Competitor Keyword Analysis: Find the Keywords Your Rivals Rank For (+Template)

competitor keyword analysis | Updated October 2026 | hyperank Editorial Team | 2-4 hours | Beginner

What You'll Learn

A competitor keyword analysis finds the keywords your rivals rank for, shows which of those you're missing, and ranks the gaps by volume, difficulty and fit so you know what to write next. This guide, Competitor Keyword Analysis: Find the Keywords Your Rivals Rank For (+Template), walks through it in six steps, with a worked example from hyperank's October 2026 crawl of 18 AI SEO and AI visibility vendors and a copyable template.

• Find real competitors: Identify the sites that actually win your searches, not just your business rivals.
• Pull their keywords: Export what each competitor ranks for with a website keyword analyzer.
• Spot easy gaps: Find keywords where a rival ranks with a dead or redirected page.
• Prioritize: Score every gap so the first pages you write are the ones most likely to pay off.

Prerequisites: Access to one keyword research tool (free tiers work for small sites), Google Search Console for your own site and a spreadsheet.

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Why Competitor Keyword Analysis Matters in 2026

Competitor keyword research is the fastest way to find demand you already know is real: if a rival gets traffic from a query, the audience exists. It also shows where competitors are weak, which is often where a smaller site can win.

Those weak spots are more common than you'd expect. In hyperank's crawl of 18 AI SEO and AI visibility vendors, using DataForSEO ranking data from October 6, 2026, 122 of 1,702 sampled Google US rankings pointed at a page that was dead or redirected elsewhere. Across all their sitemaps and archived URLs, those vendors had 2,556 dead pages and 5,626 redirects.

Key Takeaway: Competitor keywords show you proven demand and, often, rankings held by pages that no longer exist.

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The Process at a Glance

Step	Action	Time	Outcome
1	Define what you're analyzing	10 minutes	Clear goal and keyword scope
2	Find your real search competitors	20-30 minutes	Shortlist of 3-5 competing domains
3	Pull their ranking keywords	30-45 minutes	One combined keyword export
4	Find gaps, broken pages and redirects	45-60 minutes	List of missing and weak keywords
5	Prioritize by volume, difficulty, fit	30 minutes	Ranked list of pages to create
6	Fill in the template	20 minutes	A content plan you can act on

Total time: About 2-4 hours for a first analysis of three to five competitors.

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Step 1: Understand What a Competitor Keyword Analysis Is

What You're Doing

It's tempting to open a tool and start exporting, but a clear definition saves hours. A competitor keyword analysis compares the keywords other sites rank for with yours, to find the searches you're missing.

How to Do It

1. Write down your goal: For example, "find 20 blog topics with buyer intent" or "find product-page keywords we're not targeting".
2. Set your scope: Pick one market (such as Google US) and one topic area, so the export stays manageable.
3. Know the difference from site keyword analysis: A site keyword analysis looks at one website's own rankings; a competitor analysis compares several sites side by side.

What Done Looks Like

You have a one-line goal and a defined market and topic, which will keep every later step focused.

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Step 2: Find Your Real Search Competitors

What You're Doing

Your sales rivals and your search rivals are rarely the same list. Publishers, review sites and adjacent tools can all take your traffic, so find the domains that actually rank.

How to Do It

1. Search your top five money keywords: Note which domains appear in the top 10 for at least two of them.
2. Use a competitor report: Tools such as Semrush Organic Research or Ahrefs Site Explorer list "organic competitors" by keyword overlap.
3. Keep three to five: Choose a mix of direct business rivals and content sites that rank for your topics.

Common Mistakes

• Only analyzing big brands: Huge domains rank on authority you can't match; sites closer to your size reveal more winnable keywords.

What Done Looks Like

You have a shortlist of three to five domains that genuinely compete with you in search results.

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Step 3: Pull Their Ranking Keywords

What You're Doing

With competitors chosen, collect what they rank for: keyword, search volume, difficulty, position and the ranking URL for each.

