Keyword difficulty always high
-
HI there,
I'm new here and am just getting used to the keyword difficulty tool.
I've noticed that just about every keyword phrase I type in, including ridiculous ones such as "perspex underpants" or "guy debord's shoes" all have a difficulty well over 50% and many over 60%. It makes little difference what my phrase is.
Am I doing something wrong perhaps?
How am I to interpret this result? It would seem to suggest that It is always very hard to rank, even for a rare and ridiculous phrase.
-
That suggests that 63% difficulty is, in reality, rather easy.
I'd say that in reality the domain strength of SEOmoz is kicking the ass in that SERP.
Nevertheless, my suggestion is unchanged. ATTACK.
-
Hi
Thanks for the response but I think you misunderstand my question. The keywords I mentioned were made-up to test the system so we could assess it's accuracy & value. They should be easy to rank for because they don't appear anywhere else.
We ran reports on ridiculous, made-up words that should be easy to rank for due to their low competition, against famous brands & historical characters that are highly contended. SEOmoz results claimed all our keywords (silly and genuine) rated between 54% to 65% "difficulty". Hardly more than 10% variation.
Compare that to the data on search volume and competition that I get from Google (for example) on the same keywords. The keywords of historical characters rated massively more competitive than the silly made-up keywords - as you would expect.
A perfect proof of this disparity is the phrase Perspex Underpants. SEOmoz claims the phrase has a 63% difficulty rating but if you google for _Perspex Underpants _you'll notice this very question ranks on the first page of organic results. That suggests that 63% difficulty is, in reality, rather easy.
My question, therefore, is are SEOmoz's difficulty ratings wildly inaccurate or am I using the tools wrong or mis-interpreting what they say?
-
Am I doing something wrong perhaps?
Maybe the thing that you are doing wrong is fearing competition.
I don't fear competition because where there is a lot of competition there is usually a lot of money changing hands.... and where there is a lot of competition there is usually a lot of long tail traffic to grab.
So, if you can generate really good content that is very high quality, substantive, and keyword diverse then take your best shot at a keyword where you have expertise. You might get some long tail traffic.
(The above is the approach that I usually take... however, I would not take that approach for keywords where there is a lot of extremely aggressive and hardcore competition - such as "payday loans" for example. Those guys can have that turf.
For the keywords that you mention... I would difinitely attack them with informative articles - if you can make best on the web content without infringing upon their brands then you can probably attract traffic.)
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
-
Can I batch export top 5 or 10 SERPS for each keyword in my campaign
I'm a newby. I have about 70 keywords and I want to create a list of all of the websites ranking in the top say 10 positions. This is to create a list of competitors in my client's space. How do I do this? I poked around but can only see single-keyword search capability to get the full serp listing (top 50). thanks.
Moz Pro | | empiricalSEO0 -
High Page Authority / Low Domain Authority
I have been building links to the home page of my web site. At this point, the site has a DA of 22 and the home page has a PA of 35. I am a bit puzzled as to how the PA can be so much higher than DA. I suppose it might have something to do with the fact that most of the inbound links are going to the home page. Are there any other factors that might be contributing to this situation? Does it point to a weakness in our backlink profile?
Moz Pro | | NathanSchlink1230 -
How to use the Basic SERP to figure out what keywords to target
I'm looking at the SERP report trying to figure out what keywords I should try to rank for and I am having difficulty understanding if I could be competitive in the space. For example I have a new website that has a PA1 and DA1 rank I plan on developing great content and then working on securing quality backlinks for that content. In order to start this process I'm doing my keyword research and I am finding keywords, both short and longtail that I would like to target via Google Keyword Planner. I'm punching them in to see the competition and SERP. This is where I fall short. How do I use this information to identify or rule out what to pursue. I guess I am looking for some criteria or guide to help me begin to figure out or filter out what is the best keyword to pursue that will give me the best odds of success. If anyone can help me I would be eternally greatfull. We are a small company (startup) and it is up to me to make this work. YES - I have read everything that I can find - guides, and I have not run accross an answer. Thanks in advance
Moz Pro | | DDWeddings1 -
Low KDS but high DA for all page 1 sites
Hi there A KDS report question... My client has a keyword with a low KDS (garden hose - 28). Intuitively this seemed too low, and when I checked what ranks, it is all high quality brand sites with high DAs. Admittedly the specific pages ranking have low PAs, but I can't see my client ever being able to compete with these big boys right now. How come the KDS is so low? This seems just wrong as the metric implies it is a good keyword to target - I know there are always lots of other things to check, but this does make me less confident with KDS reporting Anyone got any thoughts on this? Many thanks
Moz Pro | | Chammy3 -
Keyword Rankings Compare to X not working
Anyone else having trouble with the compare your keyword positions with competitors section of the analytics? The rankings for my site(s) are fine but whichever competitor I click on to compare rankings to just returns 'Not in Top 50' the competitor is ranking. I have just manually checked and they are very much listed in the engine. Is this tool broken?
Moz Pro | | GrumpyCarl0 -
Can you highlight a list of keywords in reports?
Hello all, My client recently asked me if there was a way to highlight a specific list of keywords to put on the first page of every report. These would be the highest priority keywords that we would always want to know the status of for his site. In the reports section, I am only seeing options for organizing the keywords by rankings improved/declined and comparing to competitors. Would anyone know how to label/categorize this list of keywords and then produce them as part of the monthly reports? Thank you,
Moz Pro | | Level2Designs
Daniel0 -
Best Tool to Build List of Competitor's Top Keywords?
What is the best (hopefully seomoz) tool to create a list of the keywords bringing the most traffic into a competitor's website? Goal is to build a list of keywords that bring the competitor the most traffic, stack ranked by volume of traffic coming into the competitor.
Moz Pro | | sftravel1