Conduct competitive keyword analysis to boost your SEO. Identify the keywords your competitors are using to identify gaps in your strategy and improve your content.
Focus on selecting valuable keywords that drive relevant traffic and increase search visibility. Use these insights for a targeted SEO strategy that helps you outperform competitors in search results.
How to do Keyword Gap Analysis?
Keyword gap analysis is one of the key aspects of competitive keyword analysis. It is a process used to identify the differences between our and our competitor’s keyword strategies. It helps us learn which keywords we might be missing out on and how to align our SEO and SEM strategies better to improve our online visibility and performance. You can do this with the help of a keyword gap analysis tool.
The goal of competitive keyword analysis is to find the possibilities where we can optimize or add new content to capture additional traffic and increase our ranking in search engine results. You can see here we used keyword gap analysis with the help of Semrush tool.
Types of Keywords we can find with Gap Analysis
- Organic Keywords: Organic keywords are the terms and phrases for which our website ranks in the search engine results pages (SERPs) without paying for placement.
- PAID Keywords: Paid keywords are the terms we target in your pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns.
- PLA Keywords: PLA keywords are directly used for Google Shopping ads or other product-based ads that appear in search results.
How to Conduct Keyword Gap Analysis
- Start by identifying your main competitors. These can be direct competitors or those ranking for similar keywords.
- Use SEO tools or Google Search Console to gather data on keywords. For PPC, tools like Google Ads Keyword Planner and SEMrush can provide insights into competitor keywords.
- Compare your keyword list with your competitors’ lists to identify which keywords you are missing. Look at both organic and paid keywords.
- Evaluate the performance of the competitive keyword analysis where there are gaps. Analyze search volume, competition level, and click-through rates (CTR) to determine the potential value of targeting these keywords.
- Find keywords that give you high search volume and low competition that you are not currently targeting. For paid keywords, assess which terms are driving traffic to competitors’ sites but are absent in your campaigns.
- Develop a strategy to address the gaps. This might involve optimizing your content for new keywords, adjusting your PPC bids, or improving your product listings.
- Monitor the performance of your new keywords and adjust your strategy as needed based on performance data and competitive shifts.
There are quite a few ways to perform competitor website keyword analysis. In this blog, we will tell you about them. Some are better than others, and you can choose what suits you best.
How do you do competitor keyword analysis?
There are two ways to perform this: one without tools and another with tools. Here, we show you both methods. Also, there are two options for doing competitive keyword analysis with tools: free and paid.
How do you find competitors’ keywords for free with Google?
Google is one thing that everyone has access to, and they can use it to conduct competitive keyword analysis, too.
Here is how they can use it, but keep in mind that this may not be the best option for a beginner because using Google for keyword research might need good experience.
Search Queries: You can start by searching for terms that are relevant to your niche. Note down which competitors’ sites appear in the search results.
Related Searches: Scroll down at the footer of Google’s search results page to see “Searches related to.” It can give you additional keyword ideas that competitors might be targeting.
Auto-complete: Type relevant terms into Google’s search bar and see what auto-complete suggestions come up. These suggestions reflect popular searches related to your query.
Google Search Console: If you operate a website and have access to Google Search Console (GSC), you can use it to see which keywords are bringing traffic to your site. While this won’t show competitors’ keywords directly, it can help you identify gaps or opportunities relative to your competitors.
Google Trends: You can use Google Trends to perform a competitive keyword analysis of the different search terms over time. While it doesn’t show competitors’ specific keywords, it might help you understand what topics are trending and align your content strategy accordingly.
How do you do Competitive Keyword Analysis without tools?
These are some additional ways to find your competitor’s keyword, and if you know what you are looking for, it is not as difficult as doing it from Google.
Manual Inspection: Visit your competitors’ websites and look at their meta titles, descriptions, and content. Keywords are usually visible in these parts.
Page Source: View the source code of competitors’ web pages to see their meta tags and keywords.
Content Analysis: Study the content on competitors’ blogs or articles to identify frequently used keywords and compositions of words.
Social Media and Forums: Monitor and observe social media platforms and forums where competitor sites of your industry are active. Find common phrases and keywords in conversations and posts.
How do you do competitive keyword analysis with keyword research tools?
It is the most convenient way of performing a competitor analysis, especially for newbies in the industry. These tools have both a paid version and a free one, but isn’t it obvious that the paid ones will have more advanced features?
Well, it is up to you to choose what meets your needs.
SEMrush
Discover new keyword opportunities with this tool. It offers comprehensive SEO and SEM insights, including detailed keyword analysis and competitive research. SEMrush also has a keyword Gap analysis feature, making it one of the best tools for competitive keyword analysis.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs provides an in-depth understanding of competitors’ keyword rankings and content performance. It also has a robust site explorer, keyword explorer, and content analysis tools to aid in improving SEO strategies.
Moz
Moz provides a suite of SEO tools focused on keyword research, site audits, and tracking SERP rankings.
SpyFu
SpyFu offers insights into the keywords that your competitors are ranking on and ranking for. It also provides data to track changes in competitors’ keyword strategies over time.
Serpstat
Serpstat has a comprehensive SEO toolkit with features for competitive keyword analysis and site audits.
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest offers keyword research, content ideas, and site audit tools. It provides insights into keyword volume, competition, and content strategies to help you improve your SEO and content marketing efforts.
Conclusion
We hope that you have learned enough to begin your competitive keyword analysis and understand how and where to start. We wish you all the best in your digital marketing journey. May you thrive and surpass your competitors.
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