You’ve heard about its almost mythical abilities. Digital marketers consider it essential, claiming it can reveal some of the most valuable and frequently searched keywords in any industry. Competitor keyword analysis.

However, the sheer volume of competitors, tools, and potential keywords can feel overwhelming. How can you possibly leverage this powerful technique without dedicating countless hours? The key is using a proven system to cut through the noise. In this article, I’ll guide you through the exact process I use at my agency, Rank Tree, to help my clients dominate their competition, just like in Game of Thrones.

Table of contents

• What is competitor keyword analysis?
• How to do competitor keyword analysis
• Competitor keyword analysis tools
• Competitor keyword analysis template

What is a competitor keyword analysis?

A competitor keyword analysis involves identifying the search terms your competitors are ranking for and then figuring out how they achieved those rankings. This information can inform your keyword research for both SEO and PPC campaigns. It’s a highly effective method for uncovering high-intent keywords – those most likely to drive conversions and sales on your website.

Image source I can personally attest to the effectiveness of this approach. Competitor keywords are a major factor in the SEO strategies we develop for nearly every campaign. However, despite its incredible potential, competitor keyword analysis is often done incorrectly. Making the same common errors as others can seriously hinder your progress. We’ll explore how to avoid these pitfalls in the process outlined below.

How to do quick & effective competitor keyword analysis

Follow this process to discover what I call golden keywords: high-intent, high-volume keywords that can quickly propel your site up the rankings.

Step #1: Understand what your customers search

One of the biggest mistakes people make with SEO and PPC is focusing solely on high-volume keywords. This is a critical error because ranking for a high-volume keyword doesn’t automatically translate into leads and conversions. For example, the keyword “content marketing” has a monthly search volume of 14,000. My site could potentially rank for this keyword and attract thousands of visitors. However, it’s highly unlikely that these visitors would become paying customers. People searching for that phrase are primarily trying to understand what content marketing is. They probably aren’t looking to hire a content marketing agency.

This is precisely why it’s so important to understand what your target customers actually search for in Google before you even begin the competitor keyword analysis process. To gain this understanding, you need to delve deeper than just basic demographics. You need to know:

• The questions your target audience is asking
• The problems they’re facing
• The goals they want to achieve
• The topics they discuss This information allows you to map keywords to your customers’ thoughts and challenges at each stage of the sales funnel – top, middle, and bottom. This understanding is what differentiates websites with high traffic but low conversions from those with high traffic and high conversions. If you need assistance with this, I created this step-by-step process for mapping keywords to your funnel.

Not sure what your audience is searching? Use our Free Keyword Tool to find out!

Step #2: Determine your top 3 competitors

Once you have a solid grasp of what your potential customers are searching for, you can start identifying your top competitors. While there might be hundreds of businesses offering products or services that are somewhat similar to yours, for this exercise, focus on pinpointing your three main competitors. I specifically recommend focusing on your top three competitors for two main reasons:

1. Analyzing the keywords of 100 competitors is simply not feasible for most people.
2. Your closest competitors are the most valuable source of high-intent keywords in your market. This approach embodies the 80/20 rule of competitor keyword research. Time and time again, I’ve found countless high-value keywords by concentrating on just three competitors. We’re looking for those competitors who are your biggest rivals. The ones who:

• Target the exact same customer base as you.
• Offer products or services most similar to yours.
• Are constantly on your radar.

Step 3. Select your competitor keyword analysis tools

The tool you choose to uncover competitor keywords can make a significant difference. Why? The metrics these tools provide will heavily influence which keywords you target, and the accuracy of these metrics varies from tool to tool.
It’s generally best to opt for well-established tools with access to vast datasets, as these tools typically offer more reliable metrics on search volume and keyword competitiveness. My go-to combination includes:

• SEO tools like Ahrefs and Semrush for identifying keywords.
• Reporting tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4 for comparing your competitive analysis with your existing site traffic. You might discover that you’re already ranking for some of the identified keywords and just need to refine your content (speaking of which, are you interested in exploring our SEO-optimized blog post templates?).

