How to Use SEMrush for Competitor Keyword Gap Analysis

A keyword gap analysis is a strategic process used in search engine optimization (SEO) to identify and evaluate the differences in keyword usage between your website and your competitors’ websites. The primary objective of keyword gap analysis is to discover untapped keyword opportunities that can help improve your website’s search engine ranking and drive more organic traffic.

By comparing your website’s keyword profile with your competitors, you can uncover keywords for which your competitors rank, but your website does not. These keywords represent potential opportunities for you to target by optimizing existing content or creating new content around those keywords.

A keyword gap analysis allows you to:

1. Identify keyword opportunities that you may have overlooked or underutilized.
2. Assess your website’s performance against your competitors.
3. Uncover potential weaknesses in your SEO strategy.
4. Prioritize keywords based on their relevance, search volume, and difficulty.
5. Develop a comprehensive content strategy that targets the identified keywords to improve your website’s search engine visibility and drive organic traffic.

Benefits of a Keyword Gap Analysis

Performing a keyword gap analysis offers several benefits for your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) strategy:

1. Discover untapped keyword opportunities: A keyword gap analysis helps you uncover keywords your competitors rank for but your website does not. By targeting these keywords, you can improve your website’s visibility on search engine result pages (SERPs) and attract more organic traffic.
2. Gain competitive insights: Understanding your competitors’ keyword strategy allows you to identify their strengths and weaknesses. This knowledge can help you develop an informed SEO strategy to outrank them and gain a competitive edge in your industry.
3. Optimize existing content: A keyword gap analysis can reveal opportunities to optimize your content with relevant keywords. Integrating these keywords into your content can improve your search engine rankings for those terms and potentially drive more organic traffic to your site.
4. Prioritize keyword targeting: The analysis allows you to prioritize keywords based on their search volume, competition, and relevance to your business. By focusing on the most valuable and achievable keywords, you can maximize the return on your SEO efforts.
5. Refine content strategy: The insights gained from a keyword gap analysis can help you shape your content strategy. By creating content that targets identified keywords, you can cater to the needs and interests of your target audience more effectively.
6. Identify long-tail keywords: Keyword gap analysis often uncovers long-tail keywords – longer, more specific phrases with lower search volume but higher conversion rates. By targeting these long-tail keywords, you can reach a more targeted audience with higher intent, leading to better conversion rates.
7. Benchmark your SEO performance: A keyword gap analysis is a benchmarking tool that allows you to compare your website’s keyword performance against your competitors. This can help you set goals, track progress, and adjust your SEO strategy.

How to use SEMrush to perform a gap analysis of your competitors’ SEO keywords

Step 1: Create a SEMrush account. Before you can use SEMrush for keyword gap analysis, you will need to create an account. Visit the SEMrush website and sign up for a free trial or choose one of the paid plans according to your requirements.

Step 2: Access the Keyword Gap Tool. After you have logged in to your SEMrush account, navigate to the “Dashboard.” Next, click “Gap Analysis” in the left-hand menu and select “Keyword Gap.”

Step 3: Add your domain and competitors’ domains. In the Keyword Gap tool, input your domain name in the “Your domain” field. Next, add four competitor domains in the “Competitors’ domains” fields. Finally, click “Compare” to start the analysis.

Step 4: Choose the keyword types to compare. By default, SEMrush compares organic keywords, but you can also compare paid or PLA (Product Listing Ad) keywords. So first, select the keyword types you want to reach by clicking the appropriate buttons above the domain input fields.

Step 5: Analyze the results. The Keyword Gap tool will summarize your website’s and competitors’ keyword performance. The summary includes the total number of keywords, keywords unique to each domain, and common keywords.

Step 6: Identify keyword opportunities. Focus on the “Unique to Competitors” section to find keyword opportunities. This shows the keywords your competitors rank for, but your website does not. Analyze this list to identify relevant keywords that you can target to improve your website’s search engine ranking.

Step 7: Filter and sort the results. You can refine the list of keyword opportunities by using filters. Apply filters such as search volume, keyword difficulty, or cost-per-click (CPC) to prioritize your website’s most valuable and achievable keywords.

Step 8: Export the data. To use the keyword opportunities data outside SEMrush, you can export the results in CSV, Excel, or Google Sheets format. Click the “Export” button in the top right corner and select the desired format.

Step 9: Incorporate the keywords into your content strategy. Finally, integrate the identified keywords into your website’s content strategy. Create new content or optimize existing content to target these keywords and improve your website’s search engine ranking.

Performing a keyword gap analysis with SEMrush effectively identifies SEO opportunities and outranks your competitors. Following the steps outlined in this guide, you can gain valuable insights into your competitors’ keyword strategy and use that information to optimize your website for better search engine visibility.