Understanding your competitors’ keywords will help make your content marketing more effective
Understanding the importance of keywords is the underpinning of an effective content marketing strategy. Simply put, the right keywords will keep you focused on creating content that will attract the customers who want your product. Researching what keywords are being used to search your product category is a good start but it’s important to look closely at what keywords your competitors are using too. Lifting the hood of your competitors’ marketing engine affords you a bigger picture of your industry – and may uncover additional keywords.
Let’s put into a real life context.
If you’re managing the content for a sleep shop (mattress store), you’re probably creating content around the lifestyle choice of a good night’s sleep, which can include a host of topics from healthy breakfast recipes to the best time to exercise (so it doesn’t impact your sleep) to why a king mattress is better than a queen mattress. But you probably won’t be writing posts about how to design the perfect kitchen or the best size of sofa for a growing family. See the difference?
Let’s take a deeper look at keywords and how they can searched for, analyzed and used in your content marketing.
Competitive keyword analysis
Analyzing your competitors’ keywords is different than analyzing your own keywords. Successful chefs dine at a variety of restaurants just like smart writers read lots of different kinds of books. Casting your net wide to search for keywords will improve your creative process and will allow you to leverage keywords your competitors are already using.
Let’s look at the steps you’ll need to take to begin your analysis.
- Begin by identifying your audience. Do you know who your ideal customer is? Where they live? What they like to do online and offline? Do you know their education level, household income, buying patterns? The more you know about your customers, the more you’ll understand what motivates their online searches – and how you can create content around those terms.
- Next, understand their needs. If you’re an appliance store, you’ll want to create content that helps potential customers understand the different products you carry and which one might be right for their needs. You’ll also want to create content that helps previous customers understand the idiosyncrasies of those products – maybe how to clean the lint filter in the different types of washing machines.
- Map out your top competitors. From a sales standpoint, you probably already know your top competitors. But how often have you visited their websites, read through their content? Make a list of their websites in an excel document – with an area to add notes on interesting content ideas.
- Begin your keyword research. If you’re not familiar with keyword research, this step can get overwhelming fast. While this kind of research can generate thousands of keywords and keyword phrases, remember that you’re hunting for keywords you can use to create better content for your site. Take your time reading through the results and make a list of keywords that resonate – it can be as few or as many as you like.
Keyword search tools
Now the heavy lifting begins – the keyword research. If you’ve been creating content online for awhile, investing in keyword research will let you know if your routines have become a rut – or if they’re still effective. If you’re new to content marketing, this process will help you understand which keywords you’re ranking for – and which ones you should be ranking for.
- Google Alerts. A native Google tool, you set an alert to scan the internet for new content being created. Based on the search terms you provide, you’ll receive emails with the results (you can define how often you want to receive emails). You might want add the names of manufacturers you carry or terms you already know are important. This is a free tool and can be part of your ongoing content pipeline.
- Social Mentions Monitoring. You can use the free version or upgrade to premium to scan social networks and see where your terms are being used. Type in your keywords and you’ll instantly be served up a list of places where they’re being used and classify the sentiment as well – positive, negative or neutral.
- Alexa Traffic Rank. This is a great tool to help you see where your website ranks in comparison to your competitors. Your Alexa ranking is a moving target so set calendar reminders to check back regularly.
- SpyFU. This tool gives you an intimate view of the secret marketing formulas of your most successful competitors. Search for any domain and see every place they’ve shown up on Google. You’ll need to pay for an account but you can subscribe monthly a couple of times a year.
- SEMRush. One of the most powerful and trusted digital marketing sites, this tool will take you for a deep dive into serious keyword analysis. You’ll be able to see an overview of your on-page SEO ranking as well as your backlink profile – and track your own SERP positions. You’ll have to create an account but there is a fairly robust free option.
- Ahrefs. A game changing tool, Ahrefs allows you to analyze competitors’ backlinks, referring domains, organic traffic and even what keywords they rank for – and if they’re organic or paid rankings. This tool is for serious keyword research so if you’re new to this game, skip this option.
Once you’ve completed your keyword research, it’s time to start planning your content calendar. If you’re struggling with your digital strategy, I’d love to hear your questions and how I can help. Drop a comment below or shoot me an email and let’s start talking.
In the meantime, these posts might help you begin your content marketing journey:
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