Questions on Keyword Research Techniques

[Michael Colson]

I am attempting to do some keyword research using Google AdWords Keyword Tool. The tutorials I have seen use Market Samurai and I am trying to relate the techniques to using just the Keyword Tool. The goal, I believe, is to have the most monthly searches with the least number of competing sites. How can I determine the number of competing sites? When using the Keyword Tool on the left sidebar should I be ticking broad match or phrase match?

[terryd]

You can't really determine that based on the keyword tool. You need to get your hands on something like the free Traffic Travis version, then you will be able to see the top 10 competition for the keyword that you are going after.

[Sapan Verma]

The color coding in Market Samurai tells you how difficult or easy it would be to rank for a keyword. Use that as a guide. Look at the backlinks, age of the domain, PR for the top 10 results for the keyword and that'll give you an idea whether you can outrank your potential competitors.

Cheers
SV

[terryd]

He hasn't got Market Samurai but was trying to figure out how to get the same information from the keyword tool.

Originally Posted by Sapan Verma

The color coding in Market Samurai tells you how difficult or easy it would be to rank for a keyword. Use that as a guide. Look at the backlinks, age of the domain, PR for the top 10 results for the keyword and that'll give you an idea whether you can outrank your potential competitors.

Cheers
SV

[Michael Colson]

I am looking to determine the competition for the keywords and the number of searches. From what I can tell, the number of searches is shown in the Keyword Tool under the global searches column in searches per month. How can I determine the competition? Would searching for the keyword in Google with quotes around it be the same as the competition found in Market Samurai?

[terryd]

You can't do it using the keyword tool!!

You either have to do it manually by using a plugin on FF or get a keyword tool as I suggested

[Michael Colson]

Originally Posted by terryd

You can't do it using the keyword tool!!

You either have to do it manually by using a plugin on FF or get a keyword tool as I suggested

If you would, can you please explain how to manually do it or what plugin to use?

[addison.agnote]

Originally Posted by terryd

You can't really determine that based on the keyword tool. You need to get your hands on something like the free Traffic Travis version, then you will be able to see the top 10 competition for the keyword that you are going after.

I absolutely agree with terry!

[terryd]

As i mentioned before, Traffic Travis would be the easiest way unless you want to get Market Samurai which has a free trial period.

The free version of Traffic Travis will give you all the info you need, PR of top 10 and how many links they have, that's what you need to know and the information you can get in one interface.

Originally Posted by Michael Colson

If you would, can you please explain how to manually do it or what plugin to use?

[simonbuzz]

I suggest using market samurai...

[John Williamson]

First, don't use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. Invest in a keyword research tool and it will pay for itself many times over, and as a result you will be much better off.
Second, "number of competing sites" is absolutely irrelevant. Just pay attention to what's on page 1 of Google.
Third, you want exact match when doing keyword research.

[islandbreezes]

it seems like the Google Adwords Keyword Tool is just getting worse... what's the best keyword tool in your experience? thanks!

[John Williamson]

Originally Posted by islandbreezes

it seems like the Google Adwords Keyword Tool is just getting worse... what's the best keyword tool in your experience? thanks!

It's no secret that I am genuinely obsessed with Jack Duncan's Keyword Sniper Pro...

[drcrdc]

Competing site ? > search that keywords under "phrase" at google itself
At least that's the basic





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Before It’s Too Late

[mare]

Hello everyone!

I found a thread for my question, but last post was published a month ago, so I hope that is nothing wrong if I ask here.

Does anybody know this site:
getdiscountprice(dot)com/traffic-travis-professional-discount

The owner of this site offers Traffic Travis 4 for only $37 and not just an upgrade, full version.

Is this really the same product or a scam?

Thanks,

Marko

[webladder]

Originally Posted by John Williamson

First, don't use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. Invest in a keyword research tool and it will pay for itself many times over, and as a result you will be much better off.
Second, "number of competing sites" is absolutely irrelevant. Just pay attention to what's on page 1 of Google.
Third, you want exact match when doing keyword research.

Number of competing pages isn't relevant ? Can you elaborate on that some, because I don't see how that makes sense. But then again, I'm a noob so...please school me!

[John Williamson]

Originally Posted by webladder

Number of competing pages isn't relevant ? Can you elaborate on that some, because I don't see how that makes sense. But then again, I'm a noob so...please school me!

Number of competing pages has absolutely nothing to do with your competition on page 1. That's where you want to be; that's who you're competing with. You could have a keyword phrase with 5,000,000 competing pages but the relative competition on page 1 might be very easy to beat, and you might have a keyword phrase with 500 competing pages with very tough competition on page 1.

See what I mean? It's totally irrelevant.

[webladder]

Originally Posted by John Williamson

Number of competing pages has absolutely nothing to do with your competition on page 1. That's where you want to be; that's who you're competing with. You could have a keyword phrase with 5,000,000 competing pages but the relative competition on page 1 might be very easy to beat, and you might have a keyword phrase with 500 competing pages with very tough competition on page 1.

See what I mean? It's totally irrelevant.

Makes perfect sense now that you've explained it, thank you. So, is it safe to say that you can completely ignore the number of competing pages for a keyword ? If you do that, and your using a software which calculates the KEI when doing your research, does the KEI not matter too ?

I'm asking this because I use SEO Powersuite for my KW research, and they base a lot of their decisions on the KEI. But some words with a great KEI have millions of competing pages and it'd be impossible to outrank them without heavy, heavy budgets.

[Michael Colson]

Originally Posted by John Williamson

Number of competing pages has absolutely nothing to do with your competition on page 1. That's where you want to be; that's who you're competing with. You could have a keyword phrase with 5,000,000 competing pages but the relative competition on page 1 might be very easy to beat, and you might have a keyword phrase with 500 competing pages with very tough competition on page 1.

See what I mean? It's totally irrelevant.

Thanks for the explanation. What metrics are important to compare the page 1 competition and determine if your site can compete?

[Magim]

I've tried a few different pieces of software for keyword research, and one that's gotten me the best results was actually a sub-$20 program called Stealth Keyword Competition Analyzer. It's being sold as a WSO if you want to seek it out. It works like this: You pop in results from Google's Keyword Tool, and it'll tell you which of the keywords will be easy to rank for and worthwhile by analyzing a bunch of factors. Simple, cheap, and surprisingly effective, I've come across some real gems using this thing..

[John Williamson]

Originally Posted by webladder

Makes perfect sense now that you've explained it, thank you. So, is it safe to say that you can completely ignore the number of competing pages for a keyword ? If you do that, and your using a software which calculates the KEI when doing your research, does the KEI not matter too ?

I'm asking this because I use SEO Powersuite for my KW research, and they base a lot of their decisions on the KEI. But some words with a great KEI have millions of competing pages and it'd be impossible to outrank them without heavy, heavy budgets.

Depends on how exactly that particular tool defines KEI. But yes, you can completely ignore number of competing pages. Just look at what's on page 1 and see if you can beat 'em. Simple as that. I like to do my competition analysis by hand anyway.

Originally Posted by Michael Colson

Thanks for the explanation. What metrics are important to compare the page 1 competition and determine if your site can compete?

Things like sources/quality of backlinks, number thereof, title tags, header tags, keyword use, PR, site age, etc.