Why are all my keywords rated "highly competitive"?
-
I am using the Keyword Analysis tool and it is telling me that almost all the keywords I put in are "highly competitive" even though there is very little competition on Google.
Example: I enter the keyword "christian web designers" on Google, United Kingdom
It then reports that this keyword is 53% Highly Competitive. However I Google this term in quotes and there is less then 4,000 results. I also enter this keyword into Traffic Travis which tells me the the difficulty is Relatively Easy.
Am I doing something wrong here?
-
Hi James,
Couple of points:
1. The term "highly competitive" might be a bit misleading. I'd pay more attention to the score of 53%, which I would consider only moderately competitive. If you look at the actual search results, the #1 ranking only has a Domain Authority of 19, so I would think this is a keyword you could shoot for.
2. The score takes into account how hard it would be to obtain a top ranking, but not neccessarily #1. There are some high authority domains in the top 10 for that query, including www.swedishdigitatalmarketingagency.com, which makes the overall vertical more competitive.
3. The Keyword Difficulty tool is a best guess based on comparative metrics, but it isn't always right.
4. When in doubt, I always run a full analysis report to see why URLs are ranking the way they do.
Overall, I trust the 53 score. It seems a little high, but it's within a range I would consider within reason. The good news is the Keyword Analysis tool is going through some changes soon as SEOmoz acquires new data sources and continues to improve it's scoring algorythm. In the meantime, you can always use the MozBar - with the SERP overlay turned on - to eyeball any results you'd like to examine.
Best of luck with your SEO!
-
Thanks for the replies, so even if it says it is "highly competitive" it may not be competitive in the serps but for ppc? Will I be able to rank for keywords that are rated "highly competitive"?
-
The "highly competitive" is google's assessment of the PPC competition.
Organic SERPs could be very different.
Keep in mind that PPC allows broadmatch... but that will not get you ranked in organic.
-
I am working on some assumptions here as I have never seen the algorithm this tool uses, but it is pretty safe to say it will work some thing like this:
Which I learned as-
KEI, Keyword Efficiency Index,
Search Volume / Sites Optimized for that keyword = KEI
You could have 500 websites trying for a word and if it has a million searches, then you still have a decent shot at finding a way to get in front of some of the searchers as there are 2000 searches for every provider.
On the other hand, if there are 3 websites going after a keyword and it has only 1000 searches then your competition for that word is 333 to 1 or about 6 times tougher than the first example.
Also keep in mind that sometimes when serving a highly specialized niche you have to ignore everything and go for it, assuming you have put in your due diligence and you are sure there is a viable market.
-
The keyword tool isn't about competition per se (even though it does talk about competition), it's more about how difficult it would be to rank for certain keywords.
In your case the keyword "christian web designers" might only return few search results, but the top 10 could be domains with a strong backlink profile, which would make it difficult to rank for the top 10.
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
-
Finding less competitive keywords
Hello, How Moz can help me in finding less competitive keywords for a site based on omega masticating juicer. I had tried other tools but i am not satisfied with it. Kindly tell me the process to find it. Thanks.
Keyword Research | | romanjames0 -
How to finalize the keywords for SEO?
Hi, I use the following method for keyword research: Create a long raw list of keywords. Use Google AdWords Keyword tool to find monthly searches. Find raw competition. Find direct competition (via allinanchor: search operator) Calculate KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) Calculate KOI (Keyword Opportunity Index) Is there any other (better) way to execute the keyword research? Or is finalizing/selecting the keywords only on the basis of monthly searches sufficient? In short, how to select the best keywords from a long list? Thanks & Regards
Keyword Research | | IM_Learner0 -
Best Keyword Tool
WE are a small Internet marketing agency and of need of a new keyword tool. We were using Market Sumeria but they lost access to Google. What would you recommend? I'm not looking for a free service but a good service under $100 per month.
Keyword Research | | Doug_Hay0 -
Local Keyword Geolocation
I am really confused about how geolocation and search works. For example, I can search "Air Conditioning Repair" in Google and will get local search results depending on my geolocation. How do I set up keywords in SEOmoz "Air Conditioning Repair" and get the ranking depending on the users geolocation? Do I have to have the keyword "Sacramento Air Conditioning Repair" to get the same results if I search within the vicinity of Sacramento with the term "Air Conditioning Repair." Thanks in advance for everyones help on this question.
Keyword Research | | TalkingSheep0 -
Worried about keyword cannibalization
I've been reading a lot about keyword cannibalization and I'm worried that some of my sub pages may be pulling rank from my home page. If I'm trying to rank my home page for the keyword phrase "blue widget manufacturing" and I have sub pages with the titles "blue manufacturing services", "blue widget enginnering", "medical widget manufacturing" is it possible that those pages could be causing me to commit keyword cannibalization? I'm looking at a lot of the results for my keyword phrase and they don't seem to have additional pages with similar keyword phrases. Wondering if I should change my titles so they don't look as optimized.
Keyword Research | | TRICORSystems1 -
Trying to avoid Keyword Cannibalization
I have a navigation menu at the top of my page with drop down menus that lead to different pages of my web site. Very typical navigation. If I have a page that is optimized for a particular keyword, lets say "Awesome Blue Widgets", do I want to remove that link from the navigation menu on the page awesome-blue-widgets.htm since the link uses the keyword phrase "Awesome Blue Widgets'?
Keyword Research | | TRICORSystems0 -
SerpIQ vs. Keyword Difficulty tool
http://imgur.com/6uidr Is this any good for keyword research? I see they use some weird metric and I'm not sure whether those are relevant at all, plus it's really hard to do a bulk research. Let me know what you think.
Keyword Research | | jest0 -
Prioritizing Keywords
Hi Everyone, I've been using many of the articles to find out the best way to create a list of long tail keywords I wish to target. Anyway, I used Google AdWords Tool in order to find out how many Global/Local Searches per month, and the Keyword Difficulty Tool on this site in order to find the difficulty score. With these two metrics, I've compiled a good list, but I wanted to know how people prioritize keywords. I was thinking of creating a formula in excel in order to compare both the difficulty score and the amount of searches, but I wanted to know other people's advice and how they decided to prioritize the long tail keywords they compiled. I am still a bit of a newbie at this, so any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Keyword Research | | Seiyav0