You run competitive analyses of keywords to find out which keywords you can realistically rank for, which ones your competitors already win (and with what kind of page), and where the gaps are that nobody covers well. It turns keyword research from a list of search volumes into a list of winnable opportunities, so your content and link budget goes where it can pay off.
Below are the six concrete reasons, what each one tells you, the metrics that matter, and a short quiz that points you to the right type of analysis for your situation.
Key takeaways
- A competitive keyword analysis answers "can we win this, and what would it take?", which search volume alone can't.
- Difficulty scores are mostly link counts. By Ahrefs' published table, a KD 10 keyword's top pages have about 10 referring domains and a KD 50 keyword's about 84.
- Competitors' rankings show the page type Google wants for a query, so you don't build a blog post where only tools or product pages rank.
- Keyword Planner's "Competition" column measures advertisers, not organic difficulty.
- Most growing sites aim low on purpose. In Outrank's data, the median targeted keyword had a difficulty of 14.
The short answer: 6 reasons to run a competitive keyword analysis
- To know which keywords you can actually win with your site's current authority.
- To find keywords you're missing that competitors already get traffic from.
- To learn what kind of page Google wants for each keyword.
- To set realistic goals and benchmark your visibility against competitors.
- To split budget between SEO and paid search based on what clicks would cost you.
- To spot competitor moves early, before they take your positions.
1. To know which keywords you can actually win
Search volume tells you demand. It says nothing about whether you can get any of it. A competitive analysis looks at the pages already ranking and compares their strength with yours.
What it tells you: how many referring domains and how much authority the top pages have, and whether page one includes anyone at your level. Ahrefs publishes the link side of this directly: its Keyword Difficulty table puts a KD 20 keyword at about 22 referring domains for a top-10 page, KD 50 at about 84 and KD 80 at about 353.
What you do with it: drop keywords you can't win this year, and put the ones you can at the top of the list. Our guide to SEO keyword competition has a calculator that turns a KD score into the links you'd need.
2. To find keywords you're missing
Your competitors have already tested which topics bring traffic in your niche. Their rankings are a free record of that.
What it tells you: the keywords competitors rank for in the top 10 where you don't rank at all (missing) or rank on page two (weak). Tools such as Semrush Keyword Gap, Ahrefs Content Gap and SE Ranking's Competitor Comparison produce this list in a few minutes, and Outrank's free content analyzer shows a competitor's keyword gaps without an account.
What you do with it: weak keywords become refreshes of existing pages, missing ones become new pages. The full process is in our competitor keyword analysis guide.
3. To learn what kind of page Google wants
Two keywords with the same volume and difficulty can need completely different pages. The pages that rank show you the format.
What it tells you: whether page one is guides, comparison lists, product pages, tools, templates or videos, and how deep and recent those pages are.
What you do with it: build the format that ranks, then make it better. If every result is a calculator, a 3,000-word article won't break in. In Outrank's study of 6.2 million pages, free tools and calculators earned 2.11 times the click-through rate of the same site's articles at positions 4 to 10, which is why page type matters as much as the keyword.
4. To set realistic goals and benchmarks
"Rank #1 for our main keyword" is a wish. "Take 10% of the clicks in our keyword set within two quarters, starting with the 30 keywords under KD 20" is a plan.
What it tells you: each competitor's share of voice across your keyword set (estimated clicks based on volume and position), how fast competitors grew, and which of them sit at your authority level.
What you do with it: set targets against real competitors instead of guesses, and report progress as share of voice rather than single rankings. A rank tracker that follows competitor domains (see our rank checker comparison) does the math for you.
5. To split budget between SEO and paid search
Competitive keyword data includes what advertisers pay. That price is a useful proxy for how much a keyword's clicks are worth.
What it tells you: in Google Keyword Planner, the "Top of page bid" range estimates what advertisers have paid for a top ad position (the low end approximates the 20th percentile, the high end the 80th, per Google). The "Competition" column counts advertisers relative to other keywords. Neither measures organic difficulty.
What you do with it: if a competitor ranks organically for a keyword you'd otherwise pay a lot to advertise on, that ranking is worth a lot, and it belongs high on your SEO list. Keywords with weak organic results but heavy ad competition can be good SEO bets; keywords with strong organic results but cheap clicks may be better bought.
6. To spot competitor moves early
Rankings change slowly, then suddenly. Watching competitors' keywords shows you their next move while you can still respond.
What it tells you: new keywords a competitor started ranking for (a new content cluster), new page types (a template library, /vs/ pages), and keywords where AI Overviews started appearing. That last one matters for traffic: in First Page Sage's 2026 data, position 1 averaged a 22.6% click-through rate without an AI answer on the page and 3.6% with one.
