In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to use the SEMrush keyword gap tool for competitor keyword analysis and research. You’ll learn how to steal your competitor’s traffic using content gap analysis.
You’ll learn how to:
- Use the SEMrush Keyword Gap Tool to find competitor keywords that your competitor’s websites rank for, yet you don’t.
- Spy and steal your competitor’s traffic using the SEMrush Organic Competitors Report.
- Take advantage of your unique critical thinking skills to improve your business’s SEO.
- Organize your SEMrush competitor research and analysis in a meaningful way that will benefit you in the long-term.
1. Enter Your Domain Into The SEMrush Organic Research Competitors Report Search Bar
The SEMrush Organic Research Competitors Report is excellent for pinpointing who our top competitors are.
The organic research will show the domains of the top competitors and the number of keywords we both share in common.
To access Organic Research, go to the Domain Analytics section of SEMrush (Domain Analytics > Organic Research).
Firstly, you can enter your domain into the search bar of organic research. Note that you could also enter a competitor’s domain.
Click the “Search” button.
2. Go To The Competitors Tab In Organic Research
You will be presented with an overview of the domain you have entered in the search box.
Unsurprisingly, we see there is information regarding the number of keywords, estimated monthly traffic, and the estimated traffic cost.
We see that there are various other tabs we can switch for more details such as “Positions”, “Position Changes”, and “Competitors”.
Switch to the “Competitors” tab to view the list of domains that SEMrush has provided that rank for identical organic keywords as the domain you have entered.
3. Study The Competitive Positioning Map
When you first land on the “Competitors” tab, briefly analyze the “Competitive Positioning Map” which shows the top domain competitors as reported by the number of organic keywords and traffic.
4. Scroll Down The Competitors Section Of Organic Research
Scroll down the organic research report until you see the list of organic competitors which essentially are the domains that are competing with the domain you entered.
The competitive domains are automatically ranked and ordered by the level of competition which is labelled as “Com. Level”.
Thus, the competition level is founded on the notable analysis of a number of keywords for every domain on the list along with a number of common keywords for the competing domains.
5. Pay Attention To Competitors Who Hold The Highest Amount Of Common Keywords, SE Keywords, And SE Traffic
We normally begin to look at the competitors who possess the most common keywords, a high number of “SE Keywords”, and a high amount of “SE Traffic”.
When two domains conjointly share more keywords, this indicates that there is a greater likelihood they are to compete against each other.
6. Access The Keyword Gap Tool In Gap Analysis
The Keyword Gap tool permits you to compare the keyword profiles of numerous domains juxtaposed to locate disparities in content that may depict SEO opportunities for your site.
Go to the Keyword Gap tool by heading to the Gap Analysis section (Gap Analysis > Keyword Gap).
7. Enter In Competitor’s Domain, Your Own Domain, And Another Competitor’s Domain
In the first domain of Keyword Gap, type in one of your competitors. Proceed by typing your own website in the second domain. Thirdly, you type in your other competitor in the third domain.
Between your first competitor and your own site, choose the “Unique to the first domain’s keywords” option.
For your third competitor, choose the “Common Keywords” option.
Click “GO”.
Note that you can enter up to five rivalling domains to observe the similarities and differences of their keyword portfolios.
8. Analyze The SEMrush Report
The SEMrush Keyword Gap tool will create a report on every keyword and rank each domain appropriately.
The data provided is exceptionally advantageous to SEO because of the comprehensive analysis of the target market and competition.
You will see that the report provided will display every keyword that both of your competitors rank for. Importantly, you don’t rank for these keywords.
The report provided us with 418 keywords.
Remember that critical thinking is essential to taking advantage of the keywords provided.
Thus, we have to go through this list of keywords to see if we could use anything for a future blog post.
We have to maintain the patience and perseverance when working through the keywords provided.
When you are looking through the keywords in the report, you may discover some excellent long-tail topics. Make sure that such topics are relevant to your website’s niche.
The critical thing to remember is that all the keywords found may not be necessarily relevant to your blog.
After conducting some SEMrush competitor research, two keywords were prominent:
- how to find vulnerabilities in a website using kali linux
- how to install pentest tools in ubuntu
Evidently, those two keywords are relevant to an IT security blog that place emphasis on penetration testing.
What is applicable to our blog may not be suitable for yours. Vice versa. You get the idea.
For example, we could use turn those long-tail keywords into article topic ideas for our blog or for guest posting on another site.
If you were interested in guest posting on another site and wanted to check if the site had an article that closely resembled our researched topic ideas, go to Google and type in “site: yourdomain.com”.
Hence, you can see how we can use competitor keyword research to our own advantage to benefit SEO and steal competitors traffic using SEMrush.
Once you have collected a respectable keyword list, you can notify your copywriters and content creators to start writing blog posts that are valuable and epic.
9. Use Advanced Filters To Find Out Rivals’ Keyword Ranking On Page One
If we wanted to take it to a further step, we would research which keywords our competitors rank for on the first page of the search engine whereby we rank for elsewhere.
To spy on the keyword ranking of our competitors, we would need to adjust the settings to the Keyword Gap tool.
Proceed by clicking on “Advanced filters”, click “Include” for the first box, click for the first competitive domain in the second box, click on “Less than” for the third box, and type in 11 in the fourth box.
Proceed by clicking on the “Add one more” button to add the second competitive domain and its line of boxes.
In the third box of your own domain, click on “Greater than”. In the fourth box, type in 10 for your own domain.
Click “Apply”.
We would soon be provided with a report that illustrates the keywords that we have to either make our content better for or obtain additional backlinks to excel all of our competitors.
10. Keep Thinking For Ideas On How To Tailor Your Keywords To Your Audience
When you have established your list of relevant keywords, it will be necessary to keep thinking of ideas on how to tailor your keyword to meet your website’s audience and objectives.
Careful preparation and being diligent is essential to benefit from the features of SEMrush.
But remember that the proper execution of your marketing strategy is even more important. You don’t want to come across as phony, but as genuine.
When you think you are done, you have to ask yourself: Am I really done or can I do better?
11. Export The Results From The Report
For future reference and convenience, we recommend that you export the data from the report.
Click on the “Export” button, ensure that “Export all” is selected, choose a file format, and click “Save.
We recommend that you export the data as an Excel file (.xlsv format). Nevertheless, you can also export as a CSV file. The choice is yours.
This will allow you to easily discover keywords that are applicable to your business in which you lack the suitable content for.
Conclusion
We have shown you how to outrank your competition on industry related keywords and take advantage of long tail topics currently not being used by your brand’s site.
Such knowledge plays a significant role in monetizing your blog.
By using the SEMrush keyword gap tool, we are able to focus on the keywords and topics that mattered. Notably, gap analysis permitted us to prepare ourselves better when conducting keyword research against our competitors.
The SEMrush Organic Competitors Report enables us to essentially spy on our top competitors and learn the number of keywords we both share in common.
The combination of the powerful SEMrush platform and human critical thinking enables us to spend more time analyzing and conducting competitor research.
Clearly, we understand that social media marketing is vital to increasing your brand’s SEO, but the quality of your content is even more significant.
Improving SEO isn’t easy. But in the end, we all manage.
