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SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. And at some point, your businesses is likely to experience a lull in organic traffic performance that requires you to mix up your strategy to get back on track. One way to do this is through dynamite keyword discovery.

The search landscape is always changing. This includes what people search for, how they search, and what syntax – or combination of words and phrases – they use to search for things.

Efficient and resourceful keyword discovery, done on a regular basis, is key to a strong content strategy and rewarding SEO over the long term.

So whether you’re in an SEO slump, or just trying to start SEO, use these 2 keyword discovery techniques to quickly identify promising terms.

1. Competitor Keyword Analysis

Most of us are pretty aware of who our customers are. But the likelihood of you and your competitors reaching exactly the same customers is pretty low. So, that means that digging into their audiences and how they’re communicating with them will probably reveal some great new opportunities.

All that to say, doing a competitive analysis + researching your competitors’ keywords is a great way to uncover:

1. How they’re reaching audiences similar to yours
2. What type of content they’re using, and
3. What type of messaging they’re focused on

As a result, tapping your competitors for keyword discovery helps you:

1. Expand your target audience(s)
2. Refine your messaging with more specific phrases (i.e. long-tail keywords)
3. Discover new messaging (i.e. keywords) you hadn’t thought of

You can do a competitor keyword analysis with Alexa for fast keyword discovery. Here’s how.

Enter the Competitor Keyword Matrix

In Alexa’s new Competitor Keyword Matrix, you can compare up to 10 sites at the same time.

The heat-map style view will let you quickly find competitors’ keywords that are different from your own.

You can filter the Matrix results by Sites in Common, Competition, or Popularity.

And you can use the purple shaded Traffic Scores to identify just the type of keyword opportunity you’re looking for.

For instance, you might want to target keywords your competitors get a lot of traffic from. These keywords are shown as dark purple boxes in the Matrix. One reason to target these terms is because they have proven interest. If you choose to focus on this type of keyword opportunity, your next step would probably be to research what kind of content your competitors are creating around these terms. Then, you could develop your own SEO content that’s better in some way. Maybe you elaborate on the subject. Or maybe you fill in missing pieces and include new research or recommendations.

✪ Read this blog if you’re interested in leaing other ways to approach competitor keyword analysis using the Matrix.

Regardless of what approach you take, or what type of analysis you do, the Competitor Keyword Matrix is a great way to identify high-opportunity keywords based on gaps with your closest competitors.

Need to find sites for your competitor keyword analysis? Start with our Audience Overlap tool. This will give you a list of other sites that share visitors with the site you entered.

Researching your competitors’ keywords is a dependable path to quick keyword discovery. And with the Matrix, you can separate the wheat from the chaff quickly, honing in on only the best keywords for your site.

2. Long Tail Keyword Research

Many people try to go after broad, higher competition keywords. In his article on Marketing Profs, Alexander Kesler puts this group of keywords in the “Fat Head” of the Search Demand Curve.

But there are several challenges with targeting broad, high competition keywords.

1. These major keywords make up only a small portion of total search volume.

2. The terms usually aren’t very specific and don’t accurately capture search intent.

3. They’re very popular, which makes them very competitive.

These “Fat Head” terms are bloated with competition, and they’re bloated in meaning.

Take, for example, a search for the broad term: marketing automation.

A person searching for this term may actually intend to find information on any of the below:

• Marketing automation software (tools)
• Marketing automation specialists (jobs/hiring)
• Marketing automation tutorials (education)
• Marketing automation certification (training)

By targeting these “Fat Head” terms, you’re more likely to blindly create content without really knowing what the user is searching for. Thus, you waste time on content that’s going to be thrown into a sea of search, crowded with others competing for the same 10 SERP spots. And in the end, you aren’t totally sure what the user was searching for in the first place!

But you’re in luck. Kesler’s Search Demand Curve points out that there’s a huge portion (70%) of search volume available for tapping. This 70% is comprised of long tail keywords.

