What keywords do you consider "high competition"?

[ezzypro]

I always see people posting things like "my keyword has really high competition", or "try to go after keywords that are low competition". But what exactly do these phrases mean?

Personally, here's how I break it down:

Low Competition: The top 5 websites for you keyword are PR 0-2. I think the top 5 search results are all you need to worry about, because if you are 6 or below, you pretty much don't exist.

Medium Competition: The top 5 websites are PR 3-4.

High Competition: The top 5 websites are PR 5-6.

And for keywords that are competing against PR 7+ sites, I consider those "too competitive to even try" kind of keywords.

What do you guys think? What does low, medium, and high competition mean to you?

[BarryOnline]

PR is just a small part of the equaision.

You could have a PR4 page/site that ranks high yet is not fully optimised for the target keywords.

Also, even though you see a PR4 site on page one it does not mean that you have to wait months for your new PR0 site to reach PR4.

The Google toolbar is not real time. You could launch a brand new PR0 domain, build a bunch of PR6 links pointing to the domain and within days you could have a PR4 site. But only Google will see that actual PR of your new site is climbing. The Google toolbar will not show the true PR of the new domain until an upate.

Don't pay too much attention to PR when checking the competition.

1) Look at the level of on page optimisation of the top sites

2) Look at the back links of the top sites, looking at anchor text, page rank, dofollow and relevancy.

[yukon]

I don't care about PR as far as competition goes, means nothing. I've had PR0 pages out rank competitions PR5-6 pages, it's not uncommon, happens all the time.

When you search your keyword in Google (Chrome Incognito browser is what I use for quick manual keyword research) If you see a double/triple SERP listing, that's an instant sign that they are serious competition.

You can also be fooled sometimes by only focusing on the competitions ranked page & not looking at their supporting pages & those supporting pages external backlinks.

[ezzypro]

Wow! PR0 sites outranking PR5 sites? That's pretty impressive! Well, then I guess there's hope for my website!

[yukon]

Originally Posted by ezzypro

Wow! PR0 sites outranking PR5 sites? That's pretty impressive! Well, then I guess there's hope for my website!

Get TrafficTravis (free) & you'll find plenty of low PR pages beating high PR competition in the SERPs.

[outwest]

Originally Posted by yukon

.

When you search your keyword in Google (Chrome Incognito browser is what I use for quick manual keyword research) If you see a double/triple SERP listing, that's an instant sign that they are serious competition.

.

ya but that doesnt mean you cant easily outrank them, in my own case I have a guy, 1,2 on google for many kws and he has on many of them, zero backlinks or less than 10 and he is ranked 1, 2 on google

that doesnt tell you he is serious only that he has more backlinks than the other guys

[yukon]

Originally Posted by outwest

ya but that doesnt mean you cant easily outrank them, in my own case I have a guy, 1,2 on google for many kws and he has on many of them, zero backlinks or less than 10 and he is ranked 1, 2 on google

that doesnt tell you he is serious only that he has more backlinks than the other guys

I never said any page couldn't be outranked in the SERPs, obviuosly any page in the SERPs can be beaten, Google isn't static.

My point is, a quick glance without checking anything (on-page seo, off-page seo), If you see a double/triple SERP listing they are serious about ranking that keyword. Nobody creates 27 internal pages with the same exact keyword phrase without being serious.

Just an example, click the link below, without following any of the links on the Google SERPs below & without checking anything (backlinks on the SERP URLs) do you really think that about.com isn't serious about ranking the keyword?

• automobile history

Keep in mind, I'm not saying about.com can't be beaten in the SERPs, they can indeed, just depends how bad you want to rank the keyword.

I never checked any backlinks on this keyword (about.com), I still know they are serious about ranking the keyword. If I wanted that keyword I would defiantly check external backlinks.

BTW, that's the power of internal links helping create those 5 links in position #1 & #2 in Google SERPs for that keyword (automobile history).