11 ways to perform a competitor keyword analysis for SEO

Knowing who your competition is and how they work is crucial to boost your own business. Because of this, today you will learn how to perform a competitor keyword analysis for SEO.

 

There are some specific aspects that you should look out for when analyzing your competition. Another element that you cannot stop constantly checking is the SEO of their websites. That’s why here we’ll teach you 11 ways to carry out a competitor keyword analysis for SEO. Once you learn them, you will be able to use them in your favour.

 

What is a keyword?

 

Before anything, you must first understand what a keyword is. These are the terms or set of words that users use to search on Google.

 

Many believe that it’s a single word but in many cases, it goes beyond that. Some of them can be over three words and form a small sentence. This way, they allow people to find some type of information or content on the internet.

 

Without these keywords, users wouldn’t be able to find the kind of information or content they’re looking for. As a result, you must work on them as part of your SEO strategy.

 

The process needed to create SEO techniques for keywords can be either really easy or really hard. However, it’s vital to position yourself among your competition.

 

How can a competitor keyword analysis for SEO help you?

 

The analysis of keywords has great benefits, especially in your content and its dissemination.

 

Some other advantages from keyword research can be

 

• Find out which keywords aren’t working.

 

• Know what keywords you need to use to attract new readers are.

 

• If you study your competitors’ keywords, you will be able to know which ones work best for them. As a result, you will begin to use them within your content.

Why should you carry out a competitor keyword analysis for SEO?

 

Knowing what your competition is doing has always been an important element when creating an SEO strategy for your business.

 

What they do will be a basis to define how you will do things.

 

For example, if you should think about them or copy some patterns and improve them. Besides, these will allow you to know and understand how your market works and what your audience wants.

 

Analyzing your competition’s keywords and SEO works will help you know what their weak points are.

 

This way, you can start to work on them for your own website. Understanding your competition’s facts and figures is a great way to know whether you’re on the right track or not.

 

Carrying out an SEO analysis will help you maintain your added value

 

If something works for your competition, why not try them yourself?

 

By carrying out a competitor keyword analysis for SEO you will be able to know their strongest points.

 

Once you know this, you can work on using them in your own business or adapt them to your needs.

 

What’s important is to know who you’re up against.

 

This way, you will have nothing to worry about and will be one step ahead of the competition.

 

Elements to take into account when carrying out a competitor keyword analysis for SEO

 

These are some of the factors that we must bear in mind when conducting your study and analysis:

 

• What are your usual channels?

 

First, you must discover your competition’s most used communication channels from which they address their audience.

 

Some have web pages with blogs, social media accounts, or use email marketing campaigns.

 

By doing this, you will find out which channel works best to attract the most traffic.

 

As a result, you will also figure out how they lead users to your competition’s website.

 

Besides, within these platforms and channels, you will know which kind of content attracts the most attention.

 

• Type of content they use the most

 

Your competition’s content speaks a lot about the type of market they work with.

 

They may use webinars, social media posts, or prefer YouTube videos.

 

Some even use the content within blog posts or directly in their customers ‘or subscribers’ email entries.

 

However, you must not only look at their content. You must also be aware of the hours and frequency of each publication and content shipment.

 

This is another crucial factor in understanding the SEO strategy your competitors use.

 

• What kinds of themes do they usually use?

 

Pay close attention to the topics they handle the most within their texts. Thanks to these you will be able to easily define your keywords. Besides, you will also be able to figure out your website’s content categories. Thus, allowing you to better plan what you will publish.

 

After this, study the percentage of engagement these posts have. It doesn’t matter how good the content is if it isn’t relevant to your website’s followers or visitors. Because of this, your content must be on par with the mission and vision of your business.

 

The fundamental role within the conversion funnel in inbound marketing is the content strategy. This is what will really bring you closer to success or failure. Because of this, you must clearly define each of these previously explained elements. Study very well what your competition’s factors are and then define how you want yours to be.

 

How to analyze competitor keywords

 

We already know the basic elements that you should know to study your competitors’ SEO strategy. Now is the time to start analyzing your competition’s keywords to discover which ones are the best and which ones you can use within your strategy.

 

Today, there are thousands of keyword research tools that will help you perform the analysis or study of any domain.

 

You can use them for your own business or your competition.

 

However, you must know that many of these tools aren’t free. Because of this, you’ll need to invest a little capital in them to begin the analysis.

 

These analytics platforms do professional work to discover each of the elements of your competition and be one step ahead of their tactics. Some free keyword analysis tools are SEMrush and Ahrefs. These allow you to see which of these terms attract the most traffic to the web of others.

