Keyword research is tough isn’t it ?
-
I am only just realising that the Google Keyword Tool I use is aimed at Adwords customers and where competition is stated as low, they mean competition for adverts.
When I have a ridiculously low amount of links and an equally low Domain Authority finding keywords is not easy. I presume there is some correlation between the SEOMOZ Keyword Difficulty score and the amount of Adwords traffic, but even very low Adwords Traffic Search Terms still seem to be moderately competitive.
I guess its a case of plugging away with the Keyword Difficulty tool.
-
Barry, thanks for your help, my link building prgramme has begun.
-
Alas, links remain a big ranking factor and is often the hardest part of the job for a SEO.
Part 7 of the beginners guide gives some good advice on how to get started - http://guides.seomoz.org/chapter-7-growing-popularity-and-links
-
Its becoming obvious that I need to start getting some decent links to the site. I have spent a fair bit of time getting the SEO to a reasonable state, but with just 4 external domains linking I'm not going to increase traffic.
-
Page authority is determined by the number of links coming into that page (good on page SEO helps too), whereas domain authority is number of links into the whole domain (to simplify it).
If you have an outstanding page on an otherwise low authority site you can still rank, but bolstering your domain with a number of outside will help.
-
The Keyword Difficulty Tool used against a search term I do well from suggests that Page Authority is responsible for traffic as my Domain Authority is low.
So getting links to pages could be more useful than links to domains.
-
Don't look at the competitiveness score in the Google Adwords Keyword tool. Use it to check the traffic volumes and once you have the best keywords, check which are least competitive by measuring the strenght of websites competing for them - you can use Open Site Explorer for this.
-
KW research is indeed tough and the Google Keyword Tool is designed to get lots of people bidding on the same keyword
The difficulty score and adwords traffic aren't related (as far as I know) but instead the difficulty score analyses the strength of the top X site in the results for that term.
They are working on improving the tool to take into account more factors but for the time being just use it as one of several ways to determine how hard ranking for a term would be.
Here's a link from Richard Baxter on understanding the toll more - http://seogadget.co.uk/understanding-search-rankings-competitiveness/
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
-
Keywords and content query
Hi we are in the process of redesigning a web site and I’m looking to ensure each of the pages are correctly optimized. I’m concerned that some of the pages do not allow for text or content . From an optimization perspective is there a general rule around the amount of text a page should have and the amount/ration of keywords they should contain? Any advice would be much appreciated.
Keyword Research | | aplnzjune180 -
Is my copy too keyword rich?
www.heartwavemedia.com - Wordpress - All in One SEO Competitors: photonsf.com, h2video.com, corduroymedia.com, thehivestudios.org I've spent the last week writing and tweaking my landing page copy along with my SEO page titles and descriptions. I think I finally feel pretty good about it but I'd like your professional opinions. Is it too keyword rich? Does it flow naturally? Is the voice fresh? Do my SEO titles vary enough? Thanks in advance for your thoughts and advice.
Keyword Research | | keeot1 -
Long tail keyword research tool
What long tail keyword research tool do you use besides Moz keyword research tool. Thanks
Keyword Research | | zsyed0 -
Ranking for more keywords - Noob question
Hi, I've noticed recently that our site is ranking for a fraction of the keywords that our competitors are ranking for. In terms of increasing the number of keyword rankings per page would it simply be a case of adding optimised copy to each page? Thanks, Dan
Keyword Research | | Sparkstone0 -
What are the checkmarks for on the keyword tool?
I'm looking at the keyword research tool and notice that some of the boxes are checked. I dont really see a reason why? does anyone have this answer? i did attempt look in the Q&A section with no luck.
Keyword Research | | praxiscredit1 -
Two for the price of one: Can I rank for multiple keywords when only targeting one keyword?
If I'm optimizing for a specific keyword, is it accurate to assume that by ranking for that specific keyword that I will also be able to rank for similar or root keywords merely by ranking for the original keyword? For example, if I'm targeting 'free online bucket list' is it safe to assume that I will also be able to inadvertently rank for 'online bucket list' or 'free bucket list'? Can I assure clients of this? Or if I'm targeting 'Colorado grocery store' should I also naturally rank for 'grocery store Colorado' and not need to make both of these my targeted keywords?
Keyword Research | | derrickkuhn0 -
Does keyword arrangement matter?
If I choose: Blue Wide Widgets vs. Wide Blue Widgets vs. Widgets Wide Blue Are these considered 3 different keywords that show up on 3 different SERPs?
Keyword Research | | 13375auc30 -
Google Keyword Estimator
Hello Does the Google traffic estimator include the impact of instant? For example, if I type the phrase "London restaurant", instant may provide a list of search results for the phrase "London restaurant guide" prior to me confirming whether or not I just want to search using the phrase "London restaurant". Is this registered in any way as a search for the phrase "London restaurant guide" (i.e. does Instant impact upon the search volumes presented in the Google traffic estimator)? In addition, is there any up to date assessment on how reliable the revised traffic estimator is? The tool currently suggests that for a well known brand we are working for does not have any search volume (over a whole year) for the brand keyphrase when used in isolation (there is traffic for various combinations of the brand and a generic term). However, as one would expect, our analytics data is showing that there are in excess of 1 million annual visitors that use the brand keyphrase in isolation to access the website via natural search and nearly 1.5 million via PPC. Is anyone else getting these problems? Thanks in advance for any assistance. Rgds Neil
Keyword Research | | mccormackmorrison1