No matter if you own a startup or you have a well established brand, observing the rankings of your competitors can be a significant factor in demand understanding, better content creation, and your effective position in search results.
This guide takes you through the entire process, defining competitor keywords, how to find, select, and apply them strategically.
What Do Competitor Keywords Mean?
In its simplest approach, competitor keyword is any search query that your competitors are successfully ranking in organic (unpaid) or paid (PPC) search results. They are the language of the two worlds between your target audience and the websites of your competitors.
They are not just words but established avenues to traffic. By recognizing a competitor keyword, you are gaining an understanding about:
- Audience Attraction: Which particular topics and questions are winning over your dream customers?
- Proven Intent: What keywords, on the basis of conversion history, are supporting commercial or transactional business on the behalf of your competitors?
- Visibility Gaps: Which are some of the search terms that are driving high traffic to your competitors that you are not presently receiving?
These keywords and their comprehension and usage are the basis of an advanced search strategy that will enable you to avoid trial and error and instead concentrate your efforts in creating content on the opportunities that have been proven and are of high value.
Getting the Difference Between Real SEO Competitors and Market Rivals
This is arguably the most crucial difference in competitive analysis and this is where the novice ones falter. A business rival refers to any business that offers the same product or service as your business to the same audience. The real SEO competition is the site that can consistently be on the top page of Google in relation to the keywords you want to be used.
The two are not equally the same and having the understanding of the difference is the best ingredient to proper strategy.
The Crucial Difference:
| Feature | Business Rival | True SEO Competitor |
| Focus | Product/service offering & market share | Search engine results page (SERP) authority |
| Goal | Direct sales/conversions | Organic visibility and traffic |
| Example | Another shoe retailer in your city. | A large fashion blog or magazine that ranks for “best running shoes 2024” review. |
Take an example of a case where you are selling organic soap of high quality. Another organic soap manufacturer is your business competitor. But, by typing in the key word best organic soap on sensitive skin, the first few results can be a large health and wellness publication, an online shopping powerhouse such as Amazon, or a mainstream lifestyle blog. These are the ones that do not sell the same product, but are your real SEO competitors as they are already stealing the organic traffic that you are interested in.
Why This Matters:
When the search query is informational (e.g., how to start a keto diet), you will have to share the competitive power with high authority content publishers (blogs, news sites). When it is transactional (e.g., buy noise cancelling headphones), then your main competitors are e-commerce websites and product pages. No matter what your direct business competitors are doing, your plan should replicate the winning content framework of the actual SEO competitor. The inability to understand this difference results in the development of the incorrect kind of content (e.g. a product page is required where a detailed guide is required) and ensures the absence of ranking success.
Want to Find Competitor Keywords? Do This
Identifying these golden keys involves the use of the right tools and systematically. The method of analysis and the software used can be different, but the methodology is the same. You should use the tools that will scrape data in search engines and give critical metrics.
The search can be divided into 3 major avenues as follows:
A. Evaluate One Competitor (Organic Research)
This is your starting point. You dissect the whole organic presence of your strongest SEO competitor.
Domain: Enter the URL of the rival into an organic research tool.
Filter and Sort: Go through their top organic keywords list. Sort by metrics that matter:
- Position: Target keywords in which the competitor is ranked between 1-10. These are the words that manage to push the traffic.
- Search Volume: make sure to focus on terms that have a high monthly search volume.
- Keyword Difficulty (KD%): Find low hanging fruit, find keywords that have a good volume but not an extremely high difficulty score (KD percent) a.k.a. Quick win opportunities in your field.
B. Compare Multiple Competitors (Keyword Gap Analysis)
Gap analysis is critical in finding out the missing topics and key words, which are missing in your content strategy. Such is where you benchmark your domain against 3-5 of your best SEO competitors.
Compare the Overlap: Run a report comparing your site to theirs. Search keywords that are categorised into:
- Missing: Critical keywords that your competitors are ranked, yet do not rank you at all. This is where you will do your major content creation.
- Weak: Keywords in which you have a low ranking (e.g., positions 20+) and your competitors have a high ranking. These words require urgent optimization of the content and link building.
- Untapped/Shared: Keywords that you and your whole group of competitors are ranking and this signifies a core topic you ought to talk over.
C. Discover Paid Keywords (Advertising Research)
The paid search environment should not be neglected. The amount of PPC of a rival is a direct, factual area of business interest.
High-Value Intent: When a competitor is buying a lot of a keyword (with a high cost per click or CPC) it is virtually guaranteed that the keyword is working well for them. This is an indication of high commercial intentions.
Landing Page Strategy: Research the landing pages of their paid ads. When the competitor is pushing paid traffic to a particular product or service page, you ought to aim at doing the same but better using organic efforts.
Smart Ways to Select and Implement Competitor Keywords
Locating the keywords is one part of winning the battle, an additional part is the evaluation and the incorporation of the keywords in the winning strategy.
