Top 3 - How Do You Know?

[Knowledge Kick]

We've all heard that top 3 on page 1 of Google is the place to be. I want to know how you all determine if that top 3 ranking is reachable.

Once you pick a keyword and see the top 3 results, what indicators tell you if you should pursue that keyword or not.

Obviously Pagerank and number of backlinks will be important here. What Pagerank and number of competitor backlinks is conquerable? Are there any other factors you should consider?

Thanks in advance.

-Steve

[blogworker]

well, for all your information. a simple answer is TEST. No one can give a certain response about them without lots of test.
yo should test whether the keywords you choose is worth, whether the backlinks you own can conquer your competitors or not, all of those need you to have a test.
after your test you can make a corresponding change for your strategy, and then, test again.

[lovboa]

By feel....

You just have to feel it.
If you look at the current top 3 sites and you can "feel" you beating them..then it's possible. If you don't "feel" it, then perhaps find another niche.

Some days you might "feel" it, and then you might come back the next day to find that you dont "feel" it any more. This is why you must test for at least 5 consecutive days. If you "feel" it 3 times out of 5, then that's a good sign to go for it!

[Gary Becks]

Originally Posted by lovboa

By feel....

You just have to feel it.
If you look at the current top 3 sites and you can "feel" you beating them..then it's possible. If you don't "feel" it, then perhaps find another niche.

Some days you might "feel" it, and then you might come back the next day to find that you dont "feel" it any more. This is why you must test for at least 5 consecutive days. If you "feel" it 3 times out of 5, then that's a good sign to go for it!

OMG, this has to be the WORST advice I have EVER heard given on any SEO forum in my life.

You just have to feel it

Please, please do NOT listen to this type of misinformation. There are many, many tell tale signs that you can use to determine how long it will take you to outrank a given competitor but "feeling" is most definitely NOT one of them.

For the record, you can outrank ANY competitor - it's just a matter of how much time/effort you are willing to put into it. Usually the harder it is the bigger the payoff.

[Illuminations]

Originally Posted by lovboa

By feel....

You just have to feel it.
If you look at the current top 3 sites and you can "feel" you beating them..then it's possible. If you don't "feel" it, then perhaps find another niche.

Some days you might "feel" it, and then you might come back the next day to find that you dont "feel" it any more. This is why you must test for at least 5 consecutive days. If you "feel" it 3 times out of 5, then that's a good sign to go for it!

Oh yes! FEEL it. I can FEEL the aura and the energy inside me. I have the power to feel. I was guided by the oh holy SEO god. LOL. Just kiddin'. Boy, you had me laughing there.

[ronuraldd]

You cannot test such things in advance. Its better you find out how much competition a keyword have and what sources you have available for promotion purpose..

According to this you can find time it will take ... rest things can be easily found out

[crazyamit]

It's all up to you that how much or better seo you can provide for your site.
It also depends on keyword competition too.
Some main factors i prefer are:
1)Page rank
2)Age of site
3)back-links(good back inks)
4)alexa- rank

[outwest]

I look at a few things, some are somewhat important some are not important at all some are very important

1. PR this is somewhat important . but depends. If the PR of the page is PR5 or higher they tend to be "harder" to outrank. Some say PR means nothing but a lot of people think that, ok if you are trying to outrank a PR6 , PR7 page. good luck with that . Most say to look at the PR of the page and the lower the better .
The PR by itself doesnt necessarily mean much, but it IS important as relates to backlinks , a high PR site means it has STRONG backlinks, so in that sense its very important

2. Backlinks to PAGE. (not backlinks to the domain)
Google ranks pages, not sites. Ideally you want to be competing against a subpage not a root domain. The less backlinks to the page, the better. I would say I get excited to see 100 backlinks or less, 25 or less gets me very happy]
But...........I like to see a general pattern of very low backlinks in the top 5 or so sites

3. Onpages SEO factors. Should ideally be not there, or the page should not be well optimized. (kw in title, url, header, and description)
With Market Samurai it will tell me N N N N for these factors if the site is not well optimized, which is a good thing. Seeing a lot of these N (for No) in these columns for the top 3 gets my attention. That means If I do optimize the page well, given other factors also being good, there is a good chance to outrank the page. Probably the most important Onpage SEO factor (rumor not verified) is Kw in Title.(watch for that one) if the kw is not in the title thats a very good sign.

Domain Age? Anywhere from not very important, to not important at all
Backlinks to Domain? I ignore that


Overall I pretty much Uncheck most of the check boxes in top 10 Analysis in Market Samurai

The Main Two I really pay attention to are

1. Backlinks to Page
2. Onpage SEO factors