How to determine the amount of difficulty and competition

gorg · 10-27-2003, 05:58 PM

I'd like to learn more about determing the level of competition I am running up against when trying to break into the first page of Google results for a keyword phrase.

I look at

1. a competitor site's PR
2. Google backlinks.
3. And I also look at backlinks to the competeting site(s) using AllTheWeb.

Which of these three things is most important? And are there any other things to look at to get an idea of how difficult it will be to compete against a site(s).?

burgi82 · 10-27-2003, 06:15 PM

Hi,
I always look at the competitors PR, and then see how much on-page SEO they did, meaning, that I check if they have the keywords in the title, and in the H1 tag, etc.
If they do have done the on-page SEO, then, I know that I need to get at least the same PR, with the right anchor text. If they didn't do the on-page SEO, you can probably be listed in front of them with a lower PR and the right anchortext in your inbound links. But of course, you will have to do the on-page SEO.
I never do check competitors backlinks, except when I need new ideas of people that I could link to. But then I use google, to find only the best quality links. I don't have time to run to every PR 1 page and submit my link there. If people with low PR want to link to me, that is fine, but I will not go out and find them. I will only go out and find high PR links
Hope that helps

Mel · 10-28-2003, 12:56 AM

HI Gorg

Anchor text in IBL is very important these days. You should also use the {allinanchor: your keyphrase} search in Google to see how many anchor text links your competitors have for your targeted search term.

gorg · 10-28-2003, 08:44 AM

I didn't know about the allinnchor:

thanks

When I try it, it brings up a list of google results which I assume are based on the keyword phrase in the incoming links. Is there any way to tell how many of these links there are coming into a competitor's site that have the keyword phrase in the anchor?

ginab · 10-29-2003, 03:29 PM

Can someone explain this allinanchor: issue further?

From what I understand anchor text is the text used as a hyperlink. What I don't understand is how to know if this google allinanchor: thing works.

The keyword I want is "san francisco wedding". When I google --allinanchor:san francisco wedding -- I get like 13000 responses. How do I know that all of these pages have this keyword as anchor text. The first couple I tried do not.

Thanks for your help!

Gina

PhilC · 10-29-2003, 04:24 PM

They all have the keyphrase in links that point to the pages, not in links that are on the pages. To check them out you'd need to take one of the listings and get the links that point to it (you'll only be shown PR4 links and higher). Then you'd need to check each of those pages to find any that contain the orginal keyphrase in the anchor text that points to the original page.

In other words, take Google's word for it

ginab · 10-29-2003, 04:47 PM

I would need to create anchor text in my internal hyperlinking structure that use the keyphrase I wish to be picked up by search engines?

Also, I assume it would help to have incoming links from other pages have the keywords I want to push with search engines... in my case, the name of my site contains the keywords I want to use and the links from other sites use the name of my site for anchor text to link to my site. Is this method helpful for achieving improved page ranking?

Sorry for being such a dunce on this matter. Thanks for your help, Phil!

burgi82 · 10-29-2003, 05:36 PM

yes, you should try to get inbound links from other high PR sites that use your targeted keywords in the anchor text.
Any links from other websites will help improving your PR, which is pagerank and only is one factor in the search engine ranking process. Another factor is the anchor text, which should always include your targeted keywords as well.
SO, basically, to improve your ranking in google, you should try to get inbound links, which use your targeted keywords in the anchor text. Also, if your keywords are in the name of your website, ask the people that link to you to not link to you with the name all in one word, but to separate the words, meaning instead of sanfranciscowedding, use san francisco wedding
Hope this helps

gorg · 10-30-2003, 09:21 AM

Would there be much value in having the keywords in the URL, seperated by a dash?

Example for keywords "Big Dogs"

anchor text "Big Dogs" to http://bigdogs.com

or

anchor text "Big Dogs" to http://big-dogs.com

Would there be enough difference to mess with in search engine rankings with on these two examples? Because BigDogs.com is a lot easier to communicate to people. Easier to brand.

burgi82 · 10-30-2003, 09:39 AM

well, a lot of people might just link to you using your URL, in which case you would not have the proper anchor text if using bigdog.com, but you would have the right anchor text when using big-dog.com
I personally only use domains with dashes, but I just focus on google and don't do any branding at all.
So, it somewhat depends on the target of your site. Do you want a lot of repeat visitors, in which case bigdog.com would be easier, while if you want to rely on google, then use big-dog.com