How to Use Competitor Keyword Analysis to Boost Your SEO

What are your competitors publishing on their website these days?

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While focusing exclusively on your own web content might seem like the best way to stay relevant, there's a lot to be said for keeping tabs on the competition. A huge part of a robust marketing strategy is making sure you're covering all your bases. Sure, you can visit their site and take a peek at the UX design and get a general feel for their on-page SEO, but the most useful information comes from the keywords themselves. Let's take a look at all the ways you can use a competitor keyword analysis to gain a competitive edge for your content needs.

What is a competitor keyword analysis?

A competitor keyword analysis is a process of examining the keywords that your competitors are targeting in their online content and SEO strategies. The goal is to understand which search terms and long-tail keywords your competitors are using to attract visitors, rank in search engine results, and drive traffic to their websites. Also known as a "keyword gap analysis," this helps you identify opportunities and threats in your own SEO strategy. A competitor keyword analysis can lead to a boost in your SEO when you successfully identify high-value keywords that your competitors are ranking for, then target similar terms with your own optimized content.

How do I perform a competitor keyword analysis?

It's pretty straightforward — most of what you'll do in a competitor keyword analysis is the same as what you'd do in your own content analysis, with just a few more steps.

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Identify competitors. Determine who your main competitors are in your industry or niche. These can be direct competitors (offering similar products or services) or indirect competitors (which offer different products or services but still compete for the attention and resources of the same target audience).

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Use keyword research tools. Rellify, as well as tools from Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz and others, can help you gather data on the keywords your competitors are ranking for. Check for metrics like:

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• Search volume. The number of searches for a particular keyword.
• Keyword difficulty. How competitive it is to rank for that keyword.
• Ranking position. What position their keywords are ranking for on SERPs.

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Content analysis. Review the type of content your competitors are creating around these keywords. Are they blog posts, landing pages, or product descriptions? Evaluate how well their content aligns with the targeted keywords. Is there a more appropriate or effective way you could incorporate the keywords in your own content, providing a better user experience?

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Opportunity identification. When you look at all facets of their content and keywords, search for opportunities to outperform them. Are there words with lower competition or a higher relevance to your audience? Take note of any gaps that you can fill.

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Strategy adjustment. The overarching goal here is to boost your SEO and user experience with specific keyword opportunities you glean from insights. Based on your findings, take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Do you need to pivot your entire content strategy, or can you just make some tweaks? Adjust to capitalize on opportunities, address weaknesses, and set your brand apart.

After the competitor analysis, create your content

We've mentioned "filling in the gaps" in your competitions' content and using your insights for content optimization. But what exactly needs to happen with the insights you glean from your research?

Select target keywords

Choose keywords that are relevant to your audience and have a good balance of search volume and competition. Focus on those keywords where you can provide superior content compared to your competitors. Long-tail keywords (more specific phrases) are a good choice, because they typically have lower competition but high relevance. Here are the key factors to consider when selecting target keywords:

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• Relevance. The keywords should be closely related to your products, services, or platform.
• User search intent. Target phrases with transactional intent first. These are the ones that will attract users who are further along in the buying cycle, increasing the likelihood of converting visits into sales or leads.
• Search volume. Higher search volume often means more potential traffic.
• Keyword difficulty. How competitive is it to rank for the keyword? Be realistic about the likelihood of your content outranking the competition with certain keywords, and how much effort you'll need to put forth to make that happen.

Create a content outline

Develop an outline for your content that will incorporate the chosen keywords naturally. Your content needs a clear structure, with headings that align with (and sometimes incorporate) your target keywords. Break down the main topic into subtopics that cover various aspects of the keyword. Use insights from competitor content to identify additional subtopics or related questions.

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Rellify makes the creation of blog outlines seamless, with a drag and drop feature that allows you to integrate keywords wherever you think they'd best fit.

Develop high-quality content

Your content should be comprehensive and provide more value than competitor content. This is where you're going to use the information you gathered from the analytics on your competitor. Aim to cover the topic thoroughly, addressing common questions and providing actionable insights. High-quality content greatly benefits from a robust backlink profile, with lots of high-value, relevant sites linking back to your pages. This helps establish authority in your brand, one of the key metrics Google uses when ranking pages.

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Also, don't forget to incorporate elements that boost user engagement, such as visuals (images, infographics), multimedia (videos, podcasts), and interactive elements (quizzes, tools).

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Rellify is the platform many companies trust to develop content strategies, create content, and deliver measurable results. With a Relliverse™, you can have a customized AI subject-matter expert that shows your team exactly where you need to focus to get your content on page one of SERPs.

Optimize the on-page SEO elements

It's not enough to have all the right keywords in the body of your text. Optimization means strategically incorporating the keywords into every facet of the publication.

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• Title tag and meta description. Craft a compelling title that includes the primary keyword. Make sure it is descriptive and within the recommended length (50-60 characters). The meta description should also include the target keyword and encourage clicks from curious readers. Aim for 150-160 characters.
• Headers and subheaders. Use your primary and secondary keywords in headers (H1, H2, H3) to structure the content and make it easier to scan.
• URL structure. Keep URLs short, use hyphens to separate words, and include target keywords. The URLs should be user-friendly and easy to understand.
• Alt text. Use descriptive and relevant keywords, avoid keyword stuffing, and make sure the text accurately represents the image content.
• Links. There are two different kinds, internal and external. With internal, you're linking to other relevant pages on your website to improve navigation and provide additional context. With external, you're citing authoritative sources and linking to high-quality external content to add credibility and provide further information.
• Page speed. This is how quickly the content on your webpage loads and becomes visible to users. It directly impacts both user experience and search engine rankings.  

Evaluate and adjust

Once you've published your optimized, relevant content made from expert research, keep an eye on how well it performs. Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to monitor the performance based on metrics like organic traffic, bounce rate, click-through rate (CTR) and keyword rankings. If you have a social media presence, promote your content with intriguing excerpts and insights, linking back to the content so users can click through.

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Based on performance data, make adjustments to your content to improve its relevance and effectiveness toward conversion rates. Don't forget to update it regularly to keep it fresh and aligned with current trends.

Let Rellify help your brand knock out the competition

When it comes to leveraging content marketing insights from your top competitors, Rellify is the tool you need to make it happen. With Rellify, you can make data-driven strategic decisions based on a custom-AI subject-matter expert trained on your relevant focus topics. You can find out what topics and keywords are already ranking within your specific niche, so you can build a content strategy that'll drive organic traffic, get more clicks, and turn interested readers into valuable customers.

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Want to really see what Rellify can do? Hop on a call with one of our experts to find out how Rellify can revolutionize your content process and results.