How to Do It

1. Run each domain through a website keyword analyzer: In Semrush or Ahrefs, open the organic keywords report and filter to positions 1-20 in your target country.
2. Export the ranking URL too: You'll need it in Step 4 to check whether each page still works.
3. Add your own keywords: Export your site's queries from Google Search Console so you can see overlap.
4. Combine and de-duplicate: Paste everything into one sheet with a "domain" column.

Best Practices

• Cap the export: The top 100 ranking keywords per competitor is enough for a first pass; that's the sample size hyperank's crawl used.
• Use an API for scale: For many domains, services like DataForSEO return ranking keywords in bulk for a small cost per request.

What Done Looks Like

One spreadsheet lists every competitor keyword with volume, difficulty, position, URL and domain.

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Step 4: Find Gaps, Broken Pages and Redirects (Worked Example)

What You're Doing

This is where the analysis pays off. Look for three kinds of opportunity: keywords rivals rank for and you don't, rankings held by dead pages, and rankings held by redirects to something less relevant.

How to Do It

1. Run a keyword gap: Use Semrush Keyword Gap or Ahrefs Content Gap, or a spreadsheet lookup, to list keywords competitors rank for where you don't rank in the top 20.
2. Check every ranking URL: Use a bulk HTTP status checker or crawler to record each URL's status code and final URL.
3. Flag dead pages: A 404 or 410 page that still ranks is the strongest opportunity, because the competitor is serving searchers nothing.
4. Read the redirects: A redirect to an equivalent page is healthy; a redirect to an unrelated page means searchers don't get what they asked for.

Example

These rows come from hyperank's October 2026 crawl of 18 AI SEO and AI visibility vendors, using DataForSEO Google US rankings. Volume is monthly searches.

Competitor	Keyword (volume)	Position	What the ranking page does	Opportunity
Profound	searchable (22,200)	9	Returns 404 (a deleted Searchable review)	High: write the review it no longer serves
Profound	searchable ai (1,900)	7	Same 404 page	High: same page covers both
AirOps	chatgpt ai model (1,000)	5	Redirects to an unrelated SOC 2 compliance post	High: intent no longer met
RankYak	seo keyword analysis (9,900)	32	Redirects to a keyword tools roundup	Medium: related, but weak position
Profound	what is aeo (4,400)	2	Redirects to the same article at a new URL	Low: healthy redirect

The Searchable row is one reason hyperank wrote its own Searchable review: a competitor held page one for a 22,200-search query with a page that no longer exists.

What Done Looks Like

Every competitor keyword is tagged as "gap", "dead page", "bad redirect", "healthy redirect" or "already covered".

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Step 5: Prioritize by Volume, Difficulty and Fit

What You're Doing

A list of 300 gaps is overwhelming; a ranked list of 10 is a plan. Score the gaps so you write the pages most likely to rank and convert first.

How to Do It

1. Score difficulty: Use your tool's keyword difficulty (0-100) and convert it to an "ease" factor, for example 1 minus difficulty divided by 100, with a floor so no keyword scores zero.
2. Score fit: Rate each keyword from 0.4 (loosely related) to 1.0 (core to your product).
3. Add a broken-page bonus: Multiply by 1.3 if the competitor's page is dead or badly redirected.
4. Weight by intent: Buyer-intent keywords are worth more per visit, so weight bottom-of-funnel topics higher.
5. Multiply and sort: Priority = volume x ease x fit x bonus x intent weight. Sort from highest to lowest.

Example

Keyword	Volume	Difficulty	Fit	Bonus	Priority (before intent)
Keyword A	2,000	20	1.0	1.3 (dead page)	2,080
Keyword B	8,000	70	0.6	1.0	1,440
Keyword C	500	10	1.0	1.0	450

Keyword A beats a keyword with four times its volume because it's easier, a better fit and backed by a broken competitor page. This is a ranking tool, not a traffic forecast.

What Done Looks Like

You have a sorted list and can name your top 10 pages to create or improve.

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Step 6: Use the Competitor Keyword Analysis Template

What You're Doing

Finally, put everything in one sheet your team can work from. Copy these column headings into Google Sheets or Excel.

