Marketing 7 min read

The Best Tools to Help Marketers Find Competitor Keywords

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Rawpixel.com / Shutterstock.com

A detailed understanding of your competitor keywords is an essential marketing strategy, and here’s why.

The concept of keyword research is straightforward. It involves identifying popular search terms that people type into search engines and optimizing content around them.

Keyword research helps you develop content that’s relevant to your audience. As a reward for your hard work, search engines could display your page higher on search results, bringing more traffic to your site.

While it all sounds so simple, keyword research is robust and tedious.

Unearthing the best-performing keywords that can generate steady traffic can be a challenging process. And it becomes even more daunting when you add your competitors to the mix.

Yet, your competitive intelligence can be a great ally in your quest to find the so-called “golden keywords.”

Before we delve any deeper, let’s begin with some simple definitions.

What Are Competitor Keywords

Competitor keywords are the keywords that the businesses you compete with are targeting. It could also refer to the terms that your competitor is ranking highly for in search results.

Unlike other fields, the advice “ignore your competitors” is not relevant in marketing. As such, it’s always a good idea to stay on top of the high-ranking keywords of your rivals.

Here’s why.

Why You Need to Know Competitor Keywords

A detailed understanding of your competitor keyword can help you understand how they’re performing on the search engine. It gives you a glimpse of what’s working for them.

Also, you can discover keywords that you may have overlooked in the past. It, in turn, creates an opportunity to develop new content and boost your search engine rankings.

The manual method of searching out competitor keywords is time-consuming and stressful. Rather than go down this path, specific tools can help simplify the process.

Tools You Need to Find Competitor’s Keywords

Outlined below are some tools to help you find your competitor keywords.

1. BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is an essential tool for finding competitor keywords
Image credit: buzzsumo.com

BuzzSumo may be the best tool on the market for competitive analysis, and here’s why. One of the primary advantages of this tool is its ability to identify potential competitors that you should know.

For example, BuzzSumo’s Domain Comparison tool allows you to compare two domains across a wide range of parameters. You’ll also know which of your competitor’s content performed well within a specific period.

You can then use the information on another keyword research tool to identify the specific keywords that are present in the article.

BuzzSumo doesn’t provide as much keyword-specific data as the rest of the tools on this list. However, it’s an excellent starting point for keyword research.

BuzzSumo offers four pricing plans depending on your budget.

These include the Pro, Plus, Large, and Enterprise plans. The first three plans cost $99, $179, and $299 per month, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Enterprise, which is tailored to its users’ needs, could cost as much as $500 per month.

2. Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer

Image Credit: ahrefs.com

Ahref has one of the most widely used tools for finding keywords.

Although the Keywords Explorer is not free, it offers tons of functionalities that provide value to SEOs. An example is the Top Pages feature, which takes a unique approach to keyword research.

With Top Pages, users can identify dozens – maybe even hundreds – of relevant competitor keywords. The feature helps SEOs to focus on a specific topic of a page or article instead of the individual keywords.

Along with some useful data such as search volume, traffic, and CPC, Ahrefs’s Keywords Explorer also offers loads of historical information. These include keyword data like SERP Overview, Position History, volume, and average SERP position over time.

Ahrefs’s monthly cost includes $99 for the Lite plan, $179 for Standard, and $399 for the Advanced plan.

3. SEM Rush

SEM Rush is a keyword research tool that can help you identify competitor keywords quickly.
Image Credit: Semrush.com

SEM Rush is an impressive keyword research tool that can help you identify competitor keywords quickly and easily.

In addition to searching by keyword, users can also filter results by URL, country, geographical area. You can also specify different match types for PPC keywords as well as examine domain analytics for sites.

Aside from keywords themselves, SEM Rush also provides other competitive keyword data. These include:

  • Average organic position in the SERP
  • Approximate search volume
  • Keyword difficulty
  • Average CPC

Even, you’ll know the share of traffic that a specific keyword drives to a site as well as the costs and competitive density.

SEM Rush’s Pro plan costs $99.95 per month while the Guru plan attracts $199.95. Finally, agencies and organizations will have to pay as much as $399.95.

4. SpyFu

SpyFu allows you to know the keywords that your competitors are targeting in organic search
Image Credit: Spyfu.com

SpyFu is an easy-to-use tool that allows you to know the keywords that your competitors are targeting both in organic search and AdWords.

Unlike some tools on this list, SpyFu is wholly dedicated to competitive intelligence. From the monthly search volume, ad spends, CTR to the advertisement, and ranking history, SpyFu offers a detailed insight into your competitor’s keyword strategies.

You can also sort the list of keyword opportunities based on search volume, CPC, as well as keyword difficulty. It helps you quickly find keywords that your competitors are already ranking for, and you’re not.

SpyFu offers a Basic monthly plan, which costs $39. However, the Professional costs $39 in the first month and $78 after that.

Finally, SpyFu’s Team plan costs $299 per month.

5. LongTailPro

LongTailPro
Image Credit: Longtailpro.com

LongTailPro offers a straightforward approach to analyzing your competitor keywords. While it’s not as robust as SpyFu, this tool can still provide a good insight into your competitor’s marketing strategy.

With a single seed keyword, you can get as much as 400 long-tail keywords within a couple of seconds. Also, this tool has a Competitor Keywords mode to analyze your competitor’s URL and extract their keyword strategies.

LongTail Pro’s Monthly Starter plan costs $37 per month. Monthly Pro, on the other hand, has a price tag of $67. Finally, there’s the Monthly Agency plan that costs $147.

Now that you know all the tools required to find competitor keywords.

How to Use Competitor Keywords to Improve Your Marketing Strategy

There are two things to remember when using competitor keywords to improve your marketing strategy.

  • Pick the keywords that your competitors are underutilizing
  • Select the keywords that you can rank for

Your competitors are underusing some keywords, and this could yield an excellent result for your site.

For example, specific competitor keywords may rank between 20th to 25th on the search engine result page. While the content may be relevant to the keyword, it’s still missing specific search intent or content quality that Google wants.

Review these pages to identify the shortcomings. Then, create a similar content that’s not only optimized for the keyword but also provides the answers that your competitor’s page is missing.

Keyword difficulty is another noteworthy metric. It tells you how hard it is to rank on the first SERP for a specific search term.

After exploring the keywords and analyzing the search volume, you must select the ones that you can use to rank high on SERP. Keyword difficulty is on a scale of 0 to 100, with zero being the easiest to rank.

In the end, you must find the balance between search volume and keyword difficulty.

Read More: Why Lost Link Occurs In Search Engine Optimization

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Sumbo Bello

Sumbo Bello is a creative writer who enjoys creating data-driven content for news sites. In his spare time, he plays basketball and listens to Coldplay.

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