Unlike “Fat Head” keywords, long tail keywords are usually a bit longer (in length). However, this makes them much more targeted – more intent specific. And you’ll have a much better idea of what people are looking for when they search.

Just think of marketing automation vs. marketing automation certification study guide.

It’s MUCH clearer what the searcher intended to find with the second, long tail phrase.

And because long tail keywords are more specific, your content will be more targeted. More targeted content more accurately satisfies search intent. And if search intent is satisfied, conversion is more likely.

In short, there’s a large slice of search volume made up of high-opportunity long tail keywords that may be very specific to your business. And these keywords have a high reward potential.

The goal: Strive for lean. Strive for long tail. Don’t get lost in the “Fat Head”.

How?

Leverage Alexa’s Keyword Difficulty Tool for low competition, long tail keyword discovery.

Start with Competitive Power

Knowing your Competitive Power is the basis for any smart keyword research strategy. It basically tells you what level of keyword competition you can target that will result in the most rewarding SEO.

Alexa’s Competitive Power is the measurement of your site’s ability to rank for competitive keywords, based on your past performance driving organic traffic. The higher the Competitive Power, the more easily your site can rank for competitive keywords.

In the Keyword Difficulty tool, focus your keyword research on terms that are flagged with a lightning bolt. These are keywords that are at or below your Competitive Power – and those you’ll have the greatest chance of ranking for.

As a result, you’ll choose SEO keywords with more confidence that you’ll rank.

Find Highly Relevant, Long Tail Keywords

Using the Keyword Difficulty Tool, enter a seed word or phrase. We’ll retu a list of results that you can filter to meet your specific criteria.

Filter the list by Competition score, Popularity, or by specific phrase. Continue narrowing the list until you have a collection of relevant keyword opportunities that you could create content around.

To integrate keyword research into your workflow, save the keywords that spark great ideas so you’ll have them handy later when you are ready to create content.

✪ Read this blog for other ways to use the Keyword Difficulty Tool to find the best keywords for your website.

Long tail keywords may be lower in popularity than broad keywords, but they’re also lower in competition and are highly targeted to users’ search intent.

Alexa’s Keyword Difficulty tool can help make your keyword discovery easier, but also more focused. That way you waste no time because you develop the best content that will result in the most rewarding SEO.

Want faster keyword discovery and better results from SEO? Sign up for Alexa’s Advanced plan today. Your first 7 days are completely free.

Jennifer Johnson

Jennifer is Marketing Coordinator at Alexa. With a knack for syntax and passion for building connections, she drives daily content strategy to bring you the latest and greatest happenings within Alexa and the wide world of web analytics and marketing.

Latest posts by Jennifer Johnson (see all)

What if you could find the best keywords for your website and spy on competitors’ keywords at the same time?

Now you can with Alexa’s Competitor Keyword Matrix tool.

The brand new tool allows users to run a complete competitor keyword analysis, and identify high opportunity keywords based on gaps with their closest competitors.

Using the Competitor Keyword Matrix

In the tool you can compare up to 10 sites at once (including your own) to see competitors’ keywords that are different from yours.

You can sort the matrix list by a variety of criteria like:

• Sites in Common – how many sites are getting some traffic from the same keyword
• Competition – an estimate of how hard it is to rank highly for a keyword
• Popularity – how frequently users search for a keyword (higher popularity = higher traffic)

Using the purple shaded Traffic Scores you can expose the top keywords driving traffic to your competitors. And since the Matrix interface is set up like a heat map, you can quickly hone in on the type of keyword opportunity you’re looking for (more on that below).

✪ Traffic Scores are based on a site’s relative position in search engine results for that keyword, plus the popularity of that keyword (site rank for keyword + keyword popularity). This allows you to compare one site to another when both receive traffic from a single keyword.

Save the keyword opportunities you find in the Matrix during your competitor keyword research and add them to your marketing plans or incorporate them into your SEO content.

