An analysis of web’s most popular 20,000 keywords by TopPayingKeywords.com, found that keyword prices dropped 3.0% from January 2005 to April 2005 from an average bid price of 58.9 cents to an average bid price of 57.1 cents. The 20,000 most popular keywords are distributed in pricing as follows:
Keyword Price…# of Keywords
$20.00-$49.99…20
$10.00 - $19.99…123
$5.00 - $9.99…660
$3.00 - $4.99…923
$1.00 - $2.99…3,918
$0.50 - $0.99…2,259
$0.25 - $0.49…2,115
$0.15 - $0.24…1,584
$0.10 - $0.14…2,962
$0.05 - $0.09…592
Note that there are 4,379 keywords in the Top 20,000 keywords which have either a zero price or do not have three active advertisers.
Keyword pricing is critical for internet advertisers and also webmasters as expensive keywords allow them to maximize their profits using Google’s Adsense™ program.
According to Dave Lavinsky, President of TopPayingKeywords.com, “With the overall decrease in keyword prices this quarter, it is important to know which keywords remain profitable. What may not seem evident is that in fact many keywords enjoyed a large appreciation in value and now we have over 800 keywords in our database that are worth $5.00 or more.”
There were many large increases in the value of certain keywords. The keyword “shiva” for example, went up 935% from a price of just $0.17 to $1.76. “Medifast” also made a giant leap in value increasing from $1.50 to $6.98. This surge in value is most likely due to increased consumer awareness of the Medifast brand and increasing competition among retailers.
With information changing so quickly it is important to keep abreast of the current value of keywords. The value of these keywords can change dramatically over a very short period of time making a once profitable website quickly unprofitable. For instance, the keyword “Vioxx” declined by 50% from $16 to $8 from January to April 2005 as the value of Vioxx litigation clients decreased. Keeping informed and up to date is of great importance to webmasters looking to turn a profit.
