Competitor Keyword Research: Find the Keywords Rivals Rank For

Competitor keyword research means identifying the search terms your rivals rank for on Google so you can target the same (or better) opportunities on your own site. You do it by finding a handful of direct competitors, pulling their ranking keywords through a keyword or SEO tool, then filtering for terms with real traffic potential that your own site doesn't yet cover. The output is a prioritized list of keyword gaps you can turn into new pages or articles.

It's one of the fastest ways to build a content plan, because instead of guessing what people search for, you're looking at proof: terms a similar business is already getting traffic from.

Why bother researching your competitors' keywords?

Because it shortcuts the guesswork. If a competitor is ranking for "emergency roof repair cost" or "best invoicing software for freelancers," that's evidence real people search those exact phrases — you don't need to speculate about demand.

It also reveals gaps you'd never think of on your own. Competitors in your space have often already tested dozens of page ideas, service pages, and blog topics. Some failed, some ranked. The ones ranking are a free shortcut past the trial-and-error stage.

Finally, it helps with prioritization. Most small businesses don't have unlimited time to write content, so knowing which keywords are actually worth chasing — versus which ones sound good but get no traffic — matters more than having a long list.

How do you find out what keywords your competitors rank for?

You find a competitor's ranking keywords by running their domain through a keyword research or competitive-analysis tool that shows organic rankings — most tools let you enter a URL and get a list of the terms that page or site shows up for in Google, along with estimated monthly search volume and ranking position.

The general process looks like this:

1. Identify 3-5 real competitors — not the biggest brand in your industry necessarily, but businesses similar in size and service area that you actually compete with for customers.
2. Enter their domain or a specific page URL into a keyword/SEO tool that supports competitor or "organic keywords" lookups.
3. Export the keyword list, including search volume, ranking position, and the URL that ranks.
4. Filter out branded terms (their company name, product names) — those aren't useful to you.
5. Compare against your own site's rankings to find the gap: keywords they rank for that you don't.

This same logic applies whether you're researching a local plumber down the street or an ecommerce brand selling nationally — platforms like Amazon have their own internal keyword overlap you can study the same way, as this Salesduo shows for marketplace sellers specifically.

What tools actually show competitor keywords?

Most mainstream SEO platforms (Ahrefs, Semrush, Ubersuggest, and similar) include a "competitor" or "organic research" feature where you plug in a rival's domain and get their ranking keyword list. Free options exist too, though they tend to cap how many results you see or how often you can run a lookup.

If you're choosing between tools, it's worth comparing what's free versus paid before committing — we cover the trade-offs in our breakdown of free keyword research tools.

What should you look for beyond the keyword itself?

The keyword is only one column in the data. Before deciding a term is worth targeting, check three other things the tool usually shows alongside it:

• Ranking URL — is the competitor's page that ranks a blog post, a service page, or a product listing? That tells you what format Google expects to see for that term, so you're not writing a blog post when a dedicated service page would actually compete better.
• Position — a competitor ranking at position 8 is far more beatable than one sitting at position 1 with years of backlinks behind them. Position gives you a rough read on how contested the term already is.
• Traffic share — some tools estimate how much of a page's total traffic comes from a given keyword. A term driving a tiny fraction of traffic to a huge page is less interesting than one that's clearly the main reason a smaller competitor page exists.

Pulling these details alongside the keyword itself turns a flat list into something closer to a real opportunity map, rather than just a pile of search terms with numbers attached.

What should you actually do with a competitor's keyword list?

A raw export of hundreds of keywords isn't useful on its own — you need to filter it down to the terms worth acting on. The goal is a short list of keyword gaps: terms your competitor ranks for, with decent search volume, that you don't currently have a page targeting.

Start by sorting the list by search volume and removing anything with zero or near-zero volume — those are usually tool estimates with no real demand behind them. Then cross-reference against your own site to see which terms you're missing entirely. Finally, group the remaining keywords by topic, because several similar keywords often belong on a single page rather than ten thin ones.

How do you avoid chasing keywords with no real volume?

You avoid it by checking actual search data before building content around a keyword, rather than trusting a tool's rough estimate at face value. Many keyword and AI SEO tools generate volume numbers algorithmically, and for competitor-keyword lists specifically, a large share of terms can carry inflated or fabricated-looking estimates, especially for niche or local phrases.

