Google Tweaks Competition Rank In AdWords Keyword Tool To “Low,” “Medium” or “High”

Many users are now seeing a change in the way that Google’s Keyword Ranking tool is providing competition data. Instead of the traditional bars to display competitiveness, Google is using text as the description. Up until now, this tool used small green bars to display the competitiveness of keywords. The more green in the bar, the more competitive the term […]

Chat with SearchBot

Many users are now seeing a change in the way that Google’s Keyword Ranking tool is providing competition data. Instead of the traditional bars to display competitiveness, Google is using text as the description.

Up until now, this tool used small green bars to display the competitiveness of keywords. The more green in the bar, the more competitive the term was:

Search Total Bars

Now the Google tool is only showing text-based descriptions of competitiveness: Low, Medium or High:

New Competition Metric

While the competitiveness has been replaced by text in the web version, the good news is that Google has maintained the granularity as to how this ranking was assigned. In the previous version of the tool, users could download a report to get the exact number that made up the green bar. This is still the case with the new changes. So users who require more information can still download the report to a spreadsheet and get the same information:

Keyword Ranking Data

For any of those who regularly use this competition metric, the new competitive labeling is as follows:

  • Low — Competitiveness number under .33
  • Medium — Competitiveness number between .33 and .66
  • High — Competitiveness number over .67
It should be known that the competitiveness score is directly related to AdWords, not organic search. Google defines the metric as:
“This column shows the number of advertisers worldwide bidding on each keyword relative to all keywords across Google. The shaded bar represents a general low-to-high quantitative guide to help you determine how competitive ad placement is for a particular keyword.”
Hat tip to George Fox from Blue Fountain Media, a New York website design and online marketing firm, for alerting us of the change!

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Greg Finn
Contributor
Greg Finn is the Director of Marketing for Cypress North, a company that provides digital marketing and web development. He is a co-host of Marketing O'Clock and has been in the digital marketing industry for nearly 20 years. You can also find Greg on Twitter (@gregfinn) or LinkedIn.

Get the must-read newsletter for search marketers.