Ugh. This is embarrassing.

If you’re reading this, chances are you know about Wix’s SEO Hero contest. If not, you can read up on it here.

I feel… pathetic.

I’ve never claimed to be an SEO expert but I’ve been doing this thing for the better part of a decade. Surely I’ve learned something along the way, right?

I made a giant mistake.

Maybe it’s because I was sprinting to get my SEO Hero entry site up, making it more likely I’d overlook something obvious. Or maybe it’s because I’ve been coddled by developers my whole career, allowing me to remain a noob when it comes to implementation. Heck, maybe it’s the Illuminati. There’s no way of really knowing.

The only constant is vicious, rampant change in the world of SEO. While that’s the reality we know all too well, some facts do remain. Here are a few:

• Keyword Planner 1 is a PPC tool.
• Keyword Planner is made for PPC keyword research.
• Keyword Planner is NOT intended for organic keyword research.

STOP using Google’s Keyword Planner to measure organic competition!

Ok, that was a little much. The point is it’s imperative to understand where Keyword Planner can be an effective tool for SEO keyword research and where it can lead you astray. One of those ways it can trip you up is by misunderstanding the “competition” score from the tool.

Straight from the mouth of Google, the Keyword Planner competition is: