Competitor Keyword Research – Brief Introduction

In the world of digital marketing, the primary goal is to increase traffic to one’s website.

Digital marketers and business owners invest a lot of time, money, and resources into improving their search engine rankings.

And who could blame them?

Google processes over 3.5 billion searches every day. It is only natural to try and attract some of those searchers.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a crucial part of building any successful business. Thus, website owners strive to develop a cohesive strategy, in hopes that they can reach the top of search engine results.

They spend countless hours researching and identifying appropriate keywords that can be used to develop high-quality content. However, one challenge digital marketers and website owners often face is the fierce competition associated with search engine rankings.

Whenever your website moves up in the rankings, it is fundamentally beating your competitors for a higher position. Consequently, it can be quite insightful to gather information about the techniques and tactics your competitors are using. It can also provide you with a strategic advantage over other contenders in your particular niche.

Competitor keyword research can be a challenging process.

But don’t fret! 

Today, we will be taking a brief look at how to take advantage of keyword research and competitor analysis.

Identify your Competitors

Before you can even think about outranking your competitors, you first have to identify them. Performing a quick Google search with the keywords you want to rank for will reveal the most prominent players in your particular niche.

A competitor keyword research tool, such as SEMrush or Ahrefs, can help you identify your possible competitors.

For those digital marketers on a budget, a free competitor keyword research tool such as Wordtracker may prove to be extremely beneficial.

After locating possible competitors, you will need to take a closer look at key metrics for each competitor.

The metrics you need to be most aware of include:

• Domain Authority (DA)
• Inbound link profile
• Overall website traffic
• Common keywords

If you are using SEMrush, you should be able to generate a report that combines all of these metrics. Thus, providing you with a comprehensive view of your competitor’s website. This data is crucial, as it shows you what you are up against.

At this point, you should use your newly acquired data to determine if a competitor is worth going after.Locate your competitor’s keywords

Now that you have chosen the competitor’s you wish to outrank, it is time to take a closer look at their SEO strategies. This process is best done by performing a thorough competitor keyword analysis. This technique can help you identify low-competition keywords that are being targeted by your competitors.

Keywords make up the Basis of your Entire SEO strategy.

Even if your website features stellar content, it will fail to drive traffic unless you target relevant keywords. This fact makes keyword research such a vital part of search engine optimization.

With that said, it is time we look at our primary method of identifying high ROI (return on investment) keywords – competitor keyword analysis. The most significant advantage of this approach is that it reveals keywords that are proven to be successful.

So, they will likely be useful to you as well.

When you research which keywords competitors use, software such as Moz or SEMrush can make the process much simpler.

As you begin to build a list of high ROI keywords, it is advisable that you filter out highly-competitive keywords.

As we mentioned before, a program like SEMrush will allow you to filter competitor keywords based on difficulty automatically.

To conclude your competitor keyword analysis, you should develop a good list of low-competition keywords you wish to target. When performing this process, please keep the domain authority of your website in mind.

The greater your DA (domain authority), the easier it will be to rank for more competitive keywords. Furthermore, take into account the resources and time it will take to develop high-quality content that will earn valuable backlinks.

Conclusion

Keyword research and competitor analysis can be a powerful tool.

Instead of aiming in the dark, you can target keywords that have been proven to be successful. If you can commit to performing rigorous competitor analysis, you’ll be one step closer to improving your search engine rankings. If you feel we’ve missed anything that would make a good add up.

Drop it in the comment below. 

Elena Zelencova

Elena is an SEO and Keyword Research professional who contributes to the blog section and manages the chat system at 1stpageKWs. She is passionate about helping clients rank higher and drive more traffic with effective SEO strategies. She also loves spending her precious time with her family.

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