[Method] Using Ahrefs to find Weak Competitors & their Keywords

[Fynesttrish]

Nice guide op. Bookmarked for later. Probably to send to my VA as a guide like you have suggested

 

[schttrj]

Hey BHW,
Today we will learn how to find Weak Competitors & their Keywords
It's a Newbie Guide

Let us take “gym bags” as our sub-niche [ we will be using it throughout this guide].

Search this term in the Ahrefs keyword Explorer. [ make sure that you have selected the USA as your target country, you may use other countries to target]

Now click on “view all” under the “having same terms” block.

After that, you will see a list containing around 100k keywords. [ahrefs have a lot of keywords in their database]

But we don’t need all these keywords, utilize the filter I have set [see below] -

KD: Min - 15
Ahrefs KD or Keyword Difficulty does not actually differentiate b/w low competition keywords and medium-low competition keywords. You can go up to 25 KD score.

Volume: 250 - Max
250 is certainly a great monthly search volume to target.

Reasons -

# Most of the sites on page 1 is actually not targeting these keywords.
# Even if the sites are targeting these keywords, the content is too thin.
# The only site writing great content around the exact search term is new websites.


CPS: Number of Clicks per search = 1.1
It’s an important factor that is always missed by marketers while searching for profitable keywords.
It basically means that, if a keyword has a CPS of more than 1 that means, that the target audience clicks on more than one search result.


For ex - If the keyword is - “What’s the age of Donald Trump?” here is what we will get-

As you can see, anyone searching for this keyword will get the answer without even clicking on any search result. And here the CPS may even be as low as 0

Whereas if someone searches for anything like - “Why my dog is feeling sleepy?”
They will click on the search results to learn more about the reason. And it’s a very common practice of people to click on more than one search term.

Hope you understand.

Now, coming back to our main topic.
After you have applied all the required filters, you will be left with less than 100 keywords [it depends on your niche].

Here is what we have -

So basically this is what we are going to do -

1. Check the SERP result of each keyword by clicking on the “SERP” button.
   
   
2. See if any weak website [DA less than 20] is ranking on the 1st - 5th page.
   
   
3. Find out all the keywords that the website is ranking for so that you can rank for them too. Please understand that backlinks are one of the most important factors in SEO and hence we will thoroughly consider them while scanning keywords.

Our ultimate goal - Finding a weak website.

Now just click on each keyword’s SERP button to find out if any weak site is ranking for that specific keyword or not.

For the first keyword “best gym bags” a website with DR = 17 [domain rating, similar to DA] is ranking on the 26th position.

This is the URL - https://garagegympower.com/best-gym-bags-for-women/

Open “Site Explorer” in another tab and search for the domain [ for this example, it’s garagegympower.com]

Then click on the “Organic Keywords”

You are going to get the “Ultimate Hit List Keywords”

After clicking you will see a huge list of keywords, now apply these filters -

Position: Min - 5
That means, filter only the keywords where the given website is ranking between 1st - 5th position.

Volume: 100 - Max

KD: Min - 5 [ You can go upto 25]

Word Count: 4 - Max [ Focusing on long-tail keywords]

Include: best, review, top [select any]

Exclude: 2016,2017,2018 [rubbish long-tail extensions, select any]


Also this filter for extra refinement -

After the filters have been applied, click on the export button to download all the keywords. But, we need to analyze the keywords to understand this whole process.

Before analyzing the keywords, I want to say that we will mainly find these types of keywords -

# How-to keywords [ create a 2,000-word article around the keyword, makes your website look more legit, can drive some serious amount of traffic]

# “Best of” keywords [ Best running shoes for women]

# Mis-spelled keywords [Ignore them]


So, the keyword you choose mainly depends on you and your site. If you want to make your site flow easily, then use a mix of “how-to” and “best-of” keywords.

Now, I am going to focus on “best-of” keywords.

