Keywords are the foundation of any search engine optimization effort. Knowing the right keywords to target on your website is vital for the success of your content marketing strategy.
Sometimes, you need help deciding which keywords to focus on. Uncovering the value keywords your competitors rank for can give you an insight into what works and what doesn’t. You can easily find keywords from a website,that is, those competitors are already targeting and using to drive traffic.
You probably want to rank for whatever keywords your competitors are ranking for and even outrank them. This is only possible when you discover the keywords they target and the strategies they use to rank highly for those words.
With knowledge of your competitor’s keywords, you can learn how to target your content marketing efforts most efficiently. This guide discusses how to find keywords from your competitor’s website.
Find Keywords From a Website
Understanding the keywords your competitors are using and how they are using them can give you insights into how to improve your SEO strategy. Competitor data can help you discover new keyword ideas and analyze your competitors’ rankings and content strategy.
There are several ways to find keywords from a website. Some of the most common methods include.
1. Find Specific Words On a Webpage
To find a specific keyword on a webpage or see the keyword density of a particular keyword, follow these easy steps.
- Open Chrome browser
- Visit the website you want to investigate.
- Press Ctrl+F on Windows or Command+F on Mac.
- Enter a keyword in the search field.
- Appearances of the keyword on the page will be highlighted.
- The number of times the keyword appears on the page will be displayed beside the search field.
2. View Page Source
This method allows you to discover the keywords your competitors use on a particular webpage. To conduct this search,
- Visit Google Chrome.
- Right-click on the page and select “View Page Source.”
- The HTML code of the website will be displayed.
- Press Ctrl+F
- Search for the following tags to understand the keywords your competitors are trying to rank for.
- The title description of the page is how Google displays a website in listings. The title tag contains the core keywords that the page wants to rank for.
–This is the excerpt that appears below the title tag on search engine results. The meta description is not a ranking factor, but websites use their target keyword here to reinforce what the page is about. This tag can give you insight into the page’s target keywords.
– The meta keywords tag help websites keep track of what keywords a page is targeting. However, it is an outdated aspect of SEO, so many sites no longer use it. But you can still check; your competitor might still be using it.
3. Google Search Operator
Utilize the “Site:” search command on Google to track keywords used on a website.
- Open Google.
- Enter the term site: and the domain of the website you want to search, that is, site:domain.com. For example, site:www.Google.com.
- Type the search term in quotation marks after the domain, i.e., site:domain.com “search term.” For example, site:www.Google.com “keyword”
- Press enter or search.
- The search results will be those from the specified website.
4. Website’s Search Function
A site search is a website functionality that allows users to quickly search a website’s content and pages for specific content. It’s similar to a regular search engine but exclusive to a website.
You can use the website search feature on your competitor’s website to discover how they’re using a keyword. But this is only possible if your competitor has invested in site search. Also, not all website search bars are configured optimally, so you might end up with a reduced list of relevant results. To conduct this search,
- Visit the website you want to search
- Find the search bar
- Enter a keyword
- Press enter or click search
5. Keyword Tools
Keyword tools make it easier to find keywords from your competitor’s website. Here are some of the best tools to use.
(a) Keyword Density Checker by SmallSEOTools
Keyword density checker helps you measure the number of times a keyword appears on a web page.
Insert the link to a webpage in the search field to see the density of the top keywords used on the page. The tool also indicates if a keyword was used in the title or description.
(b) Ahrefs Site Explorer
Ahrefs provides in-depth information on the keywords your competitors’ websites are ranking for. It also helps you find valuable keywords you could use to outrank your competitors.
Sign up for free and navigate to the Site Explorer tool. Enter the website URL and press enter. You’ll receive information about the site, the number of page backlinks, referring domains, and organic keywords.
Below Organic keywords, you’ll see what terms the page is currently ranking for and the monthly search volume for each term.
With this information, you’ll be able to refine your strategy to target high-value keywords your competitors use.
(c) Google Ads Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner can offer great insight into the keywords your competitors target on their websites. Sign up for Google Ads and click the “Discover New Keywords” tool.
Click on “start with keywords,” input a word or phrase relevant to your industry, and you’ll get a list of related search queries. Or click on “Start with a website,” enter your competitor’s website URL, and you’ll see the keywords the site targets.
(d) SEMRush
SEMRush is another tool to help you find keywords from your competitor’s websites.
Sign up and navigate to the home dashboard. Enter the URL of the website you want to investigate, scroll down and click on “Top Organic Keywords.” The tool will display the top-performing keywords of the website URL you entered, alongside the difficulty score and monthly search volume of each keyword.
Click on “View all Organic Keywords” to export the keywords and use them in your SEO strategies.
Conclusion
Understanding the keywords your competitors are ranking for can help inform your search engine marketing strategy. Such that, you create better marketing campaigns that outrank your competitors.
There are several ways to find keywords from your competitors’ websites, including viewing source code and using the website’s search function. Keyword research tools make the process even easier. SEMRush, Ahrefs, and Google Ads are some of the best tools you could use to find the keywords your competitors are ranking for.
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