Keyword Research Competitor Analysis Tips and Tricks

In this article we will look at a few tips and tricks related to keyword research competitor analysis.

I'm going to assume that your target page isn't as high up in the SERPs as you would like, and that you have done some basic strategic keyword research to figure out which keyword phrases you should be targeting (depending on whether you have picked a Value or Volume keyword selection strategy.)

The reason the selection strategy matters is because the first technique is entirely keyword driven.

Search Competitor Analysis

Before anything else, you need to know who is in the Top 10 for your target keyword phrase.

The easiest way to do this is to go to your search engine of choice, and type in your search phrase as a query. Here are some important key points:

• make sure you conduct the search in an "anonymous" browser session (also called InPrivate);
• set the right geographic context by using the correct location-based engine URL (i.e. .co.uk/.com/.fr etc.);
• start with a narrow match (i.e. put the keywords "in quotes").

Once you have your list of direct search engine result page competitors, open each target link in a new window, and copy and paste the URL to a notepad or spreadsheet. Do as many as you see fit, across a wide spectrum of URLs (if a lot of them come from so-called "content farms" be wary), but make sure you have at least 10 unique domains / sub-domains.

Keyword Density

Once you've figured out who the competition is, use a tool like SEO Tools Keyword Density Checker to make a list of the one, two and three word keyword phrases, and rank them according to their relative density.

Why does this matter?

Keyword density is one of those measures that used to have recommended hard and fast rules about what the number should be. In the early days, keyword stuffing, a technique that consisted of repeating the target keyword phrase as often as possible in an article got results.

These days, however, search engines "recognise keyword stuffing as a disingenuous tactic" at best (source: Enge et al (2010) The Art of SEO, US:O'Reilly, p. 211) and "can actually get your pages devalued via search engine penalties" at worst (ibid).

Using the tool is easy: just plug in the page that you have identified as being in competition with your own, and then pick out the keywords and their relative densities from the resulting list. Now you know two things:

• the best keywords;
• the densities that are currently working.

Of course, the more pages you analyse, the better your keyword density research will be, and since the results are always relative to your own performance, you should also conduct the same exercise on one of your own pages.

Strategic Keyword Competitor Analysis

Another tactic you can use to expose keyword phrases that your competitors are targeting is to copy and paste the URL into the AdWords Keyword Planner tool.

In the same way that the SEO Tools utility above picks out keyword phrases, the Keyword Planner will analyse the content of the page, and pick up keywords from the Google and AdWords' keyword databases.

The result is a list that can be used to create content to rival that which is being put out by the competition, lifted from their own text. Incidentally, the technique can also be used as a cross check for your own content (to make sure Google is picking up the right keyword phrases) or s a way to pick out keywords to target with an AdWords campaign.

The Keyword Coach Keyword Research Tutorials are a good place to start if you need some tips on how to analyse the resulting lists of keyword and search data, or just search the blog for "long tail keywords".

Processing lists of keywords to find those that match your strategy is a useful skill to learn, and the Keyword Planner results are a great (free) data source to start with.

Finally, the SEMRush tool is great for giving you an overview of your competition, and the keywords that they are targeting. What's great is that it works well for sub-domains as well as domains. However the tool performs but less well for pages on a domain.

Maintaining a list of keywords that are preferred by the competition is a good way to add keyword research and keyword marketing to your ongoing competitive advantage, just assign some time in your keyword research strategy and process to apply these techniques and stay ahead of the pack!

How to Find Blog Post Ideas using Keyword Research

One of the most useful aspects of keyword research is as a guided brainstorming tool to help find blog post ideas that are valuable and useful, and above all, popular.

As long as you follow a process, you can almost guarantee never to run out of ideas. However, the process also needs to deal with ways to track and organise those ideas and topics so that you can make the best use of them.

Luckily, popular blog platforms such as Blogger and WordPress, as well as tools like Search Console, Analytics and Stat Counter can all be used to help you make sure that you are getting the best out of the keyword research and blog idea generation process.

How to Get Blog Post Ideas

The following is a simple, pretty unrefined process that ought to serve as a great starting point for generating a simple blog post. Before you begin you need to identify your Root Keyword Phrase, which can just be a single word, to represent the part of your niche tat you want to write about.

For example, for this post (you don't think I do these things in the dark, do you?) I simply chose the word 'blog' and picked the first phrase that fitted from a simple Keyword Planner search, ordered by Volume.

I ended up with 'blog post'.

Next, head on over to KeywordTool.io, and type in your Root Keyword Phrase, copy the result list to the clipboard, and paste it into the Keyword Planner. Do another search, then select, this time by a combination of Volume and CPC, the most appropriate result: this is your Target Keyword Phrase.

In this case, I chose 'blog post ideas'. Topical.

Finally, go to the AnswerThePublic.com web site, and enter your Target Keyword Phrase and hit Search. From the resulting collection of Questions, Prepositions and Alphabetically Listed results, you need to select the best 4 to use as H2 Headings, and one to use as the Title.

