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Is a keyword with millions of searches and low competition the best?

by nobull
13 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi,

which one of these (masked) keywords would be preferred, given the number of searches and its level of competition?

I would assume "Keyword 1" with millions of searches but low competition would be the top choice?

Or... would Keyword 42 with 165K searches and Medium competition?

Or perhaps Keyword 21 with 110K searches and High competition?

What should I take into consideration?

Keyword 1 - Low - 2,740,000
Keyword 4 - Low - 201,000
Keyword 42 - Medium - 165,000
Keyword 21 - High - 110,000
Keyword 17 - Low - 90,500
Keyword 28 - Low - 90,500
Keyword 15 - Low - 49,500
Keyword 30 - Medium - 49,500
Keyword 3 - Low - 40,500
Keyword 47 - Medium - 40,500
Keyword 2 - Low - 33,100
Keyword 38 - Medium - 33,100
Keyword 7 - Low - 27,100
Keyword 6 - Low - 22,200
Keyword 40 - Medium - 18,100
Keyword 5 - Low - 14,800
Keyword 9 - Low - 14,800
Keyword 34 - Low - 14,800
Keyword 51 - Medium - 14,800
Keyword 10 - Low - 12,100
Keyword 8 - Low - 9,900
Keyword 12 - Low - 9,900
Keyword 20 - Low - 9,900
Keyword 49 - Low - 9,900
Keyword 24 - Low - 8,100
Keyword 43 - High - 6,600
Keyword 50 - Low - 5,400
#competition #keyword #low #millions #searches
  • Profile picture of the author UMS
    The most important thing is how you have generated those figures.

    If keyword 1 really did have 2.7M exact GMS and low competition (which I very much doubt), then it would probably be the one to target if it had any potential for monetization.
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
      If the "low" you are talking about is from the Google Keyword Tool, then it has NOTHING to do with the level of SEO competition.

      I'm also going to bet you are looking BROAD searches and not EXACT searches...
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      • Profile picture of the author nobull
        Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

        If the "low" you are talking about is from the Google Keyword Tool, then it has NOTHING to do with the level of SEO competition.

        I'm also going to bet you are looking BROAD searches and not EXACT searches...
        I thought the competition was generally showing how many players competing for the CPA ads shown on the Google search result pages for that particular keyword.

        I know you are probably a real "guru" and don't have time to help newbie's out, but please try this once to be helpful and tell me what the competition means, if I am wrong?
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    ... and probably looking at global search.
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    Originally Posted by nobull View Post

    I thought the competition was generally showing how many players competing for the CPA ads shown on the Google search result pages for that particular keyword.

    I know you are probably a real "guru" and don't have time to help newbie's out, but please try this once to be helpful and tell me what the competition means, if I am wrong?
    No reason for the remark. I help people out around here all the time.

    The competition in the Google Keywords Tool has to do with the level of competition among AdWords advertisers for the particular keyword. If you are bidding in AdWords, it can be a useful metric. If you are talking about trying to rank for that keyword in the search engine, it is useless.

    You also want to make sure you are looking at EXACT match search volumes. Broad match does not tell you much.
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    • Profile picture of the author petemcal
      Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

      No reason for the remark. I help people out around here all the time.

      The competition in the Google Keywords Tool has to do with the level of competition among AdWords advertisers for the particular keyword. If you are bidding in AdWords, it can be a useful metric. If you are talking about trying to rank for that keyword in the search engine, it is useless.

      You also want to make sure you are looking at EXACT match search volumes. Broad match does not tell you much.
      Spot on, if you want to know the level of SEO competition for a keywords you're going to have to go to the SERPs check out the results and use your knowledge/tools to determine the relative level of competition amongst your potential target keywords.
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  • Profile picture of the author JSProjects
    Also, going after keywords with a ton of searches can be a waste of time if they're not buyer keywords. I always tell people that I'd rather go after a buyer oriented keyword with 500 searches a month than a broad keyword with 10,000. Sales are more important than traffic.
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    • Profile picture of the author satrap
      Originally Posted by JSProjects View Post

      Also, going after keywords with a ton of searches can be a waste of time if they're not buyer keywords. I always tell people that I'd rather go after a buyer oriented keyword with 500 searches a month than a broad keyword with 10,000. Sales are more important than traffic.
      I second that. There are tons of keywords like "this", "something", etc, that get hundreds of thousands of searches, but they are for the most part useless because ts hard to monetize the traffic coming from them. Though there are still ways to do it, for most people it would be a waste of time.
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    • Profile picture of the author jmae SEO
      Originally Posted by JSProjects View Post

      Also, going after keywords with a ton of searches can be a waste of time if they're not buyer keywords. I always tell people that I'd rather go after a buyer oriented keyword with 500 searches a month than a broad keyword with 10,000. Sales are more important than traffic.
      Exactly!

      Keyword numbers can be deceiving. Make sure you have buyer keywords, or they will not do you any good.

      Also, find out what your chance is of ranking for the keywords you are looking at by using the Site Analysis tool on WebFire (if you're not a WebFire member, here is a closer look at it - WebFire - Get Instant Free Exposure on Page 1 of Google ) as this will give you a clearer understanding of exactly how the keywords in question relate to you.
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  • Profile picture of the author jansee
    more consider should help you.
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    • Profile picture of the author JSProjects
      Originally Posted by jansee View Post

      more consider should help you.
      ????

      Anyway, I've gone after PLENTY of keywords with less than 100 searches a month, according to the GKT. Keywords that most people would ignore. They're so easy to rank on page 1 and convert incredibly well.
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  • Profile picture of the author DPM70
    Agree with JS - you need buyer keywords unless you just like generating non-targeted traffic for the fun of it. (sometimes the roi can be good if you can get massive traffic for nothing - but you'll have to test this yourself)
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  • Profile picture of the author George Stevens
    Depends how you are measuring the competition for that keyword, have a look at SEO Keyword Analysis for the tools you can use for this.
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