What should I look for in average monthly searches vs. competition in keyword planner tool?
Hi,
I am considering keywords for my website that can easily get on top. I am a bit confused on monthly searches and competition. As I understand, I am to choose keywords which have low competition. What about the searches? Should I choose keywords whose searches are under 100?
I have already used these keywords for targeting; Performance Management Software, Talent Management Software, Performance Appraisal Software but the competition is extremely high and I couldn't get on top with organic SEO. PPC budget is not high and want to get results organically.
If anybody has any good idea/suggestions for organic marketing please share it.
Thank you.
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Sep 15, 2015
If you are just looking for rankings you can go for low competitive, and if you are looking for business then get the high competitive and good searchable keywords.
And there is another point you should be clear at, the competition you are looking in keyword planner is only for paid campaigns. You cannot consider this as organic competition. For the organic competition you have to look check no of indexed pages in google search.
And final thought, If you want business you have to work on searchable keywords.
Jul 23, 2015
As far as I am concerned, online marketing that is dependent upon SEO. SEs & Daddy Google is a game of chance as well as risk that's controlled by the bots. I do not ignore Google & SEs and I do not focus on them alone. I do SEO as much as I can and I grow and focus on my targeted network of followers which is more under my control.
Hence, I'm not afraid of any competition. In fact, as long as there's still "some" room open for me to compete I dive in with these two-pronged approach. I advise you follow me do same.
Jul 23, 2015
Hi Grace, if your website is new and your goal is to introduce it to the market, you have to assess the investment that you are willing to put into AdWords. It can get costly so you have to make sure that you are satisfying a specific goal. If the objective is to generate leads, you can combine Low and Medium keywords again depending on your budget. SEO takes time and require more than just driving traffic to your site - it needs quality content, site authority like link building, meta tags etc.
AdWords is a quick win approach if you are willing to invest. It gives your site some airtime and contributes to the overall quality score of your website which will eventually help your site to get organic traffic. I suggest you create a small scale AdWords Campaign to test and optimize afterwards.
You can also try to utilize your Social Media Channels to cross-share content. I hope that helps a bit.
Jul 22, 2015
Keywords with searches under 100 work well. The rule we use is 30 or more searches with 10% competition. I attack a single keyword in multiple variations and essentially the searches add up. It works well for high and low searches.
Jul 20, 2015
Hi,
Greeting of the day!
By mentioning local area with these above keywords you can get more traffic, Yes you can choose the keywords under 100 but don't select under 30.
Please follow the below steps:
Add keywords in Website Meta Title, Tag, description and in page content..
Promote these keyword on StumbleUpon and Scoop Platform with fresh content, surely you will get more relevant traffic organically.
Go through the relevant forum post and blog commenting platform.
Create interesting content with using perfect keyword density and post it on slide share platform
Join the relevant group on SMM platform and be active there!
Hope it will help you!!
Cheers,
Priya
Skype:priya.laad-wsr
Jul 20, 2015
Hello Grace
You are on the right track in finding your keywords and don't want to choose extremely high competitive keywords like you were saying. Also, are you doing all the SEO yourself, assuming you are an SEO.
First off, initially Google KW planner is a great place to search out some KWs you want to rank for you. Unfortunately, the GKWP is setup for Google Adwords and not for organic SEO.
I initially go through the Google planner and find KWs based on local monthly searches, any 50 and above. Also while I am doing that I try to find long tail KWs, KWs more than 3+ words in a phrase. Most long tail keywords are easier to rank and some even have mid to high search volume as well.
I also do look at the competitiveness in the Google planner. Anything low to mid. This doesn't mean if the number is high it's going to be super competitive in the organic searches, because again the Google KW planner is catered to Adwords, not organic SEO.
Also, picking KWs does depends on how much money you want to spend on your SEO campaign and also how well your formula for ranking is. In my client rankings, I can choose competitive KWs and get them ranked number one the first page of Google and also ranking mid to low competitiveness along with this.
After picking my KWs I check them on how they would rank in organic search results. This is just a rough estimate on a scale from 1%-100%. 100% being extremely difficult. For example, FaceBook is 100%. For myself, anything 70%-75% or above is pretty much where I stop and would be crazy for me to try to rank above those KWs. Usually 60% and above is difficult and anything below 35% is easy to rank with a simple SEO techniques.
I use SEMrush KW diffuculty tool.
Hope this helps Grace
Jul 20, 2015
To answer your initial question directly. I would leverage a different tool to review organic keyword competition. Moz (https://moz.com/tools/keyword-difficulty) has a keyword competition tool based on the top ranking sites.
You can start creating content around the less competitive keywords but I would still recommend targeting the competitive keywords as well. Scatter the less competitive keywords throughout the content as it makes sense. As you start to create and place highly relevant content across the web for the less competitive keywords, you should start to see an increase in rank.
Backlinks are still very important. Great content can get you noticed by the search engines, but links are still the "votes" that drive the increase in rank. Below are a few ideas for article marketing and content distribution. You will want to research industry blogs for more ideas and tips on content marketing. Here a few but there are many resources out there.
https://moz.com/blog
http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/
Overall, I would focus less on keywords as a leading metric and more on traffic generation. You will still want to monitor keyword growth but only as it impacts traffic to your site and ultimately conversions.
Here are a few ideas to help increase organic or referral traffic and encourage links to improve rank.
Outside of the black hat tricks, it will come down to content marketing.
1. Create great and informative content within your website. The more unique content. the more the search engines will love your site. Add content to the site on a regular basis. Remember to link internally when posting the content.
2. Create engaging content that people want to share. Here is a good post for content marketing ideas.
http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2195076/88-content-creation-ideas-for-better-business-blog-posts-images-or-videos#
- Re-purpose content to help save some time and money
Good read on scaling and re-purposing content: https://moz.com/blog/scaling-quality-content
3. Publicize the content
- Paid article marketing. Adblade, Taboola, Outbrain are a few examples.
- Share through social media channels
- Publish the content on industry related directories
- Build relationships with bloggers or professionals within the industry
- Work to have your content shared on their social channels and websites
Jul 20, 2015
The strategy of SEO is more than guesswork. To gain results in search your content needs to be relevant, timely and fresh. Keep in mind that what you see as results in your search will differ in someone else's based on their computer cookies, their demographics and their search terms. I always tell my clients to write their content from the needs of the prospect/client. Know your target market. What words would your client use to find you. These keywords may or may not be the popular ones. What phrases would your prospect/client use? Instead of attempting to hit the top keyword you mention head on, what makes your product unique? What are the unique features and/or benefits to the prospect/client? Add those answers to your keyword search tool and expand from there.
Wishing you awesome and continuing success.
Jul 20, 2015
How do you get to first page rankings? Relevant content about your business.
How often do you post on your weblog?
I'm a fan of medium and low keywords used in my articles and submitting the new articles to Google via the search console.
Jul 20, 2015
I’m always looking for new blog ideas. I know I need to try a giveaway, for sure. Will bookmark to have as a reference.
Thanks for all the great ideas! I was sitting at my computer today and could not for the life of me think of something to write about. This was really helpful. Thanks again!
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