Content marketing tips #2 - conduct competitor keyword analysis

I've been looking at this advert a lot lately, as I see it at my local train station. It's by Travel Republic and it tells me two things - they:

1. have carried out competitor keyword analysis
2. understand that search engine optimisation (SEO) is fundamental to their online marketing strategy.

The advert invites (potential) customers to spend time researching the key phrase 'best beach holidays for kids' and then contact Travel Republic for the 'lowest price guarantee'.

In order for this campaign to be profitable, Travel Republic must be confident about the information customers will find when searching for the key phrase suggested. They must have analysed this information in order to be able to position their offering competitively.

Competitor keyword analysis should be a key part of your online marketing strategy because you must understand the environment you are entering before formulating your plan.

There are lots of free tools available to help you identify the keywords and phrases to compete for, so no excuses folks!

Who is your keyword competition?

Online content has to compete in the global marketplace for customers' attention. Take time to identify who your top three online (industry) competitors are. Once you have identified them, take time to analyse their content
strategy to help inform your own approach. You may decide to compete directly (in terms of keyword strategy) or you may decide that a completely alternative approach would be more successful – this of course depends on your
particular market.

As well as competitors within your own industry, you also need to consider those from other industries that will also be competing for the same keywords and phrases your online content will contain. For example, a search for the
term 'model' returns results for modelling agencies, model engineering societies, and model shops. These three different industries are competing for search engine rankings using the same keywords.

You must consider, not only what search engines know about website content, but also how they wed this to the information they hold about individual users. For example, I have a Google account, so Google knows a lot about me:
which category of websites I visit regularly; where I am located; what I have searched for in the past, and so on.

If I enter a search query for fish and chip shops, the search engine results page lists restaurants in my local area – these will be different to yours. So, location marketing is an ever important consideration.

Free keyword tools

http://www.wordstream.com/keywords
http://www.keywordeye.com/#plans-pricing
http://www.wordpot.com/
http://www.keyworddiscovery.co.uk/search.html

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