How to Research Keyword Competition?

Do You Need to Research the Competition?

Instead of trailblazing on your own, wouldn’t you want a map? Perhaps there’s a pathway through the terrain ahead that someone else has scouted out for you! The same exact concept applies to competition research – by understanding how to research keyword competition you can see fully what your competitors have tried to do and adjust your strategy accordingly. If you’re selling socks and notice no one uses the words “tight” or “garish” for instance, you know that those are probably words you might want to stay away from! There are many reasons to consider an in-depth analysis of competitor keywords, and here are just a few:

• A fuller understanding of your brand and awareness of the marketplace surrounding it.
• A dramatic increase in web traffic by using strategies that are already proven to work.
• More revenue overall because of the increased traffic.
• A much higher SEO ranking overall.
• A better conversion rate that will allow customers to locate your site and stay on your page for longer!

How to Check Other Website Keywords

But where to begin? One of the most important starting steps is to fully understand who your competition is in the first place. By doing so, you can be precise about what you need to do and what strategies you need to employ to gain the benefits that your competitors already have. There are many tools out there that will help you do this and we will go over some of them in this article. By utilizing their services, you will find that your niche on the internet has many people competing for space, and fully understanding who they are as important to overall success.

SEMrush

An all-in-one tool for improving online visibility that makes researching the competition a breeze. SEMrush is great because it provides feedback along with a wide list of variables and factors into account many things when it comes to competitor SEO. It is very simple to use, and the process is as follows:

1. Enter the domain you are interested in analyzing.

2. Go to the Organic Research tool located in the Comprehensive Research section.

3. Select the Competitors option.

4. Analyze the report that SEMrush offers you:

One of the key pieces of data to note is the Competitive Positioning Map which will compare your website to your competitors.

Ahrefs

A leader in the SEO tools space, Ahrefs is one of the best analysis tools for reviewing website content and backlinks. Ahrefs can also be used to analyze the competition as well very easily as it will readily tell you the information on competing domains.

1. Enter the domain to be analyzed into the search bar.

2. Navigate to the Site Explorer Tool.

3. Move to the Organic Search section and find the Competing Domains option.

4. Ahrefs will then generate a list of the competition that is most relevant to your analysis.

Just click on the competitor you’re interested in and explore the Organic Keywords section:

SpyFu

SpyFu is a search analytics company with much to learn from, this service gives information on cost-per-click and search volume statistics on keywords, as well as shows information on the keywords bought on Google Adwords. This translates into a powerful tool that will do a deep dive into the competition.

1. Start by searching your own domain.

2. In the list of results, identify the top organic search competitors.

3. Click on the “competitor shared keywords” diagrams for more detailed information on specific keywords.

4. Analyze the shared keywords and see how each competitor utilizes them!

BuzzSumo

A powerful online tool that helps facilitate identifying popular content by topic or by the website. BuzzSumo will allow you to find out what people are talking about without sifting through mounds of content on various social media websites. After providing initial search criteria, you can get a widespread analysis that includes competitor analysis.

1. Start by inputting a topic, brand, URL, or domain into the BuzzSumo search bar.
2. Scroll down to see the relevant information for your query, including popular content, coverage reports, and analyses.
3. Compare the competitor analysis with your own data and see what they’re doing that you are not!

There Are Many More Tools

Of course, these four tools are not the only ones you can use in your arsenal! There are many other tools out there to fully understand the analytic information you are receiving. It is absolutely essential that you understand which are effective in which situations and how you can best utilize them to secure the future of your company.

For more tools that will help you look through your competitors’ activity – check The Best Tools For Competitor Analysis article.

Competitor Analysis is Key

By fully understanding the competition keyword choice, you are in a better position to achieving the goals you have in mind. The best way to understand the internet landscape is to understand what people are already doing. By doing so, you will already have strategies worked out for you! While you need to fully understand your niche and how your personalized touch can play a role within it, remember that there are only so many ways to tackle the industry you are currently trying to break into. Whether or not you become a success is on your shoulders, but that doesn’t mean you can spare the time for analyzing the competition! Just because you have the better product or service is meaningless – you need to understand how to market your content effectively and, currently, there are many strategies out there waiting to be used. By analyzing the competition, you can get a great idea of what works, what doesn’t work, and what needs to be revised.