Calculating the competition for a Keyword - Tutorial

Hi guys,

Many IMers make mistakes by misjudging the competition for a keyword. This tutorial may help you to determine the competition correctly.

First of all, "the bar" in adwords keywords tool is got nothing to do with serp competition. Its competition for ads. I see even some advanced SEOers make this mistake.

See the images below.






The first image contains "nearly impossible" ultra high competitive keywords. Look at the competition bar. Nearly empty.

It doesnt mean that they have low competion in SERP. It means if you want to give search ads for those terms "the competition is low". You can get clicks by spending just $0.05 or something. ITS LOW COMPETITION FOR ADS. NOT SERP.

Now look at the second image. These keywords "easy" to rank. But the competition bar is nearly full. It means, so many people are giving adds for these keywords, so you have to pay like $100 per click in adwords.

Now we understand that google adwords competition got nothing to do with our keywords, we can move on to the next step.



1. Look for EMD in top 10. If you find .com in it, it bit tough to out rank. You better have .org, .net on that keyword or at least that keyword is "in" your domain.

2. If you find more than one EMD (with other domain extensions), you loos one point again.

3. If you see more than 5 domains having the keyword in it, again you loose a point.

4. Now check the title tags, if you see top 5 sites having "exact" keyword in title, you loose a point again. If the keywords are split or unordered in title tags, thats fine.

5. Now check allintitle:keyword. Look at the number of results. Less than 50k is better.

6. Check inurl:keyword . less than 50k results is good.

You dont have to worry about last two points much if you have no problem in first 4 points.

Lets define a "perfect" keyword.

-> you have .com or .org or country level emd (if target a specif country)
-> Top 10 results have no emds.
-> No exact keyword in title tags

Last point is pretty much impossible for a decent keyword. So, just take first two points.


I hope this helps. If you any questions, extra points to consider please post. If you disagree with me, also post why you think I'm wrong.


Napster

Thank you very much Napster !!!!!!!!!! Looks like the search functions works for mee too )
I am a newbie and this tutorial help a lot!
I am in luck! I wanted to buy a domain with a keyword , and I am thanksfull that I have found your post!

But, but... Dude, come on, BTB said ALWAYS look for low AdWords competition!

:lmao:

Good post! :thumb:

High competition should mean high cost per click, right?

Thank you.

Gudrulea said:

High competition should mean high cost per click, right?

Thank you.

Click to expand...

You got it...

DamageX said:

But, but... Dude, come on, BTB said ALWAYS look for low AdWords competition!

:lmao:

Good post! :thumb:

Click to expand...

Where did he say like that?

If there is an emd in top 10, it is very easy to asses the competition, especially if you also have an emd. Just look at his backlink profile, and if you beat him, you both have emd, you will rank better than him.

It's much harder to asses competition EMD vs CNET article, or EMD vs Amazon page or EMD vs wikipedia, etc.. You can't look at the numbers of links to the page cause they are too low, being very reputable, but you can't look at the numbers of link to the homepage cause they are too high.

Thanks Napster

You have made a great point clear for all of those who think AdWords bar gives competition of SERPs.

Combining AdWords Tool with Market Samurai can get you some great niches with very high CPC in no time.

Nick Flame said:

If there is an emd in top 10, it is very easy to asses the competition, especially if you also have an emd. Just look at his backlink profile, and if you beat him, you both have emd, you will rank better than him.

It's much harder to asses competition EMD vs CNET article, or EMD vs Amazon page or EMD vs wikipedia, etc.. You can't look at the numbers of links to the page cause they are too low, being very reputable, but you can't look at the numbers of link to the homepage cause they are too high.

Click to expand...

If you have an EMD, you can outrank cnet, amazon or even wikipedia. I did it before

NapsteR said:

If you have an EMD, you can outrank cnet, amazon or even wikipedia. I did it before

Click to expand...

Of course, i am doing all the time too with MNS. The question is, how many links you need to send to your EMD to beat them?

If you want to be efficient with MNS on a large scale, you need to keep an eye on the ROI. And it's much simpler to analyze - look an emd with 30 links already beats wikipedia and amazon, i am going to make an emd with 50 links, versus there is wikipedia and amazon on the page, how many links should i send to my emd to outrank them?

Cause amazon pages can be very tricky. Some of them might be extremeley competitive, and some of them might be extremely easier to rank, depends on the niche. And you do not know what kind of pages are they, cause the backlinks are deceiving with authority websites.

Extremely competitive amazon page ---> nr 1 in google for "kindle accessories".

You are not going to see any emd in top 10. But not because it is a very easy keyword, so using an emd will rank you instantly. But because is a moderately competitive keyword, and amazon pages, mashable, cnet are ranking there.

Nick Flame said:

Of course, i am doing all the time too with MNS. The question is, how many links you need to send to your EMD to beat them?

If you want to be efficient with MNS on a large scale, you need to keep an eye on the ROI. And it's much simpler to analyze - look an emd with 30 links already beats wikipedia and amazon, i am going to make an emd with 50 links, versus there is wikipedia and amazon on the page, how many links should i send to my emd to outrank them?

Cause amazon pages can be very tricky. Some of them might be extremeley competitive, and some of them might be extremely easier to rank, depends on the niche. And you do not know what kind of pages are they, cause the backlinks are deceiving with authority websites.

Extremely competitive amazon page ---> nr 1 in google for "kindle accessories".

You are not going to see any emd in top 10. But not because it is a very easy keyword, so using an emd will rank you instantly. But because is a moderately competitive keyword, and amazon pages, mashable, cnet are ranking there.

Click to expand...

Thanks for explaining Nick. We can out rank amazon pages if we have an EMD. But its a good point about "ROI".

In that case we can see other sites, like "http://kiaccessories.com/" in this case. And calculate competition. It would probably require less links if you have an EMD. But ya, still we have look at ROI.

Hmm... where can I find this "ROI" = Return on investment?

Thank you

great post here.. good for us newbie.. thanks dude..

Gudrulea said:

Hmm... where can I find this "ROI" = Return on investment?

Thank you

Click to expand...

You have to calculate it by yourself. How much it will take to build all those links. And compare it with potential earning.

Thanks NapsteR, i always thought the competition bar was pointless for keyword competition, whats your opinion on using software like Traffic Travis?

NapsteR said:

Where did he say like that?

Click to expand...

Check out his "Keyword research - the BTB way" here in the whitehat section.

Here are some of my question for Nick Flame and Napster:

*What if a site (EMD or not) ranks in the top 5 for a RELATED keyword? Let's say that howtobrushyourteeth.c0m ranks number 1 for its EMD keyword BUT it also ranks for "brushing the teeth everyday" and with this keyword, howtobrushyourteeth.c0m ranks number 3.

For the sake of the question, let's say that "brushing the teeth everyday" is also moderately competitive as "how to brush you teeth."

By analyzing that, I decided to make a Blogger blog and found out that the exact match of "brushing the teeth everyday" is still available in blogger? Will I ever have the chance to rank number 1?

In this situation, I am very sure that I have better and unique link building tactics than the competition.

Do I have a chance?

Thank you for creating this thread

after reading this thread

i did a quick keyword research and found a keyword

EMD : yes .org available

.com or keyword in domain not in top 10 position

exact search : 12000+

allintitle: 9834
allinurl: 3900

but all top 10 sites have atleast PR 1

anything to add to the list..?

What does "EMD" mean?

Exact match domain

S0leil said:

What does "EMD" mean?

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