 

Step 1: How to know who your competition is

 

First, you have to find out who your competition is. You may have a vague idea of who they are. For example, they may be companies or businesses with products, services, or strategies similar to yours. However, the internet is a vast world and full of endless domains you don’t even know. Somewhere there may be another business like yours that you need to know about.

 

Here, we recommend a tool to find web pages or domains similar to yours. This tool is called SimilarWeb, and it’s an app that helps you know the traffic of each website. This way, you will find out how much traffic does your competition’s website gets. As a result, this means that you will know how many and from where their users come from. For example, from social media, organic search engines, paid advertising, inbound links, and any other SEO strategy.

 

To use this tool you will first have to enter your domain in the application’s search box. Then you will start your search by clicking on the magnifying glass. Once you have different results, you will be able to see each of your competitors by clicking on the sidebar. There you will find all the pages that, according to the application, are similar according to their algorithm.

 

What if you don’t have a website or domain?

 

If you want to carry out keyword research and know who your competition is, but you don’t have a website, don’t worry.

 

You can carry out a market study through those who you think, by experience or subject, could be some of your competitors.

 

On the other hand, you can use keywords in different search engines to know which ones are positioned within those contents.

 

In other words, if you have a business focused on veterinary medicine, you can Google who could be your competition using words related to this type of business.

 

Step 2: Find your strengths

 

By analyzing your content and keywords, both of your website and your communication channels, you can study your highest peaks within the tool. That is where you can find out what the actual positioning job entails.

 

Within different SEO tools, you’ll be able to know the URL or website’s position number. If you wish, you can also see the most important keywords within their content. Besides, you can order each result that has changed.

 

Some of the keywords you find will be your allies to enter a new market or be more efficient in your current one. You must also study those penalized words or those who have lost their position on the web. This can be either from your website or your competition’s.

 

This step will allow you to excel as a business where your competition couldn’t. Some tools allow you to download a report with the percentage of traffic that the same URL is getting. This, when it comes to its highest keywords and best positioning.

 

Another element that you must take into consideration to carry out competitor keyword analysis for SEO is your website’s structure. Added to this, take into account the design of both your and your competition’s website. Take a walk through your website and social media to know if your content and its categories are attractive for your customers.

 

Step 3: Which Keywords Give Your Competition Organic Traffic

 

If you already know which businesses are your competition, you can start working on studying the keywords that bring the most traffic.

 

There is a tool called Ubersuggest you can use for this. In it, you can select the country, domain page, and keywords you will focus on.

 

This tool is great to carry out competitor keyword analysis for SEO.

 

You can also do it by the region you want to work in or the sector.

 

This application analyzes your competition’s entire domain and shows you the keywords that get them the most organic users.

 

Step 4: Take your content strategy to the next level

 

This is the moment where you must show that all your analysis and studies paid off. Now that you have all the information you need, it’s time to work on positioning yourself with your keywords and being as relevant to your target as your competition.

 

One of the elements that you must focus on is inbound marketing. This is will be the protagonist of your online marketing campaigns. Thanks to its techniques, you’ll be able to create different successful content and obtain new ideas.

 

Each piece of information you have stored will be vital when creating your SEO campaign. This is because it won’t only be the basis for your knowledge, but it will also be the main source of inspiration when creating attractive content. This way, your visitors will see you as a valuable and relevant business. By knowing what kind of content they like best, you’ll be able to easily create an effective keyword strategy.

 

Step 5: Document and execute your next steps

 

When it comes to carrying out competitor keyword analysis for SEO, keeping a record of the keywords you’re going to use is also vital.

 

You must do this as soon as you start to plan and create your content strategy. For this, write in a document all the ideas you got from your competition analysis and then start with your own.

 

You can also use tools to help you create monthly reports on your website’s traffic and reader’s behaviour.

 

For example, Google Analytics and Google Search Console are great options for this. If you have a company, e-commerce, or a blog, these tools will be your allies.

 

Don’t miss the opportunity to get started with these tools to track your improvements across search engines. Learn how your readers get to know you and carry out up-to-date position tracking.

 

How can you write a text for your users?

 

Once you’re done with your competitor keyword analysis for SEO, it’s time to start creating content on par with these keywords.

 

You already know your competition’s strategy in terms of the content they publish and the campaigns they carry out.

 

That’s why you must carry out an SEO strategy with unique content to adapt to what your readers are looking for on the internet.

 

Next, we will teach you how to write the best content for your users.

 

We hope that after this, you will know the best ways to position yourself on the web.

 

Be the best

 

Thanks to your competitor keyword analysis for SEO, you might have seen some flaws in their strategies or found a better way to use them.

 

Use every piece of information in your favour. Remember that getting your website to the top positions on search engines isn’t easy, but you can do it with hard work, clear strategies, and well-defined objectives.

