---
title: "Competitor keyword research | SEO Skill"
description: "Find the keywords a competitor ranks for in Google, with positions, monthly searches and the ranking page, find the sites you really compete with, and run a keyword gap analysis."
canonical: "https://seoskill.dev/tools/competitor-keyword-research"
language: "en"
---

# Competitor keyword research

Enter a competitor's domain to see the keywords it ranks for in Google, or find the sites that compete with any domain.

| Keyword | Position | Monthly searches | Page |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |

### Run it from your agent with your own key

This page gives you 10 lookups a day. With a free account and your own DataForSEO or Ahrefs key, your agent runs the same research whenever it needs to, next to the queries your site already gets clicks for in Search Console.

1.  Sign in with Google on your account page. That creates the free account.
2.  Save your DataForSEO or Ahrefs key in the Keys tab. The provider bills you directly.
3.  Connect the hosted MCP to your agent and ask it which keywords a competitor ranks for that you don't.

[Get started free](https://seoskill.dev/account) [How keys work](https://seoskill.dev/docs/keys)

## See the keywords a competitor ranks for

Enter a competitor's domain and keep **Keywords it ranks for** selected. You get its 50 keywords with the most estimated traffic, the position it holds for each one, how many people search for it a month and the page that ranks.

Read the page column first. It shows which of their pages pull in that traffic, which tells you more about what is working for them than the keyword list alone. Three pages earning most of a site's traffic is a very different competitor from three hundred pages earning a little each.

## Find the sites you actually compete with

Choose **Sites it competes with** and enter your own domain. You get the domains that rank for the most of the same keywords, with a Domain Rating next to each one. These are often not the businesses you think of as competitors (a publisher or a forum can share more keywords with you than a rival shop does).

Large platforms that share keywords with nearly every site are left out so the list stays useful, and the result says which ones. Choose **Its keywords** on any row to look up that domain next.

## Run a keyword gap analysis

1.  Find three to five search competitors with **Sites it competes with**. Pick sites near your size, not the giants.
2.  Look up each one's keywords and note the ones that match what you sell or write about.
3.  Check each keyword against your own Search Console. No impressions at all means you have no page Google shows for it. Impressions at position 20 or below means you have a page that is not good enough yet.
4.  Group the gaps by topic, not by keyword. One strong page usually ranks for a whole cluster of related searches.

Step three is where most gap analyses go wrong. Comparing two estimates hides the keywords you already rank for but the index missed. Your own Search Console data is the side to trust.

## Pick keywords you can win

A competitor ranking for a keyword does not mean you should chase it. Run the keyword through the [SERP checker](https://seoskill.dev/tools/serp-checker) and look at who holds the top five. If they are much stronger sites than yours, a lower volume keyword where the results are thinner is often the better bet.

## Positions and searches are estimates

The keywords, positions and search volumes come from DataForSEO's own index for the country you pick. Positions count every block on the results page, not just organic results. They are good for comparing sites in the same market.

## Compare their keywords with yours using your agent

A competitor list only becomes a plan when you hold it up against your own site. With SEO Skill your agent pulls their ranked keywords with [seo research](https://seoskill.dev/docs/research) and your own queries with [seo data](https://seoskill.dev/docs/data), then does step three for every keyword at once. Research data stays labelled as research and is never mixed into your own numbers. Ask:

```
Which keywords does competitor.example rank for in the top 10 that example.com gets no Search Console impressions for? Group them by topic.
```

Add the hosted MCP server to your agent and sign in with Google:

Run it in a terminal, then sign in with Google.

Or run it on your machine

Installs the CLI, signs you in and adds the skill to your agents. Crawls and Bing run this way.

## Competitor keyword questions