Keyword Difficulty

how do you gauge the difficulty of KWs

[red_hot]

Hi just wanted to ask. What factors/tools, etc. do you use to gauge the difficulty to market under a certain keyword?or the rate of difficulty of a keyword!

thanks!

[12scott34]

This is a good question. I think you will probably see several different answers to this as well. I really rely alot on my experience to determine how competitive a term is. Here are some things to consider

- How good are you?
- How many sites are competing for that specific term?
- What search engine are you optimizing for?
- We talking Organic or paid?
- what do the top 5 to 10 sites that show up for that keyword look like? Are they SEO'd? Do they have quality links? Do they have any .edu or .gov links?
- How old are the top 5 sites that are listed for that term?
- How do the top 5 sites incorporate content into their site? How fresh do you suspect it is?
- Of the links that your competitors have, what anchor text are they using?

These are just a few that I'm sure most people look into. Keyword research in my opinion is the #1 most important step in successful SEO or SEM. This is where I spend most of my time when starting on a project or a site. Picking the wrong term can kill you.

Scott