Competitor keyword analysis means pulling the list of searches a competitor ranks for, then filtering it down to the keywords you can realistically win. The fastest route is a paid tool's organic keywords report: enter the competitor's domain in Semrush Organic Rankings, Ahrefs Site Explorer or SE Ranking Competitive Research and export everything ranking in the top 20. Free routes work too: Google Keyword Planner's "Start with a website" option, a free Semrush account (10 reports a day) and Outrank's free content analyzer.
Getting the list takes minutes. The real work is cutting 10,000 keywords to the 50 worth a page. This guide covers six ways to find a competitor's keywords, the filters that do the cutting, a calculator that estimates what each keyword is worth, and how to map the survivors to pages.
Key takeaways
- Pick competitors from the search results for your own keywords. The best keyword source is often a site that doesn't sell what you sell.
- Export keywords ranking in positions 1 to 20, then remove branded terms, irrelevant topics and keywords above your difficulty range.
- A keyword gap (missing and weak keywords against your own domain) is the most actionable view of a competitor's keyword list.
- Weigh keywords by expected clicks, not volume. In First Page Sage's 2026 data, position 1 averaged a 22.6% CTR without an AI answer on the page and 3.6% with one.
- Group keywords by intent and map each group to one page. Ten keywords usually mean two or three pages, not ten.
What is competitor keyword analysis?
Competitor keyword analysis is the process of finding the keywords your competitors rank for in organic search, judging which of them are relevant and winnable for your site, and turning them into a list of pages to create or improve.
It's related to two other analyses that people often confuse with it:
- Keyword gap analysis is one view inside competitor keyword analysis: only the keywords where competitors rank and you don't (or rank lower). Our keyword gap analysis guide goes deep on it.
- Keyword competition analysis asks how hard a single keyword is to rank for. That's the job of difficulty scores and a SERP check, covered in our guide to SEO keyword competition.
Competitor keyword analysis gives you the candidate list. Competition analysis tells you which candidates to keep.
6 ways to find the keywords a competitor ranks for
Ways to find a competitor's keywords
| Organic keywords report (Semrush Organic Rankings, Ahrefs Site Explorer → Organic keywords, SE Ranking Organic Traffic Research) | Semrush free: 10 reports a day. Paid from $29 (Ahrefs Starter), $129 (SE Ranking Core, Ahrefs Lite), $139 (Semrush SEO) | ✓ | The complete list with position, volume, difficulty and estimated traffic |
| Top pages report | Same tools | ✓ | Seeing which pages earn their traffic and the keywords behind each one |
| Keyword gap (Semrush Keyword Gap, Ahrefs Content Gap, SE Ranking Competitor Comparison) | Same tools | ✓ | Missing and weak keywords compared with your own domain |
| Google Keyword Planner, Start with a website | No charge, needs a Google Ads account with billing set up | ✕ | Keyword ideas based on the content of any URL, with Google's own volume data |
| Outrank Free Content Analyzer and SEO Competitor Analysis | Free, no login | ✓ | A competitor's top pages, keyword gaps and topic clusters in one view |
Manual: site: search, their sitemap and title tags | Free | ✕ | The topics they cover and how they structure them, when you have no tool |
Click a column header to sort.
A few notes on the free routes:
- Keyword Planner lets you "enter any website and Google will look for keywords related to the content on that site", according to Google. It doesn't tell you what the competitor ranks for, only what their content is about, but the volumes come straight from Google. Paste a competitor's category or blog URL rather than the homepage for sharper ideas.
- The sitemap trick: open
theirdomain.com/sitemap.xml(or the sitemap listed in their robots.txt). URL slugs are often the target keywords. Sorting by last-modified date also shows what they've been publishing recently. - Title tags:
site:theirdomain.com keywordin Google lists their pages on a topic with the titles they chose, which usually lead with the target keyword.
How to do competitor keyword research, step by step
- 1
Pick 3 competitors from the search results
Search 5 to 10 of your money keywords and take the domains that appear most often on page one. The free SEO Competitor Finder in Outrank's SEO tools confirms the list. - 2
Export their organic keywords
In your tool, export every keyword where the competitor ranks in positions 1 to 20. Beyond 20, the keyword is rarely bringing them traffic. - 3
Clean the list
Remove their brand name and product names, navigational queries and topics you'll never cover. - 4
Filter to what you can win
Keep keywords inside your difficulty range with enough volume to matter (filters below). - 5
Group by topic and intent
Keywords that one page can rank for go into one group. Each group becomes a page. - 6
Prioritize by expected traffic and business value
Use the calculator below for traffic, then rank groups by how close the searcher is to buying from you. - 7
Turn the top groups into a content plan
Decide for each group whether to create a page, refresh an existing one, or skip it.
