sizing up the competition

[dkbiz92]

i have found some good keywords to build some niche sites around but i dont know what the competition on them is like. any advice on how to check how tough they really are? I used google keyword tool already and only picked keywords with low competition. Any other ways to make sure i have a fighting chance to get to 1st page on google.

[Kurt Chrisler]

I usually use Market Samurai for looking at competition but is a paid tool. A free way is to use SEO Book Toolbar or SEO Quake Firefox plugin.

[bagpuss0001]

Yep, Market Samurai is probably the best if you dont mind paying for it. Its one of those tools you add on to your, "invest is this" list for your business.

I havent tried those that Kurt mention, but I will take a look at them.

[BloggingPro]

Use Traffic Travis and its SEO Analysis ability. Use it to pull the top ten ranking sites for the keyword and then start looking at the results. Domain Age, PageRank, Backlinks, Title Tags, H1 Tags, Meta Tags.

Start at the bottom and work your way up.

[dkbiz92]

do these tools tell you how many back links and things they have too?

[BloggingPro]

Originally Posted by dkbiz92

do these tools tell you how many back links and things they have too?

Yes. They put it all in a nice and easy to read chart. Then you simply need to go through the results and look at each one. For a more detailed look you will need to pull the link profile of each top ranking site to see how well anchored their backlink's are.

If you find that many of their links are anchored to the keyword than that means they are definitely optimized for that keyword and just aren't ranking for other reasons.

Also if you find that a majority of the sites are optimizing their on-page for the keyword that is also a sign that they are well aware of their position and will put up a fight when you come in and try to rank.

[John Williamson]

I like to check out the competition 'manually' by just looking at who's on page 1 for the targeted keyword and seeing if I think I can beat the metrics they have in place like backlinks, anchor text, on-page optimization, etc.

[outwest]

When I used Traffic Travis it would not pull up the backlinks
and forums I saw tons of people saying TT stops pullling up BLs for weeks at a time

maybe its working now

Me I use Market Samurai for this, works like a charm in about 30 secs for analyzing top 10 competition

[amoeba]

there are many factors but 3 most important ones are..

site age and authority
backlinks to the site
content quality

if you want to rank for a kw then look for these 3 things first for top 10 sites.and if you can do better than those..you are good to go.if you see affiliate sites with low age then the kw is easy.no matter what kinda bl's they got. if they can get those bl's then you can also get those backlinks.the question will be "can you?"..if yes,,you got the kw

[ichl13]

Just check it yourself using google, that way you can see if the site is an authority site, the site design, layout and more importantly the content

[UMS]

Originally Posted by dkbiz92

I used google keyword tool already and only picked keywords with low competition.

Google Adwords Keyword Tool is definitely not a tool to gauge your competition.

The Adwords competition bar may give you some clues, but it's certainly not something to rely on.

[JaySam]

Google Adwords is a free service tool for the webmasters to determine and analyze the competition of the keyword. It is not fully gives you the best results but ideas that will trigger you into new strategy.