Take this keyword - “ best running shoes for peroneal tendonitis “

Here are the websites ranking for this keyword on the 1st page of Google -

Now, look closely -

1. There are 5 websites out of 10 with a DA less than 19
   
   
2. Websites on positions #5 and #10 are not targeting the keyword, they are just ranking because of authority.

Go for this keyword!
But you may ask that it takes a lot of time?

Solution - This is one of the best solutions out in the SEO market, and it just sounds time-consuming but it’s not. If you are still struggling, hire a cheap VA and just send this guide to him for reference.


RECAP -

1. Enter your niche/sub-niche in Ahrefs keyword explorer.
   
   
2. Filter the keywords list and find out weak websites ranking for buyer intent keywords.
   
   
3. Research all the keywords that the website is ranking for.
   
   
4. Apply the given filters, and you will find some good keywords.
   
   
5. Rinse & Repeat.

Keep in mind.
This is a basic guide, made mostly for newbies.
If you think I missed something, let us know below.
Thanks
@Dwivedi 98

Loved it! Though I am not a newbie, still learnt a lot from it.

 

[Chn16000]

Useful guide even for experienced people.

Thank you for sharing.

 

[defi logic]

Jesus thanks but Ahrefs are expensive as hell.

 

[ukazza]

Thankyou, starting doing this now until next month, wish me luck

 

[RealDaddy]

Thankyou, starting doing this now until next month, wish me luck

Good luck!

 

[ljose34]

Great guide

 

[RealDaddy]

Great guide

Hope you liked it

 

[Jose Pirela]

Great guide

 

[orihf]

Great guide

 

[Mr.Never]

Thanks for sharing! Appreciate the Guide. I'm not a newbie but I have never known this wonderful method. So I think now I'm a newbie.
I have a question:
Follow this method, Can we find Informative keywords(how-to, list, what...)? Or anything ways to find them?
Thanks again!

 

[RealDaddy]

Thanks for sharing! Appreciate the Guide. I'm not a newbie but I have never known this wonderful method. So I think now I'm a newbie.
I have a question:
Follow this method, Can we find Informative keywords(how-to, list, what...)? Or anything ways to find them?
Thanks again!

Yeah you can find those

 

[Mr.Never]

Yeah you can find those

Thanks for your reply. I just found a website. However, when I check it on Moz and Ahrefs are different:

​

Can you explain this? and where should we rely on it?

 

[D3mon]

How can I get premium access to ahrefs without paying the full price? It is rly expensive, especially if you are just starting out with SEO. Are there any discounts or can I share one account between multiple users?

 

[bluecoder]

Awesome share, Surely will try out...

Thanks for your reply. I just found a website. However, when I check it on Moz and Ahrefs are different:
View attachment 126212

View attachment 126213​

Can you explain this? and where should we rely on it?

Both Ahrefs and Moz works in different way in calculating the metrics, and moreover Ahrefs would be little faster to find the backlinks compare to Moz,and not all would be taken in consideration, I can suggest to rely on DR

 

[Mum2016]

Excellent guide. I really liked the methodology. Well described

 

[LovePinterest]

The problem is the KD on Ahrefs is not realistic, it doesn't take into account your domain score at all. I don't believe a new website with a 0 domain ranking will be able to hit the front page of those keywords as easily as suggested.

 

[RealDaddy]

The problem is the KD on Ahrefs is not realistic, it doesn't take into account your domain score at all. I don't believe a new website with a 0 domain ranking will be able to hit the front page of those keywords as easily as suggested.

Dude,
At least read the whole post before replying.

 

[RealDaddy]

Awesome share, Surely will try out...

Both Ahrefs and Moz works in different way in calculating the metrics, and moreover Ahrefs would be little faster to find the backlinks compare to Moz,and not all would be taken in consideration, I can suggest to rely on DR

Yes, DR is more important than KD

 

[RealDaddy]

How can I get premium access to ahrefs without paying the full price? It is rly expensive, especially if you are just starting out with SEO. Are there any discounts or can I share one account between multiple users?

You can do a group buy