Would you like to try and rank for a highly competitive keyword phrase that a big-name company spends $10,000 per month on their digital marketing campaign?
I did not think so.
This is why it is important to find keyword phrases that are searched for quite often with a relatively low competition to rank for. These are the gems that you want to rank for.
Where do SEO Tools get their Numbers From?
Many paid and free SEO tools offer their own estimate of how hard it is to rank for certain keyword phrases. To get a better idea of how accurate the SEO tools are try multiple tools and view the results of different topics on all of them and look for similarities.
- Google Ad Planner gets its numbers from its Google AdWords campaign which can bring skewed results but many of the major SEO Tools take information from Google Ad Planner through the use of an API combined with their own resources.
- SEOPowerSuite uses a hybrid of their own sources and Google AdWords
- Ahrefs uses a hybrid of using Google’s Ad Planner and Clickstream.
- SEMRush uses its own algorithm/data called Neural Network Algorithm plus ClickStream to estimate the number.
- Moz uses Clickstream data and the Google API to get their numbers
- UberSuggest uses most of its numbers from Google’s API for Google Ad Planner.
- KW Finder uses strictly the Google Keyword Planner
Don’t Trust the Competition Numbers Alone!
Going by just the competition numbers from the SEO tools is a no-no. Use it as a guide to putting together a list to examine closer. After you get your list completed enter your keyword phrase in the search engine and take a look at the SERPs (search engine results pages).
The sites that rank for the keyword phrase you want to rank for. How do they compare to your site? Are they big like Amazon which has a high DR (domain rank) and PR (page rank) or are they mom and pop stores?
Do the websites in the SERPs rank for the keyword phrase because it is in their domain name, page title, links pointing to them, etc.?
Competition numbers are an excellent 1st step in deciding what keyword phrases to pick but don’t let it be your only step.
More details and how to determine what keyword phrases to pick is available in our paid course.