Steal Your Competitor's Organic Traffic and Keywords

60% of marketers say that inbound marketing, like SEO, is their highest-quality source of leads and revenue. But here's the thing—search engine optimization doesn't have to be complicated, and you don't have to pay thousands of dollars each month to have an agency manage it for you.

Today, we're going to dive in to how to outsmart your competitors and get a leg up in organic search by using their own SEO keywords against them. By following a simple process, you can leverage cheap SEO tools like Spyfu to see exactly what keywords your competitors are targeting. (this is a tactic that I currently use with my coaching clients, and a tactic I often used when I worked for a digital marketing agency)

Keyword Research

A critical component of SEO in driving organic traffic to your website is keyword research. While I outline this process in detail in my 7-Day Online Marketing Jumpstart PDF, here's a quick overview using a cost-effective tool—Spyfu.

Why Spyfu?

SpyFu is an excellent and affordable tool for keyword research and competitive analysis. While there are other options like Semrush and BrightEdge, these can be pricier. Spyfu offers a lot of what those competitors offer, for a fraction of the price.

Choose Your Competitor

First, identify a competitor whose SEO strategy you want to analyze. In the video above, I chose barbellapparel.com, a website that sells workout apparel.

Visit the competitor's website and copy their URL. We'll use this URL to gather insights on their keywords and performance.

Enter the Competitor's URL in Spyfu

When you log in to Spyfu, you'll find a dashboard where you can enter a domain, URL, or keyword. Paste your competitor’s URL here.

Analyze Top Pages

Once the data loads, navigate to the "Top Pages" section. This section shows the top-ranking pages for the selected URL, along with the number of keywords they rank for and the estimated traffic each page receives.

By clicking "View All Top Pages," you open up a treasure trove of information. Determine how your competitor structures their website and decide if you might want to organize your content similarly.

Dig Deeper into Keywords

Let's focus on a specific page for deeper insights. For instance, selecting "Men's Workout Hoodies" allows us to view the estimated SEO clicks and the 134 keywords this page ranks for (note: these are estimates from SpyFu based on their large database).

Filter these results by position to see top-ranking keywords first. Exclude your competitor’s own branded terms. In this example, that would be "Barbell Hoodies" — Google prioritizes the most relevant result, which will be your competitor.

Optimize Your Content

Take note of high-traffic keywords without brand names. For example:

• Men's lifting hoodies

• Men's workout hoodie

• Men's workout sweaters

Use these keywords into your own content. Ensure your text flows naturally while making use of the chosen keywords (when relevant!), which will assist you in ranking for those terms.

Leveraging Competitor Blogs

Sometimes, product pages aren't enough. If your competitors have a blog, you can gain additional insights that aid your own content creation. Most SEO tools, like SpyFu, allow you to isolate specific sections of a website to analyze.

For instance, Barbell Apparel’s blog is under a subfolder /blogs/. Entering barbellapparel.com/blogs/ into Spyfu will isolate just the blog posts. Analyze these to see what topics they cover and identify what's working well for them.

Create Better Content if You Want to Outrank Them

One of Barbell Apparel’s popular blog posts is "The Best Five Exercises for Quad Growth." If you notice your competitor ranks well for blog posts, dig into the keywords they use and create better content around those same topics. Craft headlines and articles that not only improve upon what your competitors offer but also provide more value to your readers. I highly encourage taking a different angle on the topic that displays your experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). (Note: You'll find a lot more information from Google on how they use E-E-A-T factors in their ranking algorithm. Here is an article I wrote on another way to improve your E-E-A-T)

Final Thoughts

Utilizing tools like Spyfu to analyze your competitor's keyword strategy is a game-changer. Not only does it save you time by avoiding the need to reinvent the wheel, but it also provides you with a clear roadmap to get better organic traffic results.