Want to be #1 for a KeyWord - Chances?

[andmunn]

Well, there is a 1-word keyword directly related to my business that i'd like to become #1 for in the search engine rankings.

Doing some "research" in overture, i found out there were about 15,000 searches for this term since Dec 20. Furthermore, the max bid for this category is at about $0.45 cents.

Now, having done some research, not of the top pages appear to be optimized to a "great" extent. The top 10 always appear whether in overture, yahoo, google, etc.

My question is, would you target a category like this? Or should i try to target something more specific using my "keyword".

Thanks ;)
Andrew.

[nevetS]

To improve your analysis, I'd offer these suggestions:

Do a search for the word and check out the number of returned results. All those people are competing with you. From what I understand, and I'm a newbie, is that with less than 250K results you stand a pretty good chance at top 10 with good optomization.

Check out the PR of the top 5 or 10 results. If they are 5's, you have a pretty good chance at getting there. 8-10 and you probably won't beat them out. 6 and 7 is a crapshoot, but you could probably get to compete with them over time. (this is for google of course).

Also when looking at these sites, check out their SEO techniques. If they are targeting lots of keywords with one page, you could increase your changes by just focusing on the one keyword.

If they aren't practicing SEO, or it just doesn't look like they are competitive, it could be a result of the Florida update, or it could be that people just aren't targeting the word.

I'd be interested in hearing the thoughts of other board members about moving into the number one spot. I'm top 3-10 on the words I've focused on, and I'm interested in moving up. The only thing I can do that wouldn't potentially hurt my rankings would be increasing my inbound links and using focused anchor text.

I'm afraid if I make tweaks to text I'd end up dropping rather than rising, and dropping off the first page might dramatically affect my pocketbook.

[too much information]

You know, I spent countless hours tweeking a site to get to that #1 spot for that great keyword, and all I learned is that there is a better way to do things.

Finally I rebuilt some of the site to just get to the top 5-10 for as many related words and phrases as possible. My traffic is much greater with this approach and because all of the searches are related (even slightly) I am also gaining from the name recognition.

I remember last year when we had our first week of at least one online info request each day. (actually it was one each day, 7 total) Now it is strange if we don't get at least 3 each day and we usually double that.

*It's a niche market, high $ sales, but smaller customer base

My suggestion is to only devote one page to your keyword, but use the rest of your site to spread things around.

[tomda]

You'd better focus on three to four keywords (if not at least two keywords). Because Google is so huge, you will have too many competitors for one keyword and most search are done with minimum two keywords.

I never type one keyword in Google (it is like one drop of water in the ocean).

Tommy

[andmunn]

Thank you for your replies. Actually this link generates about 4 million websites, but to tell you the truth, the top 10 aren't optimized at all... They include "meta tags", but that's about the extent.

They don't include:

- H1 "keyword"
- often don't include the keyword in there title
- keyword frequency in the body is almot nil
- page design is often full of errors and can't be validated.

To say it simply, the "keyword" im' taregetting is in an industry whose websites probably don't know much / or care to know much about SEO targetting.

For example, the 15th site in the list has almost 0 to do with the industry.

Now, even though there are 4 million results, is my chances of being listed very small?

Thanks!

[panic]

Because Google is so huge, you will have too many competitors for one keyword and most search are done with minimum two keywords.

What about Inktomi, Teoma, AV, and all the other engines?

You might also try Business.com, and/or the shopping engines (assuming it's an e-commerce site).

[andmunn]

definately will submit to the other search engines as well :) THat's not even a question.

[epptom]

You might want to check out the following thread, where I asked essentially the same question:

[webmasterworld.com...]

As was suggested, I've begun going for "niche" keywords - and have already started to see some conversion on those words. It's great advice!

[andmunn]

Unfortunately, the keyword is already a sort of "niche", and there really aren't that many variations of it. Although, im' sure, I could find some. However, I did some extensive research, let me know if these are "possible to overcome feats" (because, to me, it doesn't seem so hard).

For the Keyword, here are the stats (will refer to only google). I've included stats for the #1 searched website, and the #10th, and you can assume that the in-between sites (#2-9) are somewhere inbetween these.

TOTAL RESULTS FOR KEYWORD - 5.9 Million

#1 Website
----------
TOTAL BACKLINKS (google) = 596
PAGE RANK = 7
FREQUENCY OF KEYWORD = less then 1.0%
KEYWORD IN TITLE = YES
KEYWORD IN URL = NO

#10 WEBSITE
-----------
TOTAL BACKLINKS (google) = 48
PAGE RANK = 5
FREQUENCY OF KEYWORD = 3%
KEYWORD IN TITLE = YES
KEYWORD IN URL = YES

Now i'm not sure if this gives you a better idea, but I beleive i could optmize my site "much" better then any of these sites. None of them include an H1 tag, many faily to meet keyword density / proximity stands. What do you guys think?

Andrew.

[nevetS]

I say go for it. It can't hurt to try. I would think you could get on page 1 with a lower PR if you optimize your site pretty well.

I have a site that's a 2 in the midst of several PR5s on the first page. It got there within 2 weeks of me putting it up. Of course, my phrase is much much less competitive.

[andmunn]

thank! I will see what i can do.

Cheers,
Andrew.