Checking number of competitors
Finding out how numerous competition for your keywords is
It is important to know in advance how many pages you will be competing against if you choose to pursue a keyword. The fewer web-pages rank for it, the easier it can be to advance yours to a top position.
Where is the number of competitors taken from?
Default source
By default, the number of competing pages is taken from Google.com. Rank Tracker enters each keyword from a project to the search field in Google and pulls the number of listings offered for this term.
Custom sources
If you are targeting a search engine other than Google.com, you can choose it from a drop-down menu under Preferences -> KEI Settings -> Competition. The changes will be applied next time you update KEI.
Accessing Competition menu
Competition settings
Excluding occasional competitors from calculations
There is a set of advanced search operators in Rank Tracker that you can use to better assess your competition. For example, you might want to narrow it down to pages that are actually optimized for your keyword. Most of such pages will have the keyword repeated in their titles (allintitle:keyword) or file names (allinurl:keyword).
The list of supported operators may differ depending on the search engine you choose. The most extensive search options are provided by Google.
Enabling/disabling competition checks
Competition updates can be easily turned on and off whenever convenient (the settings are project-specific). This is done through the Competition menu under Preferences -> KEI Settings. Your new settings will take effect next time you update KEI.
