What is a Good Keyword Priority Score?

[randfish]

Howdy gang,

This is my last discussion post in the series on keyword metrics in KW Explorer & Moz Pro (previously on Keyword Difficulty, Opportunity, & Volume). In this one, let's chat about the "Priority Score," a feature you'll find in Keyword Explorer on any lists you build.

Priority was conceived to help aggregate all the other metrics - Difficulty, Opportunity, Volume, and (if you choose to use it) Importance. We wanted to create an easy way to sort keywords so the cream would rise to the top -- cream in this case being keywords with low difficulty, high opportunity, strong volume, and high importance (again, if you choose to use it). Thus, when it comes to Priority Score, there's no particular number you should necessarily seek out, but higher is better.

When you get into the ranges of 80+ (which is quite rare, Single Malt Scotch is one of the few examples I could find, and only because it's volume is so high and there's only a couple SERP features), you're generally talking about keywords with high demand (lots of monthly searches), the difficulty isn't too crazy (a website in the 55-80 DA range might have a shot), and the CTR Opportunity is decently strong (usually not too many SERP features that take clicks and attention away from the organic web results). Below that score range, you're usually finding keywords where one or more of those isn't true -- there's either lower volume, heavier competition, or lots of SERP features with the accompanying lower estimated CTR.

When you're building KW lists, my view is that there's no "good" or "bad" Priority scores, only relative scores. Priority should be used to help you determine which terms and phrases to target first -- it's like a cheat code to unlock the low hanging fruit. If you build large lists of 50-100 or more keywords, Priority is a powerful and easy way to sort. It becomes even more useful if you use the Importance score to help add an estimation of value to you/your business/your client in to the mix. In that case, Importance can cut Priority by up to 2/3rds (if you set it at 1) or raise it by a little more than 3X (if you set it at 10). This is hyper-useful to nudge keywords with middling scores up if they're super-important to your marketing efforts.

Look forward to your feedback, and thanks for checking these out!

[mereramjee]

Thank you very much, Sir, I am just getting started, I am doing a deep study about keyword research, but Sir, the biggest problem I am having in deciding keywords. I am not able to make sure that Which keyboard I select for my website that can easily rank my website on the appropriate keyword, Sir what you have told about the priority of the keyword, It is very important and I am looking at the result as well, but Sir, I am facing the most problem in finding out how to rank the keyword of any site, I should bother to provide complete information about how to make the keywords. Thank you so much.

[thelankanvice]

Hi,

I'm a beginner when it comes to blogging & I'm confused by a lot of information out there... I want to know as a beginner, what should be my priority to achieve good DA, PA & Backlinks for future? as an example targeting long-tail keywords or try for low completion key words or just going all out with high volume? Please share what could be the most effective strategy to develop a beginner blog.

[yantiku]

I’m still try to make my blog yhanthydech.com can having good keyword priority

[WhitneyDelaney]

CTR is Click Through Rate

[kthoreson]

Love this feature of Moz! Making it simple for newbie bloggers!

[alitarek]

what isCTR and what should i start with please.

[MfonAkpanGift]

Thanks sir for this is so helpful to me right now

[tosbourn]

Interesting to note that after almost two years Single Malt Scotch is still high (74).

[Pyxl_Marketing]

By "SERP features," are you referring to things like featured snippets, People Also Ask boxes, images, etc.? Just trying to make sure I understand this as I'm pretty new to SEO.

Thanks!

[randfish]

Yes indeed! Check out https://moz.com/help/guides/getting-started/campaign-setup

[russexcel]

Can you help me understand what that campaign would look like?

Is there a video or article on your site that you'd recommend to help start a campaign based on keywords that come out of your search?

[randfish]

Hi Stayfirst - yes, you can certainly use the location-specific keyword as a jumping-off point. For example, I tried "Seattle Real Estate" and there's loads of good suggestions and a campaign I can build off the keywords that come out of that.

And yes - you're totally right that getting national rankings when you only serve one area could be a bad thing, as the engagement rate of those visitors would quickly tell Google you're probably not relevant for the majority of them. Way better to target the area you're aiming for (and vastly less difficult too).

[Stayfirst]

So from a new niche/new domain builder point of view, my takeaway on this article is that if I have a keyword with good volume, high opportunity and high priority I can use that keyword as my goal and build my content around it. But what if my target market is location specific, like statewide? Can i still use the keyword as my base and branch off it or do I need a more location specific keyword? I assume if I even do get good ranking for the nationwide keyword my content will be relevant only to my target area thus the bounce rate will outweigh the relevancy.