If you're looking to improve your website's search engine ranking, one effective strategy is to use keywords that your competitors are already ranking for. By identifying and "stealing" these keywords, you can improve your website's visibility and attract more traffic from search engines. 

However, if you're new to the world of search engine optimization, the process of stealing your competitor's keywords can seem daunting. That's why we've created this beginner's guide to help you get started. 

In this article, we'll discuss the following:

  • The importance and benefits of analyzing and stealing your competitors’ keywords
  • The various tools you can use to find the right competitor’s keywords
  • Best practices and tips for analyzing and stealing the best competitor’s keywords

Without further ado, let's dive into the details of how to check your competitor's keywords and why it is important for your website's success.

Why is analyzing and stealing your competitor’s keyword important?

Let’s start by assessing the importance of monitoring, identifying, and “stealing” your competitor’s keywords.

Analyzing your competitor's keywords is essential for building a successful online presence. By doing so, you can understand what keywords your competitors are targeting, which can help you to:


  • Identify new keyword opportunities: By identifying gaps in your competitor's keyword strategy, you can find new keywords that they may have missed, which can give you a competitive edge.
  • Improve your keyword targeting: By analyzing your competitor's keyword strategy, you can optimize your own strategy by targeting the same keywords or by focusing on different ones that they are missing.
  • Develop a better content strategy: By understanding what keywords your competitors are targeting, you can create content that is more relevant to your audience and optimized for those specific keywords.
  • Increase your website's traffic: By optimizing your keyword strategy based on your competitor's keywords, you can improve your search engine ranking, which can lead to increased traffic to your website.
  • Steal your competitor’s traffic: If you are growing your website traffic by targeting your competitor’s keywords, you are not just increasing your own traffic. But you are reducing your competitor’s traffic and potential customer base. That can help you grow faster in your industry. Success begets success, after all.

How to Check Your Competitor's Keywords


There are several methods for checking your competitor's keywords, including:

  • Keyword Research Tools: There are many keyword research tools available that can help you to identify the keywords your competitors are targeting. The right keywords tool can automate this process, significantly streamlining the entire competitor analysis process.
  • Manual Research: You can manually search for your competitor's website on Google and analyze their content to identify the keywords they are targeting.
  • Social Media Analysis: You can analyze your competitor's social media profiles to identify the keywords they are using in their posts and hashtags.
  • Backlink Analysis: You can analyze your competitor's backlink profile to identify the keywords they are using in their anchor text.

Which tools you’ll need to identify competitors’ keywords?

The selection of tools depends on what exactly you want to do. 

For example, if you want to focus on keywords from search engines, a tool like SEMRush will be the best option. On the other hand, if your focus is social media monitoring, a tool like Social Mention will be a better option.

With that said, you can use the following tools to identify competitors’ keywords:

  • SpyFu
  • Ahrefs
  • SEMRush
  • Similar Web
  • Social Mention
  • Google Alerts
  • Siteliner
  • Alexa
  • Moz
  • BuzzSumo
  • Majestic SEO

To learn more about how to use some of these tools, check out the following article: 5 tools to use for competitor analysis.

Best practices for analyzing competitor's keywords

To get the most out of your competitor's keyword analysis, it is important to follow these best practices:

  • Focus on your closest competitors: Analyze the keywords of the competitors that are closest to you in terms of products, services, and target audience. These are usually the competitors that compete with you extremely closely in search engine results for most of the important keywords.
  • Look beyond keyword volume: Don't just focus on the keywords with the highest search volume. Look for keywords that are relevant to your business and have a reasonable search volume. This is extremely important and has a direct impact on the bottom line of your business. Some keywords will have a large search volume but won’t be relevant enough to move the needle. On the other hand, some keywords may not have a very high search volume, but they are much more targeted and likely to trigger conversions. Learn more about these keywords in this article: How to Integrate Long-Tail Keywords in Your Blog Posts.
  • Analyze the context: Don't just focus on the keywords themselves. Analyze the context in which they are used, such as the type of content, audience, and messaging. This is crucial because you will also have to have the right type of content and audience for that keyword to work its magic. If there is a disconnect in the content or messaging, the same keyword that works for your competitor will not work for you. Therefore, when analyzing competitors’ keywords, also pay attention to the page the competitor ranks for it.
  • Analyze the competition level: When you identify the keywords your competitors are ranking for, it's important to assess the competition level for each of those keywords. A keyword with high competition might be difficult to rank for, while a keyword with low competition might be easier to target. If your competitor has an established website with significantly higher domain authority, you will struggle to outrank them for most keywords — especially when it comes to tougher keywords with a high level of competition.
  • Look for keyword gaps: One of the most valuable insights you can gain from analyzing your competitors' keywords is identifying gaps in their keyword strategy that you can exploit. Look for keywords that your competitors aren't targeting, but that could be valuable for your website.
  • Use the data to improve your strategy: Use the insights from your competitor's keyword analysis to optimize your own keyword strategy, but don't copy it outright. Use the information you've gathered from analyzing your competitor's keywords to optimize your own SEO strategy. Consider targeting the same keywords as your competitors, but also look for opportunities to differentiate yourself by targeting keywords they're not focusing on.

Conclusion

Checking your competitor's keywords is an essential part of building a successful online presence. By analyzing their keyword strategy, you can identify new opportunities, improve your own strategy, and increase your website's traffic. To get the most out of your competitor's keyword analysis, focus on your closest competitors, look beyond keyword volume, analyze the context, and use the data to improve your strategy.

We hope that this article has provided you with valuable insights into how to check your competitor's keywords. If you have any further questions or would like to learn more about optimizing your keyword strategy, feel free to contact us.