How to find the keywords of a website: yours, or a competitor's.

This is one of the first things I do in keyword research: see what a site already ranks for before deciding what to target next. If you are new to the idea, start with what keyword research is. This guide is about one specific question: which searches does a given website show up for?

How do I find the keywords my own website ranks for?

Use Google Search Console. Its Performance report groups data by query, the words people typed, and shows impressions, clicks, click-through rate and average position for each one. It is free, it comes from Google itself and it covers your site only, because you have to prove you own the site before you see anything.

Google's help page on the Performance report explains the queries dimension and defines average position as the position of the topmost result from your site. Setup takes a few minutes; Google explains how to add a website property, and my Search Console guide walks through the reports that matter.

• Open Performance, then Search results, and set the date range to the last 3 months.
• Turn on all four metrics: clicks, impressions, CTR and average position.
• Open the Queries tab and sort by impressions to see what Google shows you for.
• Click a page in the Pages tab, then go back to Queries to see the keywords for that page alone.
• Look for queries with many impressions and a position between 5 and 20: those are usually the closest opportunities.

Another free option for your own site is Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, which works for sites you verify and shows the keywords your site ranks for, but not a competitor's.

How can I see the keywords a competitor ranks for?

You cannot see their Search Console, so you need an SEO suite that tracks rankings across a large set of searches. You enter the competitor's domain and the tool lists the keywords where it found that site in Google results, with the page, the position and an estimated traffic figure. Treat the list as a sample.

Semrush, for example, documents that its Organic Research Positions report shows the keywords a domain ranks for in Google's top 100, in the database (country) you choose, and that its traffic figures are estimates. Ahrefs says in its help center that its organic keywords database is extensive but does not include every keyword searched on Google, so counts usually come out lower than the truth. Comparing which suite to pay for is a separate question, covered in my keyword research tools comparison.

How do you find keywords on a website just by reading it?

Open the page and read what it emphasizes. The title tag, the H1, the H2 headings, the URL and the first paragraph usually repeat the phrase the page is built around. Image alt text and internal link text add clues. This tells you what the owner is aiming for, which is not always what Google ranks it for.

• Read the title in the browser tab or in the Google result.
• Read the H1 and the H2s: they are the outline of the topics covered.
• Look at the URL slug, often a short version of the main keyword.
• Check the anchor text of links pointing to the page from its own menu and posts.
• Search the phrase you suspect on Google and see whether that page appears.

One clue to ignore: the old keywords meta tag. Google states in its documentation on meta tags it supports that the meta keywords tag is not used by Google Search and has no effect on indexing or ranking.

Can Google Keyword Planner show a website's keywords?

Not exactly. Keyword Planner lets you start from a website, and Google then suggests keywords related to that site's content. Those are ideas based on what the pages are about, not a list of searches the site ranks for. They are useful for brainstorming around a competitor, not for measuring its rankings.

Google's Keyword Planner help describes both starting points: words related to your business, or a website.

The limits of each method

That last row matters. Google's Performance report help notes that a query can appear in your data even when you do not see your site when you search it yourself, because results change with time, location and device. One manual search is a snapshot, not a ranking report.

What should you do with a competitor's keyword list?

Look for patterns, not for a list to copy. Note the topics and page types that bring them visits, the questions they answer that you do not, and the searches where you both appear. Then check the intent of each search and decide which ones fit your business and deserve a page of their own.

Matching each keyword to the right kind of page is the subject of search intent. Building that map for your market is the core of my keyword research service. As an SEO consultant, I can show you what your site and two competitors rank for in a free diagnosis: book it here.

Frequently asked questions

About the author

Juan José Giraldo is an SEO consultant in Medellín, Colombia, with 5+ years of experience. He works on technical and local SEO for 600+ US car dealerships at Reunion Marketing, an Inc. 5000 agency, and supervises the SEO of 18 US online stores with more than 3 million products at Prontomowers. Read more · LinkedIn.

Sources

1. Search Console Help, Performance report (Search results)
2. Search Console Help, Add a website property to Search Console
3. Ahrefs, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools
4. Semrush Knowledge Base, Organic Research Positions report
5. Ahrefs Help Center, What are organic keywords?
6. Google Ads Help, Use Keyword Planner
7. Google Search Central, Meta tags and attributes that Google supports