How Do You Check If a Keyword Is Too Competitive?

I find keywords with good search volume, but I'm not sure if they are too competitive for a new blog. How do you decide whether a keyword is worth targeting or not?

Checking the websites already ranking for the keyword. If the first page is filled with large authority sites, it may be difficult for a new blog. I prefer targeting long-tail keywords with clear search intent and lower competition. Even if the search volume is smaller, they are often easier to rank for and can bring targeted traffic.

The 1st thing to check is who is already ranking on page one. If the results are dominated by major brands so the keyword may be difficult.

I always pay attention on search intent and topical relevance.

keywords with lots of searches are competitive (for the most part), so I advise against choosing those keywords when you're beginner.

And difficulty scores should also be used as guidance only. If you want to find really easy keywords you need to use your brain, experience, and to manually research those keywords.

Most of the time this means that you need to start with keywords that are at least 3-4 words long (at the very least), but preferably at least 5-6 words long (and sometimes even 7-8 words long, depending on the niche, traffic availability, etc).

In addition to that, you also need to individually check the SERPs for each one of those keywords so you can see which sites (and which ones of their pages, not just the sites themselves) are ranking there and figure out (or analyze with a SEO tool) if you can beat some of those competitors (sites that you want to see rank in top 10 are forums, UGC sites like Quora, Pinterest, etc... also business directories or classified ads sites, even weak affiliate sites are a good thing to see... anything except for big niche brands, governmental sites, education institutions, and medium or big media outlets, those types of sites / companies are almost impossible to beat as a newbie, so you're never going to rank as a beginner for any keyword that's dominated by such strong entities...)

This is how you find easy keywords

Sung Jinwoo said:

I find keywords with good search volume, but I'm not sure if they are too competitive for a new blog. How do you decide whether a keyword is worth targeting or not?

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If the first 3 to 5 results on search engines are from very large sites then the competition is fierce.

when doing keyowrd research, first check which websites are ranking on the top. if major brand dominate the result. ranking can very difficult. focus on long tail low competition keyword.

Sung Jinwoo said:

I find keywords with good search volume, but I'm not sure if they are too competitive for a new blog. How do you decide whether a keyword is worth targeting or not?

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I usually look beyond search volume and analyze the search results themselves. If the first page is dominated by large authority sites, it may be difficult for a new blog to compete. I prefer keywords where smaller websites are already ranking, as that often indicates a realistic opportunity. Long-tail keywords with clear search intent are usually the best starting point for newer sites.

Sung Jinwoo said:

I find keywords with good search volume, but I'm not sure if they are too competitive for a new blog. How do you decide whether a keyword is worth targeting or not?

Click to expand...

If you are a newbie in SEO with some budget I advise you to buy Ahrefs subscription. This will fix all your problems 100%

check top 10 results, see if big sites dominate. if yes, skip or go long tail.

I check search results manually and see who already ranks. if a big brands and strong websites dominate page one, competition may be higher.

I always go for manual competitor analysis instead on relying on tools & their "KD" metrics because each tool has its own algorithm which decides the competition of the keyword. In reality, check the top 10 competitor pages which are ranking against that keyword. Check whether those pages have covered the topic partial, semi partial or created topical authority on that topic. Then check backlinks, how many contextual links are there? Do they create relevance links, or just pumped up DA / DR metrics. Then you can have an idea whether this topic/niche/keyword is easy or hard.

when doing keyword research firstly i check which are dominating sites on that keyword if they are authoritative ones you will need strong refrence to dominate them else you can try ranking on long tail keywords.

Check keyword difficulty (KD), analyze the top 10 results’ authority and backlinks, and if most are high-authority sites with strong backlink profiles, the keyword is likely too competitive.

KindleHD said:

If you are a newbie in SEO with some budget I advise you to buy Ahrefs subscription. This will fix all your problems 100%

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all of them, huh? And 100% too you say...

Honestly unless you found a golden hidden niche any keyword with anything over 1000 searches per month will be competitive. Just check website authority

tazarbm said:

all of them, huh? And 100% too you say...

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Right !

I search the keyword myself and look for Quora or Reddit threads in the top results. If forums are ranking on page one, it means Google is starving for a good blog post on it.

Sung Jinwoo said:

I find keywords with good search volume, but I'm not sure if they are too competitive for a new blog. How do you decide whether a keyword is worth targeting or not?

Click to expand...

Before I target a keyword, I go through the search results. If the first page is filled with authority sites I’ll go for more specific long-tail keywords that a newer blog might have a better shot at ranking for.

There’s this concept called the Semantic Core.

I think everyone has come across it. You research, look for keywords, and categorize them

- target

- related

- broad

- general


You can’t rely on just one. People can find you through both target and near-target queries. Exact match or broad match. All of these types are very important

And if you want to find out whether a word is popular enough, there are free resources like Google Trends and Google Ads Planner, as well as other tools that let you check a keyword’s popularity

For newer sites, I target long tail keywords where weaker pages are already ranking, as they're often easier to break into and bring faster results.