Know-How Exchange : SEO/SEM

The ideal keyword is 1) highly relevant 2) indicates strong commercial intent 3) has high search volume, 4) low competition, and 5) competing pages aren't highly SEO'd.

Relevance and commercial intent are the strongest signals but each keyword phrase should be weighed against each of these quality signals.

Long tail terms are frequently highly descriptive (at least when compared to head terms) and tend to have higher relevance and perhaps stronger commercial intent (if sales are your game). So, while they may have lower search volume they tend to have significantly higher conversion rates, bringing more buyers and fewer tire kickers. So, while you may have fewer visitors, you may end up with more conversions.

In regards to your question, the answer is "it depends". A smaller number of competitors may, on the surface, signal a less challenging landscape, however this isn't entirely true. If all six figures of the competitors are well optimized with large backlink profiles then those competitors could be more difficult than millions of competitors on another phrase.

Ideally, when choosing keywords you'd analyze the top several search results for backlink profile, domain authority, and optimization level. Since the title element is the most important ranking signal on a page, it is helfpul to check the number of pages that have title text optimized for the exact-match phrase. To do this in Google you can search with the intitle advanced operator in this manner:

intitle:"keyword phrase inside quotes"

The search engine results page that results from this query will indicate the number of URLs that contain that exact phrase in the title text as well as the listings of those sites. If the number is high, then you may be facing some stiff competition (SEOs).

When you are obtaining competition numbers, use an exact match query as well:

"keyword phrase in quotes"

This will reveal the pages containing that specific phrase rather than just randomly containing each of those 3 (+/-) words. So if a "broad match" query results in 1 million results, then an exact match query may, for example, reveal 100k-a more reasonable number.

I hope this helps get you closer...

Dear Melissa,

To Greg's stellar advice above I'd like to add my humble two cents' worth.

Page rank and keyword-rich domain names are also important. Embrace them as you would a long lost friend.

To assess page rank you'll need to install SEO Quake (for Firefox). Here's a link: https://www.seoquake.com/

The data SQ gives you will give you essential information about page ranking per page on Google. The higher the number, the higher the rank, the lower the number, the lower the rank.

Lower ranking pages, even though they may have fewer searched for terms associated with them will be easier to compete against (fewer links, domains that are younger with fewer indexed pages and so on).

The thing about targeting niches is to go narrow and deep. As narrowness and depth diminish and increase in tandem (supply), demand (for which read obsession) on the part of searchers increases.

Ratios of domain name relevance to searched-for keywords and long-tailed keyword phrases are also important.

Here's why: keyword specific domain names will give your pages greater specificity in terms of comparable searches made and results returned (more of the former and fewer of the latter—again, thereby helping to increase your rankings).

If you're selling a guide on using purple widgets and there are more people searching for the phrase "How to use purple widgets" than there are actual Google page results that pop up in an intitle search, if your domain name is then HowToUsePurpleWidgets.com, and if your site also has keyword-weighted optimized pages for that and other related search terms, your pages and their contents will rank higher up the search rankings than a site called PurpleWidgets101.com that lacks optimized content.

Other useful keys to getting a site to rank well are specificity across a searched-for range, and the inclusion of multiple streams of linked, media-rich content.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
The Direct Response Marketing Guy™
Princeton, NJ, USA

Gary, the toolbar is a good suggestion, helping to automate some of the quality filters. However, in regards to PR, there isn't a correlation between Toolbar PageRank (This is the PageRank that Google shows us but they have an internal PageRank that is more accurate and is a stronger ranking signal that they don't reveal) and rankings. Quite often you will see lower PR URLs beating higher PR URLs.

PR is more of a signal that a URL has backlinks but there are so many other ranking signals in play that it isn't, on it's own, strong enough to pay much attention to.

Gary is also correct in regards to EMDs (exact-match domains. If your keyword is "blue widgets" then your EMD would be bluewidgets.com). Google has given a boost to EMDs. However, you do have to consider your brand and Google is taking heat on the EMD issue from the community. I personally foresee the boost may be reduced over time, but who knows...