Is my chosen keyword too competitive on the 1st page of google?

7 replies
  • SEO
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Hey!
I'm new to SEO, but have been in the online industry for a long time. I'm optimizing a clients website, and believe I have found a stellar keyword that I can assign to the home page and as the primary keyword. I'm drawn to it because it has high search volume for that industry, and very low KD (according to SEMrush). But I'm worried the SERPs Features and the big name companies on the first page of google are red flags that it will be too difficult to land on page 1.

My question is - do you agree this is a good keyword, or are those two red flags big ones, and I should move onto a different keyword to target? Also, I'm not sure best practices on forums for posting specifics, like the company domain I'm working on, or if that info is even needed for you all to help me out. Just lmk in comments and I can add.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

"Tax Services"
27k searches - on the higher end of search volume for this vertical.
60% KD - most keywords in this industry are around 72%-85%+.
SF - 4 - Is this too many and negatively affects me and is a red flag? Or is that an opportunity?
The first page of results is all major companies (H&R Block, Liberty Tax, etc), is this a red flag that this keyword is too difficult?

Thank you for your input!
Jess
#1st #chosen #competitive #google #keyword #page
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris-
    To beat the competition, your DA and PA needs to be better than theirs.

    KWFinder is the most accurate for SEO Difficulty, so check your options there as well.

    A search volume between 500 and 6k is best to start with, then as your DA improves due to effective SEO actions, you can try to rank for more competitive keywords.

    An internal link passes about 70% of the SEO "power", so write articles on a bunch of low SEO Difficulty keywords, 2,400+ words (so you include enough expert phrases) and better quality content than your competitors, and use contextual links to link to your main squeeze pages or sales pages etc.

    Hope that helps !

    Chris
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  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    If the first page of results is all major companies, I find it extremely unlikely that you will ever make it to page one unless yours, too, is a major company and is sitting at the top of page 2. Find a less competitive KW phrase.
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    Originally Posted by Chris- View Post

    To beat the competition, your DA and PA needs to be better than theirs.

    KWFinder is the most accurate for SEO Difficulty, so check your options there as well.

    A search volume between 500 and 6k is best to start with, then as your DA improves due to effective SEO actions, you can try to rank for more competitive keywords.

    An internal link passes about 70% of the SEO "power", so write articles on a bunch of low SEO Difficulty keywords, 2,400+ words (so you include enough expert phrases) and better quality content than your competitors, and use contextual links to link to your main squeeze pages or sales pages etc.

    Hope that helps !

    Chris
    Everything in this post is just utterly and completely wrong. Ignore it all. I don't know where he came up with this nonsense, but nothing he wrote is true.

    DA and PA have nothing to do with rankings. There is no restriction on how much "power" internal links pass on. Search volume alone does not determine if a keyword is good to target or not.



    Originally Posted by jessikayehill View Post

    Hey!
    I'm new to SEO, but have been in the online industry for a long time. I'm optimizing a clients website, and believe I have found a stellar keyword that I can assign to the home page and as the primary keyword. I'm drawn to it because it has high search volume for that industry, and very low KD (according to SEMrush). But I'm worried the SERPs Features and the big name companies on the first page of google are red flags that it will be too difficult to land on page 1.

    My question is - do you agree this is a good keyword, or are those two red flags big ones, and I should move onto a different keyword to target? Also, I'm not sure best practices on forums for posting specifics, like the company domain I'm working on, or if that info is even needed for you all to help me out. Just lmk in comments and I can add.

    Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

    "Tax Services"
    27k searches - on the higher end of search volume for this vertical.
    60% KD - most keywords in this industry are around 72%-85%+.
    SF - 4 - Is this too many and negatively affects me and is a red flag? Or is that an opportunity?
    The first page of results is all major companies (H&R Block, Liberty Tax, etc), is this a red flag that this keyword is too difficult?

    Thank you for your input!
    Jess
    Seeing big names on the first page is not necessarily an indicator that it will be difficult to rank, especially of the pages ranking are internal pages versus their home page.

    In my opinion, the real struggle you are going to have is just getting any traffic.

    Let's say someone does a search for "Tax Services" and they see the top 4 results as:

    1. H&R Block
    2. You
    3. TurboTax
    4. Liberty Tax.

    Even though you are ranking #2, those other companies are such well established and recognized brands, do you really think you are going to get many clicks? There would have to be something really intriguing and eye-catching about your headline to get me to click on you over them. Even then, the other three are probably going to suck up 95% of the clicks.

    To me this is as much of a brand recognition issue as it is an SEO issue.

    That being said, a lot of this would go out the window if this is a local search and you are trying to just rank in your town. You combine ranking in the maps, ranking organically, and a good solid Google Ads campaign in a local market and you can kill it versus established brand names.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gary Brenton
    Hi,

    I'm in a similar position. I've taken the plunge to start up as a freelance digital marketer, targeting local businesses, but as you will know, digital marketing is an extremely competitive industry.

    Other than using Google my business for local search (which doesn't seem to be generating much traffic), does anyone have any recommendations on other ways to bring in more traffic from SEO, without having to compete for the phrase "digital marketer". I've optimised for the phrase "digital marketer Hampshire" and "digital marketer Southampton" but I'm not even sure people are using these search terms. The impressions on search console are very low.

    Another thought I had is perhaps local businesses are not using the phrase "digital marketer" at all, and perhaps they use different terminology - perhaps "website designers" or "how to get my website on google"?

    I'm a little bit stuck with keyword research in a really tough industry, and trying to find non competitive keywords, but ones that generate enough traffic.

    Any help would be really appreciated.

    Many thanks in advance
    Gary
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    • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
      Originally Posted by Gary Brenton View Post

      perhaps local businesses are not using the phrase "digital marketer" at all, and perhaps they use different terminology - perhaps "website designers" or "how to get my website on google"?
      What are keyword tools telling you people are using locally? Google's free keyword tool can tell you that. Scroll down to #6 in this article - https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-keyword-planner/

      Or, you could sit down with people who own local businesses or are in charge of marketing for them and simply ask them for the types of things they might search for if they were trying to gain more exposure online.
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      • Profile picture of the author cmsminds
        Originally Posted by dave_hermansen View Post

        What are keyword tools telling you people are using locally? Google's free keyword tool can tell you that. Scroll down to #6 in this article - https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-keyword-planner/

        Or, you could sit down with people who own local businesses or are in charge of marketing for them and simply ask them for the types of things they might search for if they were trying to gain more exposure online.
        You are right. I think he is choosing very generic keyword. "Tax Services" is a very competitive and generic keyword. It is obvious that you will get a big business ranking on the first page for this kind of keyword.

        I suggest you should choose a long-tail keyword with some variation of your primary keyword and adding some phrases to it. Go for the keywords which precisely describe your service. For instance, Income tax filing services, property tax services, GST services, VAT services, etc. That kind of keywords is more business-oriented keywords than generic keywords.
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  • Profile picture of the author samsabir
    In order to rise up in the competition, it is important to use both LSI keywords and the high ranking ones. It will allow you to advertise your brand properly.
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