Riya · SEO
Maya · Web
Rebecca · Social
Victor · LeadsKeyword Research for Affiliate Marketing in 2027: Find What Buyers Search
Keyword research for affiliate marketing means finding the searches people make right before they buy, then giving each one its own page. Those searches come in four shapes: "best X," "X vs Y," "[product] review," and the how-to questions that come first. Below we run the whole process on a real niche, pour-over coffee, with live search data, and end with the first 20 keywords we'd target.
All numbers are US monthly searches and keyword difficulty (0 to 100) from DataForSEO, pulled in October 2026.
Part 01The four kinds of affiliate keywords
| Type | Example from our pour-over research | Monthly searches | Difficulty | What the page should be |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Best X" (roundup) | best pour over coffee maker | 5,400 | 0 | A roundup with a quick-pick table |
| "X vs Y" (comparison) | pour over coffee vs french press | 4,400 | 0 | A side-by-side comparison with a verdict |
| "[Product] review" | fellow stagg ekg review | 20 | 1 | A single-product review |
| How-to (pre-purchase) | pour over coffee ratio | 6,600 | 7 | A how-to that links to the roundup |
What the data shows:
- "Best" and "vs" searches carry the volume and are the closest to a purchase. They're where most affiliate clicks happen.
- Single-product review searches are small. "Fellow Stagg EKG review" gets about 20 searches a month. Reviews still matter, because readers reach them from your roundup, but don't expect them to pull much search traffic on their own.
- How-to searches are large and early. "How to make pour over coffee" gets about 5,400. They bring readers in; your job is to link them to the roundup.
Part 02Keyword research for affiliate marketing, step by step
Step 1: Start with 2 or 3 seed terms
Use the product category in plain words: "pour over kettle," "gooseneck kettle," "pour over coffee."
Step 2: Expand each seed
Run each seed through a keyword tool's suggestions. We pulled the top 200 suggestions for each of our three seeds, 600 in total.
Step 3: Merge spellings of the same search
Many suggestions are the same search written differently, and tools often report the same volume for all of them. "Pour over kettle," "pour-over kettle," "kettle for pour over" and "coffee kettle for pour over" all showed 3,600. Treat that as one keyword and one page.
Step 4: Sort into the four types
Tag each keyword as best, vs, review or how-to. Drop anything navigational (someone looking for one brand's own site) unless you plan a review of that product.
Step 5: Check difficulty, then check the results page
Difficulty tells you how hard ranking is. The results page tells you what Google thinks the searcher wants. If the top results for a "best X" search are all retailers' category pages, a blog roundup will struggle. If they're review sites and Reddit, you can compete.
Step 6: Order by "closest to a purchase" first
Roundups first, then the comparisons between your top picks, then the how-to pages that feed the roundup, then individual reviews.
Part 03Our pour-over example: the first 20 keywords
| # | Keyword | Searches | Difficulty | Page type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | best pour over coffee maker | 5,400 | 0 | Roundup |
| 2 | best manual coffee grinder | 2,400 | 0 | Roundup |
| 3 | best gooseneck kettle | 1,300 | 0 | Roundup |
| 4 | best coffee grinder for pour over | 1,000 | 16 | Roundup |
| 5 | best pour over dripper | 880 | 2 | Roundup |
| 6 | best pour over kettle | 590 | 9 | Roundup (or merge with #3 after checking the results page) |
| 7 | best electric gooseneck kettle | 480 | 8 | Roundup |
| 8 | best scale for pour over | 170 | 0 | Roundup |
| 9 | pour over coffee vs french press | 4,400 | 0 | Comparison |
| 10 | pour over vs drip coffee | 1,300 | 0 | Comparison |
| 11 | chemex vs v60 | 880 | 0 | Comparison |
| 12 | pour over coffee ratio | 6,600 | 7 | How-to |
| 13 | how to make pour over coffee | 5,400 | 1 | How-to |
| 14 | pour over coffee temperature | 1,000 | 5 | How-to |
| 15 | best pour over coffee | 880 | 0 | How-to (it's mostly about beans and technique) |
| 16 | chemex review | 70 | 0 | Review |
| 17 | hario v60 review | 30 | 0 | Review |
| 18 | cosori gooseneck kettle review | 30 | 4 | Review |
| 19 | fellow stagg ekg review | 20 | 1 | Review |
| 20 | oxo gooseneck kettle review | 10 | 1 | Review |
Note #15: "best pour over coffee" looks like a roundup search, but the tool tags it as informational. Check the results page before deciding what to write.
Part 04Read the results page before you write
For each keyword, look at the top 10 and ask:
- What kind of page ranks? Roundups, retailer pages, videos or forums.
- Is there an AI Overview? In our check of 30 buying searches, 22 had one. If so, your page needs something the summary can't give, such as test results.
- Is Reddit there? It was in the top 10 for 20 of those 30 searches. Searchers want real experience; show yours.
- Who are the independent sites? If small review sites rank, a new site can too.
Part 05Keyword research tools for affiliates
| Tool | Free? | What it's good for |
|---|---|---|
| Votrix | Free to start | Runs keyword research and competitor analysis for your niche automatically after building the site, then writes and publishes the posts |
| Google Search Console | Free | The searches your existing pages already appear for |
| Google Keyword Planner | Free with a Google Ads account | Volume ranges from Google |
| Semrush | Free account with limited daily requests; paid from $117.33/mo billed annually | Volumes, difficulty, competitor keywords |
| Ahrefs Webmaster Tools | Free for your own site | Your site's keywords and backlinks |
Votrix's SEO automation does the steps in this guide on a schedule: keyword research and competitor analysis for your niche, a baseline of the questions people ask AI search, posts written and published for the gaps, then diagnosis and review of what ranked. The built-in site data shows which pages send clicks to the retailer, so the next round targets keywords like the ones that already earn.
Part 06Using ChatGPT for keyword research
ChatGPT is good at expanding a seed into dozens of buying questions and grouping them by type. It doesn't know search volumes or difficulty, and it will happily invent numbers. Use it for the brainstorm in Step 2, then check every keyword in a tool that has real data.
A prompt that works:
List 40 questions people search before buying a [product type]. Group them into: best-of lists, comparisons, single-product reviews, and how-to questions. Don't include volumes.
Quick answersFrequently asked questions
Searches that show someone is close to buying: "best," "vs," "review," "for [use case]," "under $[price]." In our pour-over data, "best pour over coffee maker" (5,400 searches, difficulty 0) is a typical example.
One search intent per page, including all its spellings and close variants. "Best pour over kettle" and "best gooseneck kettle" may be one page or two; the results page tells you.
For reviews and comparisons, yes. A review with 20 searches a month still converts readers who arrive from your roundup, and low-volume buying searches are often the easiest to rank for.
Yes: Google Search Console, Keyword Planner, Semrush's free requests and Ahrefs Webmaster Tools cover the basics, and Votrix runs the research for you once the site is built.
SummaryWhere to start
Pick three seed terms in your niche, expand them, merge the spellings, and fill in a 20-row table like the one above. Publish the top roundup first.
Let AI run your affiliate SEO and GEO
Votrix researches keywords, analyzes competitors, tracks how AI search mentions you, and writes and publishes the posts. Building the site is free, hosting included.
