Competitive keyword analysis is the key to creating a marketing strategy. SEO successful.
It helps you find out what your competitors are doing and how you can improve your own approach.
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What is competitor keyword analysis?
Competitor keyword analysis (also known as keyword gap analysis) is the process of identifying the keywords that your competitors are ranking for in search results.
Here's a quick overview of how this can be done:
- First, you need a list of relevant competing websites in your industry.
- Look for the keywords of your competitors. There are many tools, such as Semrsuh, Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, etc., to help you.
- Analyze important metrics, such as search volume, CPC, keyword difficulty, etc., to choose the right keywords for your website.
Here are the benefits of competitive keyword analysis:
- Discover new keyword opportunities
- Understand the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors' keyword strategies
- Create more relevant content for your target audience
- Identify the keywords valuable long tail
- The possibility of finding keywords traffic generators and much more
In this article, we will introduce you to the best tools to find and analyze competitor keywords. Are you ready ? Let's get started.
5 Best Tools to Find Competitor Keywords in 2024
1.Semrush
Semrush is probably the ONLY tool you need for competitor keyword research.
It is one of the most popular tools used by over 10 million people and has the largest keyword database with over 25 billion keywords.
How to use Semrush to find competitor keywords?
Semrush offers a tool called “Organic Research,” which helps you quickly discover your competitors’ best keywords.
To get started, enter one of your competitors' domains into the organic search tool, select a database of your choice (US, UK, etc.) and click the Search button.
You will instantly get an overview of their keywords and traffic.
Click the Keywords section to find a list of all the keywords your competitors are ranking for.
Look at;
As you can see, you will discover;
- All keywords a domain ranks for
- The intent of each keyword
- Keyword ranking position in Google search
- The amount of estimated organic traffic each keyword generates
- Keyword difficulty, search volume, SERP features, etc.
The best part? You don't need to sift through thousands of keywords that your competitors are currently ranking for. You can filter keywords based on keyword difficulty, search volume, SERP features, and more.
For example, you can use the “easy to rank” keyword difficulty filter to find a list of keywords that are easy to rank for.
Once you apply this filter, you will see a list of low-hanging fruit.
This is how you can easily find hundreds (or even thousands) of traffic-driving keywords on your competitors' websites.
Semrush Pricing: Semrush is available in three pricing plans.
- The Semrush plan Pro costs $119,95 per month, where you can add up to 5 projects, 500 keywords to track, and 10 results per report.
- The Semrush plan Guru costs $229,95 per month, where you can add up to 15 projects, 1 keywords to track, and 500 results per report.
- The Semrush plan business costs $449,95 per month, where you can add up to 40 projects, 5 keywords to track, and 000 results per report.
All of its pricing plans come with a 7-day money-back guarantee.
2. SE Ranking
If you are looking for a toolkit of SEO affordable for analyze your website and that of your competitors, SE Ranking is perfect for you.
Its competitor research tool allows you to find ALL your competitors' keywords,analyze their measures of SEO and compare them to yours.
How to use SE Ranking to find competitor keywords?
SE Ranking offers a competitor research tool to spy on your competitors' keywords.
Enter the domain of one of your competitors and it will give you insight into their organic keywords, estimated traffic, referring domains, and more.
This is what it looks like;
Take a look at the keywords;
You can also use the keyword difficulty filter to find all the keywords that are easy to rank for.
This is what it looks like;
SE Ranking pricing: SE Ranking is available in three pricing plans.
- The plan Essential of SE Ranking costs $55 per month, where you can track 750 keywords daily and create 10 projects with 1 user post.
- The plan Pro of SE Ranking costs $109 per month, where you can track 2 keywords daily and create unlimited projects with 000 user posts.
- The plan Commercial of SE Ranking costs $239 per month, where you can track 5 keywords daily and create unlimited projects with 000 user posts.
3.SpyFu
SpyFu is another powerful competitor research tool that helps you find PPC keywords with historical data. You can also create unlimited keyword and domain projects using SpyFu.
How to use SpyFu to find competitor keywords?
SpyFu offers a domain overview tool that helps you easily find your competitors' keywords.
Enter the URL of one of your competitors into the domain overview tool.
As you can see, it will show you a list of all organic keywords along with estimated monthly traffic.
Once you click on organic keywords, you will get all the keywords that a domain is ranking for.
As you can see, you'll find detailed metrics, including the following:
- Total keywords
- Search volume
- CPC value
- Announcements (if any)
- Paid clicks
- Mobile searches for every keyword and more
SpyFu Pricing: SpyFu offers the following two pricing options.
- The SpyFu plan Basic costs you $39 per month, where you will get 10 rows of search results, 000 rows of data exports, 10 domain overview PDFs, 000 months of historical data, 100 domain leads and contacts, and 6 Weekly rankings of tracked keywords.
- The SpyFu plan Professional costs you $79 per month, where you will get unlimited searches and data exports, PDFs and 10+ years of historical data, 500 leads and 15 tracked weekly ranks and API access.
