Interpreting Keyword Difficulty Tool results
-
I have been running various reports using the Keyword Difficulty tool. The columns are color coded - are there one set of signals that are more important than others? I am trying to analylze why we are ranking where we are and where our competitors are weak enough to overcome in a short term. I cannot seem to find a formula for the top indicatators for moving up in ranking.
One of my sites in ranking number 5 but is neck and neck with the number one site for results. The other site is number 6 for the same term but has virtually no strength in the data like links, mozrank, trust, Social, etc...The sites 7-10 are much stronger on data. Maybe since they are from the same C block that helps?
Any advice or experience would be helpful.
-
Hi Devon,
For the sake of others reading this question, I want to first say that it is important to run a full report. Sounds like you are doing this already. (the Keyword Analysis has 2 levels of reports - the "default" and "full" - the RUN FULL REPORT button is about 1/2 down the page)
The point of the Keyword Analysis Tools is it allows you some insight as to why certain sites are ranking above others. In the vast majority of cases, the sites in the top position almost always lead in at least a few areas, whether it be link metrics, on-page optimization or social shares.
(more often than not, it's link metrics and number of linking root domains, or linking c-blocks. See the ranking factors to understand why these metrics are often correlated with higher rankings)
That said, as Ben pointed out, the tool can't examine all factors. Sometimes, it's a single perfect link from a high-authority domain that causes a site to rank where it does. In many of these cases, OSE is another excellent research tool that can give you a more detailed analysis into link metrics.
As for magic bullets, there are a few metrics that correlate with higher rankings more than others. Two of the most consistent are "Page Authority" and "Number of Linking Root Domains" - but even these can't guarantee success.
Regardless, hope this helps! Best of luck with your SEO.
-
Thanks Ben. That is kind of what I thought but was hoping for a magic bullet :).
-
This is a tough one.
The keyword difficulty tool can give an indication of where you need to improve in order to move up the rankings but at the same time there are other things that you might need to consider like one page optimization.
You also have to remember that SEOMoz's data does not necessarily reflect how Google views the same data. For example SEOMoz might be saying that you have 30 unique linking root domains however Google might discount 29 of them as having been previously identified as being in a link network. So you see, you have no way of knowing whether the data you see is the data that counts.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Search my keyword on google
When I search my keyword on google I can see my website, but when I connect to a VPN and again search it, I'm not in the search result, what happens on my website?
Reporting & Analytics | | Pintapin0 -
Looking for Third Party Tool Like Google Tag Manager
Hi All, Like google tag manager is there any tool or software or service available who can track my visitors each actions, events, clicks, after click what they do? But at same time like google tag manager it not slow down my site speed? I can say I am looking for tool which can main track different - different click on my pages. Any other suggestion pls share. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | pragnesh96390 -
Google Webmaster Tools During GA Transition?
I'm working with a client that is launching a new website. Google Webmaster Tools can just be disconnected, then reconnected to the new Google Analytics property, correct? Without any data loss in Webmaster Tools? Thanks! Becky
Reporting & Analytics | | Becky_Converge0 -
Pairing webmaster tools with analytics - user access
If you pair webmaster tools with an analytics account does this auto allow access for any of the authorised analytics users or do they have to be granted access individually from within GWT ? cheers dan
Reporting & Analytics | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Google Analytic - Is it possible to see which organic keyword triggered goals?
Hi, I am trying to see which of my Google organic keywords triggered my goals? In GA I click > Conversion > Goals > Overview > Source Medium (This then says where my goals came from but when I click Google / Organic it just brings me to the overview page of my organic traffic). Is it possible to see which organic keywords trigger goals?
Reporting & Analytics | | AdvanceSystems0 -
What to get from google Webmaster tools?
Hi everyone, I've been doing optimization for our websites and tracking the results regularly but don't really know what the results actually mean. I heard that I need to check the traffic and organic results from Google analytics and Google webmaster tools. Everybody says something and not sure what to do? Is there anyone clarify the SEO process for me - when to do what and why in simplest way? Thanks in advance,
Reporting & Analytics | | WTGEvents0 -
Why Webmaster tools shows different avg. positions?
Hi everyone, I am new to Seomoz, I loved this amazing SEO school 🙂 My questions is about webmaster tool. Webmaster tool shows that my site's avg. positions is 34 and its getting better every week. I even see some new queries, new avg. positions for that queries. That's great ! But when I search the avg position it is between 54 -60 and I don't see any new queries . Shouldnt we rely on what webmaster tells us about avg. positions? Thanks a lot
Reporting & Analytics | | EzgiGunyel-InfinPixels0 -
Google Analytics censoring keywords?
The top keyword on our real time GA is showing as a blank. There's a topic of a sexual nature in our talk threads trending on Twitter right now which is driving a lot of traffic and I'm wondering whether Google have censored the keyword. The next few keywords are our name and variants of. Could there be some other reason why this word isn't showing up? Has anyone else experienced this?
Reporting & Analytics | | CecilyP0