ASK YOURSELF: Is an advertiser going to make money from someone searching this keyword?
EX 1.1: Mesothelioma lawyer: a single mesothelioma victim could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to me as a lawyer. Even if only one searcher in a thousand signs up with me, those searchers are pretty valuable!
- A high value keyword!
EX 1.2: Conference Call: A single searcher wanting to set up a conference call may be worth only $50 or $60, but the chances are good that a searcher will convert to a sale.
- Also an expensive keyword!
EX 1.3: Car: Cars cost tens of thousands of dollars, but the vast majority of people searching for cars arent about to buy one on the Internet. High sale value, but low conversion.
- Better might be a specific model of car, car insurance, rental car, car dealership, car prices, etc., as these terms are more likely to convert to a sale.
Tip: More specific terms, where the searcher has qualified themselves more, are generally more likely to convert to a sale. Eg, Miami Cosmetic Surgeon is more likely to convert to a sale than big boobs, and is therefore worth more. Just be careful your selection is not too specific, or it will violate Rule #2
RULE #2: The next most important factor is keyword competition. Many companies competing for traffic in the same keyword area drive bid prices up. Low supply and high demand = high prices! This is why focused, well-qualified terms often do better, and why very frequently searched keywords (adult terms, music, games, etc) are often low value.
ASK YOURSELF: Are there many companies who would want to advertise on this keyword?
Rule of thumb: More advertisers means more competition for a given keyword. Make sure there are lots of ads when you preview the keyword, or try going to the country-specific Google (eg, Google.us for US, Google.de for Germany, Google.co.uk for UK, etc) and typing in the search query to see how many results there are in that country.
Rule of thumb corrollary: If its blue, its for you: If a search for the keyword on the appropriate Google country-site results in the blue bars up top with ads, youre probably doing well. The blue bars seem to be a good indicator that a keyword is highly sought after.
RULE #3: Is the keyword relevant? Yes, relevancy even has an impact on pricing?so double-check that the keyword generates advertisements that really do provide exactly what visitors to the site are looking for.
ASK YOURSELF: Will these advertisers be able to generate sales from my visitors?
STEP 3: EVALUATE PERFORMANCE (Revenue Per Mille [1,000] visitors, or RPM) AND REPEAT
Make a note of the last date upon which you optimized, and after a week or so, check back on the Daily Report to see if performance has increased or decreased. Then do it all again! Dont forget that the only reliable yardstick of parking performance is RPM, as total earnings may vary dramatically up and down due to factors other than keyword selection (especially traffic variations).
The test and repeat? cycle of optimizing keywords (as well as other factors such as layout) is critical to maximizing your earnings potential. Sure, its a bit of work now, but once your parking pages are tuned to perfection, you can sit back, relax, and watch the earnings pile up month after month!
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