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How Does Competitor Keyword Analysis Help SEO

12 minute read

Starting a competitor keyword analysis might prove to be a pivotal point in improving your SEO strategy. Keywords are the main elements on which your whole SEO foundation relies, but if you want to achieve the stellar search results that you strive for, you’ll also need to find out which keywords your competitors rank high for.

What is a competitor keywords analysis, why you should conduct one, and some of the best competitor analysis tools you’ll need to get started are some of the questions we’ll be answering in this quick guide. If you were wondering how a competitor keyword analysis will help improve your SEO and outperform your competition, then look no further.

What is competitor keyword analysis?

A competitor keyword analysis consists of discovering which keywords your competition uses to produce better content that will help outrank theirs in SERPs. You’ll also want to keep an eye on what keywords your competitors are trying to target, those they haven’t yet managed to rank well for. You’ll need to use both approaches to conduct the best keyword analysis and improve your current SEO.

Why conduct a competitor keyword analysis?

The main reason we’ve already stated is to outperform your competitors in SERPs, but that isn’t quite the only one. For example, you might identify specific gaps in your own SEO strategy or pinpoint keywords that are popular and which your competition hasn’t yet taken advantage of. You might have a serious dose of inspiration from your competitor’s keyword analysis and come up with some brand new content ideas for the keywords you discover. You can even stumble upon other competitors that you never even knew existed in the industry.

Pro Tip

Conducting a keyword competitor analysis regularly will allow you to understand your position in the search fields better and help you set up an effective SEO strategy.

Competitor keyword analysis tools

You’ve learned what a competitor keyword analysis is and how it can benefit you. Now, we’ll show you three keyword analysis tools you can immediately start using to conduct your research: SpyFu, Ahrefs, and Moz.

SpyFu

A popular keyword analysis tool, SpyFu is a dedicated tool in terms of spying on your competition. SpyFu’s keyword research tool provides the means to uncover your competitors’ SERP rankings and search volume, perform backlink analyses, and even offer insights into their PPC campaigns. The platform also has a unique Kombat feature, in which you can compare how keywords rank in different domains.

Ahrefs

A well-known all-in-one SEO tool you can use to get your competitor’s keyword analysis up and running is Ahrefs. Use Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer to identify what your competition is going for (and compare them to yours) on up to ten search engines, analyze SERP history and check out what happened with specific keywords over periods of time, and also unveil any content gaps that might exist between you and your competition.

Moz

Another impressive all-in-one SEO tool, the Keyword Explorer by Moz has been the go-to option for most digital marketers. In the platform, you can conduct keyword and link research, competitive keyword analyses, SEO insights, or technical site audits. Moz prides itself in providing some of the world’s most precise SEO data and providing access to its proprietary metrics, such as Keyword Difficulty, Page Authority, or Domain Authority.

SEMrush

Last, but not least, on our list is SEMrush. An incredible and complete SEO toolkit, this platform is by far the most user-friendly of them all. SEMrush features an outstanding range of keyword research tools that may help you quickly and simply uncover your competition’s keywords. You can do keyword or URL searches, filter results by geographical areas or countries, define multiple match types for PPC keywords, and check domain analytics data.

How will competitor keyword analysis help you improve your SEO?

Staying competitive is crucial, no matter the trade. A competitor keyword analysis can help:

  • Shed light on internal SEO issues
  • Strengthen your SEO campaign

You need to regularly conduct competitor keyword analyses to get a better sense of the industry as a whole. This will help upgrade your current SEO strategy and attract a bigger audience.

Identify the words and phrases that your competition is ranking highly for by using one of the tools we presented to you earlier. Now you can take advantage of their approach and tweak your content strategy to attract the same audience. Try to go for a mix of keywords with low competition and high search volume, and long-tail keywords.

Outperform your competitors in search with inSegment

At the end of the day, SEO work is never entirely done, and there is always room for improvement. Algorithms are constantly being updated, and your website needs to keep pace with them. Conducting a keyword competitor analysis regularly will allow you to understand your position in the search fields better and help you set up an effective SEO strategy.

Our team of professionals is ready to identify and work on any of the current issues that your website might be facing. If conducting a competitive keyword analysis is beyond your skill, let our SEO experts handle it for you. Feel free to check out inSegment’s full range of SEO solutions, and let us put your website right where it belongs: in the spotlight!

Meet the Author

Diana Vasile, Head of SEO, inSegment

Meet Diana, inSegment's Head of SEO, dedicated to providing clients with performance-based SEO strategies – including on-page optimization, indexation and off-page optimization – developed for achieving high search engine rankings and for maximizing customer conversions.