I am wondering if it is a bad idea to focus on the same keywords as a competitor for SERPS. If we offer the same type of services, would google pick it up that we are using the exact same keywords and penalize me? Also my next questions is how keywords can I focus on in the meta before it starts hurting SERPS? Around 6 or 7?
First of all google does not count META KEYWORDS for their SERPs ranking (maybe for other things) I don't think you will be penalized for such a thing, but try to make them a bit different anyway ...
Don't copy anything exactly how your competitors have it. If you want to target the same phrases, at least put them in a different order. 6 or 7 is probably a good number of phrases to target with a single page, provided that there are overlapping words in those phrases. I don't think there is necessarily a limit to how many keywords you can target with a single page, but if you target too many you can't get all of the keywords in prime locations like the page title, meta description, headers, etc.
do your keyword research and verify which keywords are the most searched on then if it looks like your competitor did get the keywords correct re arrange the order particularly keyword phrase 1 and 2.
I thought it had a major role in what keywords your rank higher in. Looks like the competitors did get it right so I will try this technique.
it is important to analyze the competitor's website but copying the same thing is of no help. further, meta keywords are not at all useful. you should study the competitors' website and see how they have used the SEO strategies and identfy their strength and the loopholes. once you are done with it, you must craft your strategy
Donot use the same meta data for all the pages. Its good to read the competitor's website but donot try to use the same meta.
you can use your competitor keywords but if possible then don't copy exactly but change in some keywords and modify or add new keywords for your website keywords.
"digital products" and "cheap ebooks" (highly competitive keywords) are the major keywords of one of my sites. Despite the intense competition it is ranked by G among the top 20 (rubbing shoulders with ClickBank and the big boys). The moral of the story is that don't worry about using the same keys provide you have good quality contents.
If you are paranoid rearrange the order of keywords. But meta keywords are ignored any way. IT doesnt matter how many people are targetting the same keyword set. Even if it reads the same word for word. Simply because it is free market dynamics and no search engine can penalize for that
I don't think you will get penalized for this as long as keywords you are using are relevant to your webpage..