Myths of Competition Analysis?

I'm not a big fan of the "quotes" or intitle searches as I think these are misleading. I've hit top 10 spots in Google for keywords that have over 500k exact match competition pages in Google, while failing to rank for keywords with less than 10k results because they have a strong top 10. Number of results really tell you precious little in my opinion.

Here's what I would do when looking for rankable keywords:

1. Use keyword software that can give you a quick general idea of keyword competition, like Micro Niche Finder or Market Samurai. You don't have to, but it speeds up the process.

2. Identify promising keywords, then search them in Google (without quotes or anything) and look at the top 10 - I completely ignore the number of results returned for the search.

3. I use the SEO for Firefox plugin to see the page rank and other useful information on the search results.

4. Here's what I look for:

- If I see nothing over PR4 in the top 10, I'll be interested although I'd probably look for something a little easier before taking that particular keyword on

- If I see a few PR0 to PR2 pages that don't even have the exact keyword in their title, I'll be pretty much sold

- Here's the big decision point for me: If I see articles from article directories or other web 2.0 properties hitting the top 10, that tells me I can definitely rank for that keyword with a little work.

It's not hard to outrank Ezinearticles and other directories' content on your own domains. As an example, I outrank one of my own PR2 articles on EZA with a PR0 page on my domain featuring a slightly rewritten version of that same article.

This is the basics of the process I use and it works for me. I'm too lazy to make it much more complicated than that (not sure that's even necessary). It's simple, fast and, in my experience, quite effective.

Well said Nicolaas. However I have top 3 rankings on keywords that MNF showed as "red" (don't bother). So I am not even sure how much stock you can put in those numbers either.

I don't do competition analysis. I do the best job I can. If it makes me money, I keep doing it. If it doesn't, I stop.

I honestly don't care if I make more money or get higher rankings than the next guy. If I'm making enough money for the site to be worth my time, I'll keep putting my time into it.

Thanks Nicolaas Theron...

What's your competition analysis criteria guys?

Heres the link to the money word matrix which is actually pretty good at determining whether to get into a certain niche or not.

http://nicheprofitclassroom2review.c...ord-matrix.jpg