How To Steal Your Competitors’ Keywords By Analyzing Their Website

Your competitors’ websites are handing you the blueprint to their success.

Their website holds the key to what’s ACTUALLY working.

By analyzing it, you can see exactly what’s driving their traffic—and use it to outrank them.

Here’s how to steal your competitors’ keywords.

What “Stealing” Competitor Keywords Really Means

Now, don’t get me wrong, stealing keywords doesn’t mean copying your competitor’s work.

It means spotting the terms that help them rank high, then using that insight to create even better content.

Instead of just imitating their tactics, you’re learning from public information to refine your own approach. You’ll take what works for them, adapt it to your brand’s voice, and create something more valuable and unique for your audience.

So, let’s get down to stealing your competitors’ keywords.

Step-By-Step Guide to Steal Keywords from Competitors’ Websites

Keyword competitor analysis may sound daunting, but it really is a three-step process:

1. Find your competitors
2. Identify your competitor keywords
3. Analyze the keyword metrics and pick the ones to target

I’ll explain these steps in detail below using the example of a pest control company, so you can follow through.

Step 1: Find the Right Competitors to Analyze

Whoever said to keep your friends closer and your enemies closer wasn’t lying. Your competitors aren’t exactly enemies, but knowing who they are is important for competitor analysis and your overall SEO strategy.

But how exactly will you find out who your competitors are?

A good rule of thumb:

↳ Your direct competitors are the websites ranking high on the first page of Google for the keywords you’re after.

↳ They offer similar products or services and target the same audience as you.

You can find your top competitors in two ways:

a. Do It Manually

The simplest way to spot your competitors is to search your main keywords on Google and jot down the top-ranking sites.

If you notice the same domains popping up across multiple keywords, they’re likely your key organic competitors.

To stay organized, create a spreadsheet and log these domains for each keyword you’re targeting.

Now, this manual approach works well if you’re focused on a few keywords.

But if you’re trying to rank for hundreds or even thousands of terms?

It’s not realistic—you’ll be at it for days.

That’s why I prefer tools like Semrush. They automate the process, saving you time and giving you a complete view of your competitive landscape.

b. Use a Tool (like Semrush)

You can use a number of free and paid tools available online to find your competitors. I prefer using Semrush, so I’ll explain with its help.

Go to the Semrush Domain Overview, type in your website’s URL, select your target country, and click Search.

Scroll down to the Main Organic Competitors section. Here, you’ll see a list of your top competitor websites. They’re all ranking for similar keywords and targeting a similar audience as you.

Click the View details button to get more insights about these sites.

In this window, the Common Keywords section is especially helpful. Here, you can see the total number of shared keywords with each site.

If a site has a large number of common keywords, it’s a strong indicator that they’re one of your top competitors.

By the end of this process, you should have a list of at least 4-5 primary organic competitors.

But don’t forget to check your competitor’s website’s authority score before adding them to your list of competitors.

Website authority means how reliable Google and other search engines consider a particular domain. Many factors determine this authority, like:

→ E-E-A-T signals (Expertise, Experience, Authority, Trust)

→ Social signals and brand reputation

→ High-quality, expert-level content

→ Excellent user experience (UX)

→ The site’s age and history

→ Positive user interactions

→ A strong backlink profile

It can be tricky to compete with highly authoritative sites, especially if you don’t have the resources.

For example, if you’re starting a new tech review site, it would be difficult to outrank established giants like major tech blogs or e-commerce platforms that already dominate the search results.

So, before you do anything else, you should know your own site’s authority score. You can do that with Semrush Domain Overview.

Go to Domain Overview, type your website URL, and press Enter.

You’ll see your site’s authority score under the Domain Overview tab:

Next, analyze the authority scores of your competitors.

If you want to analyze multiple competitors in one go, use Semrush’s Bulk Analysis tool.

Paste in the URLs of the competitors you’ve identified and click Compare.

You’ll see the authority scores for all the domains side by side under the AS column.

Add these scores to your spreadsheet to keep track of how your competitors rank in terms of authority. This will help you identify which competitors are within reach and which might require a longer-term strategy to compete against.

Pro Tip: Choose your competitors wisely. If you’re ready to take on the giants, make sure you have the resources to match their scale. Otherwise, start by targeting smaller, relevant sites—it’s a smart way to build momentum.

Step 2: Find Competitor Keywords With the Right Tools

Now it’s time to dig into your competitors’ keyword strategies and find terms you’re not ranking for yet.

Like finding your competitors, you can find competitor keywords in two ways, too:

1. Manually

To manually search for your competitors’ keywords, go to their website.

Look closely at their web pages and content to see what terms they’re targeting.

You’ll have to check their page titles, meta descriptions, headings, blog posts, FAQs, and overall content.

While it’s a good place to start, it won’t give you all the keywords. Plus, it has no metrics or anything. So, I suggest using a tool like Semrush.

2. With an SEO Tool

Tools like Semrush let you analyze your competitors’ websites easily and find their top-performing keywords quickly.

Semrush has a dedicated Keyword Gap tool to help you find keywords your competitors are ranking for, but you’re not.

Just enter your website’s URL in the Keyword Gap tool along with up to 4 competitor domains and hit Compare.

