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I need advice on a keyword

by astj
8 replies
Hey guys,

I found a new keyword phrase which I think could be a good one, but I need some help. Also, I realize that someone could easily steal this but I'm just trusting that no one will.

The phrase <keyword removed> gets searched about 4400 times per month and the non plural form about 1600. When I type it into google only about 24.4k results are returned.

My problem is how do I determine if the sites on the first pages are hard to knock down. None of them have the search term in their URL but how else do I know if I can get their spots?

Also, how do I determine the true cost of the ppc ads. One of my sources says 1.73 per click another says about .79 per click.

Any information or thoughts you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
#advice #keyword
  • Profile picture of the author Melanie Crouse
    I really wouldn't openly share niches or keywords here if I were you.

    For how to determine if sites on page one will be hard to out-rank...check the site's PR, domain age, and number of backlinks. That will give you a start. Also - are any of the sites on page one article directories, web 2.0 sites (like hubpages, squidoo, etc?) If so, it shouldn't be hard to rank at all.
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  • Profile picture of the author Melanie Crouse
    I just ran that keyword phrase through Market Samurai to have a look at competition and some of those sites are big companies and sell-established sites. Some of their on-page SEO could definitely be improved on though.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sparhawke
    Remove those keywords lest you lose it...there are roughly 800 people scouring these forums for topics just like this one, come back when you have bought it
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    • Profile picture of the author astj
      I took your advice and removed the keyword, I think there is still enough information for people to get my situation. But it's probably not very valuable because after reading melanies reply I realize that the sites are all pretty established.

      Can anyone recommend a good free tool that checks the page rank and domain age of competitors?
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  • Profile picture of the author jimmyab
    Hey ASTJ - best way to find out...just go and do it!

    Sometimes we can get stuck thru 'analysis paralysis'....

    With the results you got from your SERP results I would say you have a very good crack at dominating those keywords and similar ones...but you wont know till you run a test case...so give it a go...

    For PPC use Google Traffic Estimator...then run your campaign...using manual bids, so you can adjust to find the true bid cost during campaign...and set a small test budget...if results are favourable use a more advanced keyword tool to really drill down and dominate the niche...

    All the best
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  • Profile picture of the author Sparhawke
    I think if you can get around 1000 exact searches per month and get good information on your site with stuff to engage visitors you still have a good chance of ranking, if it is a fairly small niche (ie. not insurance, legal, health or flights) your chance of getting it fairly high is good over time if you do proper keyword research.

    It is $10 or so to register so you don't lose that much if it is a dud, and if it is a winner you can sell it in a few months for a nice return

    I have recently found one with 15k exact with 270k competition, and no one will hear of it until I manage to get it registered lol
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  • Profile picture of the author zoobie
    you can use "Allintitle" or "allinanchor" search to see how many sites are exactly using these keywords to optimize their sites.

    But by judging your figures you gave us, the keywords seems not quite justify your time to optimize.
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  • Profile picture of the author mlord10
    I have a few things that I look at to see if I can rank for a keyword. Of course nothing is an exact science, but this should give you a pretty good idea.

    1.See what kind of pages are ranking on the first page of Google. Forget about putting a search term in quotes and getting "less than 10,000" competing results, or whatever the figure may be. The fact of the matter is that it doesn't matter if the competition is 500 or 5,000,000, because your real competition involves the 10 pages on the first page of Google that you want to outrank!

    2. Evaluate the websites or web properties on page one. If you are seeing some articles, web 2.0 properties, etc. then chances are you can rank for that keyword with a solid backlinking strategy. Just leverage a high PR website (Such as ezinearticles or hubpages) to rank your article high, and then backlink to hold your first place position.

    3. If you type in your keyword phrase and you see no articles or inner pages, then you may want to move on to another keyword. When you are competing against 10 domains with high PR it is going to be difficult to outrank them, in my opinion.
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