How To Find Competitors’ Keywords

Keyword research is a core part of any content marketing or SEO strategy, so it makes sense to know the relevant keywords of your competitors and their content strategy so as to get a fair advantage.

In this post, we are going to look at how to find your competitors’ keywords so your posts too can rank higher.

Before you write and publish a post you should ask yourself “What Keywords are my Competitors using?” what are my competitor keywords? and most importantly, what is my competitors rank? and the best way to find answers is by using a keyword tool.

Knowing how to do this is important because as you become more developed and advanced in your online business, then the more likely it is that other companies will also start watching and analyzing your progress and your organic traffic.

So the more aware you are of both your own keywords and your niche competitor’s keywords the more you will understand your own ranking potential and when to add new keywords and posts to your blog.

How To Use Keyword Analysis Tools

In the beginning, your keyword research probably consisted of sourcing keywords using manual research tools such as Google search and autosuggest, and maybe the AdWords planner.

As your business grows then keyword research may have extended to more complex keyword tools to give you a competitive edge and site ranking tools such as Jaaxy which enables you to search for and analyze your own keywords and the immediate current competition for certain words and phrases.

The next stage is to understand how your overall keyword targeting compares to that of other authority and competitor sites within your niche.

You don`t have to spend money right now, there is a free trial of this keyword tool that I really trust, all you have to do is enter a keyword.

Try Jaaxy For Thirty Free Searches

Understanding The Link Between Ranking And Site Authority

Site ranking is not just based on accurate keyword use, a host of other factors come into play as well.

These include but are not limited to more than a hundred different factors(Google never really says it openly) but Brian Dean from backlinko.com believes it`s over 200 factors that Google uses to rank websites.

But here are some factors that Google looks at:

• The age of the website

Older websites are usually seen as having more domain authority and thus getting better site ranks and as having greater long-stay potential (they won’t suddenly disappear overnight).

• Tags

The use of tags is important because these categorize your content and show search engines that you have more than one article on this topic or theme – so it will be potentially more beneficial for searchers looking to read about this subject,you can also use a title tag on an image.

• Backlinks

Developed naturally these illustrate to search engines that other site owners and industry niche sites like your content, find that you have valuable information and are willing to share it with their own readers. (it`s normal for SEO to share competitors websites).

• Internal links

A  good quality site will have more than one article on a broad topic so there and this is shown through internal links to other relevant articles

• Keywords

Like tags these show the search engine what your content is about and the search queries, long-tailed keywords are more specific and target very clear searches, but general articles and more competitive keywords can rank well if the other factors listed above are in place.

All of these factors illustrate to a search engine that your content has authority and relevance to the search with best practices so always aim to choose your main keywords well.

These and meta description are the same factors that your competitor will have and will be assessed for as well by the search engines.

So the more you can understand search engine optimization, target audience, and the breakdown of their results the better you understand your own ranking position and how to perform competitive keyword research or how well you`ll rank.

Check this great tool to help you spy on your competitors.

SEMrush An Advanced Keyword Analytics Tool

One of the more advanced keyword opportunities tools is made by SEMrush. Here you can track websites and analyze how and where they are getting their traffic and also understand readers’ search intent.

For the purpose of this article and to give a full picture of exactly what kind of data this tool can collect, I have selected a well-known site – Amazon.com

The following screenshot highlights the major areas that can be analyzed and this is presented in your search dashboard.

As you can see there is a high amount of traffic both organic and paid coming to the site.

I originally tried this exercise using Facebook.com as the web address but discovered Facebook actually had no backlinks recorded.
If there is a high level of common keywords then they would be deemed a competitor.

There are other reports available to look at including the number of paid searches, keywords used, and main landing pages.

However, I’ll share one more graph that I found to be interesting which was the backlinks analysis.

Now you too can check your competitors and see what they rank for and you can go as far as to check their backlinks, you can Try SemRush here for 7 days free.

As you can see, Amazon’s biggest competitor is eBay as the site also sell products. Check an earlier post here to learn how to sell on eBay.

Here you can see the breakdown of backlinks both the number and also the type of link. Most links are text, but interesting to note that forms, frames, and images are also being used.

This graph is useful for affiliate marketers as well, since it illustrates how people are referring their readers to Amazon, and what type of content they use as potential customers like me and you.

The SEMrush tools aren’t cheap starting at $70 per month to access their full reports but they will surely help you find better-ranking keywords.

Try SemRush here for totally free.

But you can sign up for a free account and pull off reports such as these at no cost, so it is certainly a tool worth looking at, especially if you have identified sites that could be considered potential competitors’ web pages.

Check them out, find out what their backlinks are, or spy on their keywords to have a better idea of what brings them the most traffic.

The link below will lead you onto their site, simply enter a domain or URL that you wish to explore. Semrush is easy to use and quite accurate.

Now there are other tools like Semrush or ahrefs.com around but most cost, something that not all new bloggers can afford or are willing to invest in given that blogging cost more than you are made to believe in the beginning.

There is always something you “must-have” and you can`t have it done on your own so you need to outsource.
If you`re only looking for a keyword tool that will help you find low-competition keywords and to check competitor ranks then Jaaxy is the way to go, but there are many keyword research tools out there.

It`s a fraction of Semrush but the results are quite accurate. Click here to try Jaaxy for free.

Now Jaaxy may not give as in-depth results as Ahrefs, or SemRush but then, if you`re new to blogging, you probably don`t need an expensive keyword tool either.

Conclusion On How To Find Competitors’ Keywords

Writing blog posts and content marketing as a business involve a fair amount of analysis work, and SEMrush offers another potential tool to add to your collection.

On this site, there are a number of other articles that focus on useful tools for analysis and other tools to find related keywords you may need to improve your blogging experience.

But, keyword tools alone will not make you succeed online, knowing position changes will not help much either if you don`t know how to deal with those changes, learning how to blog the right way by choosing the right affiliate marketing training will bring you closer to your blogging success.

Another thing you have to understand is that these tools can not always give you 100% accurate data. there might also be a time when competitors’ keywords do not interest you.

But when this happens try to find keyword gap analysis and see where you can find similar keywords or keywords your competitor did not use.

• Jaaxy keyword tool review.
• Reduce Grammar mistakes when writing.
• A guide to Keyword Research for high ranking blog post
• My recommendation for making money online.

If you have any questions or still do not understand how to find the best keywords or discover your online competitors please feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

As a serious blogger, you should always check your competitor’s site, not because you are copying them but to have ideas about what they are doing that you can do better. Don`t feel guilty about it either, all bloggers do it, competitor research brings you closer to what should be done now.

I hope you`ve now understood the importance and why you should find competitors’ keywords by also using the keyword gap tool then write a better more appealing post and rank higher than they do.

Whatever you do, always try to find new opportunities, as this is the way to grow forward.

I’d love to hear of other tools you would recommend and the best part will be if it`s a free tool or free to try or your own experience of using SEMrush, thanks.