Scroll down to the All keyword details for section and select the Missing tab:

In the Missing tab, you’ll see a list of keywords your competitors are ranking for but you’re not. But not every keyword will be a perfect fit, so review your list and pick the ones most relevant to your site.

Now, in my case, I only had 17 keywords to look through. But you may find hundreds of keywords in your case, which can be time-consuming to comb through.

To avoid spending hours copying and pasting each keyword into a spreadsheet, you can use Semrush’s Keyword Strategy Builder.

As you go through your list, select the relevant keywords by ticking the box next to them and clicking the + Add to keyword list button in the top-right corner.

When you click + Add to keyword list, you have the option to add the selected keywords to an existing list or create a new list.

If you choose an existing list, the keywords will automatically move to that list.

If you click Create a new empty list, you’ll have to give it a name, and it will save all your selected keywords in one list.

To export, click the Export button on the far right and select Excel.

Next, import the file into Google Sheets for a deeper dive. Review the terms, keep the ones you need, and delete the rest.

Another valuable feature of the Keyword Gap tool is the Untapped tab. This highlights keywords that at least one competitor ranks for, but others don’t.

Another good place to look for potential keywords is the Lost Keywords.

Now, as hopeless as they might sound, they’re actually a great opportunity for you.

Lost keywords are those terms or phrases for which your competitor has lost rankings.

It means you have an opening to make better content for those keywords to surpass your competitors in search engines.

You can find these lost keywords using the Semrush Organic Research tool.

Just add your top competitor’s URL and click Search.

Next, select the Position Changes tab and scroll down to the All Position Changes table.

In the table, click the Positions filter. If you can’t find this filter, click Add filter and add it from the list.

I had to do it for Positions and Position Changes filters (which I’ll use in the next step).

Once you have the Positions filter in the tab, click it and select Top 20. Then, click the Position Changes filter, select Lost from the list, and click Apply.

Now, you’ll see all those keywords that your competitor has lost.

Now, you can use your findings to create new pages targeting keywords your competitors recently lost or improve your existing pages with those keywords to outrank them.

For example, in the above list of lost keywords, pest exterminators in my area could be a great point to target. It has a good balance of volume and difficulty (590 and 67), making it a golden keyword that you can target in your content.

You should also keep an eye on the new keywords your competitors are ranking for. These insights can reveal their evolving content strategies and inspire new directions for your own.

Follow the above steps in the Semrush Organic Research tool.

But instead of selecting Lost in the Position Changes filter, pick New.

This will give you all the new keywords your competitors are targeting.

Now, when I looked up these new keywords, I noticed my competitors were adding more informational content to their sites. The intent behind the keywords made this clear.

This insight is helpful because now I can focus more on creating informational content for my own site.

Just like that you can use these insights to pick right keywords and target the search intent correctly.

By now, you should have a solid list of keywords from your competitors’ websites. Let’s move on to the next step!

Step 3: Analyze and Pick Competitor Keywords to Target

Once you have a list of potential keywords, it’s time to narrow it down.

Start by removing any keywords that don’t relate to your business or target audience. There’s no value in ranking for a term if it won’t bring in customers.

If you’re a smaller brand, also exclude keywords that are way too competitive. These might be popular, single-word terms or those with high difficulty ratings. I suggest you keep them on a later list, but don’t focus on them now.

It’s best to aim for keywords with a difficulty score of 30 or lower until you’ve built more authority.

Use Semrush’s Keyword Overview Tool to find KD%

Simply put your keywords into the Semrush’s Keyword Overview Tool and hit Search.

This will give a report showing Keyword Difficulty and other important metrics for each keyword.

Focus on keywords that have lower competition and good to decent search volumes.

After trimming your list:

Do a quick Google search for the remaining keywords. Focus on these two things:

1. Content Quality: Check the top three results. If they’re shallow or outdated, you can create something better. Target such keywords.

2. Established Sites: Notice which brands rank highly. If their DR (Domain Rating) is high, it’ll be difficult to outrank them with a newer/smaller website. In that case, you should rather focus on a related long-tail keyword with a SERP that’s easier to beat.

The weaker the current results, the easier it should be for you to rank—especially if your site has some existing authority.

A few more tips to help align your keyword strategy with the latest search trends:

↳ Check for SERP Features: Look beyond traditional listings. See if competitors appear in featured snippets, “People Also Ask” boxes or video carousels. Targeting these areas can boost your visibility.

↳ Optimize for Voice Search: People often use longer, more conversational queries. Look for keywords that match common questions or natural speech patterns.

↳ Use Semantic Variations: Incorporate related terms and phrases that provide context. Search engines now look for overall meaning, not just exact keyword matches.

With all this information, you can now curate a well-targeted keyword list for your site that you technically stole from your competitors.

Strengthen Keyword Research with Competitor Analysis

So, that’s how you steal from your competitors! The goal isn’t to copy—it’s to see which keywords are working for your competitors and create more valuable content around them.

But there is so much more that goes into keyword research. Check out more guides below to create a well-rounded keyword strategy:

↳ Keyword Research Checklist to Find Golden Keywords

↳ Expert Keyword Research Tips For Small Businesses

↳ Free Keyword Research Template [With Guide]

↳ How to Do International Keyword Research

Frequently Asked Questions