Competitiveness of a Keyword Phrase

Apr 9, 2004 - 11:37 am 0 by
Filed Under Keyword Research

An interesting thread over at WebmasterWorld named How Many Matches Indicate High Competition?, discusses how someone defines the competitiveness of a keyword phrase.

John_Caius provides three classifications to determine the level of competition for a keyword phrase.

My general rule-of-thumb definition of low competition would be where the top ten returning results haven't been SEOed. Medium competition would be where the top ten returning results have been SEOed. High competition would be where the top hundred results have been SEOed. Really high competition would be where a major site, like Amazon, Yahoo or WW is targeting that keyphrase. That's a better guide than number of results, because it tells you about how hard everyone else is also trying to be number one.

Finding the keyword phrase that is not SEOed but is a big bread-winner is where it is at, but I will leave that to Dan Thies to talk about. I had a law client that was paying a fortune for a few targeted keywords with AdWords. They were very competitive PPC campaigns but to my surprise, no one was optimizing for those keywords organically. So we quickly changed some title tags around and presto, free traffic. Soon enough the competition caught on, but it was fun to see. Many SEMs/SEOs have stories like this to tell.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Follow

Search Video Recaps

 
Google Core Update Rumbling, Manual Actions FAQs, Core Web Vitals Updates, AI, Bing, Ads & More - YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 18, 2024

Mar 18, 2024 - 4:00 pm
Google Updates

Google Urges Patience As The March 2024 Core Update Continues To Rollout

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:51 am
Google

Official: Google Replaces Perspective Filter With Forums Filter

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:41 am
Google Maps

Google Business Profiles Now Offers Additional Review After Appeal Is Denied

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:31 am
Google Maps

EU Searchers Complaining About Google Maps Features Changes Related To DMA

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:21 am
Google

Google Showing Fewer Sitelinks Within Search

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: Yahoo! Life Engine - Is it Happening?