Top 10 SERP Competition PA

[AndySolo]

I really like the Keyword Difficulty Tool. I'm looking to get into some affiliate marketing and I'm trying to assess a good niche site to create.

I have a couple questions about assessing the results of this tool:

1. When looking to compete for top 10 SERPs are Page Authority & Domain Authority closely related? because a page could have a 1 PA and an 80 DA.

2. What individual PA ranking is considered to be surpass-able? below 40? 30?

3. What difficulty percent would you consider worth competing for? or a waste of time?

I guess I'm looking for some breaking points here.

Thanks!

[EGOL]

I would think the key is to utilize SEOmoz to create a site that will become it's own DA & PA powerhouse.

I agree... or at least, that is my approach.

My decision to enter a competition is based upon a few things.

If I am considering an information SERP then my decision to compete will be based upon my ability to produce greatly superior content.  If I can do that it does not matter who is the competitor I will go after them.  However, for this type of competition I would be looking at search volume and then the revenue potential of contextual ads - then compare that to the cost of the content.

I will often use information content to attack a product SERP - especially if it is a product where buyers want information.  Information pages will sometimes succeed in SERPs where it can be very very difficult to rank a product page.

I am more conservative when attacking product SERPs with product pages.  If I don't think that I can rank well on domain authority alone I will not attempt that SERP with a product page because I don't do linkbuilding.  I will instead attack with an information page that presents my product in the form of a house ad.

[AndySolo]

Thank you very much for the reply! guess it's going to take more than 1 tool and a decent amount of research to determine if a keyword is worth competing against.

I would think the key is to utilize SEOmoz to create a site that will become it's own DA & PA powerhouse.

[EGOL]

Keep in mind that PA and DA correlate poorly with Google SERPs.  They measure very different things.   If you use them you can be scared off by poorly optimized pages competing for your terms and you can attack positions thinking that they are easy when they are not.   These tools are useful for getting a general lay of the land.

1. Are Page Authority & Domain Authority closely related?  Yes and no.  If you have a domain with enormous authority it tends to pass some of that down to individual pages.  In the Google SERPs, I believe that domain authority (as assessed by Google) is much more important.  Brand new pages on Amazon.com or Ebay.com or About.com can be very competitive in the SERPs because google highly values authoritative and trusted domains.

2. What PA is considered surpass-able?  That depends upon which site you are using for the attack.   If you are attacking with a site that has a domain authority of 80, new pages on that site can kick down doors.  If you are attacking with a site that has a domain authority of 20 then you have a heap of work to do.

3. What difficulty percent would you consider competing for?  This again depends upon the site that you are using, the business model involved.  Some people have the skill and resources to make big money on elephant hunts, others have access to labor or programs/data that enable them to make a lot of money hunting toads.  It's like comparing finest diamonds to costume jewelry - smart people can make a lot of money at them or loose their shirt.