Introduction
This article summarizes and expands on a long Reddit discussion about how to find your competitors keywords. I reviewed the community’s practical advice, common workflows, and disagreements, then added expert-level commentary and a reproducible process you can use. Whether you prefer free tactics, paid tools, or a hybrid approach, this guide will help you uncover competitor keyword opportunities and prioritize the ones that move the needle.
Reddit Consensus: What Most People Use
Across the thread, a clear consensus emerged about the core methods to find competitor keywords:
- SEO tools are the backbone: Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, and SimilarWeb were the most commonly recommended. These provide “organic keywords” reports, position histories, and keyword gap analyses.
- Keyword gap / Content gap reports: Comparing your domain vs competitor domains to surface keywords they rank for and you don’t was a repeatedly endorsed tactic.
- Explore top pages, not only the domain: Extract the competitor’s top-ranking pages and see which keywords drive those pages.
- Use Google & manual SERP analysis: Many advocated checking the SERP, People Also Ask, related searches and featured snippets manually to understand intent and topical gaps.
- Backlinks and anchor text: Looking at what pages attract backlinks and the anchor text used can reveal target topics and keywords.
Where Opinions Diverged
Redditors disagreed on a few practical points:
- Tool reliance vs. manual research: Some argued paid tools are essential for scale and accuracy; others insisted creative manual techniques often find niche long-tail opportunities that tools miss.
- Exact-match keyword obsession: A number of contributors emphasized intent over exact-match keyword chasing, pushing for content that satisfies search intent instead of keyword stuffing.
- Ethics and scraping: A few users warned against heavy scraping of competitor sites or automating queries in ways that violate terms of service. Approaches that respect site rules and API usage were favored.
- Paid vs Organic intelligence: Some marketers stressed paid ads research (SpyFu, Ad Library) to see what competitors are bidding on. Others felt organic insights are more durable and illustrative for SEO planning.
Specific Tactics Shared on Reddit
Here are concrete tactics Reddit users recommended, grouped by free and paid approaches:
Free and Low-cost Methods
- Google “site:” queries (e.g., site:competitor.com “keyword”): Find indexed pages that mention target terms.
- People Also Ask and related searches: Manually mine suggestions and PAA to learn what Google associates with your target queries.
- Search Console + manual SERPs: If you have access to your own GSC, see where you’re close to outranking competitors and reverse-engineer their landing pages.
- Browser extensions: Tools like Keywords Everywhere, MozBar, or Ubersuggest extension can show quick keyword metrics while you browse competitor pages.
- View page source and structured data: Look for schema, meta titles, meta descriptions, and header structure to infer targeted topics.
Paid Tools & Scalable Methods
- Ahrefs Site Explorer: Organic Keywords and Top Pages reports help you see which keywords a competitor ranks for and which pages bring the most traffic.
- SEMrush Organic Research & Keyword Gap: Compare domains to extract keywords both you and competitors rank for, and crucially, those they rank for but you don’t.
- Screaming Frog + log file analysis: Crawl competitor sites (respectfully and within robots.txt limits) to map content types, URL patterns, and meta usage. Combine with backlinks data to prioritize pages.
- SpyFu/Adbeat: See competitor paid keywords and ads to determine commercial intent and high-value conversion topics.
- Export and filter: Export keyword lists, filter for positions 2–10 for quick wins, and prioritize by volume and intent.
Practical Step-by-Step Workflow (Hybrid Approach)
Based on the Reddit discussion and proven SEO practice, follow this workflow to systematically find and act on competitor keywords:
- Step 1 – Build your competitor set: Include direct competitors, industry leaders, and niche sites that outrank you for target topics.
- Step 2 – Run a keyword gap report: Use Ahrefs/SEMrush to list keywords competitors rank for and you don’t. Export the data.
- Step 3 – Filter for opportunity: Focus on keywords where competitors rank in positions 2–10 (low-hanging fruit), reasonable search volume, and aligned intent.
- Step 4 – Map keywords to pages: Identify which competitor pages target those keywords and analyze content structure, headings, and unique value offered.
- Step 5 – Analyze backlinks and referral traffic: Check which pages have high-quality links; those topics often translate to easier ranking if you can build links or improve content.
- Step 6 – Create a prioritized content plan: Score each keyword by traffic potential, conversion intent, difficulty, and the effort required to outrank the competitor.
- Step 7 – Execute and measure: Publish optimized content, build links, check performance in Search Console and your rank tracker, iterate on what works.
Expert Insight: Prioritization Framework
Score each keyword on 4 axes: Traffic Potential (search volume), Intent (commercial vs informational), Ranking Feasibility (competitor strength/backlinks), and Business Impact (conversion likelihood). Weight the axes to match your goals—if you need revenue, give Intent and Business Impact more weight. This scoring avoids chasing vanity keywords and keeps efforts revenue-oriented.
Automation & Advanced Tips from Redditors
Some advanced contributors suggested automating parts of the process:
- Use Screaming Frog with custom extraction to pull H1s, meta, and internal linking patterns from competitor top pages.
- Combine Ahrefs API or SEMrush API with a spreadsheet/Python script to auto-refresh keyword gap exports and flag new opportunities weekly.
- Track SERP feature changes (snippets, PAA, shopping) over time to see where intent shifts and to adapt content formats.
Expert Insight: How I Automate at Scale
For teams, I recommend a lightweight ELT (Extract, Load, Transform):
- Extract keyword and page data via Ahrefs/SEMrush APIs weekly.
- Load into a central BigQuery/Sheets dataset and transform to compute “opportunity score”.
- Push prioritized tasks to your content calendar automatically (e.g., via Zapier) so writers get a clear brief: target keyword, intent notes, competitor page links, and suggested CTAs.
This reduces manual busywork and lets strategists focus on high-impact content and outreach.
Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
- Relying solely on volume: High search volume doesn’t equal conversion. Always assess intent.
- Ignoring site architecture: Competitors might rank via category or product pages—don’t just analyze blog posts.
- Chasing exact-match rankings: Aim to satisfy search intent comprehensively; sometimes a better-format answer or richer media outranks a keyword-optimized page.
- Over-scraping and legal risks: Use APIs when possible and respect robots.txt to avoid IP blocking or TOS violations.
Tool Recommendations (Quick Reference)
- Paid consolidated tools: Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz Pro — for keyword gaps, top pages, and position history.
- Paid competitive ad intel: SpyFu, Adbeat — useful to discover commercial intent and competitor PPC strategy.
- Free / cheap: Google Search Console, Keywords Everywhere, Google Trends, site: searches, People Also Ask.
- Crawling & automation: Screaming Frog, Python scripts with SERP and tool APIs, Google Sheets + Apps Script.
Final Takeaway
Reddit’s community converged on a pragmatic mix of paid tools and manual analysis to answer how to find your competitors keywords. The best approach combines a tool-powered keyword gap analysis, manual SERP/intent checks, and prioritization based on business impact. Avoid the trap of copying keywords blindly; instead, focus on matching or exceeding the competitor’s content value and converting the intent behind the search. Use automation sensibly to scale, but keep strategy and editorial judgment at the center.
Read the full Reddit discussion here.