6 Best Competitor Keyword Analysis Tools for Market Insights

Understanding which keyword strategies enactment for your competitors tin assistance you optimize your ain strategy much effectively.

But what’s the champion mode to get a implicit representation of the keywords your competitors are targeting?

With a rival keyword investigation tool.

In this post, we’ll research the starring rival keyword investigation tools.

Before we dive into the details, here’s a top-level overview of each rival keyword investigation tool.

Competitor keyword investigation tools streamline the process of gathering and analyzing information astir your rivals’ keyword strategies.

This tin mean looking astatine the keywords they people successful either their pay-per-click (PPC) hunt campaigns oregon their non-paid, integrated hunt (SEO) campaigns.

These tools rapidly supply broad insights astir rival keyword use. And are overmuch much time-efficient than a manual attack to keyword research.

Here are immoderate of the main advantages of utilizing rival keyword investigation tools:

• Improve SEO rankings. Learn however your competitors optimize their contented for circumstantial keywords. To place ways to amended your ain rankings for those terms.
• Identify contented gaps. Discover keywords your competitors fertile for that you bash not. This tin assistance you make caller contented to pull postulation presently going to your competitors.
• Optimize PPC bids. Study which keywords your competitors bid connected to find presumption with a precocious imaginable for clicks and conversions. You tin take to vie straight connected these high-value keywords. Or strategically absorption connected little competitory presumption to optimize your advertisement spend.
• Improve advertisement copy. Analyze the messaging and calls to enactment (CTAs) competitors use. To refine your ain transcript for the aforesaid keywords.
• Benchmark performance. Compare your keyword rankings, traffic, and engagement metrics with those of your competitors. This volition assistance you way the advancement of your ain search motor marketing efforts implicit time.

Further reading: How to Find & Analyze Competitor Keywords

Top 6 Competitor Keyword Analysis Tools

Let’s comparison the champion rival keyword investigation tools (free and paid) and sermon their apical usage cases:

1. Organic Research Tool

Semrush’s Organic Research is simply a keyword rival investigation instrumentality that lets you spot who your integrated hunt rivals are. And what keywords they fertile for.

To start, participate your domain and deed “Search.”

Next, unfastened the “Competitors” report. 

Here, you’ll spot a graph showing the main competitors for your domain based connected their integrated postulation and the fig of keywords they fertile for.

Scroll down to spot a afloat database of rival sites. 

By default, sites are listed successful bid of “Competition Level.” This metric is calculated based connected the fig of keywords you and your rival fertile for. And however galore of these keywords you person successful common.

Click connected immoderate rival domain to larn much astir the circumstantial presumption they fertile for.

Then, nether the “Positions” report, you’ll spot a afloat database of your competitor’s integrated keywords.

The array provides metrics specified arsenic the estimated integrated postulation each keyword drives to the competitor. And tells you which URL ranks for that term.

The “Position Changes” study allows you to spot however your competitor’s rankings fluctuate implicit time.

At the apical of the report, you’ll spot 2 widgets: “Position Changes Trend” and “Top Page Changes.” 

These supply an overview of the domain’s caller ranking gains and losses. And archer you which pages person experienced the biggest postulation changes.

Further down the report, you’ll spot a afloat breakdown of caller presumption and postulation changes for antithetic keywords.

Position changes autumn into 1 of 4 categories: 

1. New
2. Improved
3. Declined
4. Lost 

Filter results based connected these categories by utilizing the “Position changes” drop-down. To find cardinal opportunities to capitalize connected rival drops. Or to place trending topics you mightiness privation to target.

Top Use Cases for This Tool

Organic Research is an perfect archetypal halt for gathering competitive intelligence connected your rivals’ integrated keyword strategies.

The “Position Changes” study is particularly adjuvant for identifying existent anemic spots successful your competitors’ campaigns. 

For example, if a rival’s rankings are dropping for a peculiar keyword, it could mean their contented is outdated. You could perchance make better, much up-to-date contented targeting that word to seizure much of the hunt request for yourself.

Pricing

Organic Research is disposable connected each Semrush plans.

Here’s a breakdown of pricing and limits for each plan:

• Free: $0.00/month (10 requests per day, 10 results per report, nary humanities data)
• Pro: $139.95/month (3,000 requests per day, 10,000 results per report, nary humanities data)
• Guru: $249.95/month (5,000 requests per day, 30,000 results per report, humanities information included)
• Business: $499.95/month (10,000 requests per day, 50,000 results per report, humanities information included)

2. Keyword Gap Tool

Keyword Gap allows you to comparison your site’s keyword illustration with up to 4 rival sites.

