Understanding which keywords your competitors are ranking for is like getting a look at their secret playbook. Instead of guessing what your Brisbane customers are searching for, you can see exactly what is already working for the business down the road and use that data to fuel your own growth.
In this guide, we’ll walk through the exact process we use at Local Marketing Group to deconstruct a competitor's SEO strategy. By the end, you'll have a list of high-value keywords that you can start targeting on your own website.
What You’ll Need Before We Start
- A spreadsheet: Google Sheets or Excel is perfect for keeping your findings organised.
- A list of 3-5 direct competitors: Think about the businesses that show up when you search for your services in Brisbane or your specific suburb.
- An SEO tool: While there are free ways to do this (which we'll cover), tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, or Ubersuggest make this much faster.
- Coffee: Grab a flat white; this takes a bit of focus, but it’s the most rewarding part of SEO.
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Step 1: Identify Your True Search Competitors
This is where most people get stuck right at the beginning. Your "business" competitors aren't always your "search" competitors.
For example, if you run a boutique gym in Newstead, your business competitor might be the F45 around the corner. But your search competitor might be a fitness blogger or a national directory like Yellow Pages that dominates the first page of Google.
Action: Go to Google and search for your primary service + your location (e.g., "Plumber Chermside" or "Conveyancing Lawyer Brisbane"). What you should see: A mix of ads at the top, the Local Map Pack (the map with three businesses), and the organic results below. Pro tip from experience: Focus on the organic results for businesses that look like yours. Ignore Wikipedia or huge government sites for now—you want to find local businesses that are successfully ranking where you want to be.Step 2: Set Up Your Keyword Spreadsheet
Don't skip this! It’s tempting to just browse through tools, but you’ll forget 90% of what you see. Open a new Google Sheet and create the following columns:
- Keyword (The actual phrase people search)
- Search Volume (How many people search for it per month)
- Keyword Difficulty (How hard it is to rank for, usually 0-100)
- Competitor URL (Which page of theirs is ranking)
- Our Status (Do we already have a page for this?)
Step 3: Use a Tool to "Reverse Engineer" Their Traffic
Now for the fun part. We’re going to peek behind the curtain. If you have a paid tool like Semrush or Ahrefs, you simply enter the competitor’s URL into the "Domain Overview" section.
If you’re using a free tool (like the free version of Ubersuggest or Google Keyword Planner):- Enter the competitor’s website address.
- Look for a tab labelled "Keywords" or "Organic Keywords."
- Filter the results to "Australia" (Google defaults to the US often, which is useless for a Brisbane business!).
Step 4: Look for the "Low Hanging Fruit"
This is where we get strategic. You don't want to target the keywords that the biggest companies in Australia are fighting over. You want the ones you can actually win.
Look for keywords with:
- High Relevance: Does this keyword actually lead to a sale? (e.g., "Emergency Electrician Brisbane" is better than "History of Electricity").
- Lower Difficulty: Most tools give a score. Look for keywords with a score under 30 or 40 if your website is relatively new.
- Decent Volume: In the Australian market, a volume of 50-200 searches a month for a local service is actually quite good! Don't be discouraged by low numbers compared to US-based tutorials.
Step 5: Identify "Keyword Gaps"
This is a pro-level move. A "Keyword Gap" is a phrase that all your competitors rank for, but you don't.
Most major SEO tools have a "Keyword Gap Tool." You put in your URL and then 3 competitor URLs. It will show you a Venn diagram of keywords.
Why this matters: If three of your competitors are all ranking for "Commercial Fitouts Brisbane" and you aren't even on the list, you are missing out on a massive slice of the market. This is your immediate "To-Do" list for new content.Step 6: Analyse Their Content Structure
Once you find a high-value keyword a competitor is ranking for, go and actually look at their page. (Yes, click the link!)
Ask yourself:
- How long is the text?
- Do they have a video?
- Do they have a clear Call to Action (CTA) like a "Book Now" button?
- Are they using local Brisbane landmarks or suburb names in their text?
Step 7: Check Their "Local" Keywords
For Australian small businesses, the "suburb + service" combination is gold.
Check if your competitors have dedicated pages for specific suburbs (e.g., "SEO Services Milton" or "SEO Services West End"). If they do, they are likely capturing very high-intent local traffic.
Common Mistake: Many business owners try to rank for just "Plumber." But the competition for that is national. You want to see if they are winning on "Plumber North Lakes" or "Plumber Ascot."Step 8: Organise and Prioritise
By now, your spreadsheet should be looking pretty full. It’s time to prioritise because you can't do everything at once.
Mark your keywords as:
- Priority 1: High intent, low difficulty (Do these first).
- Priority 2: High intent, high difficulty (These will take time and maybe some backlink building).
- Priority 3: General info/Blog topics (Good for brand awareness but won't pay the bills tomorrow).
Step 9: Create a Content Plan
This is the most important step. Data is useless without action. Pick your top 3 Priority 1 keywords and commit to writing a new page or blog post for each over the next month.
(Don't worry if this feels slow. SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. One high-quality page is better than ten thin, useless ones.)
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Troubleshooting Common Issues
"My competitors don't show up in the SEO tools!" If you or your competitors are very small or have very new websites, tools like Semrush might not have enough data yet. Solution: Use the "Autocomplete" feature on Google. Type in your service and see what Google suggests. Also, look at the "People Also Ask" section at the bottom of the search results. "The keywords I found are too hard to rank for." This happens a lot in competitive industries like Real Estate or Law. Solution: Get more specific. Instead of "Family Lawyer," try "Child Custody Lawyer Brisbane Northside." The longer the phrase (Long-tail keywords), the easier it is to rank. "The search volume is zero." Don't always trust the tools. Australian search data is often underestimated by global tools. Solution: If the keyword is highly relevant to what you do, build the page anyway. If one person finds you and spends $2,000, it doesn't matter if the "volume" was low.Next Steps
- Download your data: Export your spreadsheet and keep it as your master SEO roadmap.
- Audit your current content: See if you can add these new keywords to your existing pages before creating new ones.
- Monitor your progress: Check your rankings once a month to see if you're moving up the ladder.
If this all feels a bit too technical or you just don't have the time to spend hours in spreadsheets, we can help. At Local Marketing Group, we do this every day for Brisbane businesses. You can reach out to us at https://lmgroup.au/contact and we can run a professional competitor audit for you.