Competitor Keyword Rankings

[qiherbs.com]

Is there a way within SEOMoz to uncover the keywords your competitors rank for and their respective SERPs?

Thx

[zingseo]

Hi David,

I was wondering if you have come across a tool for this? Or what the tool is that Broadbeach recommended? (I can't see his post??)

Thanks

[qiherbs.com]

Keri, you are of course absolutely correct. One way it can be useful is that it allows organizing your competitor's keywords into related groups

Looking at my own eCommerce analytics identifying those which have proven conversions and matching them with the keyword groups. At this point do the competitor linking research to identify those high value to go after.

Not only is it a great way to understand the keyword landscape (clusters) better but can show keyword phrase variations you can use in creating content.

Never was my intend to blindly use my competitor's keywords and blindly copy their linking / keyword profile.

[KeriMorgret]

Keep in mind a site can rank for a ton of keywords that no one ever searches for. Our business ranks first in Google (above Wikipedia!) for the string [Fast Gun, Treaty, and Big Gun styles of RC model warship combat] but I can tell you nobody has ever come into my site with that exact query.

[Michael-Goode]

Hi David,

If you are willing to spend money, then the above is a very good way to go about finding what keywords your competitors are ranking for. Just to clarify, the tool I listed above is free (choose the demo option), the only thing what differentiates the free and paid version, is that the paid version allows you to bring up fancy (and customizable) ranking reports, and it allows you the save the keywords you entered so you can re-check it easier next time. What I just do is save the keywords in an excel file and just copy/paste it each time into the tool. Ranking reports can easily be made yourself anyway and the "hassle" of copy/pasting keywords into the tool for me isn't worth buying the pro version..

Fingers crossed that SEOMoz will have it one day!

Regards

[qiherbs.com]

I will checkout the tool Broadbeach recommended and see if that suits me.

The only thing is that I am not interested in learning what any particular website is hoping to rank for based on keyword meta research, etc....but what they actually do rank for.

If the suggested "free" tool provides me with that answer I will be a happy camper. Thanks for your input 406Lucy.

[406lucy]

@David Corner - Based on that input, Broadbeach addressed your question much better than I.

Also, it looks (to me)  that there are some close  similarities between the described functionality of SEMRush and the free link assistant tracker tool Broadbeach recommends in his answer .

[qiherbs.com]

Thanks for your input as this is addressing more the reason behind my question.

Even though the "Anchor Text" tab can give insight into what a particular website is aiming to rank for, it does not tell you what they actually rank for. Same holds true for checking their meta keywords.

I think the best and most efficient option is to use SEMRush to get the (excel) list of my competitor 's ranking keywords and their SERP's. It would be a great feature for SEOMoz to have (realize not everything is possible -:).

1. Competitor keyword and SERPs
2. Get their demand and competitiveness (Google KW tool)
3. Filter for low/medium competitiveness and minimum demand
4. Use resulting keywords as starting point for linking strategy (process described by 406lucy)

[qiherbs.com]

406lucy, thx for your answer.

I understand the process you describe which assumes you already have your keywords through traditional keyword research.

For some reason the starting point (including when talking to SEO companies) seems always that keywords obtained through researching demand vs. competition is appropriate starting point.

For what I am trying to accomplish it is important to have the ranking keywords of my competitors with some further pruning is the starting point for the process you described above.

Was hoping to avoid the extra cost of SEMRush or SpyFu in order to obtain the list I am looking for.

Reason why is that knowing my competitor's keywords and their respective SERPs in conjunction with keywords obtained through regular demand / competition research, allows for much more specific targeting.

[Michael-Goode]

Good day David,

The above information is great. What I could add though is if you add competitors into Open Site Explorer, there is an "Anchor Text" tab you can click, which often shows what keywords they are trying to rank for. It could also be possible that the website might have a meta keywords (even though they were outdated years ago). To access these, go to their website and check their source (ctrl+u), then look for the meta keywords line.

Once you have a general list of keywords that you think they are trying to rank for, instead of manually checking yourself with Google, I use the following software (http://www.link-assistant.com/rank-tracker/). Even with their free version, you can enter any URL, followed by a list of keywords you would like to see the rankings of.

Good Luck

[406lucy]

The Keyword Difficulty & SERP analyis tool, available with in the pro dashboard [ http://pro.seomoz.org/tools/keyword-difficulty ] allows you to input a keyword or keyphrase - it then returns the top-ranking 10 competitors, who usually fall on the first SERP for the keyword of interest.

By running the report for a number of your keywords, you'll be able to identify which competitors have the best strategies in place, helping narrow your focus on which competitors to target.

Next, you may want to input these competitors into the Open Site Explorer (also in the Pro Tools section)  to get insight into their link-building strategies, as well as visiting their websites directly to review their content strategies.