Filters that turn 10,000 keywords into 50
These settings are a sensible starting point for a small or mid-size site. Adjust them to your authority and niche.
| Filter | Starting setting | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Competitor position | 1 to 10 (or 1 to 20 for a wider net) | Only keywords that send them real traffic |
| Your position | Not ranking, or 11 and below | Isolates gaps and weak spots |
| Keyword difficulty | Up to about 30 (Ahrefs KD or Semrush KD%) for newer sites | Semrush labels 0 to 29 "very easy" to "easy"; see how to find low-competition keywords |
| Search volume | 50+ per month, lower in B2B niches | Low-volume B2B keywords can still convert |
| Exclude | Competitor brand names, "login", "careers", "coupon" | Navigational and irrelevant intent |
| Intent | Match what you can publish | A product-page keyword needs a product page |
Don't over-filter on volume. Long-tail keywords are where most sites grow: of the 189,369 articles Outrank wrote with a known search volume in the 90 days to October 2026, the median targeted keyword had 170 searches a month, and 96.7% targeted fewer than 1,000. For more on that end of the curve, read our guide to long-tail keyword research.
How much traffic is a competitor's keyword worth?
Volume tells you how many people search. Clicks depend on where you'd rank and what else sits on the results page. This calculator estimates monthly visits from the click-through rates in First Page Sage's 2026 CTR study.
Interactive calculator
What would ranking for this keyword bring you?
Estimated visits per month
58
- Expected click-through rate
- 5.8%
- Estimated visits per year
- 696
Two things stand out when you play with it. Moving from #3 to #1 roughly quadruples clicks on a results page without an AI answer. And an AI Overview can shrink a keyword's value by a factor of five or more, which is why a high-volume informational keyword can be worth less than a modest commercial one. Outrank's own zero-click study of 415 sites found median impressions rose 2.18 times between October 2025 and August 2026 while clicks rose only 22%.
Map each keyword group to the right page type
Intent decides the page, not the keyword. Look at what ranks on page one for the main keyword in each group and match it:
| Intent | Typical modifiers | Page type that ranks |
|---|---|---|
| Informational | how to, what is, why, guide, examples | Guide, explainer, tutorial |
| Commercial investigation | best, vs, alternatives, review, pricing | Comparison page, roundup, alternatives page |
| Transactional | buy, price, template, tool, calculator, free trial | Product or category page, tool, template |
| Navigational | brand names, login | Skip unless it's your own brand |
When a competitor ranks for a whole cluster with one page type you don't have, such as a template library or a set of /vs/ pages, that's a structural gap worth more than any single keyword. Our competitor website analysis guide shows how to spot those page types from a site's structure, and the 7-step SEO competitor analysis adds the backlink side.
Mistakes to avoid
- Analyzing only business rivals. Review sites, communities and publishers often rank for your best keywords and have the most useful keyword lists.
- Copying the whole list. Their keywords reflect their product and their authority. Filter for your own.
- One page per keyword. Close variants belong on the same page. Splitting them creates keyword cannibalization.
- Ignoring position 11 to 20 keywords on your own site. If a competitor ranks top 5 where you sit on page two, a refresh can win faster than a new page.
- Trusting estimates as exact. Traffic and volume in third-party tools are modeled. Use them to rank opportunities, not to forecast revenue to the dollar.
Doing this by hand every month is the part most teams drop. Outrank runs it continuously: it analyzes your niche and competitors, picks keywords with live search volume and difficulty, and publishes one SEO article a day to your CMS. In the 90 days to October 2026, 63% of the keywords it targeted had a difficulty under 20.
FAQ
How do I find my competitors' keywords for free?
Use a free Semrush account (10 reports a day) for a competitor's organic keywords, Google Keyword Planner's "Start with a website" option for keyword ideas based on their pages, and Outrank's free content analyzer for their top pages and keyword gaps. Their XML sitemap and a site: search in Google show the topics they cover. Free routes have limits, but they're enough for one or two competitors.
What is the difference between competitor keyword analysis and keyword gap analysis?
Competitor keyword analysis looks at everything a competitor ranks for. Keyword gap analysis is the part of it that compares their keywords with yours and keeps only the ones where they rank and you don't, or where they rank higher. Most of the actionable opportunities come from the gap view.
Which tool is best for competitor keyword research?
Semrush (Organic Rankings and Keyword Gap) and Ahrefs (Site Explorer and Content Gap) have the largest keyword databases. SE Ranking's Competitive Research covers the same ground at a lower price, with its Core plan at $129 a month as of October 2026. Pick one and use it for every competitor, since estimates from different tools don't line up.
How many competitors should I analyze for keyword research?
Three is usually enough to see patterns without drowning in data. Include one direct business rival and at least one site that ranks for your keywords without selling what you sell, such as a review site or publisher. Add more only when the first three stop producing new keyword groups.
How often should I redo competitor keyword analysis?
Once a quarter for a full export and filter, plus a monthly look at the keywords your main competitors gained recently. Suites such as Semrush and SE Ranking can flag competitor changes automatically, which saves a full re-run between quarters.
