Choosing the right “target keywords” for SEO – The “competition” data in Google adwords tool

by Geno Thampi - 3/19/2012 6430 Views

Competition data in adwords tool misunderstood by many

How do you choose the keywords for your SEO campaigns and your onsite content? Do you use Google adwords tools to choose the keywords? If so, I am sure that you are considering "Competition" of the keywords as one of your deciding factors. The data about competition is for sure an important factor to be considered, but the question is, are you using the data right? Let's find out:

What does competition mean in Google Adwords Tool?

The answer to this question will let you know if you are using the data correctly to pick the right keyword.

Majority of them out there consider the "competition" data as the overall search competition for the particular keyword in organic search. According to them, it is not good to choose the keywords with high competition because they consider it near impossible to get a website rank for high competitive keywords (No matter the number of searches). When they see "High Competition" for a keyword, they paint a picture in their mind where there are several authorities sites appearing on search for that keyword. So they never pick the keywords which have a high or very high competition. If you are one among them, YOU ARE WRONG! The reason is very simple. "Competition" data presented by Google adwords tool is not that of websites ranking for a keyword. Instead, it is the data of number of websites making use of adwords for that particular keyword. More the competition, higher the number of sites that use Google adwords for the chosen keyword. This data doesn't interfere with organic results in the general search. As clear it is, this data has to be used when choosing the Ad campaigns to ignore the high competitive keywords to reduce the ad costs and increase the ROI.

If your answer to the usage of "competition" data is: high competitive keywords mean that the keyword is "hot" provided the fact that number of searches is considerably high, you are doing it right. Expert marketers consider keywords that display high competition and large number of searches (exact searches) in Google adwords tools as the most important ones when planning off page SEO campaigns and producing content and META details for a website.

How to use "competition" data presented by Google adwords tool?

There is a simple rule:

- If you are choosing keywords for Google adword campaigns, your least priority should be the keywords of high competition regardless the number of searches.

On the other hand, if you are choosing keywords for SEO campaigns including onsite SEO to rank in the organic search results highly competitive keywords (presented by Google adwords tool) has equal or more importance than keywords with low competition and high search volume.

So if you have been ignoring high competitive keywords for organic rankings, strategize your SEO campaigns because you were doing it wrong

Category :

SEO News

Tags :

onpage SEO, Onsite SEO, keyword rankings

About Geno Thampi

Not a born Shakespeare! But I still write articles and blogs to share my ideas and thoughts on SEO and SMO. Being a part of SEO research team of SubmitINme, I keep my ears and eyes open, and the pen ready to grab, write and share trending topics in search engine .... more info about the author