What is Competitor Keyword Analysis?
Competitor Keyword Analysis
Competitor keyword analysis is the process of determining which keywords your competition ranks highly for in order to produce content that outranks them in search results.
The keywords for which you perform competition research should be relevant to your company and linked to the material you presently produce. If you are a B2B business manufacturing machine parts, you shouldn’t write a blog about the best clothing to wear to the gym.
This research also enables you to determine how tough it will be to outrank a rival that is performing better than you in the SERPs, as well as identify high-return prospects when outranking a competitor for a relevant keyword is not too difficult.
How to Do a Competitor Keyword Analysis
Find Your Competitors
Your online search competitors can be very different from your local business competitors. Some of your toughest local competitors might not be competitive at all in terms of organic search.
How are search competitors different from business competitors? Search competitors are the websites that rank for the same or same type of keywords as your website.
With this in mind, the first step in your competitor keyword research is to understand where you stand against your search marketing competitors.
Research the Competition
If your website is new or you’re struggling to identify your competitors, you can use third-party tools like the Organic Research tool.
The tool includes a competitor report that highlights the main organic competitors related to your domain.
To use the Organic Research tool, insert your target domain into the tool’s input field, then select “Search:”
Gather Competitor Keywords
If you click any number in the “Common Keywords” column, you’ll navigate to the Keyword Gap tool.
You can use this tool to compare target keywords from up to five domains. The tool highlights any common target keywords the domains share and keywords your competitors are ranking for that you’re not.
Export Keywords
To customize your results, use the filters to explore the untapped potentials of your competitor keywords. Then, export a ready-to-use spreadsheet with the most valuable information already coherently organized.
With this tool, you can see what position you hold alongside your competitors for each keyword and which digital pages rank the highest.
Organize Your Results
Start by thoroughly vetting and assessing your competitor keywords list, then follow these steps.
- Sift through the stats for high competition keywords and set them aside. They might be too competitive to go after now, but they might come in handy later.
- Cross-check keywords you share with your competitors and eliminate ones that don’t make sense for your digital business.
- Highlight keywords with higher domain and trust authority. These could be solid options to target.
- Review SERPs for each highlighted keyword. Note any organic or paid opportunities you may have missed and how you might target them. Pay special attention to keywords your competitors rank higher for.