This Semrush instrumentality shows however overmuch your keywords overlap with your competitors. And which unsocial keywords your competitors fertile for that you don’t.

You tin usage Keyword Gap to analyse organic, paid, and PLA (product listing ad) keywords.

Start by adding your domain and your competitors’ domains. And specify the benignant of keywords you privation to analyze.

Then deed “Compare.”

You’ll spot a graphic representing the keyword illustration of each competitor. And however overmuch they overlap with each other.

Scroll down to the main keyword table. This shows however each domain’s keyword illustration intersects.

There are respective intersection types:

• Shared: Keywords each sites fertile for
• Missing: Keywords each sites fertile for, but yours
• Weak: Keywords each sites fertile for, but you’re ranking lowest
• Strong: Keywords for which you fertile higher than the different sites
• Untapped: Keywords you don’t fertile for but different tract does
• Unique: Keywords lone you fertile for

Looking astatine “Missing” and “Weak” keywords helps you spot wherever your tract falls abbreviated compared to your competitors. Targeting these presumption could assistance you seizure immoderate of the stock of this traffic.

Meanwhile, “Strong” and “Unique” keywords correspond your site’s competitory strengths. You could take to double-down connected high-volume presumption wrong these categories to maximize your ranking potential. 

You could besides statesman targeting “Untapped” presumption truthful your competitors nary longer bask uncontested rankings. 

Top Use Cases for This Tool

Keyword Gap lets you rapidly gauge wherever you basal successful narration to your competitors.

The instrumentality makes it casual to spot keyword opportunities to assistance you support up with (and get up of) the pack.

You tin besides usage the instrumentality to find keywords competitors fertile for but that person small oregon nary advertizing competition. You could perchance tally a PPC run to people these presumption and instrumentality immoderate of the postulation for yourself. 

Pricing

Keyword Gap is disposable connected each Semrush plans.

Here’s a breakdown of pricing:

• Free: $0.00/month (up to 10 searches per day)
• Pro: $139.95/month
• Guru: $249.95/month 
• Business: $499.95/month 

3. Advertising Research Tool

The Advertising Research instrumentality lets you place your closest paid hunt competitors, spot which keywords they target, and presumption existent examples of their ads.

It’s akin to the Organic Research instrumentality we mentioned earlier. But for paid keywords.

To spot who your main PPC competitors are, participate your domain into the hunt bar. Then click “Search.”

Next, caput to the “Competitors” tab. 

Here, you’ll spot a illustration visualizing however overmuch paid postulation you person and however galore keywords you wage for compared with competitors.

Scroll down to spot a afloat database of your paid hunt competitors.

Click connected immoderate rival tract to dive into the details of their paid advertisement strategy.

At the apical of the “Positions” report, you’ll see:

• How galore keywords your rival targets
• How overmuch monthly postulation they person from those keywords
• The full estimated outgo for those ads

Scroll down to spot a afloat database of each the keywords your rival is ranking for successful paid results.

The array includes metrics similar the position, hunt volume, outgo per click (CPC), landing page URL, and estimated paid postulation for each keyword.

And to presumption the circumstantial advertisement that appears for each keyword, hover implicit the greenish “Ad” icon successful the “Ad” column.

Top Use Cases for This Tool

Advertising Research provides a broad presumption of your competitors’ PPC campaigns.

The instrumentality allows you to spot wherever your rivals are gaining and losing advertisement positions. And analyse existent examples of ads they’ve tally successful the past. 

You tin past usage these insights to amended your ain paid campaigns. For example, you mightiness analyse the ads that worked champion for a rival for circumstantial keywords. And emulate those transcript elements successful your ain messaging. 

Further reading: The 6 Best PPC Keyword Tools to Elevate Your Ad Campaigns

Pricing

You tin entree Advertising Research connected each Semrush plans.

Here are the prices and instrumentality limits for each plan:

• Free: $0.00/month (10 requests per day, 10 results per report, nary humanities data)
• Pro: $139.95/month (3,000 requests per day, 10,000 results per report, nary humanities data)
• Guru: $249.95/month (5,000 requests per day, 30,000 results per report, humanities information included)
• Business: $499.95/month (10,000 requests per day, 50,000 results per report, humanities information included)

4. Google Keyword Planner

Keyword Planner is simply a escaped keyword probe instrumentality from Google.

The instrumentality is chiefly designed to assistance advertisers program their PPC campaigns. But you tin besides usage it to stitchery competitory keyword insights.

