If you want to boost your ranking fast on search engines you need to focus on your competitor keyword research free.
I know that you are tired of your ranking. you worked on all SEO factors to rank your posts but it’s not working.
That’s why you came here.
Don’t worry today I will guide you on how you can work on a perfect way to find out your competitor keyword research and beat them with your ranking.
Keyword research is one of the main parts of SEO. So If you don’t know about keyword research then read from here How to do keyword research.
Then you can properly understand your competitor keyword research free.
So, let’s start.
What is Competitor Keyword Research?
It is one type of analysis to find out what your competitors are doing online and how you can beat your competitor rankings.
And you can learn from their mistakes and also from the ways of their success.
By this, you will understand that, how they are writing a blog post, how they are targeting a keyword, and how to work differently from then to get success.
When you can find out what type of research, keywords, and planning driving traffic to your competitor then you can also apply strategies like that, which can drive traffic for you also.
After you have done this, I know that there are still many questions in your mind. Like-
- Who are my competitors?
- What type of keywords should I target to beat them?
- How to improve my position in search engine results than my competitors?
Now, remember that it is not magic that can give you ranking in Google. It is just an eye-opener.
By this, you can understand how you need to start? How do you need to make strategies? etc.
How to Conduct Competitor Keyword Research Free?
Now you can understand what is competitor keyword research? So, here you need to know how to use this to your advantage.
You need to do SEO but this can give you a boost to rank your post.
So, here is the analysis-
1. Audit your website
First, check for which keywords or terms you are already ranking for.
You can use many free tools to check that. Like you can use Google Search Console, Google Analytics to check which keywords are driving traffic to your site.
By this, you will get to know how much you need to focus on your SEO.
Remember that if you are doing keyword research then try to find out the competition level of that keyword first by using any tools like Ahrefs.
This will also help you to know whether you can rank on that keyword or not.
2. Identify Your Competition
After auditing your website, find out who your actual competitors are. You will find many websites on the internet that are working in the same niche.
But you don’t need to focus on everyone.
Just focus on those sites that are ranking on the same keywords that you want to rank for.
Many tools can provide you with the name of your competitors. Like- Ahrefs, Ubersuggest, etc.
Here if you enter a SEED keyword then you will see it is showing some best sites that are ranking for that keyword also.
From there make your list of those sites, and visit them to check their pattern of work.
Here you can see when I put Blogging as a keyword in Ahrefs then these are the sites that are ranking.
3. Analyze Your Competition Ranking
Now, I think you get some best site lists that are ranking for the keywords that you want to rank for. Here you get to know the competitors for those keywords.
Now you need to search for the keywords that your competitors are ranking but you are not.
Now visit those sites and try to find the points or areas that you have forgotten to cover in your blog post. Those keywords or gaps will help you to rank your blog.
Cover all updated points in your blog post, If your competitor misses any points then write those points in your posts. This will help you to increase your rankings.
So, this will help you to target some special audiences also.
4. Start Working On Your Ranking
Now you have the list of keywords. Now you need to think about which keywords can attract you the most.
Which can target your audience? What are the keywords that are searched by the people? If there are any evergreen keywords? etc.
To research these kinds of keywords you can use Google Suggested Keywords or Google Trends, etc.
These are some of the best Free Keyword Research Tools.
Just remember that you will not be able to beat the competitors with all the keywords. So, you need to be very selective with the keywords.
If you want to rank on a keyword use some related questions or topics in your blog.
Like If you are targeting Blogging as a keyword then you should cover some topics like-
- What is Blogging?
- How to do Blogging?
- How to earn from Blogging?
So, note down your keywords and try to build a framework for your content creation starting with the keyword gaps or the best keywords you have identified before.
5. Commit to long-term growth
Just remember one thing that nothing is not going to happen overnight. You have to give it some time. It is a very slow-growing business.
You have to work hard and be smart. I think you know that content is the king of SEO. So, your content should be very good, unique, and informative.
As well as you need to focus on SEO also. Input all the suggested questions from Google, add the keywords you have researched from your competitors.
As well as try to build backlinks to get better results.
You can read more about How to Work on Your SEO.
1. How to find different keyword types and analyze their competitiveness?
To understand this, you need to find out the search intent first. Let’s say you are targeting a keyword but the search intent does not match, maybe the search volume is very high but you will not get any traffic for that keyword.
