Keyword research is tough isn’t it ?
-
I am only just realising that the Google Keyword Tool I use is aimed at Adwords customers and where competition is stated as low, they mean competition for adverts.
When I have a ridiculously low amount of links and an equally low Domain Authority finding keywords is not easy. I presume there is some correlation between the SEOMOZ Keyword Difficulty score and the amount of Adwords traffic, but even very low Adwords Traffic Search Terms still seem to be moderately competitive.
I guess its a case of plugging away with the Keyword Difficulty tool.
-
Barry, thanks for your help, my link building prgramme has begun.
-
Alas, links remain a big ranking factor and is often the hardest part of the job for a SEO.
Part 7 of the beginners guide gives some good advice on how to get started - http://guides.seomoz.org/chapter-7-growing-popularity-and-links
-
Its becoming obvious that I need to start getting some decent links to the site. I have spent a fair bit of time getting the SEO to a reasonable state, but with just 4 external domains linking I'm not going to increase traffic.
-
Page authority is determined by the number of links coming into that page (good on page SEO helps too), whereas domain authority is number of links into the whole domain (to simplify it).
If you have an outstanding page on an otherwise low authority site you can still rank, but bolstering your domain with a number of outside will help.
-
The Keyword Difficulty Tool used against a search term I do well from suggests that Page Authority is responsible for traffic as my Domain Authority is low.
So getting links to pages could be more useful than links to domains.
-
Don't look at the competitiveness score in the Google Adwords Keyword tool. Use it to check the traffic volumes and once you have the best keywords, check which are least competitive by measuring the strenght of websites competing for them - you can use Open Site Explorer for this.
-
KW research is indeed tough and the Google Keyword Tool is designed to get lots of people bidding on the same keyword
The difficulty score and adwords traffic aren't related (as far as I know) but instead the difficulty score analyses the strength of the top X site in the results for that term.
They are working on improving the tool to take into account more factors but for the time being just use it as one of several ways to determine how hard ranking for a term would be.
Here's a link from Richard Baxter on understanding the toll more - http://seogadget.co.uk/understanding-search-rankings-competitiveness/
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
-
A Solution to Keywords Being Grouped in Google Keyword Planner
Hi guys, I am trying to get search traffic for a list of keywords which I put together a few years ago for one of my clients, this was before Google made changes to their Keyword Planner. When I am adding the list into Google Keyword Planner it is "grouping" a number of the keywords/phrases together, and therefore removing 13 of the keywords from the original list of 59 keywords. Is there a way around this so I can get search volume for the original list, and not the cut down one? I am specifically using Google Keyword Planner as I want to get search volume for a number of specific locations in the UK. Any comments/feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance! Jack. I19Op
Keyword Research | | ChemistryMarketing1 -
What are Some the Best Keyword Research Tools?
I am looking for a keyword research tool other than Google Keywords Planner. What other tools can I use to perform great keyword research. I am looking for a tool than will help me to find better keywords for my SEO campaigns. My clients' websites are usually 30-50 pages, so I don't want to buy tools for $20K a year. I am looking for something around $60-$100 per month.
Keyword Research | | Armen-SEO1 -
Keyword Density and ALL CAPS
Hello everyone, New member and first time asking a question! Having a disagreement about keyword stuffing on a home page. The client has 14 mentions of their brand all IN CAPS. So it's sentences like ... BRAND was established in 1968 and has become one of the biggest leaders in the donut industry. In fact, BRAND has created a strong BRAND community ... etc. [the lead paragraph is three sentences and four mentions of BRAND] A design agency that is also in the picture says that this is fine because the word appears naturally in the sentence. Can you either 1) tell me I'm wrong and explain why or 2) give me some ammo to give to my client to support my argument. Thanks! Lisa
Keyword Research | | ChristianRubio1 -
Keyword In Page Title
Broad Keyword Usage in Page Title Easyfix <dl> <dt>Page title</dt> <dd>"The Sea Trout Inn in South Devon, Near Totnes - Luxury Bed and Breakfast and Restaurant - Contact Us"</dd> <dt>Explanation</dt> <dd>Search engines consider the title element to be the most important place to identify keywords and associate the page with a topic and/or set of terms. SEOmoz's correlation research has also shown that rankings are heavily influenced by keyword usage in the title tag.</dd> <dt>Recommendation</dt> <dd>Employ the keyword in the page title, preferrably as the first words in the element.</dd> <dd>The keyword is Hotels Totnes, how can I put this in a page title without it looking stupid ?</dd> </dl>
Keyword Research | | Stoz0 -
Best Practices For Keyword Optimization
Hey currently building a new page on a clients site in the weight loss niche. The keywords he wants to rank for are the following: <colgroup><col width="198"> <col width="64"></colgroup>
Keyword Research | | monster99
| [fat burning foods] | 49500 |
| [foods that burn fat] | 22200 |
| [fat burning foods for women] | 2900 |
| [belly fat burning foods] | 2900 |
| [best fat burning foods] | 1900 |
| [fat burning foods for men] | 1900 |
| [list of fat burning foods] | 720 | His site is new, but he has excellent content production capabilities. My question is, in terms of optimizing the page (the title and url) for these keywords would you focus on the highest volume keyword. In this case the highest volume keyword is "fat burning foods" however is the most competitive and dominated by high domain authority sites (50+ vs. clients site which is around 30). Thus its highly unlikely he will rank for that keyword for quite a while. But for the keyword term "best fat burning foods" the competition is alot less in terms of DA and other factors but volume is smaller with 1900 hits a month. So would you optimize the page (the title and url) for "best fat burning food" or would you optimize thinking about the long-term and eventually ranking the keyword "fat burning foods". My thinking would be to optimize the page for "fat burning foods". And that the benefits of optimizing (url and title) for "best fat burning foods" isn't ideal for the long-run. Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated. Cheers, Mark0 -
How can I learn what are the most popular keyword phrases?
I have done a lot of research on Google AdSense (e.g. how to get started, best practices, how much money can be made, custom channels). I want to write a blog post based on my research, but my question is -- how can I learn what are the most common questions about Google AdSense or Internet advertising from a keyword search perspective? For example, are more people searching for "How to make money with AdSense" vs "How to make money with Internet advertising" vs "How to make money with a website"? How do I know which phrase is searched most? It seems to me that I should make my page title, URL, H1, etc. exactly match (or as close as possible within proper grammar) the question that is most often searched. Thanks everyone! Ryan
Keyword Research | | GreenHatWeb0 -
Google SERPS for similar Keywords?
I have website which is being listed for a keyword which is not in the site. It seems that google is using a Thesaurus to find words with similar meaning. Is this right? How could this be used for SEO purposes?
Keyword Research | | Tinderbox0 -
Does keyword arrangement matter?
If I choose: Blue Wide Widgets vs. Wide Blue Widgets vs. Widgets Wide Blue Are these considered 3 different keywords that show up on 3 different SERPs?
Keyword Research | | 13375auc30