These days, a lot of keyword tools give you a competition score. This is a feature that a lot of internet marketers look for in a tool. And that’s why people will pay for LongTailPro and not mind paying an extra $17 or so each month for the platinum version to get that KC score. I know, because I used to be one of them. There was even a period a couple of years ago when I was paying $50 a month for the extra special version of Jaaxy that gives you a competition score and matching domain name availability.
Don’t buy a keyword tool for its competition score evaluation.
Why SEO Keyword Competition Scores Are A Joke
Know what pretty much every IMer with a PBN is doing these days? Blocking all the backlink checkers like Ahrefs, Majestic, Moz, etc. from seeing their sites.
Know how keyword competition scores are generated? By gauging the power (or authority) of sites ranking on the first page of the SERPs. (yeah, I know there is other stuff involved but it doesn’t really matter right now)
1 + 1 = PBN powered sites on page one are being under-valued since the PBNs are hidden.
This is why there are so many IMers crying on the interwebs about how they can’t rank their site on page one even though the target keyword has a KC of 28.
The Alternative?
Since you can’t really trust what the keyword tools are telling you, what’s an IMer to do? Roll up your sleeves and get to work manually evaluating the SERPs for the keywords you’re interested in targeting.
Yeah, it’s a lot more work this way. But, it is really the only way to be 100% certain that you’re not going to waste your time going after a keyword that will be too competitive to land on page one.
The good news is that once you start working like this, it will become easier for you to give the results a once-over and know if it’s worth pursuing or not. And that really speeds up the process. This is something that no keyword tool can give you – no matter what the SEO gurus are saying.
So, take that money you were going to spend on a crappy keyword tool and spend it on a good expired domain for your PBN. Or a Hoth Mini backlink package. Either one of those is a better use of your money when it comes to growing your affiliate site income.
Hey, I’m Shawna. I make a living working from my laptop in places like London, Sydney, Dubai, Rome, Oslo, Bangkok, Las Vegas, Barcelona, and Amsterdam. I share how I do some of that on this website.
I love Semrush, but their kW difficulty tool is a piece of crap.
I don’t really use them for KW difficulty, but they are GREAT when it comes to finding keywords that weak sites are ranking for so that you can overtake them 😉
I’m also a big fan of doing Competition Analysis manually when doing your keyword research. What I do is the following:
1) I put my keyword on Market Samurai
2) See the top 10 results (according to the country/language I selected)
3) Look for other affiliate sites ranking or weak sites (web 2.0, forums, etc)
To me seing other affiliate sites ranking or weak sites ranking, it’s always a great sign.
Oh! And the reason why I use MarketSamurai and not manually see the top10 sites in Google serps itself is because I find it: (A) More friendly to see them in tha way and (B) It’s pretty accurate. The top10 results that MarketSamurai gives you differ from the top10 results that LTP gives you. (Been Market Samurai more accurate)
I haven’t used LTP in a *really* long time and I’ve never used Market Samurai, but overall our process looks to be pretty much the same at the core. And yes, I love finding weak sites ranking. I came across a keyword with an angelfire site ranking on page one recently! Talk about hitting the jackpot 😉
Hi,
Can you please give short details on how you check keyword competitiveness manually?
Thank you.
I just look to see what is on page one of Google. I like to see forums, other niche sites and web 2.0s for low competition.