Top 14 Tools to Find Competitor Keywords

Businesses in every industry and vertical have competitors. Some might have a few, while others may have a lot. But the main question is, do you know who your competitors are? Or what they are doing?

In what is one of the greatest books ever written, Sun Tzu, the author of The Art of War, says “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”

His quote highlights the importance of knowing your competitors.

Competitor keyword analysis is a cornerstone of a successful content marketing strategy. It's a must-do for all businesses, giving you a significant advantage over your competitors by helping you:

• Identify their target keywords, search volume and ranking positions
• Spot keyword gaps and opportunities to optimize your content
• Improve search engine visibility and traffic

Once discovered, their SEO strategies, keywords, and traffic can place you in a much better position than you are right now.

Search engine marketing campaigns heavily rely on keyword research. It's crucial to find relevant keywords, eliminate the negative keywords, and structure campaigns into appropriate ad groups.

All these components are essential for ensuring the effectiveness of both your SEO and PPC ad campaigns.

Many competitor analysis tools and services are now available that can help you do this with ease. Having said that, let's explore some of the best keyword research tools to find competitor keywords in this post.

What are competitor keywords?

Before getting into keyword tools, it’s important to understand what competitor keywords actually are; that is, their definition.

Competitor keywords are specific words or phrases that your competitors are targeting in their content, advertisements, or SEO efforts to improve SERP rankings and drive online traffic to their websites.

SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page – the first page you see after entering a query into a search engine like Google.

Note that the list of keywords that your competitors are using can be related to the products, services, or topics within their industry or niche.

Competitor keyword research is important, here's why

Just like normal keyword research, competitive keyword research or analysis involves finding and analyzing the keywords and phrases your competitors are targeting and ranking for online.

Competitor research is crucial for several reasons, since it helps you:

Stay ahead of market trends

Monitoring keywords that competitors are using gives most brands a sneak peek into emerging market trends and shifts in consumer behavior – it's like having a crystal ball that predicts where the industry is heading.

They can use this information to stay ahead of the curve and adjust their marketing strategies to seize opportunities before the competition does.

Understand customer intent

Ever wish you could read your users’ minds? Well, competitor keyword research gets you quite close.

It offers valuable insights into the type of queries, topics, and keywords that receive the most searches, clicks, and engagement from your target audience.

Audience intent (informational, navigational, or transactional) further enables you to create content that directly addresses their needs and interests, which not only leads to higher engagement rates but also drives conversions.

Discover content gaps

CMI reports that great content helps marketers build brand awareness and loyalty. But most importantly, it helps them generate demand and get qualified leads.

Great content is possible only if you have covered all your bases.

You can compare your keyword strategy with that of your competitors to see if you have missed out on anything. In fact, you can also identify gaps in their content coverage.

Consequently creating new content (or optimizing your old ones) to fill in these gaps and better meet the needs of their audience.

Improve SEO and PPC ad performance

Once you find out which keywords your competitors are using, you can effortlessly spot the ones driving the most amount of traffic to their sites and work out how they are performing in search engines.

It doesn’t matter if they are organic competitors or bidding on keywords for PPC advertising.

You can discover new keyword ideas (both organic and paid keywords), refine your SEO and PPC strategy, optimize content, and boost visibility in search engine results pages.

14 best tools to find competitor keywords

Now let’s get on to exploring some of the best competitor keyword tools and services that you can use to find those keywords your competitors are ranking for, including paid and organic keywords.

Some tools are free, some have a free version, and others are paid.

1. Persona by Delve AI

While many competitor keyword analysis tools provide an overview based on keywords, Competitor Persona by Delve AI goes further by giving you a holistic view of your competitors' customers through their user personas.

We use audience intelligence data and AI to help businesses understand their competitors' customer profiles and reach out to them effectively. Essentially, our competitor intelligence tool empowers you to tailor your marketing to specific audience segments.

Key features:

• Analyze raw keywords from competitors and organize them based on user intent, query constituents, and query intent.

• Find brand and generic keywords that perform well for competitors specific to organic and paid search channels.

• Identify season-specific or weather-specific keywords to inform product trends and marketing strategies.
• Present keyword insights in terms of structured attributes specific to the industry/vertical, such as size, gender, occasion, type, color, and age-group.

• Offer geographic targeting ideas (for local SEO), including city-wise, region-wise, country-wise, and subcontinent-wise targeting, along with urbanicity-based distribution.

