Rankfill

Find Out What Keywords a Site Ranks For Instantly

You found a competitor's blog post ranking #1 for a term you want. You know they must be ranking for dozens of other terms too — probably ones you haven't even thought of. But you have no idea what they are or how to find them.

That's the exact problem this solves.

Here's how to see any site's keyword rankings — yours, a competitor's, or anyone else's — using tools you can access right now.

What You're Actually Looking For

When a site "ranks for a keyword," it means a page on that site appears in Google's organic results when someone searches that phrase. Tools that surface this data aren't guessing — they're crawling search engine results pages at scale and recording which URLs appear for which queries.

The data isn't perfectly complete (no tool indexes every keyword Google tracks), but it's accurate enough to make real decisions.

You can use this to:

The Fastest Free Method: Google Search Operators

Before spending anything, try this.

In Google, type:

site:competitordomain.com

This shows every page Google has indexed for that domain. It won't tell you which keywords each page ranks for, but it tells you what topics they've built content around — which is a reasonable proxy.

To go further, pair it with a keyword:

site:competitordomain.com "your keyword phrase"

This tells you whether they have content on a specific topic. Useful for spot-checking, not for bulk discovery.

Limitation: This approach surfaces pages, not rankings. You won't see search volumes, positions, or the full keyword list. For real keyword data, you need a tool.

Free Tools That Show Keyword Rankings

Google Search Console (Your Own Site Only)

If you want to see what keywords your site ranks for, Search Console is the most accurate source available — because it comes directly from Google.

Go to Performance → Search Results. You'll see:

Filter by page to see which keywords a specific URL ranks for. Filter by query to find all pages ranking for a phrase.

The data is free, accurate, and unlimited. The only catch: it only shows your own site.

Ubersuggest (Limited Free Tier)

Neil Patel's tool gives you a small window into competitor keywords before hitting a paywall. Enter any domain, go to Traffic Analyzer → Keywords, and you'll see their top-ranking keywords with estimated monthly volume and position.

Free accounts get around 3 searches per day with limited results. Enough to get a feel, not enough for thorough research.

Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (Free for Your Own Site)

Ahrefs offers a free version of their toolset if you verify ownership of your site. You get access to their keyword data for your own domain — positions, traffic estimates, keyword difficulty. For competitor research, you need a paid account.

Paid Tools Worth Using

For serious competitor keyword research, you need one of these. They all work roughly the same way: enter a domain, get a full list of keywords that domain ranks for.

Ahrefs

Enter any domain into Site Explorer, then go to Organic Keywords. You'll see every keyword they rank for (within Ahrefs' index), the ranking position, estimated monthly traffic for that keyword, and the URL that ranks.

You can filter by position (e.g., only keywords ranking in top 10), by keyword difficulty, by traffic volume, or by whether you rank for it too. That last filter is where the real value is — it shows you the gap.

Semrush

Same core functionality. Enter a domain into Domain Overview, then go to Organic Research → Keywords. Semrush's index tends to be slightly larger than Ahrefs for some markets; Ahrefs tends to have more accurate traffic estimates. Both are good. Most people pick one and stick with it.

Moz Pro

Ahrefs and Semrush have mostly lapped Moz for this specific use case, but Moz's Keyword Explorer and Site Overview still give you functional keyword data. If you already pay for Moz for other reasons, use it here too.

How to Actually Use the Data

Pulling a list of 10,000 keywords a competitor ranks for is useless without a way to prioritize it. Here's a practical workflow:

Step 1: Filter for keywords where they rank in positions 1–10. These are the terms driving real traffic. Anything below position 20 contributes almost nothing.

Step 2: Remove branded keywords. Filter out searches containing their company name. You can't compete for those.

Step 3: Sort by traffic potential. High-volume keywords sound exciting, but difficulty often makes them unwinnable. Sort by a mix of volume and low difficulty to find realistic targets.

Step 4: Look for topics, not just individual keywords. One piece of content can rank for dozens of related phrases. If a competitor has an article on "invoice templates for freelancers," it probably ranks for 40+ variations of that phrase. You don't need to chase each one — you need to build content on that topic.

Step 5: Compare against your own rankings. The most valuable keywords are ones your competitor ranks for and you don't. Most tools have a gap report for exactly this. In Ahrefs it's called Content Gap; in Semrush it's Keyword Gap. You can go deeper on this process in this guide to competitor keyword analysis.

Looking at Multiple Competitors at Once

If you check one competitor, you'll miss keywords that a different competitor is capturing. The fuller picture comes from mapping your entire competitive landscape — running the same analysis across every site competing in your space.

This is more work manually, but the output is more reliable. You stop chasing individual keyword ideas and start seeing the full shape of your market's search demand. A keyword competitive analysis across your top five competitors will surface dozens of opportunities a single-site analysis misses.

For sites that want this done systematically — identifying every keyword gap across all competitors, not just one — Rankfill does exactly this as part of its search opportunity mapping service.

What to Do With Competitor Keywords Once You Have Them

Knowing what a competitor ranks for is only the first step. Ranking for those same terms requires content that matches the search intent behind each keyword.

Look at the page that currently ranks. Ask:

The format of the ranking page tells you what Google thinks the searcher wants. If every result for a keyword is a list post, publishing a product page won't rank. Match the intent first, then compete on depth and quality.

For a complete walkthrough of turning this analysis into a content plan, see how to find and target your competitor keywords.

FAQ

Can I see every keyword a site ranks for for free? Not completely. Google Search Console gives you full data for your own site at no cost. For competitors, free tools give you partial data — the top keywords, not the full picture. A paid tool like Ahrefs or Semrush gives you the complete list.

How accurate are these keyword ranking tools? They're accurate enough for strategic decisions, not perfect. They work by crawling SERPs regularly, so very new rankings or highly personalized results may not appear. Treat the data as directional, not definitive.

How often does keyword ranking data update? Most tools update their data weekly or every few weeks. Rankings change constantly, so any snapshot you pull is already slightly dated. The trends matter more than the exact positions.

Can I see historical keyword rankings for a competitor? Yes, Ahrefs and Semrush both show historical ranking data. In Ahrefs, you can see how a URL's rankings have changed over time. This is useful for spotting when a competitor gained traction in a new topic area.

What if a competitor doesn't have much traffic — is the data still useful? Yes. Even a low-traffic competitor might rank for specific long-tail terms in a niche you haven't targeted. Run the gap report and filter for keywords with real volume — ignore their low-traffic rankings.

Does this work for finding keywords a specific page ranks for (not just the whole domain)? Yes. In Ahrefs and Semrush, you can enter a specific URL instead of a domain and get only the keywords that page ranks for. This is useful for reverse-engineering a single piece of content.