Analysing Keyword Competition in Search Results
Understanding Search Engine SEO Ranking & Keyword Phrase Competition
Oct 22, 2009
Finding keyword phrases relevant to a niche website is only one piece of the keyword research puzzle.The other important aspect of optimizing for search engine (SEO) traffic is understanding keyword competition.
Knowing the competition for a keyword phrase helps a webmaster determine the chances of ranking in the top search engine results, and the potential for increasing website traffic by using a particular keyword.
How to Research Keyword Competition for a Niche Keyword Using Google Search
One easy way to research keyword competition is to enter the potential phrase in Google and look at the results that are returned by the search engine. These are the top competitors for the keyword phrase and a quick glance at the title, URL and description will indicate whether or not the results are well optimized for the keywords entered.
There are two ways to search for a keyword phrase, and both provide information worth exploring:
- Searching for a keyword phrase inside quotation marks tells Google to search specifically for that term, eliminating any results that are not an exact match. This approach also provides valuable feedback on the number of matching results (found at the top of the screen), which allows a webmaster to determine if a keyword phrase is completely saturated in the market.
- Searching for a keyword phrase without quotation marks will provide different results than the first approach. It is important to look at which pages rank using this looser approach to the keyword phrase, as this is the approach to searching that is used by most Internet surfers.
Deciding if a Site Can Rank Above the Competition for a Keyword Phrase
Search engine algorithms are a bit of a mystery, so it is impossible to tell exactly how well a niche website will do against competitors for a particular keyword phrase. However, there are some basic guidelines that outline what makes a top 10 search engine results for a keyword possible.
- Results that contain the keyword phrase in the title, URL and description indicates a page that is well optimized for the keyword, and therefore are harder to compete against.
- Results from large, well-known, authoritative sites are harder to rank against.
- Sites that have a page rank of 3+ are harder to compete against, especially for new niche websites.
Understanding keyword competition is an important part of keyword research. Knowing how competitors stand up in search engine results can help webmasters uncover keyword phrases that can increase organic traffic and improve revenue for a niche website.
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