In today’s digital world, if a company wants to stay ahead of its competition, then it must track and monitor different digital marketing strategies and keywords for SEO to see the performance of its competitors.

With the help of competitor keyword research, you can track your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses and the tools and methods they use to rank higher on search engine page results.

This blog focuses on understanding why competitors’ keyword research is crucial and how the best digital marketing agencies conduct competitor keyword research.

What is competitor keyword research?

Competitor keyword research is a method of researching and analyzing competitor’s keywords to see which keywords are targeted to rank in search engines. Understanding these keywords is important as it will help you generate more traffic on your website and increase visibility.

Also, with the effectiveness of competitor keyword research, one can get a better insight into the current market trends and user behavior. Understanding the user behavior will allow you to understand what your desired audience is looking for. 

Why understanding competitors’ keywords is crucial?

If you want to rank your website higher on Google search engine page results, then analyzing the competitor keyword research is crucial. This will show you the methods and tools they use to rank higher on Google. This will help you to enhance your techniques and methods by analyzing the key factors of your competitors.

Let us go through some of the major reasons why competitor keyword research matters: 

Improve rankings: With the help of the right keyword research startegies, you can understand why they rank higher on Google. This will give you a better insight into how you can optimize your website’s content to rank higher on Google, drive more sales, and convert potential customers into paying customers. 

Inform content strategy: This will help you easily create content that resonates with your audience and encourages engagement. Analyzing competitors’ strategies will enable you to attract more traffic to your website and drive additional sales.

Optimize PPC campaigns: If you want to stay ahead of your competitors, optimizing your PPC campaign by tracking and monitoring competitor keyword research is vital. Through this, you refine your PPC strategy on the keywords that not only bring in traffic but also closely match up to the search intent of your target audience.

You will then guide your competitive bidding strategies, ad copy, and landing pages toward better campaign effectiveness. This will improve your chances of generating more traffic on your website and refine your PPC campaign strategy. 

Benefits of competitor keyword research

The major benefits of doing competitor keyword research are mentioned below:

Insight into the market industry: Competitor keyword research will allow you to dig deeper into the market industry. It also allows you to understand the latest trends that will help you build the trust and credibility of your website among the target audience. 

Know your target audience: It is crucial to divide your target audience based on their demographics, interests, and behavior. This will help you create content that aligns with their needs, demands, and requirements. You can learn more about your target audience by doing proper research on your competitor keywords. 

A better understanding of keywords: Competitor keyword research will give you a better insight into your company’s needs and goals. With this, you will be able to focus on high-intent keywords that are not only going to give you benefits for your business but will also allow you to have sustainable search volume and will try to generate more traffic on your website and boost sales.

It will help you focus on the keywords and provide some benefits for your business and the keyword ranking volume. Competitor keyword research will help you develop a strong online presence within your target audience that aligns with your business needs and objectives. 

How to conduct competitor keyword research?

You can conduct competitor keyword research by the following steps that are discussed below: 

• Identifying your competitors
• Research their keywords
• Analyzing the performance

Identifying your competitors: Staying updated with your competitors in the marketplace is an important factor, as it allows you to identify their strengths and strategies. Try to conduct market research to gain better insight into the different landscapes of your industry and competitors.

Research different companies related to your business and observe who comes in the top search results and on what keyword. That will give you a good idea of who is competing for the same set of keywords. Observe established competitors because these companies have a strong presence online, bringing high-volume traffic to their sites. 

Research their keywords: Use specific keyword research tools such as SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz to research your competitors’ keywords. Such tools would expose you to the complete depth of the lists of keywords your competitors are currently ranking for, thus making it easier for you to pinpoint opportunities in your niche.

Choose keywords that have a high volume of searches and relate to your target audience; such keywords can give you considerable traffic on your website.

Analyze the performance: After you get the keywords that your competition is targeting, you’ll have to analyze their performance for those keywords. So, carry out the research on their positions in search engines and compare them with your website.

You will get to trace their positions in the search results, measure the strong competition for each keyword, and what to do with it. Another positive factor of website traffic analysis is that it points out the effectiveness of such keywords in bringing visitors to your competitor’s sites. 

Best tools for competitor keyword research

Here are the three freemium tools for competitor keyword research:

• Aherf
• SEMrush
• Moz Keyword explorer

Ahrefs: Ahrefs is responsible for analyzing the competitor’s backlink profiles. They track and monitor the quantity and quality of the backlinks pointing to competitors’ websites. Also, ahrefs provides keyword research tools that allow you to explore relevant keywords across different platforms like Google, YouTube, and Amazon.