Like if you are targeting a keyword that is- Sachin Tendulkar’s Age. Maybe the search volume is too high and your blog post is also ranking on that keyword but you will not get any traffic.
Because people search intent is not that. People just want to know the age of Sachin Tendulkar, not want to read any blog on it.
First, You need to understand it.
So, if your search intent is clear then you will get some benefits like-
- CTR will increase because your search intent is very clear and it will attract the audience.
- Your blog post will be more effective.
- Conversion will be very high.
[Here I am using the Ahrefs tool for explaining to you the process of competitor keyword research. You can use this tool or you can use any other tools you want. The process will be the same]
# Keyword Competitive Research-Based
If you are interacting with your customers then you have to give the best experience to them.
Every customer’s mindset is different and everybody has a different need. So, your goal is to find out different types of keywords.
At the time you understand the desire of the customer, pain, and the thought process you will not be able to convert them. So, you need to focus on that.
You need to focus on important things-
- Your messages should be effective
If you are targeting the audience then your message should be very effective.
Because it is the only way to grab customers. You can use emotional messages also to grab your customers.
- You should have a solid understanding of your customer
It is the most important part of keyword research. It will be needed in every part of your journey.
Here you have to understand the search intent. Because it will help you to find out or understand the needs of your customer.
Like when you are dealing with your customer you need to focus on some important things like-
- First Understand the problem of the customers
- Then be aware of that
- Then try to give them the best solutions
It will increase your customer base and they will be loyal to you.
# How to find these keywords?
First, use your brain to think about what people can search to solve their problems according to your niche.
If you can find these types of keywords it will give you more traffic.
Like if you use the Ahrefs tool.
If your blog is on SEO then you can enter related keywords to find what are the sites that are ranking for that first.
2. Gather your competitor’s SEO data and strategy
First, you need to find out who your big competitors are. After that, you have to find out or realize what the size of the target is.
Now you have to understand the Nature of Competition.
Like there are two types of competitors. One is Direct and the other one is Indirect.
A direct competitor would be a business that is offering the same product or service that you are doing.
An indirect competitor offers a different product or service but it can solve the same problem.
Now, if you are running a blog then it is very important to check the website’s SEO data or keywords according to your niche.
You can use the content gap tool that websites rank for, but you are not ranking.
Most of the SEO tools have this feature.
Here you can see how to use this content gap tool. Now if you click on that show keyword option you will get to see many keywords that the other sites are ranking for but you are not.
Now, here you will find many keywords but that may be irrelevant. So, play around with the number of intersections to keywords that only a certain number of competitors are ranking for that keyword.
3. Identifying softer target competitors
I think you know that Google search can give you a higher CTC in your niche.
To find out low competition targets you need to plug your site into a tool like Similar Web.
Now just plug those sites that you think are a competitor.
Now I think you know who your competitors are now. So, you need to key metrics for each site. Here you need to focus because it can give you very important data.
If you put any of your competitor’s domain by using the Ahrefs tool you will find-
So, here you can see that you are getting very important data. Like-
- Domain Score
- Backlinks
- Organic Traffic
You need to focus on these things because these things will give you an idea of where you need to work hard.
Like the referring domain tells you the rate at which your competitors are acquiring new links and where they are coming from.
# Measure Your Competitors SEO health
So, you know the link profile. Now you have to look for other things to know the accurate SEO strategy of your Competitor.
Like-
- Traffic Source
- Page Views
- Monthly Visits
- Traffic by Countries
As I told you before, you can get these types of data from Similar Web.
# How well your competitors are doing in each part
Now I think you know the SEO strategy of your Competitors. Now, you have to know how it is fitting into their Customer Journey.
It is very important. You should know that the main success key is the content and understanding the search intent of the customers.
You can use Ahrefs free SEO tool or Moz bar to get this information.
Here you can see the DA/PA, referring domain, spam score, etc.
4. Identify high ROI keyword opportunities for your site
Now you have a large database of keywords right now. You need to use those keywords to improve your SEO.
Now, in the above section, I have discussed how to gather your competitor’s keywords.
Also, you can use the Alexa tool to search for these keywords.
# Filter Your Keywords
Once you have a large number of keywords you need to filter those keywords. Just eliminate the too competitive keywords.
