The importance of ranking high on Google search results cannot be overstated. Businesses whose websites are found on the first page of search results always perform better overall than those who are on the second or succeeding pages.
If you’ve been working on your SEO strategy, but your competitors seem to get ahead of you every time, it’s time to conduct a competitor keyword analysis to find out what makes your competitors stay on top of the game.
What is Competitor Keyword Research?
It is the process of identifying keywords and phrases that your main competitors use to get on top search results. The main goal of doing competitor keyword research is to find your competitors’ secrets in achieving growth without using paid advertisements. From there, you’ll discover how your competitors work, and you’ll be able to use that to your own advantage.
Here are a few things you’ll achieve when you find competitors’ keywords the right way:
- It will uncover the keywords that you are currently not ranking for but are boosting your competitors’ overall digital performance.
- It will tell you what topics to write about. This will help you come up with a better content creation strategy, and it will also pave the road to the improvement of your SEO campaign.
- It will also reveal links that your competitors are using. It’s up to you if you want to recreate them. You can also discover what links are worth keeping.
- The most important of all is that you’ll be able to learn new ways to get ahead of your competitors. You’ll explore new avenues to create a better SEO strategy.
How to Find the Right Competitor Keyword Research Tool?
The tool you decide to use will make or break your SEO campaign. If you are a small business and a beginner in SEO, a basic keyword tool will be enough. However, once your website grows, you’ll have to upgrade the tool that you’re using. Different keyword research tools produce different scales of data. If you want to target bigger sets of keywords, there are corporate-level SEO platforms available.
How to Do SEO Competitor Analysis?
There are things that you need to do to find out the keywords that your competitors are using:
1. Identify Who You’re In Competition With.
Businesses know who their competitors are in the industry. Your competition can either be with your direct competitors, which are businesses that offer the same products or services to the same target market, or businesses that manufacture the same products you have.
It is best to understand that there are other websites or organizations targeting the same keywords as you. They may not offer the same things you are, but they can get the traffic that’s supposed to be yours. You might be surprised that websites like Etsy, Pinterest, or Wikipedia are gaining a significant amount of web traffic.
From there, you’ll see who your competitors are, so you can adjust your content strategies accordingly to drive traffic back to your site. You can do this manually by searching for the key phrases or keywords you use, then list down the sites that outrank you, or you can use an automated platform that will gather the data you need.
2. Find Competitors’ Keywords.
Using the keyword research tool, search for the keywords or phrases commonly used in your industry. Evaluate and compare main keyword sets and identify the usual keywords and phrases that put your competitors among the top spots. Compare how you rank on keywords that you use in common with your competitors and look for the keywords that your competitors are using, but you are not.
Another great tip is to target keywords that pertain to the products and services you offer. Keywords with commercial intent will also boost your company’s sales.
3. Analyze the Difference Between the Content and Find Out What Gives Them the Competitive Advantage.
The next thing you need to figure out is what makes your competitors’ websites rank better than yours. When you evaluate it thoroughly, the difference lies in the type of content they publish, how they layout their content, and how they utilize the keywords. There are also other elements such as domain authority and backlinks.
When you do this, you’ll be able to shift your content strategies to address the content gap and allow you to level the landscape of the competition.
4. Know the Other Factors That Boost Your Competitors’ Rankings.
As mentioned, there are other elements affecting a website’s overall ranking. Once you find the ranking keywords, you should move on to upgrading the other elements of your website, like your backlink profiles. You might learn a thing or two when you check what your competitors are doing in that aspect.
If you’re looking for a company that can help you with competitor keyword analysis, you’ve come to the right place. Advanced Digital Media Services, Inc. offers competitive SEO services. Call us today and see the results for yourself! We can’t wait to do business with you.
