Keyword Research versus Market Research – Which is Which?

Many beginning internet marketers are a little bit confused about the difference between keyword research versus market research.

Your market research indicates whether you’ve found a ‘hot’ market or niche. This means a group of people who are interested in a particular topic and are willing to spend money on products or services relating to this topic.

Your keyword research then indicates which exact words people are using to find information in this niche. For your keyword research you should consider things like SEO competition, how many searches a keyword gets, how much traffic a website would get from these searches, etc.

Your research should look something like this:

Market Research
1. Find niche markets
2. Determine whether it is a ‘hot’ niche market (Tip: If other people are making money in this niche, it should be possible for you too!
3. Find offers in this niche market
4. Plan how to enter the niche market (blog, squeeze page, PPC, SEO, etc)

Keyword Research

5. Do some broad keyword research (also called lateral keyword research)
6. Swipe your competitors keywords
7. Analyse each keyword (including number of searches, SEO competition, PPC cost, commercial intent, etc)
8. Decide on your primary and related keywords for each of your online assets (blog posts, articles, squeeze page, etc)

I will be posting in more detail about each of these steps in the near future. In the meantime, please leave comments or questions below.