Keyword Research tool time-effort equivalent

[hu122]

SEOMoz's keyword research tool is awesome, but what does the competitiveness actually mean in terms of time/effort?

I've read the help file which is great but to get an idea, to rank for highly competitive keywords, is that 12 months of constant effort, link-building and keyword buying or more like 3 months? (how massive is massive?)

I know its a hard question to answer, but an idea would be awesome. Thanks to anyone that can answer in advance...

[RobertFisher]

Hello Hugh,

This is a very understandable question. I hope to provide you a small guide on this.

If you have a range of terms for more than one site and you have most entered into kw tool you will see that in some verticals you have a high difficulty and not a lot of searches. In others you can see high difficulty and many, many searches. That to me is one component.

The next is whether or not the search would be for a product or service that is perceived or marketed on a local basis. (A muffler shop comes to mind).

The next, which is very important is: Where are you starting from? So, for us as an agency if the client has a site and is already ranking in some areas, etc. it will provide a boost if we are helping them spread out. (making it easier even for a difficult term). But, if the client is going into unchartered waters or is essentially new to the space, it will mean having to build authority for site and pages while competing.

So, if I am looking at a global US search and have a new client with little they have done right on the Internet and we are going into what has been described as a "red ocean" in Blue Ocean Strategy, and, if the terms I am after are highly searched and difficult, page one could be 6 months or longer away.

Assuming the difficulty stays the same, but the search is now changed to be local and all else is the same, I think, I can begin to rank them for some of the terms within 3months plus or minus.

Then, if we go back to global but change them to having some Internet sophistication already, there is a significant increase in the speed with which we can help them rank. Change this to also include local and it gets faster. If, the search is a small number of searches monthly in local for any of the above, I find that it is easier to rank as less and less competitors focus on the longer tail or less familiar terms. NOTE: This is a major reason I do something I do not thoroughly enjoy: KW research.

So, I hope I have lessened your frustration to a degree,

All the best,

Robert

[hu122]

Thanks for the answer Robert, this expands my thinking - I like the blue ocean/red ocean idea, and I understand the verticals concept (although I'm a newb when it comes to SEO).

So based on your thinking, would you say ballpark estimates for reaching top-3 in local searches (with consistent and expert SEO) would be:

• around 3 months for highly competitive keywords,

• 1 month for a 'competitiveness' score of around 35?

... and multiply this by, say, 4 for global-dominant rankings...

For me so much in business planning comes down to gauging demand before developing products, and in this case I'm using keyword research to gauge market demand / competitiveness tradeoffs before I start...

[RobertFisher]

Hugh,

Just so I am not impaled by public opinion, I want to say again that this is a rough way of doing this. Looking at what you have, for me or me as my agency, I would say that I could pull off the above(what you have) 80% of the time or more.

There will always be factors that must be found and mitigated - the finding is where I see more failure than in mitigation. The reason IMO is that as SEO's we are prone to sight-blocking hubris. OK, sorry, I am prone to sight-blocking hubris and must be ever vigilant.

So, that said, I wish you the best and leave you with this: as to red and blue oceans remember the premise of the book; the effort is less and the payoff is higher in blue than in red oceans.

Best

[hu122]

Perfect - totally understand your response and this helps me alot; I wrote this question thinking highly competitive meant (typically) 10 years. Thanks again.

[polarking]

Thank you Robert. I didn't post the question but loved your answer

[RobertFisher]

Thanks, hey, how do I get outta this friggin' cooler??? It's cold as well a freezer!!