Cre­at­ing a web­site and join­ing social media plat­forms is not enough to get you noticed online. These should all be part of a strate­gic SEO strat­e­gy that cre­ates a snow­ball effect over time. When exe­cut­ed well, they will com­ple­ment oth­er ele­ments of your SEO like con­tent, key­words, back­links, meta descrip­tions, and more. You’ll want to iden­ti­fy com­peti­tors in your indus­try to find out what they are doing well online and how to dupli­cate it. We’ll show you how to con­duct com­peti­tor key­word research to find out how your com­pe­ti­tion is mak­ing waves online. 

How to Identify Competitors

Male Hand Using Smart Phone With Search Engine Icon Sign.

When you spend time on com­peti­tor key­word research, you’ll dis­cov­er valu­able and strate­gic key­words that can help ele­vate your online pres­ence. Gath­er­ing and main­tain­ing a col­lec­tion of key­words is more than under­stand­ing your brand, indus­try, prod­ucts, and ser­vices. It requires a deep dive into rec­og­niz­ing what space you occu­py online in your indus­try and where you land in SERPs, also known as search engine results pages. This is Google’s response to a search inquiry on your busi­ness. Here’s how to iden­ti­fy com­peti­tors online to improve your SEO strategy: 

  • Define the com­pe­ti­tion — Your com­peti­tors are fight­ing for the same vis­i­bil­i­ty, rel­e­vance, and cus­tomers you are. Know­ing who they are and dupli­cat­ing their efforts will help to expand the space you occu­py online. There are three types of com­peti­tors you should identify: 
  • Direct com­peti­tors — These are busi­ness­es that sell the same prod­uct or ser­vice to the same tar­get mar­ket as you. 
  • Indi­rect com­peti­tors — These busi­ness­es sell the same prod­uct or ser­vice to a dif­fer­ent tar­get mar­ket. It can include busi­ness­es that sell a dif­fer­ent prod­uct or ser­vice to a sim­i­lar tar­get mar­ket due to the resemblance. 
  • Seman­tic com­peti­tors — These busi­ness­es may not sell a prod­uct or ser­vice but they are news­wor­thy or inter­est­ing enough to cap­ture atten­tion from the same tar­get market. 
  • Pin­point indi­rect com­pe­ti­tion — It is easy to iden­ti­fy direct com­peti­tors but more chal­leng­ing to iden­ti­fy indi­rect com­peti­tors. This is a skill that can eas­i­ly be learned through cre­ativ­i­ty and an under­stand­ing of rel­e­vance. Indi­rect com­peti­tors may not be that close to what your busi­ness is offer­ing, but they are cap­tur­ing sig­nif­i­cant vis­i­bil­i­ty from the same audi­ence as you. An exam­ple of indi­rect com­peti­tors can be a busi­ness that offers a mobile ver­sion of the soft­ware that you sell for a desk­top computer. 
  • Learn from the seman­tic com­pe­ti­tion — When you are inter­est­ed in your indus­try trends, fol­low the seman­tic com­pe­ti­tion. You’ll gain valu­able insights on where your audi­ence is spend­ing their time and mon­ey while locat­ing changes in key­words and search query trends. This infor­ma­tion can be in the form of indus­try pub­li­ca­tions debat­ing over new prod­ucts or ser­vices that are in direct com­pe­ti­tion with yours. Brain­storm­ing where your audi­ence may spend their time search­ing before they are aware of their prob­lem or your solu­tion, is anoth­er great way to iden­ti­fy key­words. Some places online you should con­sid­er are: 
  • Guides — Long-form con­tent pieces that take a deep dive into a top­ic can deliv­er valu­able infor­ma­tion and insights into com­peti­tor keywords. 
  • Thought lead­er­ship arti­cles — These are long-form con­tent pieces that are writ­ten by author­i­ty fig­ures. They pro­vide valu­able insights into key­words asso­ci­at­ed with your expe­ri­ences, beliefs, and values. 
  • Expert inter­views — Research­ing expert inter­views gives you the chance to dive into author­i­ty fig­ures or experts in your industry. 
  • Edu­tain­ment con­tent — This type of con­tent is enter­tain­ing but educational. 
  • Learn from man­u­al search­es — You’ve prob­a­bly con­duct­ed a man­u­al search already but nev­er real­ized it. This is eas­i­ly done using the Google search engine by inputting a spe­cif­ic word and close­ly ana­lyz­ing the SERP. Gain­ing insight on how the search is orga­nized and what con­tent is pre­sent­ed will give you an idea of your competitor’s intent. 

Oth­er ele­ments you should pay atten­tion to are the ads that appear. This is an indi­ca­tion of bid­ding and pay­ment for a spe­cif­ic key­word. This is a clever way to find out how your com­peti­tors are strate­giz­ing con­tent to reach their audi­ence. If you dis­cov­er com­peti­tors in the organ­ic rank­ings that are gen­er­at­ing buzz with high vis­i­bil­i­ty and engage­ment with your tar­get audi­ence, you’ll want to use the same key­words. Mim­ic your com­peti­tors’ con­tent by adding more rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion or a dif­fer­ent take on the same subject. 

