Keyword research for affiliate marketing: four types that drive revenue

Executive overview

Affiliate sites fail when they target topics where visitors have no buying intent. The fix is choosing keywords that match commercial intent — where product recommendations feel natural rather than forced.

Search intent determines whether a keyword can generate affiliate revenue.

Four keyword types cover the full affiliate content strategy: general comparisons, branded comparisons, product reviews, and trust-and-authority topics.

General comparison keywords

• "Best [product]" keywords signal purchase intent — searchers are actively comparing options.
• Use a keyword tool's Phrase Match report with an "include: best" filter to generate lists fast.
• Low KD scores often surface cheaper products; high volume on cheap items is a numbers game.
• For higher-ticket items, use the format "best [product] for [user/need]" — e.g. "best car seat for small car".
• Specific-intent pages can outrank authoritative generic pages despite lower domain authority.

Branded comparison keywords

• Target keywords comparing two specific branded models — e.g. "UPPAbaby Cruz vs Vista".
• Search volume is low, but conversion is high: searchers have narrowed to a shortlist.
• Build a seed list of brand names, run them through Phrase Match with "include: versus".
• For brands with wide product lines, use specific model names as seeds instead.

Product review keywords

• Review keywords (e.g. "UPPAbaby Vista review") target buyers at the final decision stage.
• Volume is small; focus only on products people are actively searching for.
• Find reviewable brands by scraping category and brand navigation on major baby/niche e-commerce sites.
• Use a wildcard filter ("review*") in the keyword tool to surface model-level review opportunities.

Trust and authority (TNA) keywords

• Commercial pages are hard to get links to; informational content attracts them naturally.
• TNA topics serve two purposes: building audience trust and earning backlinks.
• Use informational seed keywords (e.g. "parenting", "newborn") and filter to the Questions report.
• Set a high minimum KD (e.g. 40) — high KD means top pages have lots of links, confirming link-earning potential.
• Internally link TNA pages to revenue-generating posts to pass authority across the site.