7 Ways to Identify Your Competitors for Better SEO Keyword Research

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

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. 

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!