  • Get social — Find out what social plat­forms they are using and join them! Use social media to iden­ti­fy com­peti­tors and observe the fol­low­er inter­ac­tion. Take a look at who they are fol­low­ing and get inquis­i­tive as to how they cre­ate engage­ment and what con­tent they post. As part of com­peti­tor key­word research, find out what key­words they use in their con­tent and add them to your key­word col­lec­tion. Be aware of niche web­sites and social media plat­forms that are dis­cussing what your tar­get audi­ence is inter­est­ed in. You can find out how pur­chas­ing deci­sions are made and the infor­ma­tion they are exchang­ing about prod­ucts or ser­vices you offer. 
  • Track the locals — When con­duct­ing local com­peti­tor key­word research, you’ll want to fol­low the local pack. This refers to the rank­ings list­ed at the top of the SERP in a “near me” online query. You should focus on being includ­ed in this list­ing in your area. This will require you to opti­mize your Google My Busi­ness pro­file but will be depen­dent on your rel­e­vance and distance. 

Take the time to ana­lyze how they orga­nized the con­tent and how it caters to their audi­ence. Iden­ti­fy and ana­lyze the dif­fer­ences and sim­i­lar­i­ties in spe­cif­ic key­word search­es and include them in your SEO strategy. 

  • Fol­low links and men­tions — Anoth­er competitor’s key­word tool is the use of links and men­tions that can include review sites, rep­utable sites, and author­i­ta­tive sites and pub­li­ca­tions that have a large fol­low­ing. You’ll find valu­able links and men­tions with­in their con­tent that will iden­ti­fy com­peti­tors and where to find them online. 

Why Competitor Keyword Research is Important

As a busi­ness own­er, you always want to be one step ahead of the com­pe­ti­tion. The world has become more dig­i­tal and com­pe­ti­tion has evolved into SEO war­fare. One of the most pow­er­ful tour­na­ment weapons is com­pet­i­tive key­word research. Imple­ment­ing oth­er clever tac­tics like dis­cov­er­ing your com­peti­tors’ key­word tools to tar­get the same audi­ence can raise your vis­i­bil­i­ty, expand your online pres­ence, and gen­er­ate new business. 

Using com­peti­tor key­word research as a strate­gic tool for expand­ing your online pres­ence is most effec­tive when you pay close atten­tion to the details. When con­duct­ing key­word research, it’s impor­tant to pay atten­tion to more than just the top rank­ings. Devel­op­ing a strong online brand takes a com­pre­hen­sive approach that requires adapt­abil­i­ty and savvi­ness. Stay­ing up to date with what the com­peti­tors are doing online will help you main­tain a strong online posi­tion. Here’s why it’s so impor­tant to con­duct com­peti­tor key­word research: 

  • You want to under­stand how your com­peti­tors are per­form­ing in online search engines and where you can fill the gaps to sur­pass them. 
  • You want to dis­cov­er new key­words that you may have over­looked before. 
  • You want to use your competitor’s key­words to beat them in online visibility. 

Keywords Research Business Concept. The Meeting at the White Office Table

We Can Identify Competitors to Your Business

You don’t have to do this alone. We under­stand the impor­tance of a com­pre­hen­sive and strate­gic approach to using a competitor’s key­word tool in SEO mar­ket­ing. By part­ner­ing with us, you can focus on oth­er aspects of your busi­ness. You can expect us to sup­port you in var­i­ous ways: 

  • We iden­ti­fy com­peti­tors using var­i­ous analy­sis tools while focus­ing on web devel­op­ment and cre­at­ing great con­tent with mul­ti-media ser­vices
  • Curat­ing online expe­ri­ences that seam­less­ly merge dig­i­tal, social, and mobile assets to launch new prod­ucts and ser­vices is our expertise. 
  • Our dig­i­tal and social media ser­vices team part­ners with your busi­ness to deliv­er a strate­gic, high-impact expe­ri­ence that trans­lates to the bot­tom line. 

A strong online pres­ence is the first impres­sion of your brand to prospec­tive cus­tomers and clients. Our award-win­ning team ana­lyzes your rep­u­ta­tion and brand from a fresh per­spec­tive while col­lab­o­rat­ing with you to revi­tal­ize and improve your busi­ness by incor­po­rat­ing spe­cif­ic tools to iden­ti­fy essen­tial key­words. Using an inte­grat­ed mar­ket­ing approach, we are resource­ful and focused on sup­port­ing your busi­ness. We cre­ate per­son­al­ized and cus­tomized mes­sag­ing to secure pos­i­tive cov­er­age and posi­tion­ing for your busi­ness. Whether you’re a small busi­ness own­er or a stressed-out mar­keter in need of sup­port, we are a valu­able and focused mar­ket­ing resource that can help you free up some time. 

Call today for a free mar­ket­ing audit of your busi­ness to get started!