Competitor keyword research is the process of identifying relevant, valuable keywords your competitors are targeting to improve their rankings in search engines. The procedure of keyword research and competitor analysis is about analyzing how the competition ranks. This brings us to the fundamental problem of understanding why keyword research is important for SEO purposes.
Why is competitor keyword analysis important?
Whether it is messaging, pricing, or product pricing, keyword research and competitor analysis are all about what your competitors are doing to stay relevant in business. When it comes to keywords, organic search is similar to other forms of search. It is about gaining knowledge of your competitors’ keyword research can help uncover new content opportunities or gaps in your organic SEO strategy.
SEO competitor keywords will display the topics or content you have ranked for among your competitors, along with the keywords they use to get high SERP rankings. The moment you master keyword research and competitor analysis, you will better understand your industry. Gaining useful knowledge leads to improved SERP ranks and increased organic traffic.
You will obtain valuable insights and SEO competitor keywords from other websites when done properly. Below are a set of procedures for finding high-intent, high-quality keyword research and competitor analysis for your business.
A step-by-step guide for uncovering competitor keywords
The good news is that understanding why keyword research is important for SEO is not rocket science. But still, if you have gone on to undertake any form of competitor keyword research, you will understand how easy it is to fall into a data wormhole when you are undertaking basic SEO competitor keyword research.
The below-mentioned process will ensure that the computer keyword research is hassle-free.
Know your audience
Before finding and analyzing SEO competitor keywords, you need to be aware of your target audience. Failure to comprehend whom you are targeting will result in your competitor’s keyword research analysis starting before it starts. Focusing on the right target audience enhances the ability to attract quality traffic to your website .It will improve as a result of the relevancy of your keyword efforts.
Whether it is traditional keyword research or competitor analysis, a crucial step is answering the following questions:
- What are the kinds of problems that your product or service solves?
- How does the product or service differ from the competition?
- Which are the keywords that are essential for positioning in the market?
Finding answers to the questions will provide insights into why keyword research is important for SEO. This is especially important given that search engines are the number one channel through which consumers discover new brands.
Identifying your competitors
When segregating your SEO competitors, it is helpful to differentiate between direct and indirect customers. Being aware of your indirect competitors will guide you through the latest competitor keyword research in the market.
Learning from your indirect competition gives you the chance to take advantage of fresh search trends and increase your SERP traffic share.
Take stock of your competitor’s keywords
You may require the expertise of a third-party SEO tool to best research your competitor’s keywords. There are numerous popular computer keyword research tools that provide insights about a competitor’s profitable keywords. Discover the top 10 keyword research tools that can supercharge your SEO strategy
Review the results
With the list of competitors in hand, we can curate the keywords for our specific needs. Search items with moderately high keyword difficulty would be challenging to rank. While it may seem broad, informational keyword analysis of the research results has a different story to replicate.
Hence, it is necessary to choose an SEO-friendly domain name for your business. Even the top 5 search results have impressive backlink profiles and domain authority. It is fair to say that these businesses have employed the best title tag practices. With its high keyword difficulty and tough competition, keyword research and competitor analysis may be worth pursuing.
Elimination of keywords that do not align with your business
When considering keyword difficulty, you may start to curate your keyword list and focus on what is more relevant to your SEO efforts. Most of us would want to concentrate on keywords that are relevant to our business.
Keyword research has to be static and intentional. The keywords that you select should be targetable and support your brand’s conversion channel.
The finding of content gaps on the website
After all the difficult and irrelevant keywords have been eliminated from the list, it is time to start reviewing the keywords for ranking opportunities. But if you want to go beyond organic traffic, it is necessary to take stock of your competitor’s paid advertising strategy.
Looking at paid keywords
Organic research is not only about finding competitor keywords; you may also explore paid keywords. Running your competitor’s websites through a paid search tool can help you discover keywords that your competitors consider highly profitable.
Even if the company does not have the budget to compete for these paid ads using Google Ads, they can be leveraged in the bottom funnel. It is not about competition in advertising budgets; you can look into research-related queries.
To conclude, by now you have an idea of why keyword research is important for SEO purposes. It is fair to say that you can use the keyword research analysis guide to your benefit. But remember, just like SEO tasks undertaking keyword analysis of the competitors is going to require a refresher from time to time. Undertaking a quarterly or semi-annual analysis of your competitors will help you uncover new content topics or keyword opportunities that you may have missed out on in the past.