Competition isn't about the quote numbers anymore - Small tips for newbies
- SEO |
Hello World. I've been seeing a few posts around here about newbies being unable to rank on the first page of Google for their keyword phrases despite the fact that they found keywords within a specified competition number in quotes. It discouraged them and left them pulling their hair out, so I'm going to break it all down on how you can find a KW that you can AT LEAST rank between the bottom of the first page and the middle of the second page without backlinks (bump this up with backlinks):
1. Find keywords that get at least 1,000 searches per month according to the Google Tool. You CAN, however, start off lower than that, but try not to go below 500.
2. I personally wouldn't bother much with the in quotes, since I have ranked on the first page with a million results without quotes and half a million with quotes (with some outsourced link building). But as a safety net, find KWs that have less than 100,000 in quotes.
3. However, your competition search doesn't stop there. Your TRUE competition is the first 10 pages of Google for your KW phrase. To keep searching, you will need to download a free Firefox plugin called SEO For Firefox. Once it is installed, you'll see a fancy looking "SEO" icon on the lower right hand corner of your Firefox browser.
4. Now, type in your KW phrase in Google without quotes. You should see some blue stuff pop up under all of your SE results. Now, one by one, click the question marks by the "PR" icon (forget about shopping results, news results, or video results as they aren't relevant). Note down the PR amounts. For this part of the phase to pass, I like to see no less than three results with either PR -, PR0, or PR1 (any combination of the three). Now, people will tell you that PR isn't important. DON'T LISTEN TO THEM! It is EXTREMELY important.
5. Still not done. Now, go click on the question marks by the "Y! Page Links" icon, one by one. Note down the numbers. For this part of the phase to pass, I like to see half of the results have 50 or less. Under half would be pushing it to the point where you'll need to spend some time trying to rank for it.
6. One last thing. Type the following into the Google search box, exactly as it appears:
This is how well your keyword is optimized on the SERPs. For this part of the phase to pass, I like to see this number between 0 and 30, with closest to zero being the best (but you can hit it on the higher end of the spectrum with minimal backlinking).
7. If all of these phases pass, you have yourself a good keyword. Now go out and dominate it!
Some other small things:
1. Google tends to give out bogus SERP numbers at times. So to check, first go up to the upper right hand corner of your SERPs and choose "Search Settings". Scroll down to "Number Of Results" and change the number from 10 to 100. I'll explain why next, just do it!
2. Now, type your keyword without quotes. Note the number down. Now, put quotes around your keyword. If the in quote number is higher than the without quote number, the in quote number is BOGUS. The reason is that there is NO LOGICAL WAY a keyword can have more results with the exact phrase in that order than with the phrase in any order. For instance, when people search for something like "how to lose unwanted pounds", they could see results that are optimized for phrases such as "how to lose weight", "how to lose pounds", "lose unwanted pounds", "shed unwanted pounds", among many others. But they are specifically searching for that phrase in that order, so if they see it they will click. By the way, this varies from niche to niche, but it is a general example.
3. Now, to find the REAL in quote count for your keyword phrase, scroll down and click on the highest page number you see (could be as high as ten). Repeat this process until you see some sentence at the bottom that says something about omitted results. Then look at the competition number, and there is your TRUE in quotes number. By the way, those "omitted" results are usually some incoherent pages with no PR and no backlinks, so it's nothing to worry about. By the way, setting the "Number of Results" number to 100 makes this a LOT faster, as sorting through ten results at a time can get tedious, so THAT is why you need to set the number to 100.
4. Now, when it's time to do the rest of your competition research, set the "Number Of Results" number back to 10.
Now, take all of this as a basic guideline to competition research. But the most important thing is NOT to take this and follow it to a tee. Even if your keyword doesn't comply with one of my specifications I set forth, listen to your gut and see if you can still get a good ranking for it with some good High PR backlinks. Just trust your gut, because there isn't an exact science to rank on Google's first page. Everyone will tell you differently.
