What is a Good Keyword Priority Score?
-
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!
-
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.
-
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.
-
I’m still try to make my blog yhanthydech.com can having good keyword priority
-
CTR is Click Through Rate
-
Love this feature of Moz! Making it simple for newbie bloggers!
-
what isCTR and what should i start with please.
-
Thanks sir for this is so helpful to me right now
-
Interesting to note that after almost two years Single Malt Scotch is still high (74).
-
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!
-
Yes indeed! Check out https://moz.com/help/guides/getting-started/campaign-setup
-
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?
-
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).
-
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.
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
-
Keyword explorer and relevancy
Hello, In the keyword explorer when I group keywords by lexical similarity should I only choose keywords that have a high relevancy to my seed keyword (the one I typed and want to rank on ? Let me give you an example. Let's say my seed keyword (the one I want to rank on) is "Alsace bike tours. With the keyword explorer I group the keywords and find the group " cycling in Alsace" (ok I take that one because it relevant to "Alsace bike tours" then I find "Strasbourg to Colmar by bike" I also take this one because it is also relevant to "alsace bike tours" but what about concepts like "Alsace wine region", Alsatian architecture, wines of Alsace, cuisine of Alsace or prettiest villages in Alsace... should I totally dismiss those from my content because they aren't relevant to my keyword "Alsace bike tours" or is it ok to use them but it won't help me at all ? Thank you,
Moz Bar | | seoanalytics0 -
Does Moz's keyword tool pull data from your IP address?
Does anyone know how Moz's keyword tool pulls their keyword ranks? Do they take it based off of the IP (history and cookies) that is being used? I am trying to find a way to collect keyword data that is neutral and not based off of my previous searches, etc. TIA
Moz Bar | | ReviveMedia0 -
Onpage Grader not Finding Keyword in URL
I've noticed that the Onpage Grader is not including my keyword in the URL when the keyword is in the domain. If I grade an inner page and the keyword is in the sub-directory, it finds it. Is this intentional? If so, why does the grader not include my keyword in the domain as Keyword in the URL?
Moz Bar | | Dino640 -
Did Moz recently change how it calculates keyword difficulty?
Did the keyword tool recently change? What is Grepwords? Why do all my long-tail phrases show as "not available?" Just wondering...
Moz Bar | | amandasnowden0 -
Use of Keyword Analysis Tool (espcially regarding search volume)
Hello! I am fairly new to Moz and just starting to explore the available Research Tools. At first glance, I was very excited about the Keyword Analysis tool, but I quickly realized that (a) I wasn't receiving the information I needed and (b) I didn't know what to do with the information it gave me. So... Two specific questions: Is there any way to see the Google Search Volume instead of the Bing Search Volume? The overwhelming majority of our organic site traffic comes from Google, so it seems silly to look at the Bing search volume. How do you deal with the fact that this tool only returns search volume based on an exact match? As we know, there are some many ways the same general query could be entered, but it seems ridiculous for me to sit there and run the tool against every iteration I can think of just to get a general sense of the search volume. Two general questions: What do you find helpful about the Keyword Analysis tool and how does it inform your SEO work? What other tools do you recommend to help determine Google search volume for keywords? Thanks in advance for your help and advice!
Moz Bar | | Marketing_Dept0 -
Is a higher or lower score better in keyword ranking
I know this is a weird question, I think I have confused myself with different keyword tools. So if you get a score of 10 for your keyword, should you aim to be closer to 1 or 50?
Moz Bar | | ejunxion0 -
Clarify "broad keyword usage in page title"
Hello Page grader has two different grades for page title that I want clarification on. There is "Broad Keyword Usage in Page Title" and "Exact Keyword Usage in Page Title". Googling around about and searching here I have found that "broad" seems to mean the keywords should be used throughout the page, rather than just in the title and header. Which makes sense as this is a kind of check to ensure the page IS about the keywords and not something unrelated. But what is meant by "broad" usage in the page title? This refers specifically to the page title and not the whole document. My best guess got me to this, given the keyword "Visit London Today"; "Come and visit London today" - exact match only "London - visit today" - broad match only "Visit London the city of dreams | visit London today" - matches both That could be complete nonsense, but basically is broad usage the use of keywords scattered in the page title? Thanks.
Moz Bar | | yolkcreative0 -
When Moz provides an on-page grade report card, what tells Moz which keyword to grade for?
I just started working with the on-page grader and of couse am particularly interested in fixing my pages with not so stellar grades. Can someone tell me how SEO Moz decides what keyword to grade a page for? I receive a report each week that tells me how many pages I have with A's, B's etc. But what tells Moz to grade a page for a particular keyword? Is it the first keyword listed in the meta description?
Moz Bar | | AliciaMarie0