Question about keyword competition.

Hey BHW,

I've been learning about keyword research lately and came across something in a post that I've kind of suspected; it appears to me that the competition status in GKP refers to how many advertisers, not publishers, are clamoring over the keyword.

Doesn't this completely turn the tables on the general school of thought that we should look for low competition keywords?

If a keyword has a large number of monthly searches (good), a high suggested bid (also good; more money per click on the ad), wouldn't it also be good that there are many advertisers (thus showing high competition) willing to pay for a click on an ad for that keyword?

It seems low competition would be a bad thing if this is the case. Please help me shed some light on this.

Thanks!

What would you rather do, rank number 2 for 20 searches a month or on the 2nd page for 2000?

Techxan said:

What would you rather do, rank number 2 for 20 searches a month or on the 2nd page for 2000?

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Exactly. Jewelry sales even skyrocket when I manage to get the word jewelry in the top 1,000. It could be in the 300's and sales still go way up.

redrubies said:

Exactly. Jewelry sales even skyrocket when I manage to get the word jewelry in the top 1,000. It could be in the 300's and sales still go way up.

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Here's what I'm getting at; when the terms "low competition keywords", "medium competition keywords", and "high competition keywords" are used there seem to be some people who attribute the level of competition to the advertisers, and others who attribute the level of competition to the publishers.

It cannot mean both.

The results are very different if "low competition" references publishers (not a lot of competing websites for keyword), or if it references advertisers (not a lot of advertisers with AW campaigns for keyword).

It shows advertiser competition. It's not a new thing it was always this way.
The more advertisers bidding on the same keywords the higher the competition.

After all keyword tool is meant for advertisers not publishers so it makes sense.

MrMonkeyDarts said:

Here's what I'm getting at; when the terms "low competition keywords", "medium competition keywords", and "high competition keywords" are used there seem to be some people who attribute the level of competition to the advertisers, and others who attribute the level of competition to the publishers.

It cannot mean both.

Click to expand...

Competition keywords simply means the number of advertisers bidding on a keyword. So a high competition keyword would mean that many advertisers are bidding on the keyword. It would serve to follow that there is a reason why so many advertisers are bidding on said keyword. Jewelry is a high competition keyword because the search results for that word bring in a lot of sales.

From Competition on GST, you get the idea of commercial value of a keyword. SEO competition is more important when you want to pick keywords that will rank on the search engine to get traffic.Once you get traffic you then earn money from ad clicks or selling your own item