Keyword research criteria

[tish_lynn02]

What criteria do you go by when doing keyword research? For example, amount of monthly searches, competing pages, exact phrase search etc...

[Tom Ryan]

When I'm starting a new niche site I like to target exact match keywords that get at the very least 100 searches/day, but I usually go much higher. That being said, I do have sites in which I've targeted keywords that the tools said only get a few hundred searches a month, but turn out giving me far more visitors. No keyword tool is 100% accurate, so sometimes you have to wait and see what kind of traffic a keyword will bring.

As far as competition I only analyze the first page of google for my keywords, more specifically the first 3 positions. Because ultimately that is who you are really competing with.

[tish_lynn02]

Originally Posted by Tom Ryan

When I'm starting a new niche site I like to target exact match keywords that get at the very least 100 searches/day, but I usually go much higher. That being said, I do have sites in which I've targeted keywords that the tools said only get a few hundred searches a month, but turn out giving me far more visitors. No keyword tool is 100% accurate, so sometimes you have to wait and see what kind of traffic a keyword will bring.

As far as competition I only analyze the first page of google for my keywords, more specifically the first 3 positions. Because ultimately that is who you are really competing with.

As far as the top three positions, what type of websites are considered bad or ones that I cannot beat?

[paulosully]

Depends on your niche. If you're dealing with physical products and the top 3 for your search term includes sites like Wal-mart, Home Depot, etc. You're probably not going to beat them.

[Dan Freeman]

Before I answer, I would like to know, that tools do you use for your keyword research?

[Tom Ryan]

Originally Posted by tish_lynn02

As far as the top three positions, what type of websites are considered bad or ones that I cannot beat?

I look at the types of sites they are. If the top 3 spots are aged, high PR sites I'll usually pass. However if they are newer sites with a lower PR I'll look closer. I'll look at the sites backlinks as well. I'll see how many and what kind of backlinks they have. If they have junk backlinks they'll probably be easy to beat, but if their links are from high PR authority sites it will be a lot tougher. Also look at their content. Check to see if it is optimized for your target keyword, and well written. See if you can do better.

Those are some of the things I look at when analyzing sites. Hope that helps.

[tish_lynn02]

Originally Posted by CameronNY

Before I answer, I would like to know, that tools do you use for your keyword research?

I use google's keyword tool

[sparrow]

Originally Posted by Tom Ryan

I look at the types of sites they are. If the top 3 spots are aged, high PR sites I'll usually pass. However if they are newer sites with a lower PR I'll look closer. I'll look at the sites backlinks as well. I'll see how many and what kind of backlinks they have. If they have junk backlinks they'll probably be easy to beat, but if their links are from high PR authority sites it will be a lot tougher. Also look at their content. Check to see if it is optimized for your target keyword, and well written. See if you can do better.

Those are some of the things I look at when analyzing sites. Hope that helps.

what are you using for checking backlinks, free tools?

[Tom Ryan]

Originally Posted by sparrow

what are you using for checking backlinks, free tools?

For analyzing competitors backlinks I usually use scrapebox, or else I'll use the free version of seo spyglass.

[tish_lynn02]

Originally Posted by sparrow

what are you using for checking backlinks, free tools?

I usually use seoquake. Is that sufficient enough?

[razorico]

Originally Posted by sparrow

what are you using for checking backlinks, free tools?

For just checking the number of backlinks you can use seoquake plugin for firefox. For further analysis - check out seospyglass.

[Raul991]

I have spent huge amounts of time learning and doing keyword research. I have gathered quite a nice list of keywords that are in my "new sites to do list". I only take min. 5400 exact searches a month when I am making a small site.

If I am planning an authority site the min. is 2900 and it depends if the keyword is buy keyword or not.

When it comes to competition research I do not care about the nr. of competing pages. In the first phase I look for pr and the number of links when looking at my top 10 competitors. The second phase is picking the keyword with the easiest top 10 and dig deeper by looking at the linking backround of the top 10 with SEO Spyglass.

Then I pick the keywords with the weakest competition and get the website creation going

[outwest]

Originally Posted by Raul991

I have spent huge amounts of time learning and doing keyword research. I have gathered quite a nice list of keywords that are in my "new sites to do list". I only take min. 5400 exact searches a month when I am making a small site.

If I am planning an authority site the min. is 2900 and it depends if the keyword is buy keyword or not.

When it comes to competition research I do not care about the nr. of competing pages. In the first phase I look for pr and the number of links when looking at my top 10 competitors. The second phase is picking the keyword with the easiest top 10 and dig deeper by looking at the linking backround of the top 10 with SEO Spyglass.

Then I pick the keywords with the weakest competition and get the website creation going

thats what I do, I dont care about competing pages or SEOC on Mkt samurai
I also dont care about "allintitle" "allinurl"

I care about
backlinks to page and PR of the site
and Onpage SEO factors

[SUPER IM]

SEOquake chrome plugin is awesome! google keyword tool + SEO quake is all you need

1. find keywords with good searches per month
2. put that into google with SEOquake actiavted
3. look at the backlinks, PR and so on.
4. check if there are any EMD's in top 10
5. do the same with quotes.
6. Make a cup of tea


Hope that helps!

[Raul991]

Originally Posted by outwest

thats what I do, I dont care about competing pages or SEOC on Mkt samurai
I also dont care about "allintitle" "allinurl"

I care about
backlinks to page and PR of the site
and Onpage SEO factors

Competing pages is bs

I have seen many "gurus" promoting their magical SEO programs claiming to have been defeating million competitors. Yeah the number game is effective on newbies, but I laugh when I see these claims. I am ranking #1 with a keyword that has 25 million competing pages, but top 10 is so weak - the best competitor has pr 0 and 10 backlinks.

[outwest]

I will admit though, when first starting out its difficult to wade through all the "experts" and articles and advice

it took me about a year, really, actually more , to realize what is important in kw research
I never really made the big leap though, knowledge and power wise, in kw research
until I bought Market Samurai

without that tool
or a similar tool that is capable of what it is capable in analyzing the Google top 10
IMO you are really at a huge disadvantage and will waste months and months of time chasing kws which you have zero chance of ranking with

watching the tutorials on Market Samurai On youtube helped me move light years ahead in kw research within about 2 weeks
before that
I THOUGHT i knew what I was doing , but I had no clue
Even after watching the tuts
it took me about another 2-4 weeeks asking questions on the board etc to find out
WHAT IS IMPORTANT AND WHAT IS NOT
in the data that comes up in the top 10 Google Analyses

it takes quite a while to get the hang of

[tish_lynn02]

Originally Posted by SUPER IM

SEOquake chrome plugin is awesome! google keyword tool + SEO quake is all you need

1. find keywords with good searches per month
2. put that into google with SEOquake actiavted
3. look at the backlinks, PR and so on.
4. check if there are any EMD's in top 10
5. do the same with quotes.
6. Make a cup of tea


Hope that helps!

What are EMD's?

[SearchingLost]

I focus on Local results and use exact phrase.... then later on when I get my list together I not how competitive each word is.

[John Williamson]

There are no 'ideal' amounts for these metrics, as I've said repeatedly, just find a combination of them that make for a profitable site, depending on your form of revenue, be it Adsense, aff. marketing, selling a product, etc.