[DEBATE] Is KGR Really a Waste of Time?

[Shaunm]

But now google does not rank your keyword immediately and for the long term they now generally rank high authority sites or the sites which is ranking on broad term.

And the worse is, already 1st page is filled with the youtube, amazon, product link and infobar. So you actually don't get traffic like you used to get.

This is my experience too, I used to use my own method using slightly different search modifiers to KGR but that stuff just doesn't work like it used to as I pointed out in one of my earlier posts with live screenshots from the SERPs.

 

[Commoner]

It depends on whether the writer knows how to write and evaluate the KGR

Yes, KGR does works but with mixed successes.

 

[HoussamEddine]

hi OP
can i ask you smth?
what's the difference between using kgr and targeting long tail keyword with low comp
thank you

 

[Shaunm]

but with mixed successes.

A broken clock is right twice a day too.....

 

[ranga]

My 2 paisa

In my experience if top ranking sites give answer to the query directly even if using different words, then it would be difficult to rank even if it satisfies kgr.

 

[MisterF]

That's not even close to how modern Google works though.....

Take "best pillow for neck and upper back pain" as an example, normal search and all in title search are below.

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As you can see, it gets 140 searches according to keywords everywhere and has 9 results so 9/140 = 0.064. As 0.064 is less than 0.25, it fits the KGR formula but if we actually take a look at whats ranking for the keyword....

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You should be able to workout that you have no chance of ranking for that search term and surprise surprise, the term "best pillow for neck and upper back pain" is not in the title of any of those pages either. This is very common for the way Google works in 2020 and as I mentioned in an early comment, since the update last month, allintitle is even more useless as Reddit, Quora, Pinterest, YouTube, and Amazon are ranking higher and higher without having these types of keywords in their page titles either.

Just to add to this post by Shaun.


This was Keyword Revealers thoughts on this keyword

Now I have often looked for keywords where there is zero top 10 optimisation and gone after them, but only if there are 2 or 3 big players ( Amazon or Walmart ) in the top 10.

Look at the average DA and PA here:

Yes KGR keywords can rank, but only after checking manually and using other tools.

No one or 2 tools are accurate enough to be making judgement calls n by them alone.

I have writers who will write articles for me, some are KGR based, but this is a mix of keywords used on the site.

 

[MisterF]

I emailed Doug 4 years ago to ask him about the example he was using.


"how to build a kegerator from scratch"

I explained I'd run this through 3 tools and all 3 showed it difficult.

This is the original screenshot I sent him.

This was his reply from the email;

Hey David, Sorry FB filters out so much and I don't really make it a priority.
And to your question... I never used the KW revealer so I can't comment at all. It was an example off the cuff there and I never tried to write that article or anything. If you do, let me know how it turns out.
I think in the next couple months I'll have 2 case studies to share using the KGR and the resulting profits.
Hope that helps!
Doug

Personally, if I'm teaching someone how to something and am using an example, I'd have at least tried the actual product. Why people can throw out ' off the cuff ' examples and not actually provide any further proof is beyond laughable. Had he actually done an article and it had ranked, it would have been better.

So let's look at the same keyword for June 2020;

 

[HustleTong]

Let's see how this ends.

 

[ranga]

One Simple search will clear this:

Try searching "Where to Buy X" Replace X with your favourite product. You will find many Keywords which fulfil KGR criteria and Good Luck ranking for them, you will need a ton of it. It is because Google understand the people searching for this is looking to buy and will disregard "where to buy" part of the query when looking for sites to show. So you get tons of high authority sites in top 10.

For e.g.

keyword: "where to buy chamberlain garage door opener" Searches around 30-50 depending on which tool you look. Allintitle results 3. KGR 0.06 to 0.1

So as google understands better about search intent, modifying search terms is not gonna cut it.

 

[Shaunm]

View attachment 136493

What plugin is that giving the 94.74% rating? Never seen it before.

 

[1337WuLF]

What plugin is that giving the 94.74% rating? Never seen it before.

That's SEO Quake:
https://www.seoquake.com

 

[Shaunm]

That's SEO Quake:
https://www.seoquake.com

Cheers, I will have to check it out .

 

[ranga]

Seoquake is one of the oldest toolbar for seo and mother of semrush. Don't go by it's keyword difficulty though.

 

[Shaunm]

Seoquake is one of the oldest toolbar for seo and mother of semrush. Don't go by it's keyword difficulty though.

I think I used it years back but it injected a ton of random numbers into my SERP results page so I turned it off, I was just curious about the keyword difficulty score but if its from SEMRush then its probably useless.

 

[ranga]

I was just curious about the keyword difficulty score but if its from SEMRush then its probably useless.

Yes it gets it data from Semrush and its Keyword Difficulty score is pathetic, though Semrush is good for lots of other stuff

 

[dandan594594]

So, far this whole discussion has been based around "obviously" difficult to rank buyer intent keywords. KGR style research works much better with question based terms and are then used to feed traffic / internal links to money pages.

Google understands that the query "where to buy chamberlain garage door opener" relates to more often than not, someone wants to buy a replacement opener, hence the high authority results. However, something like "chamberlain garage door remote not working" is seen as someone looking for information, with a hint of buyer intent and much easier to rank.

Another "chamberlain garage door sensor yellow light", then these type of articles feed your pillar posts.

 

[ranga]

So, far this whole discussion has been based around "obviously" difficult to rank buyer intent keywords. KGR style research works much better with question based terms and are then used to feed traffic / internal links to money pages.

Google understands that the query "where to buy chamberlain garage door opener" relates to more often than not, someone wants to buy a replacement opener, hence the high authority results. However, something like "chamberlain garage door remote not working" is seen as someone looking for information, with a hint of buyer intent and much easier to rank.

Another "chamberlain garage door sensor yellow light", then these type of articles feed your pillar posts.

Nobody is saying that KGR never works, intact most of us use KGR or Low Competition Keywords in our strategies. Its just that KGR relies on presence of keyword in title to check for competition. However, with Rank Brain that may not be a relevant criteria to gauge competition.

For e.g. continuing with chamberlain thing say a keyword is "what is battery life of chamberlain garage door sensor" and if that info is covered by high authority sites in their review which are ranking on first page. Then even if the keyword is not in title, it would be difficult to get it ranked.

 

[seowarrior008]

I tried KGR kws many times, and the results varied.
I think KGR itself does not make much sense, as it is just a "name" of a keyword research method.
KGR is not one solution key, saying u have to manually analyze the top 10.
In most cases, you still need backlinks to rank KGR kws.

That's my experience of working with KGR and hope it helps.

Cheers

 

[Commoner]

As mentioned above, KGW does have some impact.

My 2 cents: Use KGW as a filler content or "response" article to build your pillar articles.

Don't forget to link around for velocity juices!

 

[danno]

KGR has worked for me and has helped me make money in very high competition niches where I would normally have struggled to rank without high authority. It will never work forever though (competition numbers always increase) and I would never solely focus on KGR keywords.

I tend to go for keywords that meet the KGR criteria because they are new and growing keywords (this probably won't work in every niche). Things like new product releases, comparisons of new models with existing models etc. show little to no search volume in the keyword tools, but often get more searches than you'd think (but have very little allintitle competition). Those are easy wins and can be very profitable, but authority and backlinks will always beat you in the long run if you only focus on keywords like this. I suppose that's not really the "traditional" KGR the way Doug teaches it because I don't just go for ANY keyword that meets the KGR criteria, but it works for me.