Keyword Research: The Competition

One of the most important thing to know when going into a SEO campaign is how much work is going to be involved. I would never advise anyone not to partake in a good fight, it could be fun, but you should always know if you will need to pack a lunch. When you research your keywords and have a good list of what you are going to use, check out the competition for the phrases.

First thing you need to do is check out the keyword density of the competing site. Look at the amount of text, meta tags and alt tags. You should take serious notes about every page and apply these numbers to your site. You have to beat them in this category, no questions. This research will give you a serious, temporary advantage. The key to maintaining top positions is keeping track of what the competition is doing to catch up.

Search for the keywords you have in mind and check out the top sites. Look at how many pages they have indexed (site:www.sitename.com), if they have 300 pages to their site and you only have 12, you will need to either strap in for a long one, or put it on the back burner. The size of the site matters in terms of relevant internal links. You should also check out the page rank of those pages.

Next, look at the amount and quality of inbound links the competition has. The link:www.sitename.com method will show you the links that Google has indexed, and some people say only inks with a PR<4 show up. Download a good SEO browser plugin for your favorite open source browser, they tend to show you the inbound links recognized by all the major search engines. Taking note of how many inbound links the site has will help you evaluate how much effort you need to put into link building. If the competition has thousands of quality inbound links, you may want to hold off on that keyword for a bit, until you have enough momentum to gain big links. If the competition has only a few links, you may be able to get by with a few blog comments and a reciprocal exchange.

Lastly, watch the site for a while. Do they make regular updates? If the competition is a stagnant web site, then the search engines may reward you for frequent updates. Fresh content that is chock-full of keywords may be all it takes to push you over the competition.

Giant sites that are as old as the internet itself are not impossible to topple, and if you are like me, you will love the fight. The proper amount of knowledge about the competitions site can go a long way. Just remember, when you do reach the top, don't stop and relax. Your new goal is ensuring your site maintains it's position. SEO is more like a marathon, than a sprint, but there is no finish line. And of course I only encourage whitehat methods, no dirty stuff.

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