Which search strings to use to find KW competiton?

Hi i wanted to know which search strings to use for keyword competition.
So which one of the following search strings will you use on google to find your keyword competition using Google?


1. keyword

2. "keyword"

3. intitle:keyword

4. intitle:"keyword"

5. inanchor:keyword

6. inanchor:"keyword"

7. intitle:keyword

8. intitle:keyword inanchor:keyword

9. intitle:"keyword" inanchor:"keyword"

10. allintitle:keyword

11. allintitle:"keyword"

12. allinanchor:keyword

13: allinanchor:"keyword"

 

All of them except #1 are helpfull
That's why these guys are making a killing off of the SEO tools.
You can do it all at the same time with a click of the mouse.

The intitlte ones are more important then the inanchor to get you in the ballpark. The inanchor ones are more for when you are trying to optimize your site to rank better than someone else.

Zeek

 

Which intitle string is better?

intitle:keyword or intitle:"keyword"

same with the inanchor string.

 

It depends on what you are doing.
If you are looking for the number of websites that have the exact phrase in the Title Tag, and you assume that a site having that exact phrase is going for a SEO page, then use allintitlehrase.

That gives you a rough idea, but isn't always accurate. And it doesn't mean that the search phrase appears anywhere in the text/content portion of their page. You should verify that by going to the site and manually looking or better yet Search the site using the URL.
An easy and good way to do this is using the Google Search Tool but instead of putting your search phrase in the box, click the box next to it and enter the URL of that site. It will return you a ton of good info on what they are doing or trying to optimize for.

I don't mess with the inanchor unless I am really serious about getting my page ranked higher then one particular site.

Many people make the mistake of putting too much emphasis on page rank. It really don't mean squat. How many times have you searched for something and the first page or even couple of pages on top isn't even ranked? Happens quite often.

Zeek

 

I have read in most places that the strings

"keyword"
intitle:"keyword"
intitle"keyword" inanchor"keyword"

are the ones that are used mostly to gauge the competition for that keyword. The last two show how many have been optimised. But I know one thing, the main factor for competition depends on the first 20 search results.