Suman Samal, Asst. Marketing Manager
Suman Samal
Jun 8, 2023

Best Competitor Keyword Research Tool To Up Your Seo Game

Discover the most effective keyword research tactics to stay ahead of your competition. Uncover what keywords they’re targeting and how you can use that intel to gain an edge in SEO.
Best Competitor Keyword Research Tool To Up Your Seo Game

Table of contents

Competitor keyword research is a crucial part of any SEO strategy. By analyzing what your competitors are doing, you can find new opportunities to improve your own search engine rankings. In this blog post, we will discuss the importance of competitor keyword research and the best tools you can use to help you with it.

What is competitor keyword research?

Competitor keyword research involves finding the keywords your rivals use in their content to improve your SEO strategy. Analyzing competitor data is vital to enhance your website's search engine rankings and target similar keywords for competition.

Keyword Research is useful for building content that is SEO optimized, but analysing your competitor's keywords will allow you to stay above them too.

Importance of competitor keyword research

Analyzing competitor keywords is an integral part of any SEO strategy. It enables you to identify gaps in your own keyword research and improve your website's search engine rankings. Furthermore, tracking competitor keyword rankings can provide valuable insights into their target audience and marketing techniques. Understanding your competition's keyword strategy can guide you in creating tailored content that resonates with your target audience.

Best competitor keyword research tool

If you're looking to gain an edge over your competitors in terms of SEO, it is essential to find the best competitor keyword research tool. Here's what you need to keep in mind while finding this ideal tool:

  • Firstly, opt for a keyword research tool that provides comprehensive data on your competitors' keywords and rankings.
  • Secondly, make sure that the tool offers insights into search volume and difficulty levels of competitor keywords.
  • Lastly, consider user interface and efficiency during workflow.

WordStream's Free Keyword Tool

If you're looking for a comprehensive analysis tool to identify effective keywords and track their performance, then WordStream's Free Keyword Tool is the way to go. With insights into search volumes, competition levels, and estimated costs per click for each keyword, this tool enables you to optimize your website's content and increase its visibility in search results. Plus, it offers a range of metrics such as a comprehensive analysis tool, effective keywords, track their performance, search volumes, competition levels, estimated costs per click, optimize your website's content and increase visibility that can help you fine-tune your keyword strategy.

Pros

  • Easy to use.

Free, only need to provide email ID.

Cons

  • Doesn't provide competitors' actual rankings.
 Screenshot of Wordstream Keyword tool

Google Keyword Planner

When it comes to conducting competitor keyword research using a widely-used tool, Google Keyword Planner is the way to go. This free tool offers an in-depth overview of various metrics like search volume, competition levels, suggested bids per keyword and ways to refine your workflow by incorporating backlinks or analyzing SERP results. Utilizing Google Keyword Planner can help marketers optimize content marketing strategies while increasing organic traffic from search engines.

Pros

-Can filter and sort the keywords.

Cons

-Doesn't provide competitors' actual rankings.

 Screenshot of google keyword Planner

Spyfu

Discover the top-performing keywords of your competitors with Spyfu's Competitor Keyword Research Tool. Use this information to power up your SEO efforts and outrank them. Spyfu also provides data on ad campaigns, including their budget and performance metrics. Stay ahead of the game by keeping a close eye on the competition and optimizing your content accordingly. With Spyfu's Competitor Keyword Research Tool, you'll have everything you need to succeed in online search.

Pros

-Provides competition’s top competitors, inbound links, top pages, and page-one keywords

-Surface-level comparison between your domain and your competitor’s domain available

Cons

-Only limited information available in the free version.

Screenshot of SpyFu's tool

Ahrefs' Keyword Explorer

If you're searching for the best competitor keyword research tool, look no further than Ahrefs' Keyword Explorer. With this SEO tool, you can analyze your competition's organic traffic overview, backlinks, URL rating, and top pages. You can even see which keywords are driving organic search results and PPC clicks. This best-in-class competitor research tool has a comprehensive database of more than 10 billion keywords and provides actionable insights such as keyword difficulty score, search volume data, and SERP analysis that you can use to enhance your content marketing campaigns to outflank the competition.

Pros

-Can export up to 500,000 rows of keywords for safekeeping

-Access your competitor's keyword profile, including ranking gains/losses and rich snippet wins.

-good filtering capabilities

Cons

-Lacks an introductory tool for minimal research that wouldn't require you to pay for services.

