What's the best way to discover which search terms competitors are highly-ranked for?

[actionagainsthunger]

I'd like to know for which search terms competitors appear in the top 10, but I haven't found an efficient way to do so. Any help is appreciated...thanks!

[SEMPassion]

I agree Matt While we know most terms we want to target keyword research is an important part of our job. I regular go back and re-research keywords for clients I have worked with for years. I would be doing them a disservice if I did not.

[actionagainsthunger]

Thanks! Very helpful.

[actionagainsthunger]

Thanks -- my concern, though, is that I might not really know which keywords should actually be my target keywords. Understanding what my competitors rank for would provide some insight.

[lhc67]

SEMRush.com is a quick place to start. I like SpyFu.com too. You can also get a pretty good idea of the terms they're trying to target by reviewing their content and backlinks (anchor text).

Good luck!

LHC

[Gyi]

I look at this problem like this. First, identify what your target keywords are. Then, identify who your competitors are for your keywords.

[SEMPassion]

You might take a look at SpyFu.com.  They can give you a fairly good idea.  For instance they said that npgeekery.com ranks like this.

| 12 | take aways | |
| 25 | brand monitoring | |
| 29 | non profit strategy | |
| 32 | takeaways | |
| 37 | aways |

[AdoptionHelp]

SEOmoz Term Extractor tool, followed up with some checking against the SERPs. That's the combination I've been using to learn more about my competition at least. You could always check their source for meta keywords too.

EDIT: Also take a look at the anchor tag text of their inbound links.