While these aren’t the only tools you should consider, it’s crucial to have a basic understanding of how each tool calculates its metrics. Avoid any tool that lacks a proven track record of accurate data and calculations. Unfortunately, many people overlook this crucial aspect, often to their detriment.

Step #4: Analyze your competitors’ URLs

Now we get to the exciting part. Take the URLs of the three competitors you identified in Step #2 and input them into your chosen tool to analyze the keywords they rank for. Most tools will have a feature similar to Ahrefs’ “Site Explorer.” This allows you to see the paid keywords, organic keywords, backlinks, rankings, and other data points for any URL you enter.

In this example, I filtered the keywords to contain “how to” Some tools even have keyword or content gap reports that let you input multiple competitors and easily compare their rankings to yours. This is Ahrefs’ Content Gap tool:

And this is Semrush’s Gap Analysis tool:

5. Identify your golden keywords

No matter which tool you prefer, the main goal is to pinpoint keywords your competitors are ranking for that meet the following criteria:

1. They attract the right kind of visitors – those who are likely to become customers, not just casual browsers.
2. You can realistically create create content (or enhance your current content) that surpasses your competitors’ content in quality and relevance.
3. They have a substantial enough search volume to warrant your investment of time and resources. These are the “golden keywords” we discussed earlier – the ones you should strategically aim to outrank your competitors for. Determining which keywords are “golden” will depend on several factors, including whether you’re conducting this analysis for SEO or PPC, as well as your specific goals.
   This Google Sheet template offers a structured way to organize your keywords based on whatever criteria are most relevant to you, whether that’s search volume, competition level, stage of the funnel, or user intent.

Click here to make a copy of this template.

Always, always actually Google the keyword

This is the simplest yet most effective way to determine the type of visitors you can expect. Since Google’s priority is to deliver the most relevant results for any given search, it’s safe to assume that the top-ranking pages generally offer the best answers (in Google’s assessment). Occasionally, you might come across a keyword that appears promising. However, upon examining the search results page (SERP), you might find completely unrelated results or a branded term for a product, service, or company you wouldn’t want to waste your efforts on.

Don’t just look at keyword difficulty metrics

In most cases, keyword difficulty metrics primarily assess the number of backlinks pointing to the top-ranking URLs for a specific keyword. They don’t provide a completely accurate measure of how challenging it will be to achieve a high ranking. That’s why I also advise checking the Domain Rating (DR) or Domain Authority (DA) of the top-ranking pages for any keywords you’re evaluating. You might encounter a keyword that a tool labels as “very difficult” yet the top 10 results include websites with very low DR scores (such as 20), and vice versa. This often indicates that ranking for that keyword is actually easier or harder than the difficulty metrics suggest.

Make competitive keyword analysis a staple in your PPC & SEO strategies

Competitor keyword research allows you to efficiently discover the most effective keywords within your niche. It’s easily the most impactful strategy I’ve employed, and I know numerous marketers who rely almost exclusively on this approach for their keyword research. Remember, it’s not about quantity; it’s about quality. Attracting the right kind of traffic is far more valuable than attracting a high volume of irrelevant traffic. This process empowers you to define what “right” traffic means for your specific website. Approach it with a “reverse engineering” mindset. You significantly increase your chances of outranking your competitors for their valuable keywords by outdoing them – providing Google with even better, more comprehensive, and more helpful answers to searchers’ queries. To recap, here’s the step-by-step process for conducting a competitor keyword analysis:

1. Understand the terms your target audience is searching for.
2. Choose the right tools for the job.
3. Identify your top three competitors.
4. Input your competitors’ information into your chosen tool.
5. Find your “golden keywords.” >> Get more competitive analysis templates here, and read this guide to level up your competitor spy game!