Other tools to check keyword competition/difficulty
-
I really like the Keyword Analysis tool/process at MOZ, particularly the composite score of keyword difficulty. However, on my budget/account level I can only check 400 kw's per day and sometimes that's not enough. So my question is...
What other tools do you rely on or recommend to provide a preliminary measure of competition for a keyword? Not Adwords competition, but the kind of analysis Moz does by looking at specific ranking factors like phrase the page authority, domain authority, kw in title tag, URL, anchor text, number of external links to the page, etc. Are there any other tools you'd recommend for checking those kind of competition/difficulty factors for a keyword? I know SpyFu.com, Open Site Explorer, Majestic, etc will provide backlink metrics, but hoping for something more comprehensive.
Thanks!!
Mike -
Absolutely Michael! That is what this community is all about
Yes if you read carefully in the Keyword Difficulty and SERP Analysis tool page, it states...
"Enter keywords to see keyword difficulty and Bing search volume." Even though you have the "Google" selected in the drop down. This had me very confused for a while until I emailed Moz and they helped me understand better how they are gathering the data. It is limited due to the amount of information Google's API allows Moz to access. Unfortunately we can only blame Google for that! haa haa!
Good luck and always keep learning!!
-
Bryan,
Thanks for your response. I've known of SEMRush for a long time but don't think I've ever used them so that's a good suggestion. I agree with your point that we're just talking about this just being a start. That's kind of the point of my question, i.e. how to I get from a list of 1,000 or more keyword ideas down to a manageable number that I can evaluate more closely. That's where I like the composite score, it makes it easy to eliminate the really tough ones without having to spend time on them unless/until I want to..
I wasn't familiar with the "Bing data mixed with Google data" topic, sounds like I should read more about how Moz aggregates their data, where different metrics are sourced, etc. Good point!
I appreciate your response and suggestions, definitely have a lot to learn yet. Thanks!!
Mike
-
Hey Michael!!
Have you given SEMrush a shot? I find it to be quite useful although I don't believe it will analyze the way Moz does. Even with Moz, the whole Bing data mixed with Google data could really throw you for a loop. To properly perform keyword research, you truly have to do much more than just use a tool such as Moz or SEM Rush, etc. Although this is a great starting point, you should them manually perform more in-depth research based on the sites that are actually ranking for "said" kw terms.
Not sure if this helps in any way but check out http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/keyword-research
Hope this helps!!
-
Thanks Monica! I like the category/grouping idea, I'll definitely start using that in Moz.
-
Thanks for the suggestion. I love the Moz bar and that may be my best option. I like it for checking small numbers of keywords but I'm just hoping to find a better solution for culling through and weeding out larger numbers of keywords. Appreciate the suggestion though! Maybe I just have to suck it up and upgrade my subscription.
-
I ran into a similar problem with the keyword limit. I started breaking up my research into groups. I would do 400 a day in Moz, then I would double check them in other tools like keywordtool.io, AdWords keyword planner and just plain old fashion google searches. The Zen Agency has a good suggestion with adding the Moz Bar. It will give you DA, PA and link information right in the SERPs.
-
I would recommend installing the Moz Bar, Google search your key terms and check the DA and PA of the pages that are ranking. The higher they are generally the tougher it will be to rank for that term
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
-
Best tools for an initial website health check?
Hi,
Moz Pro | | CamperConnect14
I'd like to offer free website health checks (basic audits) and am wondering what tools other people use for this? It would be good to use something that presents the data well. Moz is great but it gets expensive if I want to offer these to many businesses in the hope of taking on just a few as clients and doing a full manual audit for them. So far I've tried seositecheckup.com (just checks a single page though), metaforensics.io and mysiteauditor. Thanks!0 -
Does Keyword Tracker rank eBay links as weaker competition than they actually are?
This might be a confusing question but hopefully I can explain it well enough and someone is able to understand where I am coming from. I have used the Keyword Analysis Tool to search the keyword "alice in wonderland fancy dress", the results come back saying that the competition for this keyword is 24%, which I consider to be pretty low. When I look at the Page Authority, Page Linking, Domain Authority and Domain Linking of each site which rank in the top 10 for this keyword I see that places 4 - 7 are taken by eBay links. I then look at the bottom three places (8 - 10) and although their Page Authority and Page Linking is not very high, their Domain Authority and Domain Linking is reasonable. Based on the results I have seen for other keyword, who's overall competition % was higher than 24%, I thought to myself that these bottom three links were actually quite strong, which made me ask the question "why has this keyword got a competition % as low as 24%?". I then wonder whether it was because the Keyword Analysis Tool ranks the eBay links as weaker competition than they actually are? My question to you guys: Does Keyword Tracker rank eBay links as weaker competition than they actually are? Or can anyone explain why the competition % for this keyword is so low but the bottom three links are actually relatively strong? And how do the eBay links rank higher than these bottom three links? Yes the eBay links are relative to the keyword but these eBay links are ranking higher solely on the fact that the Domain Authority is so high and have very little SEO in relation to the keyword, does Google not recognise that the bottom three websites would be more beneficial to customers than the eBay links? And if the eBay links are ranking so high solely on the fact that the Domain Authority is so high then shouldn't they be in the top 10 for almost every product related keyword? Thanks in advance.
Moz Pro | | conor10050 -
Rankings Report Tool
Hi, One of my campaigns gets updated every Thursday, but the keywords ranking hasn't been updated yesterday. The last update was made on 28th February. Is there anything wrong with this tool? Thanks in advance.
Moz Pro | | cvissi0 -
Keyword rankings tool not fully populated today?
I logged in today and my rankings are normally crawled on Thurs, and of my 66 keywords only 6 of them are showing any data - the rest are all blank. It's been going for weeks so it's not like it doesn't have it's initial data yet. I presume this is some issue or artifact that the results haven't been input yet. Can someone help answer this?
Moz Pro | | mlm12
Thanks,
Michelle0 -
How to Refresh the Rankings Tool?
Is there a way to manually refresh the "Rankings" part of a campaign? I know about the Rank Tracker tool but didn't have a lot of keywords set up there. So I need to refresh the Rankings in the Campaign to know exactly which rankings have dropped in the past few hours... any way to do that?
Moz Pro | | abhim120 -
How to delete/redirect duplicate content
Hello, Our site thewealthymind(dot)com has a lot of duplicate content. How do you clear up duplicate content when there's a lot of it. The owners redid the site several times and didn't update the URLs. Thank you.
Moz Pro | | BobGW0 -
Rank Checker Tool
How many keywords/domains can I track using this tool on the Pro membership? Looking at the tool itself, it looks like 100 but in the 'help' section it states up to 300?
Moz Pro | | dentaldesign0 -
How can I change (specifically, decrease) the reporting/crawling frequency of the keyword ranking?
It always seem to compare the standings based on the week before, which confuses the issue when I'm only reporting monthly or quarterly. Is there currently (or might there be in the future) a way to set this so that the comparison is based on a time period that I specify?
Moz Pro | | MackenzieFogelson0