How to determine keyword competitiveness and popularity?

I am new to SEO and have had a number of experts tell me that my keywords "learn Spanish", "speak Spanish", "Spanish classes in" are medium to high in competitiveness. How do they know this? Whenever I search google for these terms I just see between 200,000 and 400,000 or so monthly searches. But how do they know that 400K is medium to high competitiveness?

Follow up question: The websites on page 1 for these keywords change very infrequently. Does this mean the niche is low popularity (not a lot of consumer interest) or does it mean the sites on page 1 are just really strong in SEO and good at preserving their ranking?

There are so many threads about keyword research that will answer your questions. For example:

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...ethod-step-step-keyword-research-newbies.html
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...-absolute-newbies-guide-keyword-research.html

Regarding your follow up question, actually both could be the case, but for the keywords you mentioned the latter part of your question is the explanation.

Super helpful for a newb like me! thank you.

So what do you think about the spanish language niche? Be honest. Could an SEO expert help me break onto page 1?

You should check the BST Section , there are lots of seller are selling the good SEO service and they can achieve the ranking..

paymakr said:

Super helpful for a newb like me! thank you.

So what do you think about the spanish language niche? Be honest. Could an SEO expert help me break onto page 1?

Click to expand...

paymakr said:

Super helpful for a newb like me! thank you.

So what do you think about the spanish language niche? Be honest. Could an SEO expert help me break onto page 1?

Click to expand...

I just checked for "learn spanish". The first places will be very hard, as there are authority sites like the Spanish learn programme of the BBC. I think place 5 could be a realistic target to reach. But it also depends on how good the SEO expert is and how much you want to invest. Since you are just starting out I would recommend to choose keywords with less competition. Better work your way up and not to start with the highest competition in the niche.