When it comes to SEO research and free and/or accessible optimisation tools, Moz is certainly one of the kings of the industry and – with its user-friendly yet thorough approach to keyword research and analysis – this useful software shows no signs of slowing down; the go-to tool for Search Engine Optimisers, Content Marketers and Sole Traders alike. But, if you’re just starting out on your SEO journey, you’re probably wondering how to use Moz to find competitor key words?
How to use Moz to find competitors key words
Thankfully, Moz is super easy to use and offers a number of free SEO tools via their website. To access these, you’ll first need to set up a free account.
Once you’ve done this and you’re all logged in, you’ll want to go to ‘free SEO tools’ in the top menu and navigate to the Keyword Explorer.
Here, you’ll have a number of options available to you, and a menu to the site of your screen (assuming you’re accessing the site via a desktop or laptop!). There are a few options available to you from here for keyword analysis and especially competitor keyword analysis.
Site Overview: under Keyword Research on the side navigation, you’ll find an option for ‘Site Overview’ – this is where you can add the URL of your website plus a competitor’s website URL to directly compare the 2, including a comparison on the use of keywords.
Ranking Keywords: directly under the Site Overview is Ranking Keywords – within this area you can add your competitors’ URLs – either 1 by 1 or 3 at a time in order to compare and assess any keyword gaps or overlaps. This area will provide you with an in depth view of your competitors’ key words, alongside keyword difficulty and estimated monthly volume.
A note on SERP Analysis
Alongisde keyword research, one of Moz’s free SEO tools enables you as a user to analyse SERP features, where SERP refers to Search Engine Page Results.
Using this to analyse your own site and some of your competitors’ sites can be a really valuable way to understand which of yours and your competitors’ pages are showing up on SERP and where.
In short, if you haven’t already, go and set up a free Moz account and experiment with all the different tools and functions – they’ll help you to better understand your competitors’ websites, your own site, and how you compare.
If you do need any support with your content marketing, digital marketing or SEO, please contact me.
Sophie Porter: Content Specialist 