What you do with it: run a light monthly check on your main competitors and a full analysis each quarter. Our 30-minute SEO competitor audit is built for the monthly check.
What is a competitive keyword?
A competitive keyword is a search term where the pages already ranking are strong: high-authority domains, many referring domains to the ranking pages, and content that matches the intent well. On Semrush's difficulty scale, 50 to 69 is "difficult", 70 to 84 "hard" and 85 to 100 "very hard". Competitive keywords usually have high volume or high commercial value, which is exactly why everyone wants them.
Most sites grow faster by avoiding them at first. Of the 183,540 articles Outrank wrote with a difficulty score in the 90 days to October 2026, 63% targeted keywords under KD 20, and only 5.2% targeted KD 50 or higher.
What metrics matter in a competitive keyword analysis?
| Metric | What it tells you | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Search volume | How many people search each month | Keyword Planner, Semrush, Ahrefs, SE Ranking |
| Keyword difficulty | How hard page one is to reach, mostly based on links | Ahrefs KD, Semrush KD%, Moz, SE Ranking |
| Referring domains to ranking pages | The link profile you'd need to match | Any backlink tool |
| Authority of ranking domains | Whether sites at your level rank at all | DR, Authority Score, DA, Domain Trust |
| Search intent and page type | The format you have to build | The live results page |
| SERP features | AI Overviews, snippets and ads that take clicks | The live results page, rank trackers |
| Your current position | Whether it's a refresh or a new page | Search Console, rank tracker |
| Competitors' positions | Who you need to displace | Organic keyword reports, rank tracker |
| CPC or top-of-page bid | Commercial value of a click | Keyword Planner, SEO suites |
If you only have time for three, use difficulty, intent and your current position. They decide whether to build, refresh or skip.
How to run a competitive keyword analysis in 5 steps
- List your target keywords from Search Console (non-branded queries), your product pages and topics you want to own.
- Find who ranks for them. The domains that show up on page one most often are your SEO competitors, whether or not they sell what you sell. A competitor website analysis shows how they earn that position.
- Pull their keywords and run a gap against your domain, keeping keywords where they rank in the top 10.
- Judge each keyword's competition: difficulty score first, then a look at page one for authority, format and weak results.
- Prioritize and plan: quick wins (you rank 11 to 20), then new pages under your difficulty limit, then the competitive head terms you'll build toward.
For the full version with a competitor profile, backlink gap and report template, follow our 7-step SEO competitor analysis. Outrank runs steps 1 to 5 continuously for you: it analyzes your niche and competitors, picks keywords with live volume and difficulty, and publishes an SEO article a day to your CMS.
Which competitive analysis do you need?
Different questions need different analyses. Answer three questions to get the right guide.
3-question decision helper
Which competitive analysis should you run?
Question 1 of 3
What are you trying to decide?
FAQ
Why would you want to run competitive analyses of keywords?
To learn which keywords you can realistically rank for, which keywords competitors already get traffic from that you're missing, and what kind of page Google rewards for each one. It also helps you set realistic goals, decide between SEO and paid search, and notice competitor moves early. The result is a shorter, winnable keyword list instead of a list sorted by volume.
What is keyword competitive analysis?
Keyword competitive analysis is the process of comparing the keywords you target with the pages and sites that already rank for them. It combines keyword difficulty scores, a look at the live search results and your competitors' keyword lists to decide which keywords to pursue, with what page, and in what order.
Why is competitor analysis important in SEO?
Rankings are relative: to move up, a page has to replace one that's already there. Competitor analysis shows what the ranking pages have (links, depth, format, freshness) so you can decide whether you can beat them and how. It also reveals topics competitors rank for that you haven't covered yet.
How do you know how competitive a keyword is?
Start with a difficulty score from Ahrefs or Semrush, then search the keyword and inspect page one: the authority of the ranking sites, how many referring domains their pages have, the page format and any weak results such as forum posts or outdated articles. If several results are at or below your site's authority, the keyword is within reach.
What metrics are crucial for a thorough competitive keyword analysis?
Search volume, keyword difficulty, referring domains to the ranking pages, authority of the ranking domains, search intent and page type, SERP features such as AI Overviews, your current position, competitors' positions and cost per click. Difficulty, intent and your current position matter most, because they decide whether you build a new page, refresh an existing one or skip the keyword.
What are the benefits of keyword difficulty analysis?
It stops you from spending months on keywords you can't win yet and points you to ones you can rank for now. It also tells you roughly how many links a page needs, which helps you plan link building and set realistic timelines. Used with a manual check of page one, it's the fastest way to filter a long keyword list.
