SEO Tip #5 - Checking Keyword Competition and Volume

The basis of any successful SEO campaign is doing some quality keyword research. If you don't know what the best keywords to optimize your site for than you probably shouldn't be doing SEO. After you have built up a good amount of SEO experience you start to get a feel for what are the highest volume keywords and most profitable ones as well. With this SEO tip I will go over the process I use when researching a new product.

My first step is to head over to Google and type the beginning of the "product name" and see what comes up on the predictive search results. Usually these are the highest volume search terms and this is why they suggest them to you. This can be more accurate than the actual keyword tool because they are usually the most current hot search terms. Usually its a good measure of volume when you don't see any suggestive search terms when you type in the product name.

So lets say your keyword has some volume and your ready to move on to the next step. Use Google's keyword tool to dig a little bit deeper. The problem with the keyword tool is it isn't always the most accurate representation of current search volumes. The numbers are definitely a rough estimate so don't base your efforts on them. I have had experience in the past when Google says the keyword has 0 volume while I'm getting 50+ hits a day for the phrase.

Relying on the keyword tool for search volumes can often be misleading. You might even overlook a highly profitable keyword because the keyword tool claims it has 0 volume. In the past I have had keywords registering as 0 volume but making me $100s in sales each day. The first time I experienced this I began to look at the keyword tool from a whole different light.

Gauging the competition of your keyword can be done with quite a bit of confidence by just using the Google search engine. The amount of results for your phrase will give you an idea of how many other people are out there optimizing pages for the phrase. This is a two step process.

First you just want to search for the term under a broad match and see how many results come up. If the phrase comes up with millions of results than there is probably quite a bit of competition for the phrase.

Second you want to do a search with the keyword in quotations or an "exact match". This gives you a representation of how many pages have the exact key phrase you are targeting actually on their pages. This really gives you a good idea of how open you desired keyword is for domination. If the result is under a couple of thousand than you probably have some good times to come but if it is up above 50,000 than you have your work cut out.

This is in no way a full proof method of checking keyword competition but it sure gives me a good representation of whats going on with the key phrase. So before you decide to begin your next campaign take the time to do some thorough keyword research so you can form the ideal attack plan. Nothings a bigger waste of time than optimizing your site for the wrong keywords or missing out on ones that could be bringing you more profit.

Good luck!