When it comes to search engine optimization, keyword research is the foundation on which you will build your success. In addition to choosing keywords that signal buyer intent, you will also want to review the competition for each keyword before you move forward. Knowing the websites that are trying to rank for the same keywords will give you an idea of what to do.

If you face too much competition, you won’t need to waste your time on keywords that you won’t be able to rank. On the other hand, you can also uncover profitable keywords that others have not yet considered. Although it might take some effort, the rewards of researching keyword competition are worth it when you want to grow your business. You will enjoy positive results and watch as your profit jumps to the next level.

Entering a prospective keyword into Google and looking at the first 10 articles that appear is a good place from which to start. The title of each page will give you valuable insights into the level of competition you will need to overcome.

If each page uses your keyword in the title, you will need to put in slightly more work to earn a spot on the first page. But you won’t have too much trouble moving forward if none of the pages use your keyword as a headline. Although following this tip won’t guarantee you will rank, it will give you a good idea of what you can expect.

While you are reviewing the first 10 pages that show up for your prospective keyword, the popularity of the domain is also something about which you will need to look when your objective is to get the most from your effort. If CNN, Forbes or other prominent websites show up for your targeted keywords, you won’t have much of a chance to beat them, so you don’t want to waste your time. However, you can move forward with confidence if small blogs and websites about which you have never heard populate the search results page. Following this advice will push you closer to your desired outcome and make the SEO process somewhat easier.

While avoiding competitive keywords is the best choice if your website is new and lacks authority, you will also want to focus on your long-term profitability. In addition to ranking for keywords that don’t have too much competition, you also need to work on building your domain’s authority and reputation. You can do so by earning backlinks and ensuring that you only produce high-end content that people will want to read.

Building your domain authority so that you can rank for popular keywords won’t happen right away, but it will take your business far over the long run. As your website improves over the months and years, you will be able to target competitive keywords that will send a stream of targeted prospects to your content.

When you want your SEO efforts to pay off over the long run, overlooking keyword competition is a mistake that will cause you to waste time and lose money, but you don’t need to fall into that trap. Looking at the title competition and domain authority of the websites that appear on the first page for your targeted keywords will help you decide what terms are worth targeting.

In addition to ranking keywords that make sense for your domain, striving to enhance your website’s authority will allow you to get more traffic than ever before. Even though accounting for keyword competition will take longer, doing so offers exponential rewards that you can’t afford to ignore.