What we like about it:

We might be biased here, but Competitor Persona by Delve AI stands out for its unique ability to provide detailed information and industry-specific insights about your competitors' customers, markets, and keyword strategies.

Pricing:

Our business plans start at USD 89 per month, which includes two competitor personas. For more information on agency plans, visit our pricing page.

2. SEMrush

SEMrush is a highly acclaimed business tool with a 5-star rating on the G2 forum, solidifying its status as one of the most popular choices for keyword research in the market.

With a comprehensive suite of over 40 tools and access to data from more than 140 countries, SEMrush offers unparalleled SEO intelligence to improve content and keyword optimization efforts.

How to use SEMrush:

• Go to Organic Research and enter your domain name
• Click on the Search button
• On the Analytics page, scroll until you see your Main Organic Competitors
• Click the View all Competitors button to get a detailed list of all domains competing with you on Google
• Return to Organic Search, type in competitor domain name, and hit Search again
• Check out their Top Keywords (more keywords click the View All Keywords button)

You can use Filters to sort out your keywords by positions, search volume, keyword difficulty, user intent, SERP features, and more.

Additionally, you can explore what their competitors look like in the Competitors tab. The Pages report is a good way to see which keywords work well for them and bring the most organic traffic to their website.

Key features:

• Access competitor backlink data, displayed conveniently in a pie chart format to facilitate the development of a backlink strategy.
• Identify do-follow and no-follow links to gauge the quality of competitor backlinks.
• Analyze comprehensive organic and paid search results for any given domain.
• Explore competitor traffic metrics, both paid and organic, along with Google ranking data.
• Conduct competitor analysis to understand the top 20 keywords driving traffic for competitors as well as their competitors.

What we like about it:

SEMrush stands out for its suite of SEO tools, providing invaluable SEO intelligence like keywords, their organic position in SERP, search volume, keyword difficulty levels, average cost-per-click, costs, competitive density, keyword trends data, and SERP features.

Pricing:

SEMrush offers a free 7-day trial for users to experience its features. The platform offers three paid plans: Pro, Guru, and Business, priced at $129.95, $249.95, and $499.95 per month respectively.

3. Ahrefs

Ahrefs stands out for its data coverage, since it pulls metrics not only from Google but also from platforms like YouTube, Amazon, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, and more.

Its flagship tool, Keywords Explorer, provides valuable insights into search volumes and estimated clicks on search results, enabling users to target keywords that yield meaningful traffic.

How to use Ahrefs:

• Sign in or sign up for Ahrefs
• Choose a subscription level (you’ll get access to Site Explorer in the Lite plan)
• Go to Site Explorer and add your competitor’s URL
• On the sidebar, click Organic keywords under the Organic search tab

This section will give you full access to your competitors keyword profile and search traffic. You can use it in combination with Keywords Explorer to study where your competitors rank and lose.

Key features:

• Analyze historical keyword data to get additional context to keywords that have faded with time, interest, or volume.
• Leverage Ahrefs' extensive backlink database to evaluate website rankings based on the size and backlink quality.
• Explore metrics such as UR (URL Rating), backlinks, referring domains, organic keywords, and organic traffic for deeper competitor analysis.
• Use Site Explorer to gain a deeper understanding of competitors' website structures and identify high-traffic sections by country.
• Identify hundreds of relevant keywords by focusing on the topic of a webpage.
• Analyze keyword metrics such as search volume, keyword difficulty, and click distribution to inform content and advertising strategies.

What we like about it:

Ahrefs impresses with its extensive data coverage and powerful insights, enabling users to make informed decisions regarding keyword targeting, backlink analysis, and content strategy.

Pricing:

Ahrefs offers four plans: Lite, Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise, priced at $99, $199, $399, and $999 respectively.

4. Similarweb

Similarweb provides detailed insights into your competitors' monthly traffic, keyword performance, traffic sources, and more. By comparing your website against competitors, you can assess their performance metrics and refine your own strategies accordingly.

How to use Similarweb:

• Visit the Similarweb website and go to the Free Tools tab (open Analyze a website)
• Add your domain name in the Search bar
• Once you get the results, Compare this site to any of your competitor websites

Key features:

• Compare your website against competitor sites to analyze performance metrics such as visits, sessions, bounce rate, and page visits.
• Explore competitors' organic and paid keywords to identify popular search terms and associated ads.

