Competitor keywords: demystify and find them effectively

Through our SEO Agency Optimize 360

Key words competitors

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When it comes to natural referencing, it is crucial to choose the right keywords to ensure optimum visibility for your website or site. blog.

It is also essential to study your competitors' SEO strategies in order to understand them and adapt your own accordingly.

In this article, we're going to help you understand the phenomenon of competing keywordstheir definitions and how to flush them out.

Understanding competing keywords

In a digitally saturated environment with a growing number of attention-grabbing websites, knowing what the keywords used by your competitors will not only enable you to stand out from the crowd, but also to target your customers more effectively. audience.

Competing keywords refer to the terms or phrases that your competitors use in their content or meta-tags to be indexed by search engines. The aim of these keywords is to attract quality traffic to the sites in question, thereby increasing their reputation and ranking. conversion.

Identify the main competitors

Before you start looking for your competitors' keywords, you need to identify who they really are. Here are a few tips to help you recognise them:

• Analysing search results : By searching for your own main keywords in the search engines, you can identify the sites that regularly appear among the first results.
• Studying your market : Understanding the positioning and target market of other players in the sector will enable you to draw up a list of potential competitors.
• Ask your audience : Ask your community about the sites they visit when they're looking for information similar to what you offer. This can be done via a survey or by asking the question directly on social networks.

How do you find competing keywords?

Once you've identified your competitors, it's time to go keyword hunting! There are several ways of extracting this valuable data:

Analyse pages manually

Using this relatively basic approach, you can try to identify the keywords used simply by browsing the content of your competitors' web pages. Pay particular attention :

• • Titles: these are often composed around the keyword principal
  • At the beginning and end of articles: key words are generally mentioned in the introduction and conclusion.
  • Sub-headings (H2, H3...): these often reflect the semantic field surrounding the main keyword.
  • Meta-tags: displayed in the source code of a page, meta-titles and meta-descriptions often contain important keywords

This homemade method can be useful for an initial overview, but does not really measure the popularity or effectiveness of the keywords found.

Using specialised tools

For more in-depth work, we recommend using online tools for analysing competing keywords. Some are free, although the paid versions generally offer more features :

1. 1. Google Ads Keyword Planner : Initially designed for Google Ads, this tool is also very popular with SEOs. Enter the URL of the competitor site in the search and you'll get a list of associated keywords and their search volume and the competition around these terms.
   2. Ubersuggest : developed by Neil PatelThis online SEO analysis platform offers a wealth of information on the keywords used by your competitors. Simply enter the address URL of the competitor's site to access data including organic keywords, inbound traffic generated and much more.
   3. Spyfu : As its name suggests, SpyFu specialises in spying on competitors' keywords. The tool offers a complete overview of your competitors' SEO profile, including their ranking for given keywords on Google and Bing.

The data collected using these tools will enable you not only to identify the keywords used by your competitors, but also to see which ones generate the most traffic and the most revenue. conversions.

Optimising your own keyword strategy

With all this information in hand, it's now time to improve your SEO strategy by taking into account what your competitors are doing:

• Spot opportunities: identify the keywords that your competitors are ranking well for but that you hadn't thought of. Then carry out an audit to ensure that it meets a real need of your target.
• Improving existing content: work on the density of relevant keywords within your existing content, without sacrificing quality and readability.
• Identifying niches : Pay attention to less sought-after keywords with little competition. They can be a real treasure trove for reaching a qualified audience.
• Setting up an editorial calendar: organise the creation of new content centred around keywords identified as relevant to your target audience, taking care to respect the rules of optimised web writing.

In conclusion, the research and analysis of competing keywords is an essential part of any successful SEO strategy. Use this valuable data to stand out from the crowd, target your audience more effectively and constantly improve your online performance.