Step 1: Screening of Potential Keywords using Key Metrics
You can never be sure of success by simply picking the words with the highest search volume, you need to examine the entire range of all the metrics of a keyword:
| Metric | Why It Is Crucial for Competitor Analysis |
| Search Intent | Is it informational, commercial, navigational, or transactional? Matching your content type (e.g., a blog post vs. a product page) to the user’s goal is the single biggest factor in ranking success. |
| Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD%) | This metric (or a similar internal calculation) estimates how hard it is for your specific domain to rank for a term, based on your current authority. It helps you focus on low difficulty terms for quick wins. |
| Search Volume | While essential for estimating potential traffic, use it in conjunction with Intent and KD%. A low volume, high intent term is often more valuable than a high volume, low intent term. |
| Cost Per Click (CPC) | A high CPC signals that the keyword is valuable for conversions and advertisers are willing to pay for the traffic. Target these high CPC keywords organically to win valuable traffic for free. |
| Competitive Density | This measures the number of advertisers bidding on the keyword. High density means more competition in the paid results, making organic success in that area even more valuable. |
Step 2: Apply Strategic Action
After you have filtered your list of competitor keywords, use them with the following best practices:
A. Fill Content Gaps & Outperform Rivals
On the keywords that are discovered to be missing during the gap analysis, you need to make content. But do not copy an article of your competitor.
- Go Deeper: Let your competitor write 2,000 words of a guide, write a 3,000-word resource that is comprehensive and contains original research, recent data, and quotes of the expert.
- Discuss Search Intent Completely: In case the competitor merely brushed a single issue of the intent, discuss all aspects. Take subheadings based on the people also ask (PAA) boxes on the SERP.
- Optimise SERP Features: Induce schema markup, tables, lists and definition in an attempt to win the featured snippet and other high visibility items.
B. Target Long-Tail Keyword Alternatives
For those high difficulty, short head keywords (e.g., “CRM software”) that are out of reach for now, your competitor’s success shows you the high-level topic to target. Instead of quitting, find long-tail variations.
- Identify the Core Intent: If the core term is too hard, search for it and study the results.
- Find Long-Tail Terms: Use tools to discover low PKD% variations with similar intent, such as “best lightweight CRM for small business team” or “affordable cloud based CRM for startups.”
- Embed and Reoptimize: Incorporate these long-tail keywords as H2/H3 subheadings and in FAQ sections within your existing content to gain incremental wins while you build authority for the main term.
C. Build Unassailable Topical Authority
If a competitor ranks for exponentially more keywords than you, they have superior topical authority. You must structure your content strategy to demonstrate comprehensive subject matter expertise to Google.
- Identify Content Pillars: Group the competitor keywords you discovered into broad topic clusters (e.g., “SEO keyword research,” “PPC strategy,” “content marketing best practices”).
- Create Pillar Content: Write one definitive, comprehensive guide on Pillar page for each cluster.
- Develop Cluster Content: Create numerous supporting articles (the Clusters) that dive into specific, long tail aspects of the pillar topic.
- Internal Linking: Link all cluster content back to the pillar content, and ensure the pillar links out to its clusters. This signals to Google that you have deep expertise across the entire subject area, not just one keyword.
Your Action Plan to Start Using Competitor Keywords
The knowledge is now yours, but execution is everything. The biggest mistake you can make is trying to tackle every discovered keyword at once. A professional approach requires prioritization.
Your Three-Step Action Plan:
- Prioritize the Gap: Begin by running a keyword gap analysis and focusing exclusively on the “Missing” keywords that also have a low to moderate keyword difficulty (KD%). These are the fastest paths to new, qualified traffic.
- Create Intent-Matched Content: For the top 10 prioritized keywords, examine the SERP to determine the correct search intent (e.g., blog post, comparison chart, product page). Create content that is significantly better than the current top ranking competitor.
- Track and Refine: Use position tracking tools to monitor your new content’s ranking for the targeted competitor keywords. If you are stuck on page two, look for lower-difficulty long-tail variations to add, or audit the content for better on-page SEO signals.
By systematically finding, evaluating, and strategically deploying competitor keywords, you stop chasing vanity metrics and start building a search presence based on proven, high converting queries. This isn’t just growth, it’s smart, competitive domination.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How often should I check on my competitors’ keywords?
A: You need to do an in-depth analysis of competitor keywords at least once a quarter. But in the case of a volatile and fast paced industry, you can only look at your top 3-5 competitors every month. This way you can easily notice new trends or discover pages that are ranking high and have just been published by your rivals.
Q: Is it a fair practice to target a competitor’s keywords?
A: Sure thing. The search engine optimization competitive analysis is an accepted standard and a fair practice among companies. You are not only viewing but also analyzing the data that the public has access to (search engine rankings) to create your own content strategy. The only possible ethical or legal issue is when you might use a competitor’s trademarked brand name in your own ad copy for pay-per-click campaigns, which is subject to Google’s policies.
Q: What if a competitor is winning the SERP battle for a keyword that no one is searching for?
A: “Zero volume” keywords are misleading as they often bring traffic. However, the volume metrics are based on monthly averages and can thus miss highly specific, emerging, or long-tail queries. If a competitor ranks high for it, they might be getting some niche traffic or that keyword could be a high intent, low volume commercial query. Don’t throw it away right away; assess the intent and its profitability.
Q: Should I target keywords where my competitor is bidding high on PPC?
A: Yes, but with an organic approach. Investing heavily in PPC for a term with a high CPC indicates that it is worthwhile (i.e. it is a good converter). However, if you can get a good organic ranking (1-3 position) for the same keyword, you will be able to receive that precious, high intent traffic without any cost, thus winning the competition with a large cost efficiency.
Q: What is the best keyword difficulty (KD%) to target first?
A: It is entirely up to your domain authority. In most cases, if you are a new site or have low authority, then the best keyword choice would be those with KD% below 30. On the contrary, if your site is already established with good authority, then KDs between 30 and 50 would be the best choice as they represent a strong compromise between the efforts put in to achieve a ranking and traffic potential. Whenever possible use the personal keyword difficulty (PKD%) measurement, if it is available, as it is designed for your specific site.