• Gain insights into user behavior by discovering other websites visited during the same browsing session.
• Scrutinize competitors' content strategies to understand their approach and potential areas for improvement.
• Identify traffic sources, including social, display ads, search engine results, and referrals, to uncover new avenues for user acquisition.
• Analyze competitors' sales funnels, track campaigns, and identify popular pages.

What we like about it:

From traffic analysis to keyword research and campaign tracking, Similarweb provides valuable tools for optimizing marketing efforts and staying ahead of the competition.

Pricing:

Similarweb offers a 7-day free trial, with plans for individuals and startups (starting at $125 per month) and Enterprises (pricing available through consultations).

5. Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo analyzes competitor content across various social media networks. It provides insights into the number of shares on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest, making it a valuable resource for competitive analysis in the market.

How to use Buzzsumo:

• Go to BuzzSumo's Content Analyzer tool
• Enter a topic, brand, or competitor domain
• Sort the report by date, engagement, shares, and reactions
• Check out the View Analysis Report to see Average Shares by Content Type and Average Shares by Content Length

Review the data provided, including details on the number of articles analyzed, the most popular content types, total and average social shares, and shares by platform.

Key features:

• Identify both obvious and emerging competitors and assess the performance of individual articles over specific time periods.
• Explore top-performing content for specific keywords and analyze share metrics to inform content strategy.
• Monitor competitors closely and receive notifications when they are mentioned online, enabling active engagement with customers on different platforms.

What we like about it:

BuzzSumo stands out for its ability to provide details into competitor content performance across different social platforms. From identifying trending topics to monitoring competitor mentions and engagement, it offers great tools for developing digital marketing plans.

Pricing:

BuzzSumo has four plans: Content Creation, PR and Comms, Suite, and Enterprise, ranging from $199 to $999 per month. You can try out all four plans for a free 7-day trial period.

6. Moz

Moz's Keyword Explorer offers multiple search options by keyword, root domain, subdomain, and exact page. Known for its high accuracy, 95% prediction rate for search volume, it lets you target relevant long-tail keywords effectively.

The tool is free to use (up to 10 free queries per month), however, you will have to sign up first.

How to use Moz:

• Create a free Moz account
• Go to Free SEO tools and select Competitive Research
• Enter the domain name in the search box and hit Analyze domain
• Click See more keywords button to see all the keywords the website ranks for and use the filters to analyze the results
• Repeat the process for different competitor websites
• Once you have a list of keywords, use the Keyword Explorer tool

You can also explore Moz's proprietary tools, like SEO Audit, Backlink Research, Rank Tracking, SEO Toolbar, and Domain Analysis.

Key features:

• Conduct keyword research by searching for keywords, root domains, subdomains, or exact pages.
• Receive suggestions for keywords with high relevance and potential for ranking on your site.
• Evaluate keyword difficulty, search volume, and expected click-through rate (CTR) to gauge ranking impact and traffic potential.
• Use SERP analysis to understand ranking factors and optimize content.
• Access search history and organic keyword data to gain insights into competitor strategies.
• Conduct website audits to identify errors and receive suggestions for improvement.

What we like about it:

Moz offers comprehensive keyword insights and site analysis tools, empowering businesses to identify relevant keywords, optimize content, and address website issues.

Pricing:

Moz offers four plans: Standard, Medium, Large, and Premium, priced at $99, $179, $299, and $599 respectively. Each plan offers features to suit different business objectives.

7. Spyfu

Spyfu is a dedicated competitive intelligence tool that provides data on everything from local and global monthly search volume, advertisement history, ranking history, ad spend, backlinks, and ad groups.

By entering a competitor's name into the search bar, users can access comprehensive data spanning the past 12 years.

How to use Spyfu:

You can use Spyfu for free without having to create an account. Simply go to their site and analyze your domain.

• Add your URL in the search bar
• Check out the Competitors tab to get a list of your competitors

You get a list of their top keywords, inbound links, top pages, page-one keywords, and their competition. The Kombat tab can additionally be used to analyze three domains simultaneously and determine how competitive they are.

• Next, click on the SEO Keywords tab
• Sort by Most Valuable Keywords to see important organic keywords

Key features:

• Utilize SERP and PPC analysis to gain insights into competitor organic and paid search methods.
• Track keyword ranking history to understand competitor performance over time.
• Access AdWords advice and utilize tools such as the Keyword Grouper Tool for effective keyword management.
• Explore SEO competitor research features including keyword analysis, reports, and competitor backlink reviews.
• Use PPC competitor research tools to track ad ranks, monitor competitor ads, and identify competitor keywords.