Users can explore keyword difficulty scores, search volume, and click-through rates to identify high-potential keywords that can drive traffic to their own sites.

SEMrush: SEMrush will allow users to analyze and monitor their competitors’ online strategies, such as organic search rankings, paid ads campaigns, and social media presence. Businesses can use SEMrush to gain insight into their competitors’ keywords and the type of keywords they are targeting.

SEMrush provides a comprehensive keyword research toolkit that helps users discover new keywords and analyze their search volume. Also, SEMrush allows the user to analyze their PPC ad campaigns and see which keywords are bidding by their competitors for their ad copy. 

Moz Keyword Explorer: Moz Keyword Explorer is a powerful keyword finder and ranker for your site. Discover new keywords and sort them into lists. Analyze the performance with features like estimate search volume, difficulty metrics, and custom scores to predict keyword performance, get insight into rankings, outwit the competition, and drive more traffic to your site.

Actionable strategies for leveraging competitor keywords

Actionable strategies for leveraging competitor keywords are mentioned below: 

Create better content using competitor keywords: You should examine your competitor’s content to determine the keywords they are optimizing for. It is advisable to use these keywords to create even more valuable content.

Shift priorities towards writing more detailed articles, focusing on presenting content that others will not offer or presenting articles with news that others might not have. Make sure to answer questions that your competitors failed to answer.

Try to incorporate pictures, stories, statistics, or any other elements that will be interesting to the users. Use keywords to drive traffic to your website by using competitor keywords. Bringing additional value to the consumers should also be a priority.

Develop a backlink strategy based on competitor keyword analysis: Identify which keywords your competitors use and where they get their backlinks. Some of the backlinks you may look for include those you can find using Ahrefs or SEMrush.

Try to contact the same websites and tell them why it is better and/or more updated your content.

Thus, produce content that is worth linking – content like infographics, case studies, or interviews with experts on those keywords. Such an approach aims to construct quality linkages and enhance its rank in search engine results, increasing the content’s credibility.

Optimizing for long-tail keywords competitors might be missing: There is always a way of finding long-tail keywords your competition is not using. However, these are usually those specific phrases that individuals may look for less often. But they always do so with the same level of intent.

Use keyword tools such as Google Keyword Planner to find these hidden gem keywords.

Make blogs, posts, and articles containing these long tail keywords and reply to questions or solve specific problems. Also, you secure a targeted audience and enhance your chances of getting a better rank on the site because the sites that compete for such keywords are much fewer than those that rank for the most popular ones.

Businesses have to be smart and ahead to succeed in a digital market. Doing competitor keyword research is thus the best SEO strategy businesses can use to achieve such success.

There is a kind of analysis on competitor keywords and strategies whereby businesses gain a vibrant insight into the areas where they might depict their strengths and weaknesses, as well as potential chances to outdo their competitors and hence create a more effective SEO strategy.

Banyanbrain is a leading online marketing company that can help you rank higher on Google. They also provide services such as social media management, online reputation management, and search engine optimization. 

FAQs

How do you do competitor keyword research?

Competitor keyword research involves analyzing the keywords and strategies used by competitors, typically for SEO or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. To start, identify your competitors, then use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz to explore their keyword usage. Finally, prioritize the keywords that are most valuable to your business goals.

Why is my competitor ranking higher on Google?

Your competitor ranks better on Google because of better quality content, superior keyword optimization, more backlinks, a higher domain authority, and a more relevant user experience. You can learn their strategies and know how your SEO activities can be improved.

How do I increase my Google keyword ranking?

The method of increasing Google keyword ranking begins with creating quality, relevant, informative content, optimizing the technical SEO on your website, creating high-quality backlinks, and developing a user experience on your website. Keep tracking of rankings for your keywords and make necessary changes based on tracked rankings.

How do you rank for highly competitive keywords?

To rank for high-competition keywords, focus on creating high-quality and unique content, optimizing your website’s technical SEO, gaining high-quality backlinks, and improving overall user experience. The best way to analyze your competitors’ strategies is to find ways to improve your SEO.

How do you find keywords competitors are ranking for?

The tools include keyword research platforms like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz. By using these tools, you can analyze competitors’ website content and meta tags to find keywords they rank for, as well as identify gaps in your own keyword strategy.

Why is competitor analysis important in SEO?

Competitor analysis in search engine optimization helps a business identify all the gaps in its keyword strategy, assess its competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, and draft a more effective SEO strategy that outsmarts them. Meanwhile, it helps a company stay afloat in such a competitive landscape.