If you have tools such as Micro Niche Finder and/or Market Samurai (both of which I highly recommend), you can do this competition research a lot faster (among many other awesome features), but as every marketer will tell you, DON'T rely on KW tools! Again, listen to your gut!
1. Find keywords that get at least 1,000 searches per month according to the Google Tool. You CAN, however, start off lower than that, but try not to go below 500.
2. I personally wouldn't bother much with the in quotes, since I have ranked on the first page with a million results without quotes and half a million with quotes (with some outsourced link building). But as a safety net, find KWs that have less than 100,000 in quotes.
3. However, your competition search doesn't stop there. Your TRUE competition is the first 10 pages of Google for your KW phrase. To keep searching, you will need to download a free Firefox plugin called SEO For Firefox. Once it is installed, you'll see a fancy looking "SEO" icon on the lower right hand corner of your Firefox browser.
4. Now, type in your KW phrase in Google without quotes. You should see some blue stuff pop up under all of your SE results. Now, one by one, click the question marks by the "PR" icon (forget about shopping results, news results, or video results as they aren't relevant). Note down the PR amounts. For this part of the phase to pass, I like to see no less than three results with either PR -, PR0, or PR1 (any combination of the three). Now, people will tell you that PR isn't important. DON'T LISTEN TO THEM! It is EXTREMELY important.
5. Still not done. Now, go click on the question marks by the "Y! Page Links" icon, one by one. Note down the numbers. For this part of the phase to pass, I like to see half of the results have 50 or less. Under half would be pushing it to the point where you'll need to spend some time trying to rank for it.
6. One last thing. Type the following into the Google search box, exactly as it appears:
| intitle:"your keyword" inanchor:"your keyword" |
7. If all of these phases pass, you have yourself a good keyword. Now go out and dominate it!
Some other small things:
1. Google tends to give out bogus SERP numbers at times. So to check, first go up to the upper right hand corner of your SERPs and choose "Search Settings". Scroll down to "Number Of Results" and change the number from 10 to 100. I'll explain why next, just do it!
2. Now, type your keyword without quotes. Note the number down. Now, put quotes around your keyword. If the in quote number is higher than the without quote number, the in quote number is BOGUS. The reason is that there is NO LOGICAL WAY a keyword can have more results with the exact phrase in that order than with the phrase in any order. For instance, when people search for something like "how to lose unwanted pounds", they could see results that are optimized for phrases such as "how to lose weight", "how to lose pounds", "lose unwanted pounds", "shed unwanted pounds", among many others. But they are specifically searching for that phrase in that order, so if they see it they will click. By the way, this varies from niche to niche, but it is a general example.
3. Now, to find the REAL in quote count for your keyword phrase, scroll down and click on the highest page number you see (could be as high as ten). Repeat this process until you see some sentence at the bottom that says something about omitted results. Then look at the competition number, and there is your TRUE in quotes number. By the way, those "omitted" results are usually some incoherent pages with no PR and no backlinks, so it's nothing to worry about. By the way, setting the "Number of Results" number to 100 makes this a LOT faster, as sorting through ten results at a time can get tedious, so THAT is why you need to set the number to 100.
4. Now, when it's time to do the rest of your competition research, set the "Number Of Results" number back to 10.
Now, take all of this as a basic guideline to competition research. But the most important thing is NOT to take this and follow it to a tee. Even if your keyword doesn't comply with one of my specifications I set forth, listen to your gut and see if you can still get a good ranking for it with some good High PR backlinks. Just trust your gut, because there isn't an exact science to rank on Google's first page. Everyone will tell you differently.
If you have tools such as Micro Niche Finder and/or Market Samurai (both of which I highly recommend), you can do this competition research a lot faster (among many other awesome features), but as every marketer will tell you, DON'T rely on KW tools! Again, listen to your gut!
Tim Pears