What we like about it:

SpyFu stands out for its competitive intelligence features. Its capability to compare your keyword strategies with those of your competitors and identify areas for improvement offers actionable insights for optimizing marketing plans.

Pricing:

SpyFu gives out limited keyword information in its free version. You need to pay up to access the actual data. The platform offers two subscription plans: Basic and Professional, priced at $39 and $79 per month.

8. Answer the Public

Answer the Public, recently acquired by NP Digital, specializes in identifying the questions people are asking online.

By generating a search cloud visualizing various search queries categorized into How, Can, Which, Will, and Are, it gives ideas for content creation and advertising, targeting users at different stages of the customer journey.

How to use Answer the Public:

• Select the search engine you want (Google, Bing, YouTube)
• Enter the keyword, filtering it by country and language
• Click on Search to get results
• Tap on Wheels, Lists, and Tables for different types of keyword visualizations

Key features:

• Utilize the search cloud to categorize search queries.
• Identify relevant topics and questions to create content and ads tailored to users' needs and interests.
• Understand user intent and preferences.
• Use SERP analysis to understand ranking factors and optimize content.
• Combine Answer the Public with other keyword research tools like Ubersuggest to gather additional data on search volume and keyword optimization.

What we like about it:

Answer the Public offers a unique and visually appealing way to discover user questions and preferences. Its free version allows for easy access to its features, making it accessible to a wide range of users.

Pricing:

Answer the Public offers a free version of the tool with no specific plans based on usage. For users opting for Pro and Expert plans, monthly billing is available at $49 and $99 respectively.

9. Keywords Everywhere

The Keyword Everywhere extension is available for Chrome and Firefox browsers. It gives out keyword data, including average monthly search volumes, cost-per-click, and competition levels for each keyword.

How to use Keywords Everywhere:

• Visit the Keywords Everywhere website
• Install their Keyword Tool extension for Chrome, Firefox, or Microsoft Edge
• Pin the extension and click on the Competitor Gap Analysis button (you can add up to five websites)

Key features:

• Access real-time keyword data while browsing popular platforms such as YouTube, Google, Bing, Amazon, and Google Analytics.
• Explore related keywords and long-tail variations to identify content opportunities and attract potential customers.
• Customize the extension settings to filter out irrelevant data and tailor results to your business needs.
• Utilize data from Google Search Console to analyze clicks and impressions for specific user queries.

What we like about it:

The extension offers a user-friendly interface and provides keyword data in real-time across various platforms. Its ability to customize settings and filter out irrelevant data enhances usability, while its integration with Google Search Console adds depth to SEO analysis.

Pricing:

Keywords Everywhere operates on a credit-based model, where one credit equals one keyword. Pricing starts at $21 for 100,000 credits per year, with costs increasing based on the number of credits consumed.

10. Wordstream

WordStream is a user-friendly tool that provides instant access to a list of your competitors' keywords. It offers a straightforward approach to competitor keyword analysis and is available for free without the need for creating an account.

How to use Wordstream:

• Head to WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool
• Enter your competitor’s website address in the search bar
• Click on Find My Keywords
• Select an industry (optional), and location
• Click Continue and then Download all Keywords

What we like about it:

Although it lacks actual keyword rankings, WordStream's simplicity and accessibility make it a valuable resource for businesses that are just starting off with competitive keyword research.

11. Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is a free tool for Google Ads customers. It allows users to discover target keywords of any website, aiding in competitor analysis and keyword research.

How to use Google Keyword Planner:

• Create a Google Ads account if you haven't already
• Tap on Tools and Settings and select Keyword Planner
• Select Discover New Keywords and then Start with a Website
• Add competitor's domain and click Get Results
• Use filters to sort results by country, language, and popularity

Key features:

• Allows filtering and sorting by average monthly searches, three-month change, year-over-year change, competition level in SERPs, and more.
• Offers flexibility in choosing columns for reports and downloading them as CSV or Sheets files.

Note that Google Keyword Planner does not offer information on competitors' rankings in SERP.

12. SE Ranking

SE Ranking is an all-in-one SEO tool designed for comprehensive competitive research. With features similar to Semrush, SE Ranking offers insights into competitor domains, including traffic data, country information, search trends, and more.

