AM I wasting my time with this keyword?

I want to rank for a keyword and according to Traffic Travis it is saying it should be relatively easy. All the top ten results are .gov pages lol! But they are all missing Title, Description and H1 tags for this keyword.

The average back-links to the pages are on average 400,000 and median 1770.

Am I wasting my time even to attempt this?

Probably not , they are Authority sites, and they have huge backlinks, but are they targeted to that page who ranks for your KW ?

Check them manualy and see what they have there, is there article writen for that KW or not.

Since they dont target that KW , im sure that you could outrank them

Yep, i agree with the above post. Just because the sites that are currently ranking are authority sites there is no reason why u can't out rank them if their sites are not optimized for ur particular keyword. Remember with Googles recent updates and their new approach to rankings, On site SEO is just as important as off site....so keyword related content and good onsite SEO will go a looong way to getting u ranked.

The .gov sites itself are related to the keyword but it is not exactly targeting the keyword fully if you know what I mean. The .gov site matches the first two words of my keyword so I am thinking it will be hard to outrank them.

browsing_hosts said:

The .gov sites itself are related to the keyword but it is not exactly targeting the keyword fully if you know what I mean. The .gov site matches the first two words of my keyword so I am thinking it will be hard to outrank them.

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They may be .gov domain but now depend what your kw is about. Let's say you target something people is looking to buy that is under state control then the .gov domain are of the authority then people will access your website looking to buy that thing.

Nope, still wont make a difference cos lets say u have a 3 word keyphrase u want to rank for and the gov site is matched for 2 of those 3 words... There is no reason why u can't out rank them.

OK thanks for the information guys I will give this a shot and see what happens. Just wondering does a EMD matter in this situation? I am using a 6 year old domain that does not have the keyword. I have set the permalink to be like this: www.[domain].com/[keyword]/appying-for[keyword]

EMD is not really a must have, it's a nice to have...whilst it certainly does help with rankings, not having an EMD is not a deal breaker. The fact that u have a 6yr old domain will def carry some weight and help with ur sites credibility... jst btw is the domain at least related to ur niche or target keyword?

browsing_hosts said:

OK thanks for the information guys I will give this a shot and see what happens. Just wondering does a EMD matter in this situation? I am using a 6 year old domain that does not have the keyword. I have set the permalink to be like this: www.[domain].com/[keyword]/appying-for[keyword]

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Deez The Webguru said:

EMD is not really a must have, it's a nice to have...whilst it certainly does help with rankings, not having an EMD is not a deal breaker. The fact that u have a 6yr old domain will def carry some weight and help with ur sites credibility... jst btw is the domain at least related to ur niche or target keyword?

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To be honest no, should I go out and find one that is?

Nah... I wouldn't stress about it ... again it would be a nice to have.. UNLESS, you have something completely off the mark like lets say ur domain is carparts.com and u trying to rank for "organic yogurt" ... lol ...get the idea?

browsing_hosts said:

To be honest no, should I go out and find one that is?

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I wouldn't bother.

Anyway, aged domain >>>> EMD, in my opinion.

Dude .gov sites are pure authority sites. they get backlinks from other sources. So don't be tensed about that matter. Check that are they ranked for your keyword or not? I mean are their pages optimized for that keyword or not. Clear?

browsing_hosts said:

The average back-links to the pages are on average 400,000 and median 1770.

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Do you know what the words average and median mean (even if this is correct, it tells you nothing)?

You really need to take into consideration the keyword "trigger" then worry about the actual ranking websites. Since Googles most recent updates panda and penguin they have focused on a few more underlying factors such as displaying the appropriate amount of pages for a particular keyword, as well as what types of sites they are displaying (as if there wasn't enough already) when delivering quality search results. This has always been in their practice but I think it is more apparent today. What I am talking about is; when people are typing a specific keyword/phrase into Google the are looking for something pertaining to what the keyword "IS". Here are some examples:

If you type in something like: Running Shoes
This will turn up a number of different results because it is such a broad term. The search engine user can be looking for pictures of running shoes, online stores, local stores to buy running shoes, and maybe some reviews. This term is broad so it is going to have "mixed" search results. Now you have to ask your self a few questions;

1. What is my site aimed/targeted at?
2. Now that you found what your site is targeted at look to see if anyone else is ranked for the same type of website you are creating. This will be able to HELP show you if your site even has a chance to rank for the keyword.
3. Obviously examine the competition on a number type scale, analyzing pr, back links, indexed pages, domain age, onsite seo, etc..
4. Google knows what they want and how many similar types of websites the want to display for a certain keyword/phrase.

So basically we know the competition is going to be quite significant for a broad keyword like that because Google will be issuing ranking to a variety of different types of sites based off that keyword. This is explained more in detail in googles search quality raters handbook (if you had a chance to read it)

Here is another example: Buy Running Shoes
Now this keywords trigger is the "buy" statement. Google knows these people are interested in buying a pair running shoes. Pretty obvious what they type of sites they are going to be displaying for this keyword phrase. If you have a website that is based around building a running shoes website then you are going to have a tough time.

It all boils down to keyword research 101 and understand the behaviors/triggers of different keywords and phrases. Sorry for the long post, just thought I would help you nail down some solid research strategies