Want to analyze a keyword from the Matrix further? Enter it into the Keyword Difficulty tool to find similar keywords and analyze its keyword competition.

Each set of sites you enter into the Competitor Keyword Matrix can be saved and edited later. Just give it a name and we’ll tuck it away until you need it again.

When you want to work on one of your saved lists, you can access them easily at the top of the tool.

How to do a Competitor Keyword Analysis with the Matrix

There are a few ways to use Alexa’s Matrix tool for competitor keyword analysis. And each company may choose a different analysis depending on its strategy.

Let’s look at each angle:

1. Bandwagon – Target keywords with many sites in common

One way to approach competitor keyword research with the Matrix tool is to focus on how many sites a keyword has in common. In other words, how many sites are already targeting that keyword and getting traffic for it?

If only 1 or 2 sites in your set are targeting a keyword, this could indicate a good opportunity for you to fill a gap. Take a look at the Popularity of that keyword. Is it reasonably high? If so, this says many people are searching for it and it’s probably a good opportunity. If the popularity is low, this could indicate there isn’t enough interest for the term in search – and maybe one reason your competitors aren’t targeting it. However, if the term is highly relevant to your product or service then the low popularity could make for a great long tail opportunity for you.

If many sites are targeting a keyword, you could assume that there is enough interest in that topic and it’s a viable opportunity. However, check the Competition score. This will help you determine how difficult it would be to rank your content for the term. You can also compare the Competition Score to your Competitive Power to decide if a keyword is a good opportunity for you.

✪ Click to lea how your Competitive Power can help you choose SEO keywords with confidence.

If you determine a keyword is a good opportunity for you, take a look at which competitor(s) in the set are commanding the most traffic for the term. That is, who has the highest traffic score? Then do a search for the term to see what type of content is eaing them so much traffic. This will help you understand the true intent behind users’ searches and help you craft the most relevant content that has the best chance of ranking.

2. Borrow – Target keywords your competitors get a lot of traffic from

Another approach is to focus on your competitors’ top keywords – those they are getting a lot of traffic from. To identify these keywords, look for the dark purple boxes in the Matrix with a high Traffic Score.

The great thing about focusing on these keywords is you know there is proven interest in the subject (assuming the Popularity is reasonable), and the audience is relevant. You can use the Keyword Difficulty tool to make sure the Competition score is within your Competitive Power, and if it is…

Search for these keywords to see what type of content your competitor(s) built around them. Then develop your own content that takes their content a step further. This will help boost your competitiveness and increase your chances of ranking above them for the same term. There are a couple of ways to do this:

1. Improve the depth of their content by elaborating on the topic they discuss.
2. Fill in gaps where they’ve missed important pieces of information. For example, add to their recommendations or provide new resources.

If a keyword you like has a Competition score that is greater than your Competitive Power, try searching for that keyword in the Keyword Difficulty tool to find similar keywords that may be more niche. These keywords often have lower Popularity scores (i.e. are long-tail), but the search intent is much more specific and the Competition is usually lower. Your chances of ranking will be higher and you won’t waste time writing content that won’t get seen.

3. Pioneer – Target keywords your competitors get no traffic, or very little traffic from

A final approach you could take when doing a competitor keyword analysis is to target keywords that your competitors get little to no traffic from.

In this approach, keywords with light purple or gray boxes and lower Traffic scores represent a new opportunity.

If a site is targeting a keyword but getting little traffic from it (light purple box), you should investigate why they’re failing to get more traffic than they are.

If it’s the content, then produce something better. Should it be more specific? Does it fail to answer the searcher’s intent? Is the content spammy?

If it’s the keyword, consider why. Is the keyword too long tail? Is there not enough search volume? Or, is the keyword actually too competitive? Maybe it’s too broad. In either case, enter the keyword into the Keyword Difficulty tool to find like-keywords that might be better opportunities.

