I would usually use exact match searches rather than broad match, it gives a clearer picture of how many people actually type that term in.

Also, it depends on more factors than just how many other sites there are - are any of these optimised for the target keywords and how many backlinks do they have?

Google Adword Keyword tools will help you in determining your keyword monthly searches and competition.

Yes, long tail keywords are really good and can be optimized in short time as well.

Keyword Research:

Look ONLY at the TOP 10! that's it...

Learn how to gauge the top ten for your search and decide of you can beat them by better SEO.

It's as simple as that guys

To me that looks very competitive - but if you only want to get onto the first page and not necessarily the top, it is possible.

You will probably need to build about 5,000+ relevant backlinks (that Google finds) to get a good position on the page. This will take quite a lot of work and some time.

About broad match vs. exact match. I only meant use exact match for estimating the number of searches in Google's keyword tool, this is so that you can see how many people will actually search for that phrase rather than how many people type in one or more of the keywords used in any order. Here is a good explanation, but let le know if you need more advice on this: Broad Match vs Phrase Match vs Exact Match

Also, the reason I asked for backlinks to that page was because it's those competing pages that you are trying to beat. Overall backlinks to a site will have some effect on the site's rank, but relevant backlinks to the pages you are trying to beat is most important.

By relevant I mean with your key phrase as the anchor text and preferably for the backlink to be on a page that is in some way related to your key phrase (this second point helps, but is not essential).

For example, if you are trying to rank for the term 'mens clothes' a link in an article about suits with the words 'mens clothes' as a link to your site will help you rank for that key word more than if for some reason an article about cheese (or something else unrelated to mens clothes) had a link with the words 'mens clothes' to your site. A link with no anchor text, an image or just the URL for example, on a page with no real content or unrelated content will help the least.

Hope that's explained more clearly now. Let me know if you have any other questions. SEO can be quite a lot to learn!

It's quite late in England (where I live), so I'll have to reply more in the morning, but I'm still happy to help . You're welcome to PM me if you like.

Sorry for the delay getting back - have been a bit busy today.

The number 5,000 was just an estimate of how many backlinks (of the same quality as the other sites have) you would need to get half way up the page. I got there because that's about the number current 5th page has - and you need more backlinks and/or better backlinks to beat them. I know you said that you don't need to be at number 1, but as you go down the page the CTR falls drastically. Just something to think about.

As for what's doable, it's somewhat up to experience. I know that building 5,000 backlinks would feel hard for me as I usually have several website projects to work on at any one time and am used to going after many long tail keywords which require much less.

Going after a keyword like the one you appear to be interested in is likely to be doable, but it will take months of consistent work building links. Also you must make sure that the page you want to rank has good on-page SEO.

But if you don't mind working on it, then it shouldn't be a problem.

If I were doing this I would look for several long tail keywords that are similar to this one. Let me give you an example - suppose you get to #5 on the first page for the keyword with 90,000 searches per month. In this position you will get about 5,400 clicks - 6% of 90,000, which is approximately what you should expect if you are in position #5.

You could get about the same number of clicks if you find 5/6 keywords with volumes of 3,000 searches a month and get to #1 for each of these (where you will get 30-40% CTR). It's likely that this will be easier too in terms of off-page SEO. You may need to build more pages though.

This is just an idea - if you don't mind waiting for months and doing lots of backlinking consistently then just go for the competitive term. If you are new to SEO though, it may be more rewarding to test out your skills on a few easier keywords first - this is what I did and it was a great motivator when I first started to see my site rise up fast rather than work for moths for relatively slow gains.

About Traffic Travis - if you want to find long tail easier keywords, these will usually be ones with 3, 4 and 5 stars.

Hope this helps and sorry again for the delay - let me know if you need any more help!

I would recommend you trying using google trends and google fight to see what people are searching for the most aswell and then compare that with your competetion.

thanks Jack I appreciate the feedback.
In my case, of wanting first page rankings, I know when I shop online, I will search through the top 5-10 pages, but I assume even someone lazy would at least shop the whole first page when buying something. That's my rationale.

My main question is what's a minimum # of searches per month on a keyword that you would consider worthwhile optimizing for? Is there a formula to figure that out? Same with competition. How much is too much?

Any specific numbers to say "too much competition/too low a search volume?"

Thanks again!

using the google keyword tool is useless. your keywords should be linked with what people type into the search box when they google about your product. First, what would you type into a google search box for the product you're selling? I know I would not just type in widgets, I'd probably type in blue widgets, or different colored widgets, etc. if you type in just widget, you get some two word phrases on the drop down, if you type in widgets you get three word phrases from the drop down box. Go ahead and try it just for widget and widgets. You won't see that on google keyword tool. If you like this and thank me in your reply (so I get those stats up), I'll tell you all an even better secret way of key wording, that rockets my sites fast. You'll be thinking "That's so easy, why didn't I think of that"

Hey!

When determining what keyword to go after it is def a a combo act ... onpage & off

You used Traffic Travis to check competition, that's great! Thats what I use too!

PR and backlinks to the page are vitally important, and also an exact match domain name

Is your key word in your domain name and is it an exact match .com? If it is then go for it! Have a backlinking strategy in place and build those quality, relevant backlinks and you will do GREAT!

LUCK!!

Emma

You need to increasing a websites traffic so you are working for social book marking or press release .

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I use Traffic Travis too, but wasn't aware that it was inaccurate for totals. What is better?