How To Find Commercial Intent Keywords

I’ve been getting questions about keyword research, how to find “buying” keywords. I’ll give you the answer in two parts. First up are two popular keyword tools. The Wordtracker Labs Question Tool and the Google Keyword Research Tool.

For example, if your market is in the weight loss niche, just type in the root word ‘weight’ and look at the results.

The Wordtracker tool shows the questions that people are asking. Every one of these questions would make an excellent blog post, or article.

Put the question as the title of your page, or post, for maximum SEO benefit. Then proceed to answer the question in your content.

The Google tool is sorted by relevance when you open it. That’s a key point to remember.

Most people look at the numbers and sort by competition or searches. That’s the wrong way to go about it… at first.

The right way to find the content that should be on your page, is to not click on anything. The moment you search for your root word ‘weight’ the Google tool sorts by relevance.

The competition, number of searches, trends, etc, are all irrelevant at this moment. What matters are the keywords in the order they appear.

So if you scan your eyes down the keyword column, those are the keywords – according to Google’s LSI engine – that should appear in your pages and posts.

As for what to sell, go to Amazon.com. Type in your keywords, then click on the drop down menu where it says, Choose a Department to enable sorting. Choose to sort by best selling.

The resulting list from Amazon, features the hottest selling products in America right now. You’d be wise to feature similar products on your sales pages.

As for the second half of the question, about the “buyer” keywords, there used to be a tool by MSN to look up commercial intent. It’s constantly being hammered by bots, so it’s rarely available.

If you can’t get the MSN tool to work, you can use the Google tool as a “commercial barometer” of sorts. Once you enter your root term, look for the Columns button and select Show All columns. The results will refresh with new data.

Look at the estimated CPC or cost per click. That will show you the “commercial” keywords most likely to convert for the advertiser. The logic being, that most people won’t throw their ad budgets into non converting phrases.

To get true commercial intent though, we have to go back to the old school method. That means a combo of common sense, linguistics and server logs.

Here are some hot keywords with great commercial intent. They are very likely to lead to a sale.

Hot Keywords; refill, removal, service, solutions, retailers, store, sale, buy, where to, get, purchase, fix, rent, parts, repair, relief, cure, stop, replacement, reservation, reserve, book (as in booking a flight, or room).

Here are some warm keywords that are commercial in nature, but the intent isn’t quite as clear. They are more research based and informational in nature. They may, or may not lead to a sale.

Warm Keywords; help, tips, advice, information, news, recipes, articles, newest, improve, training, courses, prevent, create, prepare, instructions, learn, info, start, how to, compare, reviews, shop.

A few words you may want to avoid, because they’re competing on price alone are; discount, cheap, specials, prices. And a few words if you’re selling to businesses might be; bulk, wholesale, volume, suppliers.

As a general rule of thumb, but not always, long tail keywords that are very specific, are usually commercial in nature. The head of the search, which uses short generic phrases, are used for information gathering and research.

For example, the head phrase ‘cell phone‘ could be about anything. It could be about networks, tethering, GPS, accessories, makes, models, model numbers, comparisons, general info, history, GSM, technology, etc.

Even the phrase ‘buy cell phone‘ although commercial in nature and intent, leaves the search engine scratching it’s noggin wondering… Ok, what make and model number? New or used? What carrier? Retail or wholesale? Local or national?

To convert into a sale, the search needs to be more specific. Most likely it will be a long tail phrase. The research will be over. And the prospect will be in a buying mood.

For example, if someone is searching for the phrase ‘buy nokia n95 replacement battery‘ there’s little doubt as to the commercial nature, or their intent. You might even want to use that exact phrase as your page title.

The same holds true for other accessories and parts. Words like; charger, adapter, handsfree, handsfree kit, leather case, antenna, passive repeater, power supply, wall adapter, etc.

If you combine a make and model number, along with an accessory, you’re pretty much assured that the searcher knows what they want. Then, if you add in a couple of hot ‘commercial intent’ keywords, and combine them with that make and model, you’re pretty much assured of making the sale.