Keyword Competitiveness and Search Volume

gcgipson

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Will a low competition keyword, with a low search volume, be as hard to rank for as a low competition keyword with an extremely high search volume?
 
Thanks for responding, but does high search volume mean automatic "high competition?"
 
Don't you think that if it has high search volume, you 're hardly the only one who 's noticed? ;)
 
Don't you think that if it has high search volume, you 're hardly the only one who 's noticed? ;)

That would definitely make sense, but what then makes a high competition keyword, with 1/100 the size of a low competition keyword, competitive? If a high competition keyword has 500 Local searches a month, while a low competition keyword has 500,000 Local searches a month, why is the high competition keyword "high competition?" If the search volume dictates the competitiveness of the keyword, then why are there extremely low search volume high competitive words (and vice versa?)
 
Apart from the volume, you should take into account the value of the keyword.
 
What competition are you referring to? SEO competition or Adword comprtition? Please take note that the "competition" column in Google keyword tool is referring to Adword competition and NOT SEO competition.

Usually (but not all cases),
high monthly searches = high SEO competition
low monthly searches = low SEO competition

However, Adword competition has nothing to do with search volume. Usually high commercial value keywords have high Adword competition and low commercial value keywords have low Adword competition.
 
Thanks for the info. What is the best way to determine SEO keyword competition? Is it to simply use something like Traffic Travis?
 
Thanks for the info. What is the best way to determine SEO keyword competition? Is it to simply use something like Traffic Travis?

Perhaps you should review IamRE's great postings on this subject:
Code:
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/white-hat-seo/266300-method-step-step-keyword-research-newbies.html 

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/black-hat-seo/503173-2012-update-step-step-keyword-research-video-tutorial.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WVft5X-alSI
 
Thanks for that Zebrahat! So it would appear to me, based on the information that Zebrahat provided, that the search volume doesn't dictate competition, at least not directly. The number of pages that Google returns, plus the pages that have the keywords actually embedded in them, dictates competition.

Thus, a low search volume keyword that returns thousands of pages, with hundreds of pages optimized for that keyword, is much more competitive than a high search volume keyword with just a few dozen pages, that have no on page optimization at all.
 
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