Please Help with These SEO Questions

tygrus

Supreme Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2009
Messages
1,234
Reaction score
831
I am using MNF and basically finding keywords with SOC less than about 25 or so, but when I check the competition, I am finding lots of sites with PR, some backlinks, but they don't have the exact keyword in the title, domain/subdomain or H1 tag.

Is MNF saying these can be out ranked just by having those elements and that the PR and links are less important?
 
No, I do not think so. BL matter still a bit more then the title!
 
Then I must be reading MNF wrong then because its saying these sites with PR and backlinks can be easily beat but I am not seeing it.

I use exact search and monthly searches more than about 2,500 to 20,000 and anything with SOC less than 25.
 
I totally agree with Philgood,

An typical textbook example, is the keyword 'click here'
Search this on Google and note that Adobe<dot>com is ranked No.2 (at the time of this post) but strangely enough:
i) this keyword is NOT found in the Title tags or any Meta Tags!
ii) this keyword is NOT found on the Page itself, so forget about H1 or H10...

1 possible reason is the sheer number of webpages linking to it via "click here" to download Flash or something like that...
That massive amount of link juice just outpowers all the other factors...

A good example
Properly anchored text back links matter more than titles...
Philgood
 
The SOC number is a good indication of how large the pool of competition is, not necessarily how good it is at the top. It is a good all-around number when doing general research.

When you focus in on a keyword, the details may prove that the top 10 is rather hard to crack (or top3) on a key that has a low SOC. It doesn't really matter how large the overall pool is, if you can't crack the top, don't waste your time.

Two examples:

A) SOC of 2,000 may have tens of thousands of inanchor, intitle, inurl, etc. At first glance it looks competitive. However, looking at the top 10, you may be able to break in, because no one has really done good seo on the term, you can match the authority and age, etc.

B) SOC of 20 has much, much fewer inanchor, intitle, inurl. However, these sites have authority, major links, age, etc. You can see you're probably not going to rank where you want to be.

SOC is still a good general number to guide you, but it shouldn't be the end of your research as you have found. If it looks like you can't make it, you're probably right.

What I like to do is use MNF to do general research until I have some keys I'm interested in. Then plug them into Market Samurai one by one and look at the competition on the top 10. Then I know for sure if I should pursue that term or not.
 
I followed Crixus's advice and yes, do not rely on the SOC numbers. I found lots of niches where the SOC was high yet there was an easy opening in the top 10. Use MNF to weed out kws but then use something else to check the competition for real.
 
Back
Top