Possibly a Dumbass Question

[TheRumBaron]

As in the title, this could be a dumbass question but hey ho I ask it now I wont be a dumbass later once I get the answer

Is there a way, using any seo tools, that you can understand what users are searching for on a competitor's site?

For example if my competitor has a digital catalog of over 1000+ services, can I see what users are querying on that sites search bar to search for services?

Would imagine no, but just in case

 

[Sceptic]

Would imagine no

*Unless you hack their site, which is illegal, unethical, and everything in between.

 

[TheVigilante]

No question is a dumb question

 

[3bisu]

You can't if you don't have access

 

[Starblazer]

This is not a dumb question but an advanced question. The only dumb thing is to underestimate this question.

 

[SEOMadHatter]

You won't get their search numbers but some sites give you a display of their most popular pages/items which will tell you pretty much the same thing. In rare cases, the analytics suck and spill page views in the source which you can filter through.

Another insight would be to look them up on Ahrefs and see what their big SEO terms are. Won't give you their onsite search but an insight into where they're focusing their SEO/PPC keywords which probably overlaps. If you don't have Ahrefs drop me a PM with their site and I'll send you an export.

 

[TheRumBaron]

You won't get their search numbers but some sites give you a display of their most popular pages/items which will tell you pretty much the same thing. In rare cases, the analytics suck and spill page views in the source which you can filter through.

Another insight would be to look them up on Ahrefs and see what their big SEO terms are. Won't give you their onsite search but an insight into where they're focusing their SEO/PPC keywords which probably overlaps. If you don't have Ahrefs drop me a PM with their site and I'll send you an export.

I appreciate the advice and offer! - This is actually for my day job (not actually a hair boiling technician), without going into too much detail, one of our longterm clients has a public-facing service catalogue for services that the different departments of our client can procure...We are currently updating our offerings, service descriptions and so forth, in order to show up first in search results I was hoping we could implement some nice keyword tactics to rank higher. However the challenge I have is that the folk writing said descriptions are highly skilled SME's in their field, therefore tend not to use the same language of the 'not so SME' folk. So trying to ensure they use plain language within their descriptions and hit keywords that normal people would use whilst looking for said services...Ball ache.

 

[Mr Positive]

If such a tool exist it would have been on BHW but since it’s not here it doesn’t exisy

 

[proxygo]

If such a tool exist it would have been on BHW but since it’s not here it doesn’t exisy

if it did, some one with a BST would have made a killing and retired.

 

[t2van]

No dumb questions. Only dumb answers.

No there is nothing that I am aware of that can give you any kind of insight into what people are searching for. BUT you can get around that if you are prepared to put the work in.

Start with 10 of your competitor sites and look for a best sellers page. Some might not have one, some might have it hidden but you can normally find one someplace even try adding /best-sellers or something in the URL after the domain (if you luck out might show a hidden page)

You can then combine that data to find a group of products that are selling SOMETIMES the products might be different but the features will be similar, so then you can go off and research products based on that products features...

Once you have some info you can then go and use google trends and start to search for that feature or product and see if there are any current spikes, if the spikes are seasonal and you can then start to plan either product or a marketing strategy around that.


Id personally stick away from "sales" pages most of these on bigger sites are used to clear end of line, old stock etc... Checking sales pages that contain accessories are normally an indication of a product that can't be sold ... could be wrong but that's just my thinking.

Of course if you really want to BLACK HAT it... play the long game... become an SEO freelancer try and get work with your competitors.. get access to analytics and see onsite search data. Build up your own site on the side

 

[John4life2017]

You won't get their search numbers but some sites give you a display of their most popular pages/items which will tell you pretty much the same thing. In rare cases, the analytics suck and spill page views in the source which you can filter through.

Another insight would be to look them up on Ahrefs and see what their big SEO terms are. Won't give you their onsite search but an insight into where they're focusing their SEO/PPC keywords which probably overlaps. If you don't have Ahrefs drop me a PM with their site and I'll send you an export.

Well said!

 

[ICUdoLob]

As in the title, this could be a dumbass question but hey ho I ask it now I wont be a dumbass later once I get the answer

Is there a way, using any seo tools, that you can understand what users are searching for on a competitor's site?

For example if my competitor has a digital catalog of over 1000+ services, can I see what users are querying on that sites search bar to search for services?

Would imagine no, but just in case

yea, you can look at seo tools. you can see what they rank for and see what people are looking for

 

[cocoholo]

For outsiders, probably none. You have got to have access to the analytics tool they're using (i.e. Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, etc.). However, you can get an educated guess by looking at their most popular pages, and then run some keyword research on those page. Tools such as AHREFS can uncover what keywords those pages are ranking, which will give you ideas on how to take your keyword research moving forward.

 

[SocialEyez]

It all comes down to good social engineering.

And now seriously, you cant.