Some Good Things to Know when Researching Competition in the SERPs

[askbryanmiller]

Hey Guys, I've been finding out some good stuff lately in
my "starting from square one" niche businesses, and I
have to tell you something that I'm finding out, and I'll
keep ya'll posted on anything else I find.

To some, this might seem like very basic, almost stupid
stuff, but for those starting out, and maybe even some
intermediate people, like me, going back to the very
fundamentals is key.

I was reading a report that I downloaded a while back on
Article Marketing, and the guy said something along the
lines of "don't look at the amount of indexed pages" as a
sign of competition. I didn't know what he meant by that
until I found out that I could go no higher for a certain
keyword.

The amount of sites IN the pages wasn't very high, only a
couple of million, but I couldn't get past the second page! I
thought that I needed more links. So I bookmarked more,
but still no farther.

Then I went to analyzing the title pages. The higher quality
(in Google's eyes) have the entire term in the title! (Okay,
that's a duh, but the next part was something I considered
really interesting, so keep reading).

So I decided to, lately, do my competition keyword
research with the "allintitle" variable in the search engine.
This will give me a great look at how many REAL
competitors for that term I have.

The numbers look a LOT lower. But I realized, then, that I
kept staying in the same spot! I've since resigned to the
position, but not since finding out another variable for your
research: allinanchor.

the "allinanchor" search help finds all of the pages with
that particular keyword linked to that page. The number is
also significantly lower than the "allintitle" page.

My recommendation: when you find a keyword that you
think is going to be easily ranked for, use these two
variables to double check or else you're in for a while ride:
a headache in the worst kind of way.

Take care, and I hope that was valuable enough for anyone.

[placeboeffect]

This is very true. Even just doing a search for your keyword phrase in quotes will yield more accurate results and allow you to have an idea of how much effort it will take to get decent rankings.

Matt

[WarrenBuffett]

Thanks for the tip. I knew about the allintitle tag, but allinanchor is new to me.

I suppose less than 1000 results for allintitle would generally be rather easy to get decent rank in? correct me if I am wrong. Maybe 500 results would be more realistic.

Is there a google tag for checking keywords in the h1?

[pedigreechump6]

Guys I have to just say that I think you are going about judging keyword competition the wrong way. Think about it, it doesn't particularly matter how many sites there are competing for a keyword because to get to page 1 of google your only concern are those sites currently holding positions 1-10, if you can beat any of these you are sorted.

See my latest blog post for more on the subject.

[Mido]

can you explain how do you do this !

So I decided to, lately, do my competition keyword
research with the "allintitle" variable in the search engine.
This will give me a great look at how many REAL
competitors for that term I have.

how to search for this !

[askbryanmiller]

Mido, Hey.

Search with the "allintitle" tag before your keywords
(preferably surrounded by quotes) so your search query
looks like this:

allintitle: "keyword phrase"

I hope this helped you out.
#####
PedigreeChump,

Anyone who reads this: Pedigree is Absolutely right.

I did a research on a niche, and I looked at the SERPs
and it looked rather daunting to kind of compete in. BUT,
there is one more thing that I planned on adding
yesterday that I found out:

When doing all of these, make sure you check the top 10
results' back link count. Ultimately, the greatest
combination of getting higher in the SERPs is quality
links, and lots of them. Quality: meaning the anchor text
is relevant.

So, I have one more step to add:

First, search your keyword with allintitle: "keyword
phrase". When you find out how many pages are actually
internally OPTIMIZED for your keyword, you can assess
the search engine competition on this level.

Place the Top 10 results in a spreadsheet, or write them
down.

To understand the amount of competition in the quality of
the links department, use allinanchor: "keyword phrase".
This will show you the pages that are externally
optimized for your keyword. Now you can assess the link
competition in your niche.

Place the Top 10 of THESE results in a spreadsheet (right
next to the others) and see if there are any similarities.
This isn't crucial, but it is helpful to see any big players in
your keyword.

Now, do a regular search for your keyword phrase.

Click the number one link, place that URL in your
spreadsheet.

Copy that URL, and then do a google search of
link:http://www.theurlinyourkeyword.com and it will tell
you, approximately how many links BACK that particular
site has. If it has 200, that means you're going to
generally need MORE than 200 quality links back!

Do the same with the last result on page one to assess
how many links are needed to at least get you on page
number 1.

I can't guarantee that these steps will work like a charm.
They makes sense in theory, and I am testing them out
all today. However, this will give you a more thorough
look at your competitors in your keyword.

Hope this helps!

PS. The reason you have them all in your spreadsheet is
so that you can see if there are any similar urls. It also
shows you what sites are better a) optimized on their
pages, and b) optimized off their pages for that keyword.
This is all general, and I'll keep you posted on any
findings.

[Geeurbie]

You have obviously gained some very good skills... When you get this close the next step to pushing your site to the top is fresh content. Google really likes websites that are updating and they reward this activity. Also do what you can to get your targeted keywords into anchor text links. Yea, for you... Keep up the good work.

[askbryanmiller]

Hey Friends,

I just realized something that's fairly basic, but kind of
goes against what I said up there a little earlier. Instead
of being lazy (like I've been doing) and just looking at
the number 1 spot and number 10 spot, I have failed to
realize that numbers 2 - 9 are also important.

Let me give you an example.

On a slightly competitive keyword (9M SERs)
I looked at number 1. It had only 5 backlinks.
Or so I thought.

I decided to look at numbers 2 and 3. Number
2 had 20 backlinks. I thought to myself,Crap!

But then it hit me. Google doesn't ALWAYS update
the supposed backlink count even when it registers.
I've seen this on my own sites ranking well, but
still not showing any backlinks.

My recommendation: look at numbers 1 - 10 and
then take the highest 5, average them, multiply
by 2, and then shoot for this amount of backlinks,
and then some.

Thanks, Guys for all the comments!

Peace!

[Geeurbie]

Are you adding fresh content? Does your website have a blog?

[askbryanmiller]

The was a problem with a couple of my sites, but typically, the ones with a blog on the
site did very well. Only, if they don't have enough links back, they still can only go so
far.

But you just sparked another experiment for me. Thanks.

[Mido]

that helped alot i will do my research and come back with results

[nxghosting]

Thanks for sharing man.

[Australianfranchises]

Thanks for the tip...........

[Aarohiseo]

Thanks for the nice information. It has really helped to find out the exact competition for the keywords.

[Geeurbie]

Originally Posted by askbryanmiller

The was a problem with a couple of my sites, but typically, the ones with a blog on the
site did very well. Only, if they don't have enough links back, they still can only go so
far.

But you just sparked another experiment for me. Thanks.

If you have a static website try creating a FAQ or Glossary of Terms page. These are great way to easily add fresh content.

[jopie33]

Damn, I thought lets try this one and I think I have some work to be done on one of my sites but thanks alot for the tips. They are great.

[Geeurbie]

The need for fresh content is why we build our websites using WordPress.