Keyword Competition | SEO Strategy Tip

Once you've chosen some great, high volume keywords, you need to judge the competition. How difficult will it be to reach page one? The simplest way to find out is to check how strong the back linking network is for sites that currently reside on the first SERP. I suggest using Yahoo site explorer to gather this data. Be sure to list only links that come from outside domains, as these are far more powerful than links within a site. If most sites on the first SERP have great numbers of links, you may want to reconsider your keyword choice, especially if you are a beginner SEO.