4 Ahrefs
Ahrefs offers an all-in-one SEO toolset that provides access to everything you need to get detailed analysis of your competitors' organic keywords.
How to use Ahrefs to find competitor keywords?
Ahrefs offers a proprietary tool called “Site Explorer” that helps you find organic keywords for any domain or website.
Simply enter any URL into the Site Explorer tool and it will show you a list of all its organic keywords.
This is what it looks like;
As you can see, you will get the list of keywords that a target website or URL is ranking for in search, along with key metrics, including the following:
- Search volume
- Keyword difficulty
- CPC (cost per click for each keyword you discover)
- Traffic and more
You can also find the list of all PAID keywords that a target website or URL is advertising for in search.
This is what it looks like;
Ahrefs pricing: Ahrefs offers four pricing plans.
- The Ahrefs Plan Lite costs you $99 per month, where you get access to 1 user for up to 5 projects to create, track 750 keywords and perform 100 site crawls per month.
- The Ahrefs Plan Standard costs you $199 per month, where you get access to 1 user for up to 20 projects to create, track 2 keywords and perform 000 site crawls per month.
- The Ahrefs Plan Advanced Costs you $399 per month, where you get 1 user for up to 50 projects to create, track 5 keywords, and perform 000 million site crawls per month.
- The Ahrefs Plan Enterprise Costs you $999 per month and you will get 1 user for up to 100 projects to create, track 10 keywords and perform 000 million site crawls per month.
5.Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is the MOST affordable way to analyze any website and find its top ranking keywords.
Its keyword tool gives you access to valuable keyword insights across Google, YouTube, and Amazon. You'll also have access to paid and organic analytics, related keyword suggestions, and much more.
How to use Ubersuggest to find competitor keywords?
Once you're on the website, simply sign in with your Google account to get started (it's free!).
You can use their keyword research tool to enter one of your competitors' URLs. The tool will instantly show you a traffic overview where you can find metrics like:
- Organic Keywords
- Organic search traffic
- Domain Authority, Backlinks and More
This is what it looks like;
Once you click on the “Organic Keywords” section, you will see a list of all the organic keywords that a domain ranks for.
Look at;
As you can see, you will find all the SEO keywords, including:
- Their search volume
- Current position in Google search
- Estimated visits generated by each keyword
- Keywords and traffic distribution of each country, etc.
Overall, Ubersuggest is one of the cheapest tools for finding and analyzing keywords for ANY website.
Ubersuggest pricing: Ubersuggest offers three pricing options (which are one-time payments with lifetime access).
- The Ubersuggest package Individual only costs you $120 (lifetime), where you get 150 searches per day, 1 domain, 125 tracked keywords per domain, 5 competitors per domain, up to 1 page scans per domain and access to 000 user.
- The Ubersuggest plan Business only costs you $120 (lifetime), where you get 300 searches per day, 7 domains, 150 tracked keywords per domain, 10 competitors per domain, up to 5 page scans per domain, and access to 000 users.
- The Ubersuggest plan Enterprise only costs you $120 (lifetime), where you get 900 searches per day, 15 domains, 300 tracked keywords per domain, 15 competitors per domain, up to 10 page scans per domain, and access to 000 users.
Evaluate keyword data
Once you have a list of competing keywords, analyze them for the following keyword metrics:
- Search volume: how many people are searching for each keyword? If you are running a new website, opt for keywords with fewer searches (less than 1 searches).
- Level of competition: Is it difficult to rank for each keyword? Most tools, including Ubersuggest or Semrush, offer a metric called Keyword Difficulty, which helps you find the level of competition.
- Click-through rate (CTR): what is the probability that people will click on a search result for each keyword? Again, most SEO tools offer this data.
- Content strategy: what type of content are your competitors creating for each keyword? Based on this, you can create relevant content that helps you attract the RIGHT audience.
- Branded and unbranded keywords: You need to understand the difference between branded and unbranded keywords. Branded keywords are “navigational keywords” that include the brand name. Unbranded keywords are keywords that are relevant to your brand, but do NOT include your brand name.
- Potential profitability: you should also look at the CPC (cost per click) value of each keyword. This way you will know how profitable a keyword is.
If you're new to keyword research, read our free guide on How to Do Keyword Research Like a Pro .
Recommended reading:
- Future of SEO: 5 Trends That Will Impact Your Business and Website Ranking
- What is timeless content? Beginner's guide with practical tips
- 4 Important Types of Keywords with Real-World Examples
- 10 Best SEO Audit Tools for Easy Website Analysis
- SEO Meta Tags: Definitive Guide for Beginners
- 10 Local SEO Tools to Quadruple Your Local Search Rankings
Final Thoughts on Competitor Keyword Analysis for Better SEO
Competitive keyword analysis is useful when you are struggling to find traffic-driving keywords.
Make sure to focus on low volume, high CPC keywords if you want BETTER results.
So, what do you think about keyword competition analysis? Do you have specific questions about how to conduct competitor keyword analysis for your website? Let us know in the comments.
