Your opinion on this opportunity's difficulty?
-
I'm building a tool for mechanical engineers, and I'm trying to find 10 low-competition keywords to target in my first few content marketing efforts. I've got a lot of maneuvering room, so (with a bit of expert advice) I bet I'll be able to find some low-hanging fruit. Here's what I've found:
Most keywords are seem to have about 40% difficulty.
- What's the highest level of SEOmoz "keyword difficulty" that a new website should reasonably try for?
Some ranking high-authority pages are don't appear to be targeted at the term
- Is it fair to say that I could beat any page with less than a 'C' ranking for on-page optimization? (Assuming I target the term with general best practices)*
Thanks!
If you're interested, here is my current process:
- Go on engineering blogs for keywords
- Use Wordstream's Keyword Suggestion Tool for ideas around it
- Use Google Keyword Tools for keywords above 50 searches in direct match
- Use SEOmoz Keyword difficulty report, looking more deeply at keywords under <50%
- If I can find a top 10 page that's less than 30PA and less than 40DA, or has less than 'C' ranking for on-page optimization, I consider the keyword achievable within 3mo, using general best practices.
*Except for YouTube/Wikipedia/etc
-
Gotcha - thanks!
You're absolutely right, engineers do tend to overthink things. I've realized that it's hard to get a sense of the optimal thinking/doing ratio in a given situation. When designing bridges, it's very different than when hitting a baseball. I'm not very good at either of those (don't worry - I attempt either of them either!)
I've launched the site, but as you recommended, I won't go wild publicizing it until it's got a critical mass of great content.
Thanks,
-matt
-
I think that you are putting way too much analysis into this. (Engineers tend to do such things
Here is my suggestion....
Go build your kickass tool. Place it on a page with a title tag and optimization that describe that tool perfectly.
Be sure that you explain it clearly and perfectly. Be sure that it works flawlessly (Engineers will pick at very tiny problems
When it is ready for use and for other engineers (who will try to break it) then share the URL with some engineers who blog. Share it on a couple of engineering forums.
If your tool is really valuable then taking the steps above will be like throwing gasoline on a fire. You will have people calling and emailing to ask if they can have the calculations so they build the same tool on their own sites. People will be writing to you asking you to explain the calculations.
Don't launch prematurely. You will get their good attention the first time but not on a relaunch or a repair.
Good luck.
(I hope that you already have some highly related content and content that supports people who will use this tool. If they see your tool AND other information then your site can become a "go to place" for that topic. If you don't have other related and supporting information try to get it ASAP... preferably before launch.)
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
-
Moz crawling doesn't show all of my Backlinks
Hello, I'm trying to make an SEO backlinks report on my website When using the Link Explorer, I see only a few backlinks while I have much more backlinks on this website. Anyone has an idea about how to fix this issue. How can I check and correct this? My website is www.signsny.com.
Moz Pro | | signsny1 -
When Should I Ignore Moz's Report Canonical Missing?
I'm dealing with an eCommerce website which has a category, subcategory, products. Moz is showing all of these and the individual products as missing a canonical. The site is very thin on content at the moment, but all the pages are clearly different, and I don't see why they need a canonical unless this is some rule that eCommerce sites have to follow. Should I ignore Moz's missing canonical report? My understanding is if the product appears in multiple categories, then a canonical should be put in place to the product. Any advice would be appreciated. Christina
Moz Pro | | ChristinaRadisic0 -
Keyword Research: Page Authority and Keyword Difficulty
A speaker at a conference suggested using your Page Authority (of home page) number as a benchmark in keyword research to compare against keyword difficulty number. So if you had a Page Authority score of 60, you would look for keywords with a difficulty of under 60 (using the MOZ metrics for keyword difficulty). Has anyone used these metrics in this way? Any success?
Moz Pro | | BLRmedia0 -
My historic ranking report won't download
I try to download a historic ranking report and it only comes up with "in progress". I left the window open all day, but no ranking report is generated or sent. How can we download this report? Many thanks, Pete
Moz Pro | | PeteW0 -
Why can't I get the search volume data from Google in the Keyword difficulty tool?
Hi, For some reason I can't get the traffic data from Google. when I'm doing a keyword research via the Difficult tool then i need to check the keywords volume in Google Adwords and copy the words into MOZ's keyword tool to check feasibility. mZGRSbC.png?1
Moz Pro | | Indiatravelz0 -
Why Doesn't Open Site Explorer show Domain Links from Twitter, WordPress or Feedburner?
I commented on a few blog posts and wanted to see the domain authority of those sites. When I look at our domain links, I notice the links are not there from the blogs (which I now know I have to give it time to show up). But I also noticed that domains with links to our website (regularly) were not showing up either. i .e Twitter, WordPress and Feedburner. I know we have links in these locations, especially Twitter. Why would these domains not show up? Much thanks!
Moz Pro | | SydisNey0 -
Why can't I find uipl?
Hi guys, I'm working with the API at the moment. I have most of the information I want, but I cannot find the uipl in any of the returned data using several methods. The methods I have tried are: http://lsapi.seomoz.com/linkscape/links/www.google.co.uk?Scope=page_to_domain&AccessID=xxx&Expires=xxx&Signature=xxx http://lsapi.seomoz.com/linkscape/url-metrics/www.google.co.uk?AccessID=xxx&Expires=xxx&Signature=xxx I can't seem to find how to get the uipl. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!
Moz Pro | | ClickConsult0 -
What kind of keyword difficulty should I be aiming for when launching an new site?
I know that words in their 20's or 30's would be ideal, but it's proving hard for me to find relevant keywords with such scores (just a couple with scores in the 30's). Is going for words between 40-50 a waste of time? Thanks.
Moz Pro | | ZakGottlieb711