How To Analyze Competition?

[zannix]

Hi warriors

I have found a keyword which yields quite a lot of search results for both quoted (" ") and un-quoted google search (which is obviously not good)...

However, the first results that come up are not optimized (onpage or offpage) for that particular keyword, but they are heavily optimized for a synonym keyword.

Question #1: Is the SEO analysis of the first 5-6 pages more important than the number of search results (in terms of competition analysis)?

Question #2: Would I be in the same 'competition basket' as all these synonym-pages? In other words, the synonym keyword is pretty hard to rank, will it be hard to rank for my keyword as well?

Thank you very much!

Kind Regards,
Zannix

[linkassistant]

Originally Posted by zannix

Question #2: Would I be in the same 'competition basket' as all these synonym-pages? In other words, the synonym keyword is pretty hard to rank, will it be hard to rank for my keyword as well?

No, you wouldn't. At least you're not supposed to. Synonyms are still different keywords. The websites you analyzed might still be optimized for the less-competitive keyword you target, maybe it's not so easy to trace that.

[My220x]

Take a look at the top 10 results to get an idea of competition. If they have bad on-page SEO, low page rank and don't have many links then it's going to be easy to rank for and you should go for it.

[zannix]

Well, they have a very good on-page optimization, high number of backlinks and a decent PR (BUT NOT FOR MY KEYWORD) - for a synonym keyword...

[jacobhowardmakesmoney]

Try using Traffic Travis (there's a free version and a paid one) for the PC. It really helps when trying to determine what you can rank high for.

[zannix]

Thanks for reply - I did - it said relatively easy! But I don't know if Traffic Travis takes into account the actual number of search results...

[Trent Dyrsmid]

Originally Posted by zannix

Hi warriors

I have found a keyword which yields quite a lot of search results for both quoted (" ") and un-quoted google search (which is obviously not good)...

However, the first results that come up are not optimized (onpage or offpage) for that particular keyword, but they are heavily optimized for a synonym keyword.

Question #1: Is the SEO analysis of the first 5-6 pages more important than the number of search results (in terms of competition analysis)?

Question #2: Would I be in the same 'competition basket' as all these synonym-pages? In other words, the synonym keyword is pretty hard to rank, will it be hard to rank for my keyword as well?

Thank you very much!

Kind Regards,
Zannix

The ONLY thing that matters is the strength of the competitors on the first page.

First rule of thumb, look for a keyword where you can beat at least two of the top 10. That is a barometer for weak competition overall. What should these two weaklings look like? Low PR (ideally 1 or less) and few links (ideally 10 or less). If there are other results with more links and more PR, but they DON'T have on a title or description that contains the exact keyword, then I wouldn't be overly worried about them.

Once you have found a keyword like that, then look at the quality and quantity of the content and links to PAGE (as opposed to links to the domain). If the content is something you can improve upon and the link count is under 50-60, then the fruit is 'relatively' low hanging. I would also have a look at domain age, because G LOVES old sites. How do I know this? I have an site that is 10 years old and ranks #1 for a single word and yet, after 10 years, the entire site (640 pages) has ONLY 426 links in TOTAL.

[chrisen]

Originally Posted by zannix

Thanks for reply - I did - it said relatively easy! But I don't know if Traffic Travis takes into account the actual number of search results...

I wouldn't pay too much attention to their difficulty rating. That can be misleading. Just look at the backlinks, keyword in title, keyword in H1, and description. If you can beat their backlinks and not many of them are optimized for the others you might be able to beat them. You will probably have to dig a little deeper and analyze a little more (what kind of backlinks they have), but this gives you a general idea of what the competition looks like.

[John Williamson]

In short, all you need to do is look at the results on page 1 for your targeted keyword(s) and check out the stats of those sites (age, title and header tags, backlinks, PR, etc) and decide whether or not you can do better. Number of competing pages is completely irrelevant and should be ignored.

[kaedus]

Page one results are the most important. That's where you want your site to be right? That's who you need to beat. You can check out some tools like Market Samurai that will tell you competition numbers, or serpIQ is another good tool that will also tell you how well the on-site optimization is for that page. Whether or not you have header tags with the keyword and title tags, etc.

[zannix]

Well, there are all sorts of pages there.. domains that are older than 5 years, PR2,3,4,5 domains, 2 youtube videos and 1 wikihow page.

I guess these youtube videos and wikihow page on the first site is good, right?

[sekhar203]

you go and check in market samurai... check the top ranking sites to get some idea of competition through this software....it will give a detail report at a glance...