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Still not ranked with a Low Competition Keyword

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by Spradle, Mar 19, 2011.

  1. #1
    I am not understanding what I am doing wrong here. If somebody can help me out I would so much appreciate it.

    I have been working on a site and getting indexed with a particular keyword. The keyword has many searches a month, and very low competition. I have been creating backlinks by forums, dofollow blogs, and yahoo answers. I also link my site on facebook and twitter. I use anchor text and sometimes just link my site. I try to make sure each and every one of my backlink posts are unique and beneficial for the site I am posting on. I have been working on it for about 2 months now.

    Not even in the top 100.

    I have looked at my competition's code and the keyword doesn't even appear in a few of the top websites! Also, some of the websites that are beating me are just simple youtube videos.

    In the google keyword tool, the green box that matches my keyword is almost empty for competition. Is this not a good way to choose a keyword for my website?

    Can you help me figure out what I am doing wrong please?
     
    Spradle, Mar 19, 2011 IP
  2. InfantryVet

    InfantryVet Well-Known Member

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    #2
    The competition google is talking about in the 'green box' has nothing to do with organic search engine competition. It is giving you an idea of the competition that bids on adwords ads for that keyword.

    You can't judge organic seo competition using the google keyword tool.

    Instead, I recommend installing SEO Quake.

    When you have SEO quake turned on, go to google, and search for the keyword you want to check for competition.

    You will see a lot of data about the websites that are listed in the results, but I pay the most attention to the PR and Yahoo Backlinks information. If a keyword you are targeting has a lot of high PR sites (PR4 & up is my personal 'high pr' number) or sites with thousands of backlinks, that is a good indication that the keyword is very competitive.

    Also, you may want to run a search like this in google:

    intitle:"keyword here"

    Remember to use quotes

    Check the number of results. This will give you an indication of how many websites are targeting your exact keyword in their title. If the number is too high, it's a competitive keyword. I can't really give you an exact 'too high' number to base your decision on, but just use logic.

    Also, you can run this search in google:

    inanchor:"keyword here"

    remember to include the quotes again.

    What this does is tell you how many sites are using links with your keyword as an incoming link's anchor text.

    If there are a large number of sites using the keyword as anchor text, then chances are, its a competitive keyword.

    Even after doing all of the stuff I talked about already, it's almost impossible to gauge how competitive (organically) a keyword is. Sometimes, you just have to take an educated guess using some data that you can get from following my advice from earlier.

    I hope I didn't just confuse the heck out of you, lol.

    Good luck,

    Jason
     
    InfantryVet, Mar 19, 2011 IP
  3. BillTimms

    BillTimms Peon

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    #3
    Nice tip with that SeoQuake link, going to give it a try now thanks
     
    BillTimms, Mar 19, 2011 IP
  4. iLegitimate

    iLegitimate Peon

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    #4
    i have tried it is is nice but honestly kinda ghetto glad i can disable it and use it when i need to thx though
     
    iLegitimate, Mar 19, 2011 IP
  5. Spradle

    Spradle Peon

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    #5
    Infantryvet, thank you very much for the extremely valuable and good information. I have asked this question elsewhere but you answer is the best. Again, thank you.
     
    Spradle, Mar 19, 2011 IP
  6. InfantryVet

    InfantryVet Well-Known Member

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    #6
    Yeah, I always leave it disabled until I need to do some research. You can also go into the settings and set up the data that is shown. I have mine set to just show PR and Y! Links. It speeds up the plugin because it doesn't look for all of that other stuff that doesn't really matter to the type of research I'm doing.
     
    InfantryVet, Mar 19, 2011 IP
  7. InfantryVet

    InfantryVet Well-Known Member

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    #7
    No problem at all. Glad I can help
     
    InfantryVet, Mar 19, 2011 IP
  8. Spradle

    Spradle Peon

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    #8
    Though, when I do this search, "Inanchor" the websites that come up are websites with the words "in anchor" and "keyword"? Rather than the websites with the most anchor text for that keyword?
     
    Spradle, Mar 19, 2011 IP
  9. InfantryVet

    InfantryVet Well-Known Member

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    #9
    Sorry, but I don't understand what you mean.

    I'll show you an example of the inanchor search...

    Click this link.

    It will take you to the results for the keyword "scary stories for children"

    I can now see that 155,000 sites are being linked to with the anchor text: "scary stories for children"

    Replace "scary stories for children" with your keyword (keep the quotes).

    Hope that helps

    P.S. - For your information, The inanchor search is called an advanced google search operator. You can see a list of all of these search operators here
     
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2011
    InfantryVet, Mar 19, 2011 IP
  10. Spradle

    Spradle Peon

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    #10
    That did the trick. I was putting a space in between
     
    Spradle, Mar 19, 2011 IP
  11. Spradle

    Spradle Peon

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    #11
    Thanks again very very much.
     
    Spradle, Mar 19, 2011 IP
  12. InfantryVet

    InfantryVet Well-Known Member

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    #12
    Yup... common mistake that I make sometimes too.

    We are so used to putting a space after punctuation, but in the case of google search operators, we can't use spaces.

    Your'e welcome! Good luck getting your site to rank!
     
    InfantryVet, Mar 19, 2011 IP