I will explain the reasons behind this poll later. Find a keyword you are targeting that has made it to top 3 in SERPs. Note the competition. eg 1.000.000 results. Cast your vote. Done!
I bounce between two and four for one of my keywords. I hit the first page in less than two weeks and it has 1,430,000 results for the keyword.
By the way, im asking about amount of competition if you are in top 3. Saying that you are 5th for your keyword does not mean anything because all keywords are different.
No 8 for the keyword that gives me the most traffic for one particular site http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=totall+free+stuff
I hate to be a party pooper, but the number of competing pages means absolutely nothing in terms of how difficult a phrase is to rank for. Here's an example. I rank 4th on Google for a 2 word phrase that has 249 million results. Sound great ? Now I haven't even tried to rank for the phrase, yet I'm in the top 4, so that tells you how difficult it is to rank for. On the other hand, I rank 1st on Google for a term that returns a mere 11 million results. Now this is a far bigger achievement. Why ? It's a 1 word, generic term (and commercial term), so the competition is pretty fierce. In the end, it's the top 10 I'm competing with, not the rest, and it doesn't matter how many other results/pages there are. You are competing with 10 pages (the top ten). The ranking difficulty comes down to how good those top 10 are (and how well they've been SEO'd).
I agree with TangoUK , I am competing for a local keyword that has 350000 results but everyone is aiming this keyword and the top ten has 4 pr7 sites , I am learning new ways and they are learning new ways.
I see what you mean guys. I totally agree. I should have mentioned that your keyword has to be one generic/well used word rather than a phrase. On the other hand even this poll should give some indication. Much better than saying "i rank 5th for my main keyword" that seems to be the most popular answer here on DP. This poll could never be precise. I would go further and say that its almost impossible to make accurate measurements with most SEO aspects anyway.
I'm 22nd out of 7.6 million for a phrase... When I put that phrase in quotes i move up to about 10th out of a million.
A question i would like to see would be: What is the best converting keyword you rank for and how much money has this generated you/your client over the past 6mo
It is traffic that matters, not competition. High traffic keywords with low competition is what you want!
I'm 75 for the term 'online games' - it's nothing spectacular, but I’m confident that it will be on the first page shortly. After all, two days ago I was 125 or below. The competition is roughly 429,000,000! Edit: Nevermind, I'm at 66 now!