One of the most important aspects of keyword research is finding profitable keywords which is in high demand.

Research has shown that if a keyword phrase A has a high search volume (10,000 searches per month) and another keyword phrase B has a lesser search volume (1000 search per month), you are most likely to earn more if you target your page’s content for Keyword A.

This is because the more is the demand of something, more advertisers and products will be able to convert that traffic into revenue. If you are monetizing your website with Advertising programs such as Google Adsense, more advertisers will bid on a page with higher traffic and higher search volume compared to a page which has a lesser demand, lesser traffic and lesser search volume.

So it is critical to find topics, keyword phrases, and subjects which are in high demand. The next critical thing is to rank on search engines for those highly profitable keywords and search phrases.

In this article, I will show you a simple way to find highly profitable keywords and long tail search phrases from competing websites using an SEO tool – SEMrush.

How to Find Highly Profitable Long Tail Keywords From Competing Sites

  1. First thing you do is signup for a SEMrush account. It’s not free and will cost you a subscription fee but the insights and data is totally worth it. Without this insight and data, you will not be able to find out keywords and long tail phrases for which competing websites are ranking high on Google search results.
  2. Once you have obtained your SEMrush subscription, learn how to do keyword research with SEMrush. Keyword research is an essential thing to learn and you should be well versed with how to find keywords for which your website needs to rank. Without the concept of researching keywords and subjects, it is going to be very difficult for you to rank for specific topics in Google search and convert that traffic into business.
  3. Now that you have the tool (SEMrush) and the knowledge in place, you are ready for business. Assuming that you already have a website and you know a thing or two about your niche, you must have a list of websites which you are competitors and doing well in business.For example, if you have a blog on technology, software and mobile phones, you must have a list of websites and blogs which are considered leaders in this niche. Again, if you have a blog on lifestyle, fashion and movies, you must have a list of blogs which are considered leaders in this niche.

    So no matter what your niche is, make a list of blogs and websites which are considered pioneers and leaders in their niche. The list does not have to be really big but it’s good to have at least 10 websites to start with.

  4. Now that you have made the list of 10 competing websites which are considered leaders and authoritative, it’s time to spy on them. It is time to find out those keyword phrases for which these websites are ranking on Google search. Out of this list, you will want to sort out those keywords which have high monthly search volume.So we will need to do two things

    First, we will find out all the keyword phrases for which a particular competing website is ranking on 1st position in Google search. Out of that list, we will filter keywords, phrases and topics which has high search volume.

  5. It would not be ethical to show you the keywords of an exact website in this blog post as an example. However, I have taken a moderately successful website as an example, without revealing the name of the website.
  6. Login to your SEMrush account, go to “Domain overview”, enter the URL of the competing website in the search box and click on the “Search” button. Next, scroll down to the “Top organic keywords” section and click the “View Full Report” button.Keyword report competing websites
  7. In the next page, click the “Export” button and then export the list of all organic keywords of a competing website in XML or CSV file.Export List of Profitable Keywords in CSV
  8. Open a Google spreadsheet and Import the file you just downloaded.Import keywords
  9. Now you will have a sheet like this.complete keyword list competing website

    For simplification, delete these columns – Previous Position, Keyword difficulty, CPC, Traffic, Traffic Cost, Competition, Number of results, Trends and Timestamp.

  10. After simplification, your sheet will look something like this.Post
  11. Now all you need to do is, sort the column “Search volume” in descending order to find all those profitable keywords with high column for which the competing website is ranking on the first page in Google searchSort high search volume keywords
    High Volume Profitable Keywords

This data is equivalent to Gold because this data will help you implement the correct content strategy for your website so that you are able to beat your competitors and try to rank for high volume keywords, phrases and the long tail of search phrases. Not only that, you will also know why a specific competing website is doing well and you are not, what is the difference in their content strategy and your content strategy, what areas he is focussing which you are ignoring and what you can do to ensure your website ranks for those highly profitable search keywords and phrases with enormous search volume for which you are not ranking yet.

All of this will only happen if you have access to information. Access to this critical data is essential to spy on your competitors’ activities and see what they are doing. None of this can happen if you do not opt for a premium SEO tool like SEMrush.

Before getting a premium SEMrush account (which costs $99 a month) we were hesitant on whether we will really be able to convert that investment into profit. It took us a while to get there but after 4-4 months, we were able to increase the revenue of our other sites by at least $600 – $1000, hence the investment of $99 a month was taken care of by the additional revenue we made, thanks to the critical data about our competitors which SEMrush allowed us to find.

This is just one way to find highly profitable keywords of competing websites whose search volume is very high. There are other ways as well but by far, this has fetched us good results and this is often times the most straightforward and less labor and time-consuming.

Give this a try in your websites, I can guarantee that you will not repent your decision in 4-5 months when you start seeing better returns from your website (because now you target the right keywords and phrases which in turn brought more revenue, thereby compensating your initial investment of $99 and allowing you to keep additional profit)

Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.