Alexa’s new competitor keyword research tool allows you to quickly find “keyword gaps” with your competitors. No matter the approach you take, you’ll be able to quickly identify new keyword opportunities that can give you a competitive edge in search.

Finding Sites for the Competitor Keyword Analysis

Finally, if you’re not sure who your competitors are, or want to discover similar sites to one you’re interested in, start with our Audience Overlap tool instead.

By inputting your URL (or another), you’ll get a list of other sites that share visitors with that one. The list is sorted by most audience overlap to least.

From there, you can select up to 10 sites and run a competitor keyword analysis in the Matrix to see which keywords the sites rank for in SERPs.

When you find keywords of competitors, you uncover highly relevant keyword opportunities for yourself that you might not have thought of. You can also rule out keywords that aren’t driving much traffic, instead of wasting time creating content around them.

Want to check competitor keywords? Try Alexa Advanced free for 7 days!

Jennifer Johnson

Jennifer is Marketing Coordinator at Alexa. With a knack for syntax and passion for building connections, she drives daily content strategy to bring you the latest and greatest happenings within Alexa and the wide world of web analytics and marketing.

Latest posts by Jennifer Johnson (see all)

More content. More content. More content.

Marketers hear it all the time. Most of us probably wake up in cold sweats at night thinking about it too.

“We need to publish new content”.

“We need to drive more traffic”.

A steady stream of new content on your website or blog goes hand-in-hand with quality backlinks, great SEO, and strong site traffic.

However, it can be a struggle to constantly generate new topics to blog about.

In this post, we review 4 excellent places to discover topics to write about.

The best part? They’re right under your nose.

1. Competitors

Researching competitor keywords is a tactful way to discover new content opportunities for your own website.

The benefits:

• It gives you a glimpse into what’s been successful for others with audiences like yours
• It reveals new keywords you might not have thought of
• It improves your search rankings by having fresh topics to blog about

Here’s how to find new topics to write about using competitor keywords and Alexa’s Keyword Difficulty tool:

In the tool, enter your competitor’s website into the search bar. Click find opportunities to get a list of keywords that are driving organic traffic for them.

The list of keyword opportunities retued is filterable by Popularity and Competition so you can discover only the best opportunities for your site as quickly as possible.

Scan through this list and decide what keywords might make great blog ideas for you.

You can favorite the keywords you want to save for later, or start a new search to discover even more ideas.

Alexa’s Keyword Difficulty tool allows you to search by keyword or by site, and lets you filter by the criteria that are most important to you. That way you only find the best keywords for your website.

✪ Pro Tip: When you choose SEO keywords to blog about, focus on your Competitive Power — a measure of your site’s ability to rank for a keyword, based on your past performance driving organic traffic. The higher your Competitive Power, the easier it will be for your site to rank for more competitive keywords.

Because these keyword opportunities are based on actual search pattes, they are highly relevant to your target audience. And because your competitors already use these keywords for their own blog topics, you know there’s proven interest.

2. Seasonal Content

Leveraging seasonal content is a great way to stay ahead of your content creation and always have things to blog about.

Popular seasonal events are very relevant and, provided you can put an interesting spin on the topic, will keep you top of mind with audiences.

And since seasonal events are guaranteed to occur the same time every year (wait, really?), you can adapt your blogging ideas based on past performance.

Maybe you try a different type of content – a video instead of a how-to article. Or, maybe you publish a little earlier to get picked up by more publishers.

In any case, the key to success with seasonal content is timing. If you publish too early, your content is irrelevant and becomes stale. If you publish too late, the peak of the conversation has passed.

In our 2016 Content Calendar, we’ve pinpointed the optimal times to produce, publish, and promote seasonal content based on popular events in 2015.

You can use it to uncover what types of content have been successful in the past, and use it to find new topics to blog about throughout the year.

