Keyword search is the heart of SEO, as we talked in the previous blog post. We talked about the significance of keywords already and now is the time to determine what keywords shall be incorporated to earn an edge over the competition. Common SEO practice is to spy competitor keywords and rank them to surpass the competition. Well, that’s an incredible practice but you cannot rank each of your competitor’s keywords without knowing the real insights. Like everything else, this needs strategic planning as well. In this blog post, I have put together a brief yet comprehensive guide regarding the competitor’s keywords you should and shouldn’t follow.

 

Let’s dive in!

 

List of Competitor’s Keywords You Should and Shouldn’t Follow 

To determine what competitor’s keywords you should and shouldn’t follow, you need to build a foundation. It includes,

 

Understanding Your Marketing Funnel –

The foremost thing you need to do to determine what competitor’s keywords you should and shouldn’t follow is to know your marketing funnel. Understanding the funnel can help you determine where does your audience stand. It will outline and divide your audience into those at the stage of awareness and recognition, those at the stage of consideration, and those who are actually at the conversion stage. Now you know your audience and so does your competition. Knowing your audience is a way towards understanding your competition. Always remember that.

 

Identifying You Potential Competitors –

There isn’t a single competitor found in the market but there is a list that goes on and on, especially in times like these when entrepreneurship has become the easiest with innovation and technology. So, if 100 other brands are selling the same services and products as you sell; you won’t count each of them as your competitor. A few of them that match the level of your quality, price, and recognition in the markets can be counted as your potential competitors. They must be selling to the same audience as yours as well. For instance, if you run a local fast-food chain; your potential competition won’t be an international food chain but the locals who sell in the same market as yours. Therefore, before you determine what competitor’s keywords you should and shouldn’t follow, you must outline all your potential competitors already.

 

Competitor’s Keywords You Should and Shouldn’t Follow

Finally, you have gone through the funnel and know your audience and the competition quite well. Now is the time to outline what competitor’s keywords you should and shouldn’t follow.

 

Easier Keywords First Instead of Difficult Ones –

It’s always good, to begin with easier things. It is better to try hands-on something easier and get quick results than to struggle with difficult things and tirelessly wait for the outcomes. So, you should always go for the keywords that can be ranked easily at first. I say this because it’s difficult to get through with SEO having so many campaigns and a low budget. Thence, going for the easier keywords would help your gain rewards pretty soon and you’d be able to boost your budget as well as the business revenues.

 

 

Keywords that Converts Well Instead of Fancy and New–

Before you get into incorporating competitors’ keywords, focus on those that are already converting well. For instance, you are already doing great with the keyword i.e., beef burgers and you hear that your potential competitor is using scrumptious jalapeno beef burgers quite well. Don’t go for it immediately. It requires effort and budget such as changing the UI or UX, adding a blog section, uploading content with the new keyword, etc. I would suggest pushing it a little further until your keyword is converting well. This is because ranking a new keyword with your website is full of risk and why take the risk when you’re already doing great.

 

Keywords with High Volume and Low Difficulty Instead of High Difficulty –

when we talk about high and low difficulty keywords, that’s determining how difficult it would be to rank them with your website. The less difficult it is to rank a keyword, the more likely it is to benefit your website.

 

For the volume, it shall be as high as possible, but many times higher volumes lead to higher difficulties. A keyword with higher volume and lower difficulty is a rare combination. Therefore, if you find one then keep a strong command over it. It can greatly contribute to your website as well as overall business revenues.

 

Keywords of The Brands You Serve and Not Your Competitor’s Brand Names –

It’s perfectly alright to incorporate keywords of the brands you serve. Sometimes you and your competitors tend to offer similar brands. In such cases, I would urge you to use those brand names as keywords. But wait. I have seen people using brand names as their keywords that they don’t even offer. When you ask them why they’d tell you because their competitors use them. This isn’t going to help you by any means; instead, your website will lose ranking. A lot of it.

 

To cut it short, competitor’s keywords are an integral part of successful search engine optimization campaigns. They let your business reach incredible heights and stand ahead of your competitors when incorporated strategically. Therefore, following the above guide to what competitor’s keywords you should and shouldn’t follow can help you achieve the success in your SEO campaigns for sure.