How to use SE Ranking:

• Sign up and navigate to the Competitive Research section of the website
• Enter your competitor's domain name and hit Analyze
• Scroll down to the Organic keywords report
• Click View Detailed Report to analyze competitor keywords

Key features:

• Analyze competitor domains for traffic, keywords, backlink profiles, and technical health.
• View organic keywords and traffic metrics in detail, with options to filter keyword data.
• Receive on-page optimization recommendations based on parameters of top-ranking competitors.

Pricing:

With the free version of SE Ranking, you can create up to 3 reports per day with limited data. To access full functionality, register for a 14-day trial account or sign up for a paid plan.

You have three subscription options: Essential ($55 per month), Pro ($109 per month), and Business ($239 per month).

13. KeywordTool.io

With its ability to pull in keywords related to a theme, provide auto suggestions from Google and capture country-specific keyword variations, KeywordTool.io is a valuable asset for businesses operating in multiple countries.

Key features:

• Group keywords into relevant topics to guide content creation and SEO strategies.
• Leverage the tool to find auto suggestions from Google and blend a variety of keywords into SEO copy.
• Access more than 800 unique keywords for a given term, along with search volume and related keywords.
• Explore question-based queries for content ideas and optimize content for user intent.
• Use filters such as language, location, and Google country domain to refine keyword results.
• Access search volume and competition data for a range of keywords, including those used in YouTube, Google, Bing, and Amazon.

What we like about it:

Keywordtool.io offers a user-friendly interface and provides an exhaustive list of highly valuable long-tail keywords. Its ability to capture country-specific keyword variations and provide search volume and competition data adds depth to your keyword research efforts.

Pricing:

Keywordtool.io offers a free version of the tool with limited features for lifetime use. Paid plans include Pro Basic, Pro Plus, and Pro Business, priced at $69, $79, and $159 per month respectively.

14. Serpstat

Serpstat is another tool for analyzing competitors' keywords, search traffic, and top pages to gain insights into their organic and paid search strategies. With a free trial, users can test the tool's functionality before committing to a paid plan.

How to use Serpstat:

• Visit Serpstat's Competitor Analysis page
• Enter the domain you want to analyze in the search box
• Navigate to the Organic keywords/Paid keywords section
• Click the Show All button
• Sort the report using various filters and parameters

Key features:

• Discover your competitors' organic and paid traffic sources.
• Conduct research for SEO and PPC campaigns for any topic, ad, or keyword.
• Get all the top-ranking pages of your competitors and find relevant backlink opportunities.

What we like about it:

Keywordtool.io offers a user-friendly interface and provides an exhaustive list of highly valuable long-tail keywords. Its ability to capture country-specific keyword variations and provide search volume and competition data adds depth to your keyword research efforts.

Pricing:

Serpstat offers various pricing plans at $50, $100, and $410 per month, starting with a 7-day free trial.

How to conduct competitor keyword analysis?

As stated before, competitor keyword analysis is a pivotal part of a robust digital marketing strategy, offering keyword insights that provide a roadmap to boost organic traffic.

The process mainly involves:

• Listing out the top competitors in your industry
• Analyzing their keyword strategies and high-performing keywords
• Evaluating keyword difficulty levels

So, you start off by identifying competitors within your market. These are companies that mostly offer the same product or service as yours, targeting the same audience and keywords.

Leverage competitor keyword research tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Google Keyword Planner to gather the keywords they are targeting, along with their search volumes, ranking, and search difficulty for those particular keywords.

Don’t completely rely on these tools though.

Visit your competitors’ websites and thoroughly scrutinize the keywords used in their titles, content, headings, meta descriptions, and URLs. Pay attention to the number of keywords targeted per page as well as their placement throughout the article.

Something else you can do is to explore backlink profiles – anchor text found in these backlinks can be used to spot additional keywords.

Examine competitors' PPC ad campaigns with tools like SpyFu to get bidding keywords and observe their social media channels for keywords in posts, hashtags, and promotions.

The final step of competitive keyword analysis is to analyze all this data to pinpoint common themes, top keywords, and content gaps. It’s the key to creating a better content plan, SEO strategy, and moving up the competitive ladder.

Wrapping up

Learning from your competitors is no longer a luxury – it's a necessity. Regardless of the type of industry you’re in, you need to study and analyze them if you truly want to outrun the competition.

Fortunately, you can use various keyword research tools and tactics to make this happen. They are budget-friendly and accessible to all businesses, whether big or small.

By leveraging these competitor keyword tools, you can predict moves, develop better marketing strategies, and gain a competitive edge. Don't limit yourself to just one tool; explore multiple data sources to get a comprehensive view. Stay informed and stay ahead!