This is a real blind spot in the keyword research space — plenty of tools present a confident-looking number next to every keyword whether or not real search data supports it. It's one of the reasons Grovik checks actual Google search data before it writes an article, and clearly labels a number as an estimate when no real volume exists, rather than presenting a guess as fact. For a small business picking which of fifty competitor keywords to write about first, that distinction is the difference between content that gets traffic and content that doesn't.

How is competitor keyword research different from regular keyword research?

Regular keyword research starts from your own ideas, your products, and broad topic brainstorming, then checks demand for those terms. Competitor keyword research starts from someone else's proven results — their existing rankings — and works backward to find terms with demonstrated traffic.

The two aren't competing methods; they work best combined. Competitor research is faster for surfacing ideas you'd never think of, while standalone keyword research is better for covering the full breadth of your niche, including gaps no competitor has filled yet. If you want the fuller process beyond just competitor analysis, our step-by-step keyword research guide walks through both angles.

What counts as a "keyword gap" worth targeting?

A keyword gap worth targeting is a term with genuine search demand, relevance to what you actually sell, and a ranking page you could realistically compete for — not every term a competitor ranks for qualifies.

Three filters help separate the good gaps from noise:

• Relevance: does the keyword describe something you genuinely offer? A roofing company ranking for "metal roof vs shingle cost" is relevant to another roofer; it's not relevant to a plumber.
• Difficulty: is the ranking page a small local business like yours, or a massive national brand with years of backlinks? Gaps against similarly-sized competitors are more winnable.
• Intent match: does the keyword match what you'd actually want a visitor searching for — ready to buy, comparing options, or just researching? A keyword that brings traffic but no realistic customers isn't worth prioritizing first.

It also helps to rank your shortlist once you've filtered it, rather than treating every surviving keyword as equally urgent. A simple way to do this is scoring each term on a rough scale for volume, relevance, and difficulty, then tackling the highest combined scores first. This keeps you from spending a week on a single-digit-volume term just because it happened to survive the filtering process.

How often should you redo competitor keyword research?

Revisit it roughly every 3-6 months, or whenever a competitor launches new service pages or a content push you notice in search results. Search behavior and competitor content both shift gradually, so a one-time audit goes stale — new competitors enter, old ones add pages, and seasonal terms rotate in and out of relevance.

For most small businesses, a quarterly check is enough to catch new gaps without turning it into a constant time sink.

How does this fit into actually publishing content?

Finding the gap keywords is only half the job — you still have to turn each one into a real, published page, and that's usually where the time runs out for a small business owner already juggling the actual work. Grovik handles both halves automatically: it checks real Google search data for keyword opportunities (including gaps similar to what you'd find manually comparing competitors), then writes and publishes the article itself, with internal links and structure aimed at both Google and AI search engines like ChatGPT. You can see the full process from research to publishing to understand what's actually generated.

If you want to see what a finished article looks like before trusting any tool with your site, our example article page shows a real sample.

FAQ

Do I need a paid tool to do competitor keyword research?

No. Several free tools offer limited competitor-keyword lookups, usually capped at a certain number of results per day or per domain. They're enough to get started, though paid tools generally show deeper lists and more accurate historical data.

How many competitors should I analyze?

Three to five is usually enough. Fewer than that risks missing gaps; more than that makes the resulting keyword list too large to act on without heavy filtering.

Should I target every keyword a competitor ranks for?

No. Ignore branded terms (their company or product name), low-volume terms with no real demand, and keywords unrelated to what you actually sell. Focus on the overlap between relevance, achievable difficulty, and genuine search volume.

Can competitor keyword research help with AI search visibility, not just Google?

Yes, to a degree — if a competitor's page is being cited by tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity for a given topic, that's a signal the topic is worth covering clearly and directly. The structure of the content matters too; our guide to generative engine optimization covers how to format content so AI tools can cite it.

Is competitor keyword research a one-time task?

No. Competitors add pages and new content regularly, so a list that was complete six months ago will have gaps today. A light recheck every quarter keeps your content plan current without becoming a full-time job.