Competitive Keyword Analysis, how do YOU do it?

  1. Use the twelve (12) high priority keywords

  2. Check the word count/search volume of each priority keywords using google adwords and word tracker tool.

  3. Check the Number of Competing Pages for Google and Yahoo just to have an idea about the competition for that given keyword.

  4. Check the keyword density and prominence using gorank tool. The keyword density is the ratio of the keywords contained within the total number of indexable words within a page. The keyword prominence is how prominent the targeted keywords within the web page. In the On-page optimization it is consider as part of the keyword analysis as how the targeted keywords are used within the page.

  5. Used the Semrush and Spyfu tool to search for the top ten results for each keyword. The top 10 results are considered main competitors of the website for the given key phrase.

Here are the tools Used:

  1. freekeywords.wordtracker.com- Free keyword suggestion tool for SEO, Adwords & blogging
  2. google adwords
  3. seobook.com/keyword-tools
  4. gorank
  5. semrush.com
  6. spyfu.com
  7. keyworddiscovery

Hope this will help!

Your tips are nice. My way of calculating keyword competition is by analyzing the total search volume and number of results for that keyword.

To find Search volume, I am using Google adword tools, though it doesn’t give exact count. Then I check the number of search results available for the keyword. Then take the first 10 top results and analyze the sites.

Google gives a lot of opportunity to identify the keywords that you prefer, mainly Google keyword tool gives you an exact idea of monthly search and competition. If you further look for back link analysis, or title for particular keyword can search in Google using allinanhor, intitle, intext etc. Google insight gives a better picture of keyword popularity in a particular area.

nice tips but i think the easiest way is google search suggestions cause they are based on number of searches and after that google adword and keyword tracker are two best online free keyword tools

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ is my favorite keyword analysis tool.

I only do few thing during keyword research. Here is the step I follow

  1. I use google keyword tool and find a keyword with CPC more than $1
  2. I go to google and search for the exact keyword and record the number of results.
  3. If result is more then 1,00,000 I drop that keyword.
  4. If result is less than 1,00,000 I see the top ten site for PR and other stuffs.
  5. If top sites are hard to beat then I go to step one.

Am I doing good? I need your suggestions guys…

WonderWheel is actually a good concept but a bit annoying to use.

Use the WonderWheel Scraper php script.

I don’t have the link with me so you’ll just have to Google it.

Has anybody tried using Google Trends as a tool for keyword analysis.
The locations based trends would be quite insightful.

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In market samurai i don’t have to generate keywords and by just getting the result in just a few hours. unlike using a adword tool and other seo keyword tool like gorank etc. to identify the right KW I am doing it for over a days.

I like google wonderwheel, and also Resultzzs keyword tool, both good in my opinion.

Yes Keyword research is the most important task for search engine optimization. Google adwords keyword research tool and word tracker are the best keyword research tools, which shows competion and daily search volume of the keywords.

Wordtracker, Market Samurai as paid ones. But definitely worth the fees. Ah, and Keyword Elite.

I use googe external for keyword analysis… i think google external is better tool than others…

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Hi,
Keyword Analysis is quite a tough task to chose the best and relevant keywords from the list of n number of keywords. There are many online tools that are easily available like Google Adwords which help in finding the relavant keywords but in the last you have to judge the final set of keywords to target for a site according to its entity and client requirements.
Regards,
SEO Web Guys

Hello.

What would also be interesting would be for a number of keyword research experts (which I’m sadly not) to do their research for the same website and to compare the end result keyword lists.

If the methods are diverse, so be it.

What would really matter (to the website business) is that various methods identify broadly the same keyword lists to go with.

However, if the final keyword lists are greatly different, then where does that leave the website business, their confidence in the quality of the research they’ve paid for, and the whole keyword research approach?

How likely is it that different keyword researchers would produce broadly similar “best” keyword lists?

Cheers,

BG

I don’t do, or buy into, the idea that volume of results returned is an indicator of competition.

The fact is some common words might not be competitive at all, but they’re common words and so appear on many pages.

Allintitle and allinachor are better.

Personally, I just look at the top ten or so listings, their backlinks, their pagerank, my own opinion as to their on page optimizations, and then decide if I can beat them. Not everyone could do this of course, you need to understand SEO enough to make good judgement calls, but it works for me.

I don’t care so much about how many sites there are on the topic, 99% of them are easily beat, it is the top ones that will either hold me down or allow me to be successful. So those are the ones I worry about.

Agreed.

The general search I do is more just to see how many pages return for that particular phrase and it also gives me an indicator of how competitive that phrase might be. I don’t use search operators or select my local version of Google because I don’t believe that most searchers will do either of those thing initially, so I want to see what they’ll see when they use that phrase. Another thing I look for but don’t include in the algorithm is the number of PPC ads that return, that’s a strong indicator of competition.

I include the general search figure in the algorithm but I don’t give it as much weight as the other factors, it’s more of a dampening factor than anything else. Regardless of whether or not those pages are optimised for that phrase, I still have to beat them because they returned for that phrase. I start there and work down to optimised competition.

regardless of any other comments, this step by step procedure will help anyone who is not a season pro at SEO. It has given me ideas on how I can better my current methods. Thank you. Great Post.

You’re welcome.

With the exception of the backlink relevance analysis and few minor tweaks like not paying so much attention to on page factors on the competing pages like keyword density, ignoring weightings for less relevant keywords (I just don’t include them most of the time), the keyword strength algorithm which is my own version of the famous KEI, and one or two other things, it’s pretty much process described in the Sitepoint SEM kit.

Bump. Still hoping to get a few more expert opinions on this very important core issue of SEO. If you get your keywords wrong, everything else you know is a waste of time.