Simply put these into blank blog post, and write 500-700 words of great content!

Of course, what's likely to happen is that you get distracted by lots of shiny new objects in the form of rather attractive keyword phrases.

It would be a shame to discard them completely, so instead it's a good idea to organise them for future use.

How to Organise Blog Post Ideas

Typically, you will end up with groups of blog post ideas:

• questions - "where to get blog post ideas"
• how-to's - "how to get blog post ideas"
• reviews - "what's the best blog platform"
• discussions - "should I blog for business"
• etc.

The trick is to separate them out into Titles and H2 Headings. I like to use a mind map to group the H2 Headings under the Titles; as well as making sure that I pay attention to where, when, and how they have been used.

Tracking them in this way has two advantages: one, you know which ones are generating traffic, and secondly, you can interlink pieces according to topics, to generate a web of content that will be picked up by search engines.

How to Track Blog Post Ideas

Tracking goes beyond whether you've used an idea: you also need to keep account of how many articles it appears in, what the competition was at the time it was 'discovered', and what the traffic generation (acquisition) profile has been.

For example, for my target keyword phrase 'how to find blog post ideas' I know that there are 8,740 results in Google's UK database. I also know that there's about 100 searches for this exact phrase every month.

At the same time, I know that for "blog post ideas", there's about 10,000 searches, at an average anticipated cost per click (thanks Keyword Planner!) of around £1.

As yet, though, this post has not generated any traffic, according to Analytics, nor has it been viewed in search engine results pages (SERPs) according to the Search Console.

These are all metrics that you should track in order to create a picture of the success of each blog post.

Blog Post Ideas for Businesses

Top of the list has to be FAQs, or Frequently Asked Questions, about your products, brand, services, etc. I have another phrase for FAQs, though, and that's Fairly Anticipated Questions: the hint is in the title -- don't wait for the questions, use AnswerThePublic to actively look for them.

Obviously how-to's are another great subject: especially if they can be linked to subsidiary products, or repeat purchases and alternative uses for your products or services. Again, though, don't forget to do the keyword research to establish demand, and include CTAs (Call to Action) on each carefully-tuned page.

Another important one is the checklist post. These include lists of items that you believe customers should be doing. Each one has to be a carefully constructed keyword phrase, however, in order to get the best performance from the post.

Finally, reviews, previews, and industry news commentary are all very good blog post ideas for businesses. Use keyword research to find blog post ideas by combining root keyword phrases together and using them as search queries in Google.

Scroll right down to the bottom for a selection of Google-suggested blog post ideas!

For more ideas, get The Niche Blogger Content Blueprint for tips, ideas, processes and repeatable procedures that will help you to generate, track and test blog posts that are based on real world keyword research.

Happy blogging!

What is Keyword Research: A Definition for Modern SEO

If you type "what is keyword research" into a search engine, you get a flood of results. Here are a few quotes:

"Keyword research is a practice search engine optimization (SEO) professionals use to find and research actual search terms that people enter into search engines." Wikipedia page on Keyword Research
"Keyword research is one of the most important, valuable, and high return activities in the search marketing field" from the MOZ Guide to SEO

"keyword research tools can help you find the right keywords to optimize a website for search engine users." from Wordstream.com.

All of these are good quotes, but they only really scratch the surface. Keyword  research is much more than just finding the right keywords...

Keyword Research is Market Research

Your future customers use keywords to communicate with the world: when they go to a search engine and type in a query, they are looking for a solution to a problem. They're looking for something that may or may not already exist; if it exists you can sell it to them, if it doesn't, you can create it.

The combination of words is also important, because each word can carry both meaning and intent.

For example, consider the difference between the following:

• "free eBooks about online investing"
• "where to buy books about online investing"

The sales pitch for an online investing course will be very different, depending on which of those phrases delivered the visitor. Learning how to gauge intent is a valuable part of the keyword research process.

The proportion of "buyer intent" keywords versus "buyer research" ones will help to give you an idea about the size of the market as well as its needs.

Keyword Research is Product Research

From the above example, we can also surmise that people want both eBooks and real books. There are people willing to pay, and those who want to sample a free eBook first.

However, there will be a number of phrases that don't come loaded with any intent. These so-called "buyer research" phrases provide valuable insights into what products exist, and what skews might be considered.

By combining brand and product names with your keyword phrase, you can begin to work out the demand for various product skews, as well as look at those already on the market. Once you find a product that satisfies the market, there are also techniques that you can use to extract the keywords from the page to see what the maker is using to attract customers, as well as find out about the competition.

Keyword Research is Competition Research

Using a tool such as SEMRush can help with both the Market and Product Research, but is really good at finding out where the competition is, and what they are using to create opportunities.

Again, intent can be inferred from some of the keyword research, as words like "review", "problems" and "good" (or, indeed "bad") can help to create a picture of how the competition is viewed, and how it might be succeeding (or failing) to satisfy the market.