But don’t delete them from your database. Because in the future it will be helpful.
I would suggest that you filter the keywords that have keyword difficulty between 10 to 15. You can set the difficulty manually and then use those keywords.
After that, put all the selected keywords in Google and check the first 3 to 4 sites.
If you want then you can check the other results also.
Here you need to check some important things.
- How many backlinks are pointed to the domain or page?
- Is it mobile-friendly?
- Is the content good?
# Decide the organic keywords
After this, select the organic keyword that you want to target. And that should be the best keyword among them.
But think first how you can get backlinks for that, what is domain authority, etc.
This will help you to rank.
# Form Keyword Clusters
There is no exact way by which you can group your keyword. Here are a few types of Clusters that are depending on your goal.
- Categorized paid keywords that are based on profitability
- Categorized keywords based on the customer journey
The Spyfu also has a keyword grouping function. You can put any website of your choice then click on SEO research and then find the keyword groups in the drop-down menu.
[ Now the option is SEO keywords ]
5. Figure out where you can beat your competitors
Now you have the most important information to beat your competitor.
The things you know are-
- The highest ROI keyword opportunities
- How well your competitors are doing?
- The competitor keywords and the SEO strategy
- The keywords you are targeting
# Compare the data now
Ok, do you want to compare the keywords that you have chosen from your competitor data or website?
Ok, these SEO factors you need to know when you are comparing the data or keywords.
# Off-page SEO factors
Backlinks- We all know that this is one of the most important factors of ranking.
Read more about how to work on Off-page SEO to improve better ranking.
The domains that have many quality backlinks have a higher chance to get ranked on Google or any other search engine.
If you use the Ahrefs tool to get the backlink ideas then you will see a page like this.
Here we need to consider that not all the links have been created equally. The links can have different values, based on the anchor text, which page they are located on, and where they come from.
As I said before you need to analyze the backlinks and to analyze you can use the Ahrefs tool.
You can also target a specific page. Like if you want to know what the backlinks are referring to a post by Hubspot.com then just put that link on the Ahrefs tool and you will get information like this.
So, you can understand that this is the most important ranking factor.
# On-page SEO factors
You need to do it manually. It is also one of the most important ranking factors. You know that we can’t see things like bounce rate here. So we are dependable on public information.
First, we can check how many social shares it has. If the page or content is good then it should have decent social shares.
If there are a few shares or no shares then maybe it is not up to the mark.
On most of the sites, you can find out the number of social shares that it has.
Here you can see the total number of social shares of this blog. So, you can check this first.
Google wants you to optimize your blog post for your user. Now if Google is ranking a blog post or a site at the top of the search results then it wants those posts or sites to be mobile-friendly and quickly responsive.
If it is not then Google has no other option to rank. So, you can work on this part.
To check your site’s speed you can visit GT MATRIX.
Now you need to check the content that the blog post or the site has.
The content should be well written and well optimized. So, after putting the keywords in Google, check the top sites that are ranking.
And get ideas from there.
Improve your on-page SEO strategy.
Now as a bonus point I will tell you how to do Page-level keyword competitive analysis.
How to do Page-level keyword competitive analysis?.
If you are running competitor keyword research free at the page level then it can help you to find gaps in existing content that you have.
So. here you can fail to cover something that the people may want to know.
If you can correct this then it can help you in-
- It will help to rank for long-tail keywords
- You will rank for many keywords
So, this is very important to do. If you search the keywords in Google then you will understand the gap you need to cover in your blog.
Frequently Ask Questions
How do I find my competitor’s rank keywords?
You can use any tools like the Ahrefs. If you use these tools then you can surely find out the keywords on which your competitors are ranking.
So, use the Ahrefs tool and use the ” Site Explorer” section to find out the keywords.Can we use competitor keywords?
Yes, you can. There is no issue if you use the keywords that are already used by your competitors. You can use them in your blog to boost the ranking factors.
Can I mention competitors on my website?
Yes, you can but the information you are giving about your competitors should be accurate or right.
You should not mention anything negative about your competitors.
Conclusion:
To work on Competitor Keyword research free is a very important part while you are writing a blog post. These can help you to rank your blog.
So, after doing these use the keywords that are used by the competitors. Here I have given the example by using the Ahrefs tool. You can use any tool you want. The process is the same.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.