Analyzing Keyword Phrase Competition

[ggrimes43]

I am following along with the advice that Mark gave in the Blogging Bootcamp on using TrafficTravis to analyze the competitiveness of keyword phrases.

I've come to a sticking point though. I'm not sure which phrase would be better to use. I have two 3 word phrases. One phrase has a search vol. of 5400 and gets 3 stars from TrafficTravis' SEO analyzer. The other phrase has a search volume of 880 and gets 4 stars.

I'm sure that the 4 star phrase will be easier to rank for but I'm a little confused if that is enough search volume, being that the other phrase has nearly 6 times the searches.

Could someone help me with this?

Thank You,
Gary G.

[MarkLing]

Hi Gary,

Whenever I'm unsure as to whether to choose one keyword or another (like in your situation), I usually go for both. ie. instead of choosing one of those phrases, choose them both and set up a separate article on your website that is optimized for each of those phrases.

As a general rule of thumb, I try to make sure that at least 75-85% of the phrases that I try to target initially have a keyword difficulty of about 4 stars in Traffic Travis. I prefer to go after more competitive phrases when my website has aged a little first.

All the best and happy new years!
Mark

(I'm on vacation at Kaiteriteri beach, New Zealand right now - just for those interested, it's 4:12pm New Years day here and it has been a really hot sunny day). Just hopped on quick while my wife is taking a short nap ;)

[ggrimes43]

Hi Mark,

Thank you for the help. I was thinking somewhere along those lines also and you made it more clear for me.

Thanks for you time.

Happy New Year!
Gary