We’ve even included a downloadable editorial calendar, including seasonal marketing ideas to make your content planning easier.

3. Existing Content

There are tons of articles written about using existing content to inspire new blog topic ideas. That’s because it’s a great idea!

There are so many ways to optimize or repurpose existing content into fresh ideas. Buffer’s Ultimate Guide to Repurposing Content is a fantastic resource for this.

But one of our go-to’s is auditing existing content for spin-off opportunities.

Good content tells a focused story, and targets a single keyword. However, several ideas can come out of a single blog topic.

Read through your existing content to find new blog ideas about a related topic.

• Find places where you could (and should) provide more detailed information on a topic.
• Identify keyword phrases that could be the root of a new article.

For example, our first recommendation in this list talks about using competitor keywords to inspire new blog topic ideas. But we don’t go into detail about how to choose the right SEO keywords for your site based on what you find. Now that would make a good post!

We might do some keyword research around the keyword phrase “choose SEO keywords” to see if it’s a good opportunity. If it is, we might write a new article about it titled: How to Choose SEO Keywords With Confidence. Hey, look at that!

Now we can link from this article to that article in a relevant way, providing our audiences more detailed information on a related topic.

Not only did we get a new blog topic idea from existing content, but we also have a new inteal link to help our SEO.

And as we know, good on-page SEO includes: 1) linking pages elsewhere on your site, and 2) having the appropriate number of outbound links.

✪ Ensure your content follows all the best practices for on-page optimization with Alexa’s On-Page SEO Checker.

4. Customer Support Representatives

Customer Support representatives are at the front lines of customer interaction; constantly fielding questions and conces about your product or service.

Working with your CS folks is a golden opportunity to directly address real customers and real questions via marketing content.

The benefits of developing blog ideas around customer support tickets are several:

1. Your CS and Sales teams get valuable, illustrative content they can share when speaking with customers and prospects.

2. If the question you’re answering hasn’t been addressed by before, including your competitors, you may become the go-to authority for the answer. In other words, if you’re the only one with an answer, then you’re the one people listen to. And hopefully, you get more traffic to your website as a result.

One of the most successful, and widely quoted, examples of this is River Pools and Spas. Hit hard by the recession in 2008, Marcus Sheridan started a content marketing program that saved his company and grew his traffic by 300%. The strategy: Answer his customer’s most pressing questions – those his competitors were afraid to talk about.

3. You can build links inteally and exteally by linking to your product, linking to related content, and getting other sites to link to your content too.

At the end of the day, chances are – if your customers are asking these questions, then your prospects and leads are too. It’s a win-win to provide answers.

Once you’ve collaborated with your CS or Sales folks to collect frequently asked questions or conces, do some keyword research to understand how people phrase these questions. In other words, figure out the syntax.

Figuring out the way people ask the questions they want answers to helps you find the right keywords to target in your new content.

Look up some of these potential keywords in Alexa’s Keyword Difficulty tool to find best keyword opportunity for your site. Once you’ve picked a great keyword, then get to writing!

Wrap up your new content by making sure it follows all the best practices for on-page SEO.

✪ Maximize your content efforts with Alexa’s On-Page SEO Checker. Get an easy-to-follow list of action items to improve your SEO and your ranking for target keywords.

Anytime you find yourself asking, “…but what can I blog about?” — Start here.

With 4 solid places to discover unique blog post ideas, you’re sure to have a steady stream of quality content that’s relevant to your business and your audience.

Want to get the most out of your content? Try Alexa’s Advanced plan free for 7 days!

You’ll get our full marketing stack of SEO related tools to help you choose the best keywords for your site, maximize your results from SEO, and grow your business.

Jennifer Johnson

Jennifer is Marketing Coordinator at Alexa. With a knack for syntax and passion for building connections, she drives daily content strategy to bring you the latest and greatest happenings within Alexa and the wide world of web analytics and marketing.

Latest posts by Jennifer Johnson (see all)