Competitor Keywords & Pages

Every competitor gets its search traffic from a set of keywords and a handful of pages. This page covers the two places you see them: the lower half of the Overview tab, which shows any one site's ranking keywords and top pages, and the Keyword gap tab, which lists the keywords a competitor ranks for where your client doesn't show up at all.

If you haven't saved any competitors yet, start with the Competitors Overview.

Ranking keywords and top pages

Open the Overview tab and click a row in the How this site compares table. The two panels below it switch to that site. You can pick the client's own row (marked You) or any competitor.

Ranking keywords

1. Click Load ranking keywords. The button shows how many research reports it uses.
2. The table fills with the 100 highest-volume Google keywords the site ranks for. The header says how many that is out of the site's total, for example "Top 100 by volume of 4,210".

Each row shows:

• Keyword and Volume (estimated monthly searches).
• KD, keyword difficulty from 0 to 100. Higher means harder to rank for.
• Position, where the site ranks for that keyword.
• Est. traffic, the estimated monthly visits that keyword brings the site.
• CPC, the estimated cost per click if you bought the keyword as an ad.
• Ranking URL, the page that ranks. Click it to open the page in a new tab.

Top pages

1. Click Load top pages. The button shows how many reports it uses.
2. The panel lists up to 50 pages earning the most estimated search traffic, with how many Keywords each ranks for and its Est. traffic.

Click a page path to open the page itself in a new tab.

Filter and sort a keyword table

The ranking keywords table and the keyword gap table share the same controls. Filtering and sorting happen on results you've already loaded, so they never use reports.

• Search keywords or URLs narrows the list to rows containing your text.
• The volume filter keeps keywords above a search volume, from Any volume up to 1,000+ searches.
• The difficulty filter keeps Easy (under 30) or Up to medium (under 60) keywords.
• The position filter keeps keywords ranking in the Top 3, Top 10, or Top 20.
• Click a column heading to sort by it. Click it again to reverse the order.

The footer shows how many rows match, for example "Showing 38 of 100".

Find keyword gaps

A keyword gap is every search a competitor ranks for where your client does not appear at all. It is a ready-made list of topics the client's site doesn't cover yet.

1. Open the Keyword gap tab.
2. Choose a site from the Competitor picker.
3. Choose how many keywords to pull from the Keywords picker: Top 100, Top 200, or Top 500, by search volume. Larger lists use more reports.
4. Click Find keyword gaps. The button shows how many reports it uses.

The results table shows Keyword, Volume, KD, Their position (where the competitor ranks), and Their URL (the competitor page that ranks). Switching to another competitor or list size shows that result's own Find keyword gaps button.

Act on a keyword or page

Rows in these tables carry quick actions on the right. None of them use research reports.

On a competitor's keywords and top pages:

• Analyze page structure creates a Content Mapping analysis of the competitor's ranking page and opens it, so you can see how the page is built section by section. It counts toward your Content Mapping allowance like any other analysis.
• Create task adds a task to the client, titled "Compete with [competitor] for [keyword]", with the competitor's ranking page in the description.

On the client's own ranking keywords:

• Create SEO test opens SEO Testing with a new test started for the client's ranking page and keyword. See Creating Tests.

Send keywords to rank tracking

You can track any keywords from these tables in Rank Tracking.

1. Tick the checkbox beside each keyword you want, or tick the box in the header row to select every visible row.
2. In the bar that appears, click Track rankings.
3. In the Track rankings dialog, choose a Tracker.
4. Click Track followed by the number of keywords, for example Track 12 keywords.

A message confirms how many keywords were added and how many were already tracked. Scheduled rank checks don't use research reports, but each keyword counts toward the client's tracked keyword allowance, which the dialog shows before you confirm. See Trackers & Keywords.

If the client has no tracker yet, the dialog links to Create one in Rank Tracking.

The same selection bar has Copy, which copies the selected keywords to your clipboard one per line, and Clear.

Troubleshooting

"No keywords found." The site ranks for very few keywords in Google, or none in the list size you chose. Try a larger competitor or check that the domain is spelled correctly.

"No keywords match these filters." Loosen or reset the volume, difficulty, and position filters, or clear the search box.

"Some of these may not fit." in the Track rankings dialog. The client doesn't have enough tracked keyword allowance left for all the selected keywords. Select fewer, or see Limits & Add-ons.

Related

• Competitors Overview
• Backlinks
• Rank Tracking
• Keyword Research
• Content Mapping