Keyword Research is also for SEO

Finally, the purpose of keyword research for many people is not to find a new market, or design new products, but to attract people willing to spend money.

The keywords you use in your web content are just another form of communication. You are communicating what your page is about to the search engines, as well as proving its value.

Picking the right keywords helps search engines match the intent of search users with your intent as a content producer. Get it wrong, and your site may never be viewed by a single potential customer; get it right and you may well tap into a market larger than you thought possible.

Learn more about keyword research in the Niche Blogger Content Blueprint; a guide not just for bloggers but anyone who wants to create an online presence.

Free Keyword Tool / Generator List

Top 5 Free Keyword Tool / Generator List

Anyone who is conducting keyword research on a regular basis needs to have access to tools that save time. Those who follow me will know that I have a specific view of tools -- they should only automate something you understand fully how to to manually -- and my reasons why.

(Hint: it's to do with tools being put beyond use.)

The following tools, by and large, are just time-savers. You can replicate their core functionality given a browser and some time, but they will make your life a lot easier!

KeywordTool.io

This was among the first general-purpose auto-suggestion scrapers. It has retained its simplicity, and in the paid version, has added some search volume and CPC stats. Since these are available through other channels for free, I'm not sure how much value access to these numbers adds, but it certainly streamlines the keyword research process further.

KeywordTool.io also works across sites -- Google, Yahoo, Amazon, etc. -- and has a useful 'question seeker' mode which often uncovers valuable problems, needs, wants and desires in niches.

Ubersuggest.io

Somehow, I've always found Ubersuggest's interface to be somewhat cumbersome, but you can't fault the results. 

It does the same thing that KeywordTool.io does, but returns more results and lets you see them as text, alphabetically, or as a word cloud. Whether these are useful to you will depend on your point of view.

The ability to expand keyword phrases from within the interface, as well as explore each one on Google, Trends, and so forth also add to the power (but also make it a bit distracting). Nonetheless, it stays on my bookmark list because for the few times I've wanted to fool around with a phrase for myself or a client, it has worked wonders!

(Just remember to stay focused, or you can get easily drawn into spending hours mixing up phrases!)

SEO Book Keyword List Generator

SEO Book's free keyword phrase generator is a bit daunting at first. But, ultimately, it is rewarding once you get what it's trying to achieve.

Firstly, it only works if you know what keywords you want to combine.

Given up to five lists of words, it will then combine them in each and every way, allowing you to then input the list into other tools to measure the anticipated effectiveness of the keywords.

It's one of those tools that you need to play around with before deciding whether it's right for you, but it's likely to find a place on your bookmark list because it's a quick and effective brainstorming tool.

SEMRush.com

SemRush works in one of two modes: you can give it an URL and it will extract the keywords and measure the SEO effectiveness of the site, but equally, you can give it a keyword phrase for a report on what the keyword landscape looks like for that phrase.

It can make for very interesting reading: from the number of searches, available results, and anticipated CPC figures through to lists of related keywords and phrase matches. Of course, the free version limits the quantity of these keywords returned, but it is great for a first look at a niche.

Personally, I recommend it as a tool that can be of great use early on, before a site is created and optimised, and then later on to track the performance of a site in search engine marketing terms. Agencies and keyword research professionals will probably find themselves able to justify buying a license for the expanded results, too.

Individuals, not so much, as a lot of mileage can be got out of the free version as long as you only have one project to evaluate.

Google Keyword Planner

There's always one that breaks the rules, and this is it.

The Keyword Planner does something that cannot be done elsewhere. It matches advertising needs with Google's search database. The result is that you can use it to generate alternative keyword phrases and get search volume and PPC stats by keyword phrase.

Not to mention, that if you have a collection of keywords generated by, say KeywordTool.io or the SEO Book generator, you can test them using the Keyword Planner.

The Google Keyword Planner is available, for free, to those with AdWords accounts (not necessarily  funded accounts at present.)

(Note: the reason it breaks the rules is that, if you base your entire keyword research philosophy on it's output, then if it is ever taken away, you will not be able to replicate your own results manually.)

Which is the Best Free Keyword Tool / Generator Combination?

Of the five three free keyword generators listed here, my preference is for simplicity; and that's why I regularly turn to KeywordTool.io. However, if I'm working with a client who has a specific handle on their niche and keywords, then the SEO Book generator enables a list to be created based on combinations of sets of keywords.

It's a great time-saver if you already have the words, just want to know the best way to put them together!

Of the two evaluation tools, I personally use the Keyword Planner a lot. Probably more than I should, but then I'm also an AdWords and AdSense user.

What's great about SEM Rush is that it gives a great dashboard-style overview which can be replicated manually, and with more detail, using a combination of third party tools -- including the Keyword planner -- but is both prettier and more practical.

If you're a beginner, I'd use KeywordTool.io in conjunction with the Keyword Planner. But, the decision is yours!