Competitor keyword analysis shows which search queries your rivals rank for, which of their pages earn that traffic, and which topics they never cover. You use it to decide what pages your own site needs. This guide walks through the steps, the tools, and how to turn the results into a website plan.
What competitor keyword analysis actually tells you
Competitor keyword analysis is the study of the queries your competitors rank for and the pages that rank. It answers three questions: what they rank for, why those pages win, and what they leave out.
A good analysis gives you three separate outputs:
- Keyword lists. The queries each competitor ranks for, with search volume.
- SERP intent patterns. What kind of page wins each query: a guide, a comparison, a tool page or a product page.
- Content gaps you can own. Topics and questions with real demand that no competitor answers well.
What is a competitor analysis example?
A competitor analysis example for a SaaS company is a short teardown of one rival. You list their money pages, such as pricing, features and use cases, group their blog posts into topic clusters, and note the customer questions they never answer. Those missing answers become your first page ideas and your content gaps.
Step 1: identify the right competitors to analyse
Start with a short list of the right competitors. A list of about five to ten domains keeps the keyword export small enough to read, and it keeps your analysis focused on the sites your buyers actually see.
How to identify competitors?
To identify competitors, search your main keywords and note who ranks on page one, then add the companies you lose deals to. Keep these as two lists. Search competitors are whoever ranks for your queries, even a blog. Product competitors are the companies buyers compare you with before they decide.
What are the four types of competitors?
The four types of competitors are direct, indirect, substitute and emerging competitors. Direct ones sell the same product to the same buyers. Indirect ones solve the problem another way. Substitutes are what buyers do instead. Emerging ones are new players starting to rank or win deals.
From our work
We ran a competitor keyword analysis for ConvertRank’s own website, a SaaS product. We started here, with the list of search competitors and product competitors, before pulling any keyword data.
Step 2: find the keywords your competitors rank for
Pull an organic keyword export for each competitor domain. Then group the keywords by ranking page, so you can see which URL carries which topic cluster.
How can I find competitor keywords?
To find competitor keywords, enter a competitor’s domain into a competitor keyword research tool and export its organic keywords. Sort them by ranking page, not by keyword, so you see which pages bring the traffic. Repeat this for each competitor, then compare the exports to find shared and missing topics.
From our work
For ConvertRank’s own analysis, we used Ahrefs and Semrush to pull competitor keywords, and ConvertRank to group them into topics and pages. Grouping by page first showed which competitor URLs carried whole topic clusters, not just single keywords.
Also look at commercial signals:
- Paid keywords. Queries a competitor pays for usually show high buying intent.
- Site search style queries. Product and feature queries show what buyers look for on their site.
Is there a free tool to research competitor keywords?
Yes, there are free tools to research competitor keywords, but most free versions show only a limited sample of results. That is often enough for a first look at one or two competitors. For a full export across your whole competitor list, you usually need a paid plan of a tool such as Ahrefs or Semrush.
Step 3: check keyword competition and spot low-competition openings
A difficulty score is a useful shortcut, but it is not the full picture. Check the live search results before you decide a keyword is too hard or too easy, because the pages that rank tell you more than any single score.
How to check competition on a keyword?
To check competition on a keyword, read its keyword difficulty score in a keyword competition checker, then open the live results page. Look at three things: how strong the ranking domains are, what type of page ranks, and how deep that content is. A strong domain with a thin, off-topic page is still beatable.
What does low competition mean?
Low competition means the pages that rank today are weak or do not match what the searcher wants. A low difficulty number alone is not enough. A real keyword competition analysis looks for queries where the ranking pages are thin, outdated or off-intent, so a focused page can do better.
This is how you find low competition keywords: a low competition keyword finder gives you candidates, and the live results confirm them.
Look for these openings first:
- Long-tail queries with a clear, narrow need.
- Comparison queries, such as one tool versus another.
- Question queries that ranking pages answer only in passing.
From our work
In our own analysis, one gap stood out. Competitors rank well for keyword research tools, but few of them answer AI search questions (AEO and GEO) clearly. We planned pages for those questions.
What to look for in a competitor keyword research tool
Most tools cover the same basics. The differences are in how deep the data goes and what the tool gives you at the end.
Use this checklist:
- Keyword database size for your market and language.
- SERP feature data, such as featured snippets and AI Overviews.
- Page-level breakdowns that show which URL ranks for what.
- Gap reports that compare several domains at once.
- Export limits, so you can work with the data outside the tool.
What is the best tool for competitor analysis?
The best tool for competitor analysis depends on the output you need. Ahrefs and Semrush are widely used for competitor keyword lists, gap reports and backlink data. If you need a site plan instead of a list, look for a platform that turns competitor content gap analysis into a page structure your team can build.
That is the main difference between tools. Some output keyword lists. Others output a site structure and a page plan you can build from.
Using AI for competitor keyword and question analysis
AI helps most with the slow parts: grouping thousands of keywords and reading questions at scale.
How to use AI to find keywords?
To use AI to find keywords, give it a raw competitor keyword export and ask it to group the keywords into topics, one search intent per topic. Then ask it for customer questions in each topic that no ranking page answers clearly. Check the groups against real search data before you plan a page.
Two good uses of AI here:
- Clustering. Group raw exports into topics and match each topic to one intent.
- Question mining. Read customer questions and AI search answers to find queries no competitor answers clearly.
ConvertRank does this as part of its analysis. It combines keyword and SERP demand, competitor gaps and semantic analysis, and returns AEO/GEO opportunities instead of a flat keyword list. You can read more on our keyword and SERP demand analysis page.
Turning competitor keywords into a website plan
A keyword list does not tell your team what to build. A plan does.
- Map each keyword cluster to one page type: a money page, a comparison page, or a supporting article that builds topical authority.
- Prioritize by business value and competitive weakness.
- Set a build order, so writers and designers know what comes first.
ConvertRank turns competitor gap analysis into an information architecture, a money-page plan and prioritized page briefs. It does not design, build or write the pages. ConvertRank is available by request in private beta.
FAQ
What is the 80/20 rule in SEO?
The 80/20 rule in SEO, based on the Pareto principle, says a small share of your pages or keywords usually brings most of your results. In practice, a few pages earn most of the traffic and leads. Find those pages first, protect and improve them, and plan new pages around the topics that already work for you.
What are the 5 steps of a competitive analysis?
A competitive analysis has five steps. First, identify your competitors. Second, collect data on them. Third, compare their strengths and weaknesses with yours. Fourth, find the gaps they leave open. Fifth, turn those gaps into an action plan. For SEO and SaaS keyword research, the data is their keywords, ranking pages and search results.
Is SWOT used for competitor analysis?
Yes, SWOT is often used for competitor analysis. You list each competitor’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, then compare them with your own. For search, keep it concrete: their strengths are the topics they rank for, and their weaknesses are the questions and topics they do not cover at all.