SEO Competition
Market Samurai does a great job displaying an index of the top 10 results in visual representation that makes it very easy to understand whether or not you will be able to compete for a certain keyword. This is a screenshot of the SEO competition for the keyword phrase “internet marketing tools”. You’ll see it provides 12 different columns to help you assess the competitive landscape (click picture for close up):
Elements displayed in the top ten raking visual representation:
- Domain Age
- Pagerank
- Page Backlinks
- Domain Backlinks
- .edu/.gov backlinks
- Listed in DMOZ Directory (Y/N)
- Listed in Yahoo Directory (Y/N)
- Keyword in title (Y/N)
- Keyword in URL (Y/N)
- Keyword in Description (Y/N)
- Keyword in Header Tag (Y/N)
- Google Cache age
The index results are color coded to display the level of difficulty based on the competitive results for the respective qualifier. In Lehmans terms, red=difficult, orange=mediocre, green=easy.
When doing keyword research, after I check to make sure there is traffic for a keyword, I will come to the SEO competition tab to assess the level of difficulty to rank for that particular keyword. Although there are numerous factors that go into ranking for a top position, I typically start by looking at the right half of the column, whether or not there is a Y for Listed for:
- Listed in DMOZ Directory (Y/N)
- Listed in Yahoo Directory (Y/N)
- Keyword in title (Y/N)
- Keyword in URL (Y/N)
- Keyword in Description (Y/N)
- Keyword in Header Tag (Y/N)
If there are Y’s listed in every column for the top position or top few positions, I will typically move on, because it is very unlikely to rank for that keyword given the competitive landscape.
You should consider all of these factors that go into ranking a website, however don’t let a high PR domain with age and lots of backlinks scare you. There is a possibility that the site is ranking well for this particular term because there simply aren’t many other sites competing for it. Check out all the top ten competing sites to really understand the ranking difficulty. If the top 5 positions are all going to be difficult to rank for and there isn’t tremendous traffic for a keyword, than its probably time to move on. Get a free version of Market Samurai here.
Our next post will be about Monetization, Finding and Publishing Content & Promotion.
Market Samurai Review Part One: Intro and Usability
Market Samurai Review Part two: Keyword Research and Rank Tracking
