When it comes to SEO growth, the fastest way to beat your rivals is to identify highly trafficked keywords and use a smart SEO competitor keyword analysis process.
By studying what works for others, you can uncover competitor keywords, find competitor keywords you’ve missed, and develop a winning competitor keyword strategy.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to analyze and identify every competitor keyword opportunity, spot keyword gaps, and create a powerful competitive keyword research plan that helps you outrank your competitors and capture real traffic.
Why Do Competitor Keyword Research?
Competitor keyword research is the practice of finding and analyzing competitors’ keyword strategies to assess which keywords your competitors already rank for.
This analysis helps you:
- Identify new keyword opportunities and fill the content gap
- Evaluate keyword difficulty, search volume, and keyword performance
- Spot organic and paid keywords that drive revenue
- Understand the search intent behind every query
- Discover long-tail and local opportunities
- Build stronger SEO strategies that deliver results
Performing a competitor keyword analysis is not just about copying others; it’s about understanding their strategies and identifying opportunities.
It’s about using competitor insights to create better content analysis, improve seo tool use, and build a stronger competitive landscape SEO.
Step-by-Step Competitor Keyword Analysis Process for Finding Target Keywords to Get Traffic
Let’s break down how to perform competitor keyword research step by step.
Step 1. Perform an SEO Competitor Analysis & Identify your Competition
In any SEO competitor analysis, the first step is to conduct a competitor review of your market.
Look at:
- Competitor website structures
- Top traffic pages of the competitor website
- Content benchmarking reports
- Overall competitive analysis metrics include: Traffic, Keywords, Backlinks, Content, Paid Ads, and Brand Signals.
Step 2. Use Top SEO Tools for Competitor Website Data Gathering
A good analysis tool or seo tool is key.
You can use:
- Semrush competitor keywords (great for keyword gap tool, ppc research, and traffic estimation)
- Ahrefs competitor analysis (excellent for backlink analysis, backlink profile, link intersect, and link opportunities)
- Ubersuggest keyword research (helpful for long-tail and particular keyword tracking)
- Serpstat competitor research (ideal for competitor PPC keywords and pay vs organic comparisons)
These tools also give you keyword data, keyword receive reports, and keyword competition analysis insights, with many offering free versions or trials to get started.
Step 3. Conducting Competitor Keyword Research to See Important Keyword Metrics
When conducting competitor keyword research, focus on:
- Keyword rankings of your organic competitors
- SERP analysis for each target keyword
- Keyword overlap between your site and theirs
- Keyword clusters and keyword mapping for your content plan
- Keyword difficulty scores and metric evaluation
This helps you see which topic areas you’re missing and where you can rank for a keyword with less effort.
Step 4. Search and Evaluate Keyword Gaps and Keyword Opportunities
Use the keyword gap tool to find keywords that your competitors rank for that you don’t. This reveals:
- Content gap opportunities
- Keyword opportunities with low competition
- Keyword usage trends
- Keyword benchmarking comparisons
By performing a competitor keyword analysis, you’ll uncover every keyword gap and evaluate whether the value of that given keyword is worth targeting.
Step 5. Audit Competitor Content & Analyze Their Strategy
Next, do a competitive content audit and analyze competitor content:
- What seo keyword research are they applying?
- How do they use each particular keyword?
- Which seo strategies drive the most traffic?
- What are the weak points in content analysis?
This comparison will highlight keyword strategy improvements for your own page and site.
Step 6. Track Performance and Adjust Keywords after Conducting a Competitor Analysis
After launching, don’t stop. Keep keyword monitoring and competitor keyword performance tracking active.
Look for:
- Keyword trends are changing in the market
- Competitive intelligence tools that flag keyword list shifts
- Core Web Vitals (competitor site health)
- Featured snippets to target that your rivals achieve
- SEO audit competitors for ongoing review
Tracking ensures your competition doesn’t get ahead.
Tips to Improve SEO using Competitor Analysis in Google Search
- Always perform a competitor audit before targeting a new keyword.
- Conducting competitor keyword research ensures you don’t waste time chasing high keyword difficulty terms on Google Search.
- A competitive research strategy works best when you see both organic and paid keywords’ performance.
- Performing competitor comparison regularly keeps your competitive analysis fresh.
- Improve SEO through competitor analysis by focusing on keyword explorer tools, analysis tool data, and seo tool automation.
Final Thought: Perform Competitor Analysis to Strengthen Your SEO Strategy
A strong competitor keyword analysis involves more than just looking at competitor content. It’s about learning how to perform competitor reviews, using keyword analysis tools, and conducting competitor keyword research the right way.
By focusing on finding competitor keywords, using keyword gap tools, and analyzing competitors’ keyword data, you’ll identify gaps, see new opportunity areas, and create a winning seo competitive analysis plan.
With this guide, you now have the process to perform competitor keyword research, track keyword performance, and apply competitive keyword research for long-term success.
Remember: every time it comes to competitor strategy, the brands that use the right seo tool, analyze the report, and target keyword opportunities are the ones that win the traffic game.
FAQs
Q1) How often should I perform competitor keyword analysis?
Ans: Most SEO experts recommend analyzing competitor keywords every 2–3 months to stay ahead, as rankings and traffic keywords change over time.
Q2) What mistakes should I avoid in competitor keyword analysis?
Ans: Avoid copying competitor strategies blindly. Continually adapt keyword insights to your own niche, content goals, and audience intent.
Q3) What’s the difference between traffic keywords and conversion keywords?
Ans: Traffic keywords attract visitors to your site, while conversion keywords focus on driving specific actions, such as sign-ups or purchases.
Q4) How do I find the traffic keywords my competitors are ranking for?
Ans: You can use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Ubersuggest. Simply enter a competitor’s domain to see their top-performing traffic keywords and identify content gaps.
