Check keyword competition with Google
So you want your web page to appear at the top of Google results. Yes, we all want that, it means a lot of free traffic! However, it is not an easy task. There are many variables involved. One of them is the number of pages that have the same keywords as yours. In other words, the more pages targeting your keyword phrases, the more difficult it is for your article to appear on the first page of Google results. Therefore, good keyword research is the key to success. Unfortunately, the best keyword research tools out there are expensive for those just starting their online business. In this article, I’ll show you how to search for keywords using the Google Keyword Planner and evaluate the competition using the Google search box.
Get the real numbers
When you search for something on Google, the search engine is not capable of displaying all the results on a single page. Even if you did, it would be very inconvenient for you to scroll through so many results. We tend to look at the first few results and ignore the rest, unless we can’t find the answer we’re looking for. In that case, we look further down or refine our search terms. But I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t read every single one of the 102,234 available results! That’s why everyone competes for the top spots, otherwise your page will be buried where no one will find it.
Google faces a big challenge, that is, deciding which pages are most relevant to the user. If Google starts showing garbage to its users, soon, no one would use Google anymore. I think Google is doing a wonderful job of ranking content and showing the most relevant and authoritative. Of course I would love for my page to be number 1, but I think it’s only fair that a better and more relevant one take that place.
Sorry, I love to talk. Let’s see what happens when we do a Google search. I’m going to choose a key phrase that I think will give me very little results: “how to draw monkey faces”. I’ll type the phrase into the Google search box to see what I get. Note that I am putting the phrase in quotes, because I want to find pages that contain that exact phrase. At the top of the page you can find the following information:
Approximately 1,500 results (0.53 seconds)
I really don’t think there are 1500 pages that contain the exact phrase “how to draw monkey faces”. This is just a very bad estimate given to you, because the search engine will not go through all the pages to give you the exact count. At the bottom of the page in this particular example, there are only 3 pages, which means less than 30 results are available. That’s because each page has 10 results, 3 x 10 = 30.
You can confirm this behavior by going to the last page. Now, you can see, the following information appears at the top of the page:
Page 3 of 22 results (0.41 seconds)
Wow, only 22 results. As you can see, it would be quite easy to write a page that ranks #1 because there are very few competing pages for this particular keyword. Of course, you would have to check if there are people searching for this phrase, otherwise it would not be worth the effort. Most of the time we have more than 10 pages of results. It would take a long time to find the last page to find the exact count. But here is a shortcut. Write the following code in the url box (not the Google search box):
https://www.google.com/search?pws=0&as_epq=how+to+draw+monkey+faces&start=990
Notice most of the signs between the words. The &start parameter tells Google to display results starting at element 990. Because there are less than 990 results, Google will give you the last page with the exact result count at the top. Google never shows more than 1000 results. And this is how you would check the competition for that particular keyword.
Manual keyword research step by step
So now you may be wondering how to apply this technique in a real world situation. Just follow these simple steps:
- Get keyword ideas from the Ad-words Keyword Planner tool. It is free and very easy to use. Go to ad-words > Tools > Keyword Planner > Find new keyword and ad group ideas. After getting the results, go to the Keyword Ideas tab. Choose keywords that have between 50 and 300 monthly searches if you are a beginner.
- Using the code provided above, get the exact result count for each keyword you found with Keyword Planner. Stay with keywords that are below 100 results, that is, 10 pages.
These numbers may seem too low to some marketers. Many people don’t care about low traffic keywords. But think about it, it’s better to rank #1 for multiple keywords than to have no traffic at all. Of course, you would need to target a lot of those low competition phrases. If you are just starting out, this is the best way to achieve success. You’ll find that lots of little successes here and there will keep you motivated. Frustration and failure at first is what makes internet marketers quit. When you get better at that, you can go for more difficult keywords.
In summary
We have learned how to use Google search to check keyword competition. I recommend sticking with keywords with monthly searches between 50 and 300 and less than 100 competing pages if you are a beginner. You can always try more challenging keywords once you get the basics down. I hope you enjoyed this article and I look forward to hearing your success stories.