What is the Best Searches to Competition Ratio ?

[elitesalesgroup]

Hi !
I'm doing some keyword research for a new niche site Im working on.

What should I be looking for in terms of daily searches as compared to actual results.

For example, One keyword has:

• 74 total daily searches acording to SEO Book
• 5400 for the month of October according to Google's Adwords tool
• 351,000 Results on Google
• 40,000 results on Google if I put it in quotes

Is this too many results for me to try to get organic traffic ?

Whats a good ratio? Also, whats the point of putting it in quotes. Do people really search that way?


As a newbie, I really appreciate your answers . Your experienced responses will indicate whether I pursue this niche or dump it.

Thanks!
Ann

[Emailrevealer]

Putting it in quotes gives you the exact amount of compitition for that exact phrase.

[Bruha]

elitesalesgroup,

I use Keyword elite and one of the indicators I use from that software is a search to results ratio. So the number of results divided by the number of searches. I shoot for good keywords being under 500 for this number, but am not entirely sure if this is what the more elite affiliates do. Just my personal experience.

[girimpula]

Try Taknique keyword research technique. This manual help me a lot to discover niches and keywords that I can easily dominate.

[MinisiteMill]

The # of searches, without quotes:
Hard to give a definite answer. If you can hit the top spot of a "buying keyword", even if it only gets 300 searches/month, that could be a jackpot.

On the other hand, some junk keywords get over 100,000 searches a month, but aren't worth going after, even with little competition.

The amount of competition:
Under 500,000 = good.
Under 100,000 = very good.
Under 50,000 = unbelievably good.

Practice, and aim for as many reasonably good keywords as you can in as short a time as possible. Use your best judgement at the beginning, but don't spend too much time deciding which keyword to go after. After a while you will get a feel for this type of thing, and realize there isn't a formula that works in all cases.

[IowaGal]

Hi Ann -
Here's my two cents.

You should easily be able to rank well for a keyword with only 351,000 web pages competing for that term; because chances are most people won't have done the necessary on-page optimization to rank well for it. Sad, but true.

If your keyword is getting 74 searches a day, and only has that many web pages competing for it, I'd get to work on it ASAP. I think you might have found one of the "gems" that are so hard to come by nowadays.

But just to be sure, I would double-check the search count by using Wordtracker's free keyword tool - I've found that the numbers they give are generally lower than what you would actually receive - Free Keyword Suggestion Tool From Wordtracker so it keeps you grounded in terms of how many actual searches there are.

Everyone was really excited when Google began publishing traffic numbers but I for one have found them to be way off and have not been impressed.

The problem is, the numbers you see in Google's free keyword tool are pulled not just from Google's search results but from emails & blogs as well - which skews the keyword traffic horrendously!

None the less, head over to Wordtracker, see what numbers you get and if you're still seeing a daily search count of around 74, I'd jump on it and start optimizing your web page for that term as soon as you can.

- Kristine

[UcheO]

For long-tail keywords you are going to want below 10,000 or so competitors. Anything above 10 or so visitors a day can work with this method.

Then you can adjust it accordingly for your keywords with more visitors and competition.

[Liquidgraph]

Originally Posted by UcheO

For long-tail keywords you are going to want below 10,000 or so competitors. Anything above 10 or so visitors a day can work with this method.

Then you can adjust it accordingly for your keywords with more visitors and competition.

10,000 with quotes or without? What's a better indicator of competition -- and one's overall chance to reach position #1 on Google -- quotes or non-quotes?

My problem is that I have keywords that have low quote competition (<10,000) but high non-quote competition (>2,000,000). Is it realistic to rank #1 for such a term if it's in my .com domain and my site has unique content?

[josephl]

I see that Iowagal is advocating using Wordtracker for a better insight into searches (demand) regarding a keyword or keyword phrase. To find the supply, will you use Google or is there some other way please?

[moneymoguls]

Let's see 5400 searches per month..the #1 spot will get about 35% of that. That's 1890 monthly visits. If half click on your product links that's about 900. If the traffic converts at 5% then your sales would be 45/month. If your commission is high like $10 then it might be worth it. I personally don't look at anything with searches that low.

Here is a tip on keyword competition...it does not matter how many competing webpages there are but on what websites are on the first page.

Example - if there are 5,000 competing webpages for a given keyword but the top 5 are large banks then you will never win.

I have ranked #1 for keywords that have 31 million competing webpages.

[TBInternetMarketing]

Originally Posted by Emailrevealer

Putting it in quotes gives you the exact amount of compitition for that exact phrase.

I wouldn't worry about the competition in quotes. All you are worried about is page 1 and the 10 sites on that page. If you think you can outrank them then go for it. So in reality, the 3 key things you need to think about when picking a keyword, are firstly what kind of traffic will it bring in? Do the keywords have online commercial intent (I.e. are they buying keywords), and then lastly, what are the top 10 sites looking like for those keywords and can you outrank them?

That's how I do it at least.