You tin usage Keyword Planner for free. You’ll conscionable request to acceptable up a Google Ads relationship to usage it.

To get acceptable up, spell to Google Ads and deed “Start now” to motion in.

Next, click “Skip run creation.” This lets you usage the instrumentality without creating an advertisement campaign.

Follow the setup instructions. 

Then spell to the “Tools” conception successful the Google Ads menu. Under “Planning,” prime “Keyword Planner.”

Select “Discover caller keywords.”

Next, prime “Start with a website” and participate a competitor’s URL.

Click “Get results.”

The instrumentality volition past make a database of keywords applicable to the contented connected your competitor’s site. 

You tin past analyse these suggestions to place gaps successful your ain keyword list. 

In particular, look for immoderate high-volume keywords that are related to your concern that you don’t presently target.

Further reading: How to Use Google Keyword Planner to Find Keywords

Top Use Cases for This Tool

Keyword Planner is an easy-to-use instrumentality that lets you spot which keywords Google associates with your competitors. 

This gives you an thought of which presumption your competitors whitethorn beryllium targeting. And it helps you uncover caller keywords that you mightiness not person considered.

However, you whitethorn request to tally an progressive Google Ads run (i.e., walk money) to unlock precise keyword data. Such arsenic nonstop hunt measurement numbers and elaborate cost-per-click (CPC) estimates.

But arsenic a escaped tool, it tin beryllium a utile spot to commencement your rival keyword research.

Pricing

Google Keyword Planner is escaped with a Google Ads account.

5. SpyFu

SpyFu is simply a competitory quality instrumentality for SEO and PPC marketers.

It lets you spot which keywords your competitors target, however overmuch postulation they get from them, and however their hunt positions person changed implicit time.

Start by entering a competitor’s URL into the hunt barroom and clicking “SEARCH.”

This volition instrumentality you to an overview, wherever you’ll find respective high-level show metrics of your competitor’s SEO and PPC campaigns.

For example, it shows however overmuch of the site’s Google postulation comes from paid versus integrated search. 

In the “SEO Research” tab, you’ll find aggregate reports astir your competitor’s integrated keywords.

And successful the “PPC Research” tab, you tin presumption a database of your competitor’s apical paid keywords.

Top Use Cases for This Tool

SpyFu gives you a basal knowing of your competitors’ PPC and SEO keywords. You tin spot keywords they bid connected and fertile for, some present and successful the past.

The instrumentality tin besides amusement you profitable paid keywords your competitors are bidding connected that you aren’t. And which keywords you’re bidding connected that your competitors person already tried and stopped using.

Which tin supply penetration into however profitable a keyword mightiness (or mightiness not) beryllium successful the agelong run. 

Pricing

SpyFu offers 2 paid subscription plans:

• Basic: $39/month
• Professional: $79/month

6. Serpstat

Serpstat is simply a hunt selling level that includes rival keyword investigation features. 

To get started, participate a competitor’s domain into the hunt barroom and click “Search.”

This volition instrumentality you to an overview page. 

Here, you’ll find respective reports astir your competitor’s hunt performance. Like the fig of keywords they fertile for by country.

On the “Keywords” tab, you’ll find much details astir the domain’s SEO and PPC keywords. Like keyword difficulty, positions, and ranking URLs.

Serpstat besides allows you to comparison a site’s keyword illustration with up to 2 different competitors.

Just spell to the “Compare domains/URLs” tab, participate your chosen domains, and click “Search.”

A visualization volition amusement however overmuch these keyword profiles overlap. And wherever your competitors fertile for these presumption compared with your domain.

Top Use Cases for This Tool

Serpstat offers reports and filters to assistance you excavation into your competitors’ SEO and PPC keyword strategies.

You tin find the keywords they fertile for and bid on, spot which presumption thrust astir postulation to their sites, and spot gaps successful your ain keyword strategy.

The quality to compare keywords with competitors helps you spot if they’ve precocious overtaken you successful the hunt results. You tin past revisit and update your contented to effort to regain your rankings. 

Pricing

Serpstat offers 4 plans:

• Free: $0.00/month
• Individual: $59/month
• Team: $119/month
• Agency: $479/month

Competitor keyword investigation is an integral portion of processing a palmy keyword strategy.

Tools similar Organic Research, Keyword Gap, and Advertising Research marque the task of identifying competitory keyword opportunities overmuch easier. And faster.

Access these tools (and galore more) with a Semrush escaped trial.