‍Screenshot of Ahrefs' keyword explorer

Semrush

Gain an edge over your competitors with one of the best competitor keyword research tool. Semrush's Competitor Keyword Research Tool offers an overview of search volume, metrics, and organic traffic for each specific keyword. Conduct competitive analysis across Google+, Bing, YouTube and other social media platforms with Semrush’s robust tabular overview of top pages, organic keywords and ads for URLs. Optimize your website with new keyword ideas and suggestions, discover search terms, see search results, and track PPC campaigns with ease.

Pros

-extra information available like position changes, top changes, and top competitors

-Can check for keyword gaps between you and your competitor

Cons

-Limited requests on the free subscription.

Screenshot of Semrush's tool

Moz's Keyword Explorer

Moz's Keyword Explorer is a powerful SEO tool that helps you in-depth keyword research. Discover new keywords to target with ease and optimize your content for better search engine rankings. With the Moz's Keyword Explorer tool, you can gain insights into search volume, organic traffic data, and other valuable metrics. Tailor your strategy details using secondary key terms like backlinks and organic traffic to gain an edge over your competitors.

Pros

-helps you perform gap analysis

-can filter results by ranking position and search volume.

Cons

-Not a user friendly interface

Screenshot of Moz's homepage

Serpstat's Competitor Analysis Tool

Looking for the best competitor keyword research tool? Look no further than Serpstat's Competitor Analysis Tool – a must-have for any serious marketer. Identify your competitors and analyze their keyword strategies with ease. Get an overview that includes their top-performing keywords, backlink profile, and traffic sources. Optimize your website and stay ahead of the competition by utilizing keyword clustering and SERP analysis features. Gain a comprehensive understanding of your industry landscape with Serpstat's Competitor Analysis Tool today.

Pros

-User friendly interface

Cons

-More detailed estimated traffic for competitor research can be provided

-Backlink quality can be better

Screenshot of Serpstat's tool

Keyword Research using Backlinks

Analyzing the backlinks of your competitors' websites is one of the best ways to discover relevant keywords. These links can provide valuable insight into what type of content is working best for them. This information allows you to optimize your own content for similar queries.

How to do competitor keyword research

When conducting competitor keyword research, it's important to follow a few key steps.

First, identify your top competitors within your industry or niche. Once you have identified them, analyze their keywords to find gaps and opportunities in their strategy.

A more detailed look into the steps has been listed below:

List Your Top SERP Competitors

Identifying your top SERP competitors is essential to improve your keyword strategy. Analyzing their rankings will provide insights into their keyword performance, helping you identify gaps in your content strategy. By incorporating relevant secondary key terms like "Google Keyword Planner," "competitor analysis," and "organic search," you can optimize your content to compete with your rivals effectively.

Analyze Your Competitors' Keywords

Analyzing your top competitors' keyword usage can help you build a comprehensive list of target keywords for your SEO strategy. By determining the relevance, competitiveness, and search volumes of each keyword, you can identify gaps in your content strategy and stay ahead of the game by regularly monitoring changes in competitor keyword usage. Adjusting your strategy based on this analysis will ensure that you maintain a strong foothold on the SERP rankings.

Find Keyword Gaps and Content Gaps

To improve your SEO strategy using competitor keyword research, it's essential to identify relevant keywords and content gaps in comparison with your competitors. Analyze their website content and use online tools to determine the keywords they're targeting that you may be missing. Look for gaps in topics they've covered that you haven't explored yet. By creating a solid strategy based on the identified gaps in your content, you can effectively optimize your website for better search rankings.

Analyze Your Competitors' and Your Audience

To effectively analyze your competitors and audience for the best competitor keyword research tool, it's essential to go beyond traditional search volume metrics. By leveraging tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs, you can gain valuable insights into your competitors' SEO strategies, including their backlink profiles and top-performing organic keywords.

Conclusion

Competitor keyword research is a crucial aspect of any successful SEO strategy. Knowing what keywords your competitors are ranking for and what gaps exist in your content can help you stay ahead of the competition. With so many competitor keyword research tools available, it can be overwhelming to choose which one to use.

About Scalenut

Scalenut is an AI-powered SEO and content marketing platform that helps discover and create relevant content for your customers. Be it brainstorming a content strategy, creating comprehensive briefs, generating the content, or optimizing it per the best SEO practices, Scalenut has made the process extremely easy. Click here to create a free account and explore the many features of this tool.

Suman Samal
Asst. Marketing Manager
ABout the AUTHOR
Suman Samal
Asst. Marketing Manager

Suman Samal is a Asst. Marketing Manager at Scalenut. She is a technology enthusiast with a keen interest in content marketing and SEO. She truly believes that with the right set of tools every organization can improve the ROI of their content marketing campaigns. She spends her time managing content operations at Scalenut and ensuring that everything we publish is of the highest quality.

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