Finding keywords using Adwords tool

[trizzypballr]

I am using Adwords keyword tool to try to find good keywords to start micro niche sites with. I am very new, and have a few questions. I searched the forum and couldnt find anything helpful using adwords. To start off with, my main worry is the competition correct? As long as competition says low, and the CPC is $1+ this is worth looking into?

As long as the competition says low then the higher the monthly searches the better? For example I found a keyword that has low competition, 18,100 monthly global searches, 12,100 local monthly searches, and $7.51 CPC. If I can get an EMD for this, should I be jumping on this keyword?

[tryinhere]

have you seen market samurai's videos on keyword research, have a look they might help

Noble Samurai - Dojo (non affiliate link)

[thecableguy]

Sounds like you're using it for "organic" seo and not PPC?

If so several things if you're not familiar with Google's keyword tool. First it's giving you the PPC competition, not the ORGANIC competition. And you should be searching doing an EXACT match, not phrase or broad. Also the CPC is for the search network, probably 99% use the content network.

For competition unless there's a really high search volume only the 1st page competition in the SERPs matters if your main source of traffic will be the searchengines. If so TrafficTravis, MarketSamurai or seospyglass will give you a better picture.

As for the search volume do an exact match, and you may want to download the results to see the monthly averages (it's a 12 month average in the GAKT)

For the CPC view the Contextual Tool for a closer CPC.

[rivie0020]

Thanks so much I gained a lot, though I didn't ask the question. I wasted a lot of time doing seo for a keyword I thought has 200,000 monthly searches. I later realized it has about 200 exact searches, when I ranked number 5 without getting any pageviews.

[trizzypballr]

Yes clicking exact match is very important. What programs are good to use to check the ammount of backlinks other first page sites in your keywords search? It is also important to be able to rank easily over your competitors on the first page

[UMS]

Originally Posted by trizzypballr

As long as the competition says low then the higher the monthly searches the better? For example I found a keyword that has low competition, 18,100 monthly global searches, 12,100 local monthly searches, and $7.51 CPC. If I can get an EMD for this, should I be jumping on this keyword?

Firstly, the competition rating in Google Adwords Keyword Tool does not tell you how hard it is to rank for a particular keyword. It just tells you the level of competition for people bidding on that keyword in their Adwords campaign.

So, just ignore it.

Secondly, are those 18,100 searches exact or broad? Always ensure you look at the exact search figures, otherwise you'll get a rude shock when you go for a keyword that you think has a good number of searches, but in fact only gives you a tiny trickle of traffic when you rank for it.

For checking the competition of the top 10 results, the free version of Traffic Travis is a good place to start.

[trizzypballr]

Originally Posted by UMS

Firstly, the competition rating in Google Adwords Keyword Tool does not tell you how hard it is to rank for a particular keyword. It just tells you the level of competition for people bidding on that keyword in their Adwords campaign.

So, just ignore it.

Secondly, are those 18,100 searches exact or broad? Always ensure you look at the exact search figures, otherwise you'll get a rude shock when you go for a keyword that you think has a good number of searches, but in fact only gives you a tiny trickle of traffic when you rank for it.

For checking the competition of the top 10 results, the free version of Traffic Travis is a good place to start.

After checking for EMDs I realized they were all taken. I believe I may have found a decent keyword now according to adwords:
high competition global 9,900 local 2,900 CPC $2.89 .com .net and .org are all available

The things I worry about:
This is a rather common health problem, but uses the technical name that I myself have never actually even heard of. Although looking at the numbers I guess people do search for it.

- the #1 search result is a .edu
- the #10 is a .gov

I am trying to learn to use traffic travis now to check out these other sites. I downloaded it the other night and was using it to try to see how my own sites are doing, but I guess I was using it wrong. LoL

[serenin221]

In my opinion, if you have a low competition keyword, it doesn't always mean that you have a winning one. The most important thing is the search volume. So for me, a decent one with high search value would be more valuable. I am agreed with what thecableguy said about the competition and using search engine as your main traffic source. I will pay more attention to the first page competition in SERPs. There are many keywords tools that would do this competition and search volume search for you within a couple of seconds or minutes. One of the best and also the cheapest ones is Google Keyword tool. But there is a plenty of paid ones that would do the hard work for you. Some of the examples that I’ve been using are MarketSamurai or SeCockpit.

[trizzypballr]

Originally Posted by serenin221

In my opinion, if you have a low competition keyword, it doesn't always mean that you have a winning one. The most important thing is the search volume. So for me, a decent one with high search value would be more valuable. I am agreed with what thecableguy said about the competition and using search engine as your main traffic source. I will pay more attention to the first page competition in SERPs. There are many keywords tools that would do this competition and search volume search for you within a couple of seconds or minutes. One of the best and also the cheapest ones is Google Keyword tool. But there is a plenty of paid ones that would do the hard work for you. Some of the examples that I’ve been using are MarketSamurai or SeCockpit.

Im sorry if this is a dumb question, but I cannot see anywhere on adwords to check the first page competition?

So what Im really looking for is a keyword is an EMD, with as high local searches as possible, high CPC, that has low first page competition. I also want to avoid keywords with .edu or .gov first page SERPs?

[Henlus]

Originally Posted by trizzypballr

Im sorry if this is a dumb question, but I cannot see anywhere on adwords to check the first page competition?

So what Im really looking for is a keyword is an EMD, with as high local searches as possible, high CPC, that has low first page competition. I also want to avoid keywords with .edu or .gov first page SERPs?

Well trizzypballr, there is no place in adwords to check for first page competition. Adwords can't do that for you, so you have to do it manually or automatically.

To do it manually, you have to spy on the webpages that appear on the first page of the search result page. You have to take note of the number and anchor texts of their backlinks and their page rank. If you can beat them in terms of number of backlinks, then the competition is not so strong.

On the other hand, you can use some good keyword research tools to automate the process.

[serenin221]

Although some keywords might seem to good to work on, you should never use misleading keywords in order to attract visitors. Your stats might improve but they’ll never stay for long.