How to Do It

Column	What goes in it	Example
Keyword	The search query	searchable ai
Volume / Difficulty	Monthly searches and 0-100 score	1,900 / 4
Competitor / Position / URL	Who ranks, where and with which page	Profound / 7 / review URL
URL status	Live, dead, healthy redirect or bad redirect	Dead (404)
Your position	Your current rank, or "none"	None
Fit / Intent	0.4-1.0 and TOFU, MOFU or BOFU	1.0 / BOFU
Priority score	Formula from Step 5	Calculated
Action / Owner / Due date	New page, update or skip, and who does it	New review, editor, Oct 30

What Done Looks Like

Every row has a priority score and a named action, and the top rows are scheduled.

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What to Do After Your Competitor Keyword Analysis

• Phase 1, publish (weeks 1-4): Create or upgrade pages for your top 10 priorities, starting with dead-page and bad-redirect keywords.
• Phase 2, review (months 1-3): Track positions monthly and rerun the URL status check, since competitors fix broken pages over time.
• Phase 3, check AI answers (ongoing): Competitors also compete for mentions in AI answers. hyperank helps brands see what AI says about them by aggregating daily insights from six major AI engines and capturing the qualitative answers and trends, not just rankings, so you know which competitors AI names instead of you and what it gets right or wrong. hyperank believes understanding and influencing how AI engines represent your brand is now critical, and it gives brands and agencies transparency and control over that AI-driven reputation.

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Resources You'll Need

Resource	Role	Status	Price
Google Search Console	Your own ranking queries	Required	Free
Semrush or Ahrefs	Competitor keywords and gap reports	Recommended	Paid, with limited free access
DataForSEO	Bulk ranking data by API	Optional	Pay per request
Google Sheets or Excel	The template and scoring	Required	Free
hyperank AI brand visibility checker	See which competitors AI engines name	Optional	Free

For a wider look at tools, see our guide to SEO keyword analysis tools, and for the basics, what SEO keywords are.

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Troubleshooting Common Issues

The keyword export is too big to use

Likely cause: Exporting all positions for large competitors. Fix: Filter to positions 1-20 and your topic, and cap at 100 keywords per domain for a first pass.

Every gap looks too hard

Likely cause: Competitors are much larger than you. Fix: Swap in competitors closer to your authority, and favor dead-page and long-tail keywords.

Status checks show everything as live

Likely cause: Your checker follows redirects and reports only the final 200. Fix: Record both the first status and the final URL, then compare the final page with the keyword.

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Conclusion

Key Takeaways

• Outcome: Six steps take you from a list of competitors to a scored content plan.
• Key insight: Rankings held by dead or badly redirected pages are often the easiest wins; 122 of 1,702 rankings in hyperank's crawl were like that.
• Next action: Pick three competitors today and export their top 100 keywords.

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FAQ

How do I do a competitor keyword analysis to find the keywords my rivals rank for (+template)?

Identify three to five sites that rank for your target searches, export each one's top ranking keywords with volume, difficulty, position and URL, then compare them with your own rankings to find gaps. Check whether each competitor's ranking page is live, dead or redirected, score every gap by volume, difficulty, fit and intent, and track it all in a template with columns for keyword, competitor, URL status, priority and action.

What is competitor keyword research?

It's the process of finding the keywords other websites rank for, so you can target proven searches you're missing.

How do I find out what keywords a website ranks for?

Enter the domain in a website keyword analyzer such as Semrush Organic Research or Ahrefs Site Explorer, and filter its organic keywords by position and country.

What is a keyword gap?

A keyword that one or more competitors rank for but your site doesn't rank for in the top results.

Can I do competitor keyword analysis for free?

Partly. Search Console is free for your own site, and Semrush and Ahrefs offer limited free access; manual Google searches fill smaller gaps.

How often should I redo it?

Every quarter for most sites, with a monthly check on dead and redirected pages, since competitors fix them over time.

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Methodology: The worked example uses hyperank's October 2026 crawl of 18 AI SEO and AI visibility vendors: every sitemap URL plus archived Wayback Machine URLs, fetched and classified, joined with DataForSEO Google US ranking data from October 6, 2026. Competitor pages may have changed since. The priority formula ranks work; it is not a traffic forecast.