How to Check Competitors' Keywords Step by Step

You published content. You waited. Nothing moved. Then you looked at a competitor's site — simpler than yours, younger domain — and they're ranking on page one for terms you've been chasing for months. That's the moment most people start asking how to actually see what keywords a competitor is targeting.

The good news: their keyword data is not hidden. You just need to know where to look and what to do with what you find.

Step 1: Know What You're Actually Looking For

"Checking competitor keywords" sounds like one task. It's really three:

1. Keywords they rank for organically — pages Google has decided are authoritative enough to show in results.
2. Keywords they're targeting but not yet ranking for — usually visible in their on-page content and meta tags.
3. Keyword gaps — terms your competitors rank for that your site doesn't cover at all.

The third category is where the real opportunity lives. This is competitor keyword analysis done properly — not just peeking at what they do, but finding what you're missing.

Step 2: Identify Your Real Competitors

Your SEO competitors are not always your business competitors. A company in a different industry might compete with you for the same search terms, and a direct business rival might not touch your keyword space at all.

Start with Google. Search your most important terms and note who consistently appears on page one. Those are your SEO competitors. Do this for five to ten core terms and you'll see the same three or four domains surfacing repeatedly. Those are the sites you want to analyze.

Step 3: Use a Tool to Pull Their Keyword Data

You cannot see organic keyword rankings by inspecting a competitor's page source. You need a tool that has its own crawling infrastructure and ranking database. Here are the main options:

Ahrefs (paid)

Put a competitor's domain into Site Explorer. Go to "Organic keywords." You'll see every keyword they rank for, the position, estimated monthly traffic, and the specific URL that ranks. Filter to positions 1–10 to find where they're actually winning. Export to CSV if you're analyzing more than one competitor.

Semrush (paid)

Nearly identical workflow. Enter the domain, go to "Organic Research," then "Keywords." Semrush's "Keyword Gap" tool is particularly useful here — you can enter your domain alongside up to four competitors and see which keywords they rank for that you don't. That gap list is your starting point.

Moz Pro (paid)

Use the "Keyword Explorer" and "True Competitor" features. Moz is generally considered weaker than Ahrefs or Semrush for raw keyword volume data, but the interface is cleaner if you're newer to this.

Ubersuggest (freemium)

Neil Patel's tool offers limited free competitor keyword lookups — enough to get a rough picture before committing to a paid subscription. Good for a first pass.

Google Search Console (free — your own site only)

This won't show you competitor keywords, but it will show you every term your own site is appearing for in Google's index, including terms where you rank on page two or three. That's useful baseline data before you start comparing.

Free workaround using Google

Search site:competitordomain.com to see their indexed pages. Then take individual page titles and run them through Google's Keyword Planner (free with a Google Ads account) to get search volume estimates. Slow and incomplete, but it costs nothing.

Step 4: Find the Gaps That Actually Matter

A competitor might rank for 8,000 keywords. You don't care about most of them. You care about the ones where:

• Search volume is high enough to be worth targeting
• Your site could realistically compete given your domain authority
• The topic connects to what your business actually does

In Ahrefs and Semrush, filter competitor keywords by keyword difficulty below 40 if your domain is newer, below 60 if it's established. Then sort by volume. The sweet spot is usually mid-volume terms (200–2,000 monthly searches) with moderate difficulty — these are the ones larger competitors often underinvest in because they're chasing higher-volume terms.

For a more structured approach to this process, keyword competitive analysis walks through how to prioritize gaps by ranking effort versus traffic upside.

Step 5: Look at the Actual Pages That Rank

Once you've identified keyword gaps, don't just note the keyword — visit the page that's ranking for it. Ask yourself:

• What format is it? (List, guide, comparison, tool, landing page)
• How thorough is it?
• What's missing that a reader would still want to know?

A 600-word competitor post ranking on page one for a competitive term usually means the keyword has weak competition and you can beat it with something more complete. A 3,000-word comprehensive guide ranking #1 means you need to match or exceed that quality level, not just publish something.

Step 6: Build Your Target List

Take everything you've found and create a simple spreadsheet:

Priority is your judgment call based on volume, difficulty, and how well the topic fits your site. Start with the high-priority items where the difficulty is manageable and the topic is directly relevant to your product or service.

This becomes your content roadmap. Every item on the list is a page you need to build or improve. For a complete framework on turning this list into action, see how to find and target your competitor keywords.

Step 7: Execute and Track

Building the content is where most people stall. Knowing you need 40 articles is different from having 40 articles.

Once pages are published, go back to Google Search Console weekly and monitor whether your new pages are appearing in search at all (impressions), then whether clicks follow. Keyword ranking movement typically takes 60–120 days for a new page to stabilize in Google's index.

If you want a systematic view of your full opportunity set across all competitors at once, tools like Rankfill map every keyword gap in your market, score competitors, and estimate what your traffic could look like if you captured those terms — useful when you're trying to scope the full work before committing to it.

Track one metric above all others: are keywords that were in positions 11–20 (page two) moving into positions 1–10? That's the signal that your strategy is working.

FAQ

Can I check competitor keywords for free? Yes, partially. Ubersuggest offers a limited number of free lookups per day. Google's site: operator shows indexed pages. Keyword Planner gives volume estimates for free. But for complete data — full keyword lists, difficulty scores, gap analysis — you'll need a paid tool like Ahrefs or Semrush. Most offer a free trial.

How many competitors should I analyze? Start with three to five. Analyze every one with a significant organic presence in your space. After that, you start seeing the same keywords repeating. More than five is usually redundant unless you're in a very fragmented market.

How often should I check competitor keywords? Do a thorough analysis when you're building your content strategy, then a lighter check every quarter. Competitors publish new content, rankings shift, and new keyword opportunities open up. This isn't a one-time task.

What if my competitor ranks for hundreds of keywords I don't cover? That's normal, and it's actually good news — it means there's a clear gap you can start closing. Prioritize by volume and difficulty rather than trying to cover everything at once. Ten well-executed articles beat fifty thin ones.

Does this work for local businesses? Yes, with a caveat. Local search results vary by geography, so tools may show national ranking data that doesn't reflect local pack results. Use Google Search to manually check rankings in your target location, and look at competitor Google Business Profiles alongside their websites.

What's the difference between checking keywords and keyword research? Keyword research starts from scratch — you're discovering what people search for in your space. Checking competitor keywords is faster because you're using their ranking pages as proof that a keyword has traction. It skips the hypothesis stage. Both approaches belong in your keyword research competitor analysis process — they're complementary, not interchangeable.