Analyze Competitor Website Keywords to Close the Gap

You publish a post. You wait. Nothing much happens. Then you search the exact topic you just covered and find a competitor ranking in position two with a page that's frankly not better than yours. You dig into their site and realize they have 40 pages targeting variations of that topic. You have one.

That's the gap. And you can measure it exactly.

Analyzing competitor website keywords isn't a theoretical exercise. It's the process of finding out what search queries are sending traffic to other sites in your space — and aren't sending any to yours. Once you can see that list, you have a content roadmap that's grounded in real demand instead of guesswork.

Here's how to do it, step by step.

What You're Actually Looking For

When you analyze a competitor's keywords, you're not trying to copy their entire site. You're looking for three things:

1. Keywords they rank for that you don't. These are the gaps — queries where they're capturing traffic and you're invisible.
2. Keywords you both rank for, but they outrank you. These are worth improving but are a secondary priority.
3. Keywords neither of you ranks for well. Lower competition, real search volume — often the best opportunities.

The first category is where most of the leverage is. A competitor ranking for 300 keywords your site doesn't touch is 300 potential content targets, many of which have clear enough intent that writing the right page would be straightforward.

Step 1: Identify Your Real Competitors

Your SEO competitors aren't always your business competitors. The site you compete against for customers might not be the one you compete against for search traffic.

Search your primary product or service category. Look at who's ranking in positions 1–5 across several related queries. Note which domains appear repeatedly. Those are your search competitors.

Three to five domains is enough to work with. You want meaningful overlap, not an exhaustive list.

Step 2: Pull Their Keyword Data

You need a tool that shows you which keywords a domain ranks for. A few options:

Ahrefs — Go to Site Explorer, enter the competitor's domain, and open the Organic Keywords report. You'll see every keyword they rank for, their position, estimated traffic, and difficulty. Export it.

Semrush — Same process. Domain Overview → Organic Research → Keywords. Export.

Moz — Use Top Pages to see which pages drive the most traffic, then drill into keyword data per page.

Google Search Console — This only shows you your own data, not competitors'. Useful for the comparison step but not for pulling competitor keywords.

Ubersuggest — A lower-cost option with similar functionality, though data depth is thinner than Ahrefs or Semrush.

If you're not ready to pay for a tool, Ahrefs and Semrush both offer limited free trials or free-tier access with capped results. You can get directional data without a subscription, though you'll hit limits quickly.

Step 3: Find the Gap

Once you have a competitor's keyword list exported, you need to identify which of those keywords your site doesn't rank for at all — or ranks for below position 20, which is functionally the same as not ranking.

Manual method: Export your own keyword data from Google Search Console. Export competitor data from whichever tool you're using. Use a spreadsheet. In Google Sheets: paste both lists, use VLOOKUP or MATCH to flag keywords that appear in the competitor list but not yours. What remains is your gap list.

Tool-assisted method: Ahrefs has a Content Gap feature (under Competitive Analysis) that does this automatically. You enter your domain and up to three competitor domains. It returns keywords that competitors rank for but you don't. Semrush has the same feature called Keyword Gap.

Either way, you'll end up with a list — probably a long one. For a thorough walkthrough of how to prioritize what you find, see Keyword Competitive Analysis: How to Find Ranking Gaps.

Step 4: Filter for What's Worth Targeting

A raw gap list might have thousands of keywords. Most of them won't be worth your time immediately. Filter down using three criteria:

Search volume: Start with keywords getting at least 100–200 searches per month. Below that, you're writing for a very thin audience unless the intent is extremely high-value (like a specific transactional query in a high-ticket niche).

Keyword difficulty: If you're a smaller domain, focus on keywords with difficulty scores below 40–50. High-authority competitors rank for keywords you won't touch for years — skip those for now.

Intent match: Look at the actual search results for each keyword before you decide to target it. Is the SERP full of informational blog posts, or product pages, or listicles? If the intent is informational and you were planning to write a product page, there's a mismatch. Match the format to what Google is already rewarding.

After filtering, you'll likely have 20–100 high-quality targets. That's a realistic content plan.

Step 5: Map Keywords to Content

Each keyword target needs a home — either a new page you'll build or an existing page you'll improve.

Group related keywords together. If you found 12 variations of the same topic (e.g., "freelance contract template," "freelance agreement template," "contract for freelancers"), those likely belong on one page, not 12 separate ones. Target the highest-volume head term as your primary keyword and incorporate the variations naturally.

For deeper guidance on how to approach this grouping and targeting process, How to Find and Target Your Competitor Keywords covers the full workflow.

What to Do With Competitor Pages That Outrank You

When a competitor outranks you on a keyword you're already targeting, the question is: why?

Look at their page directly. Check:

• Word count and depth — Are they covering the topic more thoroughly?
• Internal linking — Do they link to that page from many other pages, giving it more authority?
• Backlinks — Does that specific page have links yours doesn't?
• Format — Are they using a structure (comparison table, step-by-step list, FAQ) that matches what searchers actually want?

Usually it's one of these. Fix the most obvious problem first rather than trying to overhaul everything simultaneously.

Scaling the Analysis

If you do this process once, you'll find opportunities. If you do it systematically across your full competitive set, you'll find your entire organic search roadmap.

Most sites with existing domain authority aren't losing to competitors because of technical SEO problems or backlink disadvantages. They're losing because competitors have more content targeting more keywords. The analysis above makes that visible.

Some site owners handle this entirely in-house using the tools above. Others use a service like Rankfill, which maps competitor keyword gaps automatically and delivers a full content plan alongside a sample article so you can see what execution looks like before committing.

For a more structured approach to the research phase, Keyword Research Competitor Analysis: A Step-by-Step Guide is worth reading alongside this one.

FAQ

How many competitors should I analyze? Three to five is the right range. More than that creates noise. Focus on the domains that appear consistently in search results for your core topics — those are the ones eating your traffic.

Do I need a paid tool to do this? For basic directional analysis, no. Ahrefs and Semrush both have free tiers. But for a complete keyword export, you'll hit limits fast. A one-month paid subscription to either tool is often worth it just to run the full analysis.

How often should I repeat this analysis? Once per quarter is a reasonable cadence for most sites. Competitors add content, rankings shift, new keyword opportunities emerge. A quarterly review keeps you from falling behind without turning it into a full-time job.

What if my competitor has thousands of keywords and I only have a few hundred? That's exactly the situation this analysis is built for. Don't be discouraged by the gap — be precise about which opportunities to close first. High-volume, lower-difficulty keywords where your competitor ranks in positions 5–15 are often the fastest wins because you can displace them with one solid piece of content.

Can I analyze a competitor's keywords without them knowing? Yes. All keyword research tools work by pulling from their own indexed databases. Your competitor has no visibility into what queries you've searched for their domain.

What's the difference between a keyword gap and a content gap? They're related but not identical. A keyword gap is a specific search query where a competitor ranks and you don't. A content gap is a broader topic area your site doesn't cover at all. Keyword gaps are more actionable because they're tied to specific search behavior. Competitor Keyword Analysis: Uncover What You're Missing covers how to think about both.