 

The same happens in the content creation process. If within your blog you post texts with 5 tips, make a list of at least 100. What’s important here is to stand out for how much you know about your industry.

 

Offer your users only the best knowledge, and give them more details or first-hand information from experts. Don’t skimp on informational resources for your readers, they will appreciate the effort.

 

Be unique

 

Always try to be one step ahead of what your followers want.

 

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use popular topics. However, try to offer your readers different and never-seen-before points of view on a trending topic.

 

You could even make a complete series on a topic and work it in-depth for your readers.

 

Not only will this help you with the creation of content, but it will also allow you to show yourself as a connoisseur on the topic. A good way to position yourself in search engines is by becoming an example of authority and trustworthiness. Thus, don’t leave that out of your SEO strategy.

 

Use your user’s language

 

A person who follows you will do so depending on the way you speak.

 

Maybe this sounds a bit confusing, but it isn’t. When we talk about using the same language as your user, we mean that you must know what that person is looking for in your content.

 

This is one of the bases of any business, the user. Before, each brand only focused on the product, its benefits, and its values. However, that has changed a lot.

 

Today, brands focus on pleasing and approaching their target audience in the most humane way possible. If you want your user to be closer to you, you have to become one of their own. Talk like them, act like them, use their favourite communication channels, and offer relevant content to their day-to-day.

 

Offer different kinds of content

 

If you’re a person who just joined the world of content marketing, you probably think that it’s all about writing.

 

However, this isn’t true, there’s more to content marketing than you think. Your business content can be as creative and different as you can imagine it.

 

Not only that, but it should be. There is nothing more boring for a visitor than seeing the same content over and over again.

 

That’s why we recommend each business to venture into new platforms.

 

If you have a blog and want to work on new forms of content, you can make short videos with the same information as your written content. Everything will depend on what your audience likes best. If they are older people, perhaps reading is the way to go. On the other hand, if your target audience is young, make striking videos, animations, or images.

 

What’s important here is to work on your content, along with your keywords, in a dynamic way to catch the eye of users and make them stay. On the subject of keywords, you must continue to use the elements that will make it stand out.

 

Don’t forget to place the bold letters, links, quotes, images, videos, and presentations to make your content more enjoyable and useful. Make each content a surprise for your readers.

 

Share content

 

Content is nothing if it just stays there. You have to move and promote it, spread it through each channel and platform in which you have a presence. Add educational value, make your followers participate with it.

 

It’s not just about writing an article on your website and hoping that people will be drawn to it just because. You have to give them different elements to attract their attention and add something valuable. For example, if you are talking about SEO tools for marketing newbies, using videos is a great strategy.

 

If you’ve already posted it, let time pass and then pick it up again. It’s a fact that optimized web content has a great chance of ranking better in search engines than those that stay the same over time. You must also spread it on social media several times, but not one after the other.

 

You could perform A / B tests to get your content’s message across and, besides, know how your readers like their content. Many tools and platforms allow you to easily create this type of test. However, if you have a low budget, you can test the same content with 2 or 4 different texts for your chosen platforms and focus on distributing them little by little.

 

Links help you find things

 

Take the opportunity to use links that lead you to new content. This will help you improve your website’s traffic, lower its bounce rate and position it in search engines.

 

You can carry out internal link-building strategies with your own website content.

 

Or, on the other hand, with external content written by the page administrator but on other platforms.

 

Both are excellent strategies to improve your web positioning and give followers valuable material to complement their reading.

 

Besides, this also allows you to offer them the best information possible. 

 

Sort your content

 

Last but not least is organizing your content. Creating materials, both written and visual can be a long and difficult task that requires planning.

 

Planning your content must be done internally and externally.

 

Each text must contain titles, h1 and h2, subtitles, Meta descriptions, and be well-thought-out.

 

On the other hand, external content planning consists of really thinking about what you’re going to write about.

 

Some people use calendar tools to know what they will talk about each day or each week.

 

This way they avoid repeating the same content over and over again.

 

BluCactus, your ally in Digital marketing

 

BluCactus international marketing agency serves clients all over the world. Our specialty? The creation of web designs and SEO positioning in online searches. Our group of experts focuses on helping businesses and brands succeed in one of the most competitive sectors in the market, the digital world.

 

BluCactus will accompany you in every step that your brand takes. This goes from the creation of the branding of your business to the creation of content. Our focus is on supporting you with the development of your website or the administration of your accounts on social media.

 

This online marketing agency, based in Toronto, ON, seeks to strengthen your image as a brand and take it to the next level. Don’t wait any longer to have the help of the best specialists in digital marketing and contact us through our social media or website.

 

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