You can find what keywords a website ranks for using Google Search Console for your own site or third-party SEO tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, and Moz for any site, including competitors. The method depends on whether you’re looking at a site you own or someone else’s, because Google only shares its first-party search data with verified site owners.
Finding Keywords for Your Own Website
Google Search Console is the most accurate source for your own site’s keyword data. Because it pulls directly from Google’s search engine, the numbers reflect real queries people typed before landing on your pages. No third-party tool can replicate that level of accuracy.
To see your keywords, open the Performance report in Search Console. The default view shows total clicks and impressions over time. Below the chart, you’ll see a table with a row of tabs: Queries, Pages, Countries, Devices, Search Appearance, and Dates. Click the “Queries” tab, and Search Console will list every search term that triggered your site in Google’s results, along with four key metrics for each:
- Clicks: how many times someone clicked through to your site from that query
- Impressions: how many times your site appeared in results for that query, whether or not anyone clicked
- CTR (click-through rate): the percentage of impressions that turned into clicks
- Average position: your typical ranking position for that query over the selected time period
You can filter by date range, specific pages, countries, or device type to narrow the data. For example, filtering by a single page URL shows you exactly which queries drive traffic to that page. This is useful for spotting keywords you rank for unintentionally, which can reveal content opportunities you hadn’t considered.
The main limitation of Search Console is that it only works for sites you own and have verified. It also won’t show you how competitors perform on the same keywords. For that, you need a different approach.
Finding Keywords for Competitor Websites
When you want to see what keywords someone else’s site ranks for, you’ll need a third-party SEO tool. These platforms maintain massive databases of search results by continuously crawling Google and recording which sites appear for which queries. They then estimate each site’s traffic and ranking positions based on that crawl data.
The most widely used tools for this are Semrush, Ahrefs, and Moz. Each lets you type in any domain and see a list of keywords that site currently ranks for, along with estimated search volume, ranking position, and projected traffic for each keyword.
Here’s what each offers:
- Semrush: Its “Organic Research” report shows a site’s top keywords, their positions, and traffic estimates. The free version provides keyword discovery, basic site auditing, and competitor analysis, though with limited daily lookups.
- Ahrefs: Its “Site Explorer” tool shows organic keywords, top-ranking pages, and traffic estimates. Ahrefs also tracks 52 organic traffic data points per keyword and lets you compare up to 10 competitors side by side across organic traffic, referring domains, and share of voice.
- Moz: Its free Domain Authority Checker lets you review keyword rankings and competitor data for any website without even creating an account. The data is less granular than the paid tools, but it’s a solid starting point.
What Paid Tools Show Beyond Keywords
A basic keyword list tells you what a site ranks for, but paid SEO platforms go considerably further. They can show you which sections of a competitor’s site drive the most organic traffic, flag when competitors update their content, and reveal the exact content changes that led to traffic growth or drops. Some tools now track brand visibility across AI search engines and large language models, showing how often a site gets cited in AI-generated answers.
One particularly useful feature is keyword gap analysis. This compares your site’s keyword profile against a competitor’s and highlights terms they rank for that you don’t. If a competitor ranks on page one for a phrase relevant to your business and you’re nowhere to be found, that’s a content gap worth filling.
Paid plans for these tools typically start around $99 to $129 per month. If you only need occasional competitor lookups, the free tiers or trial periods may be enough.
Why the Numbers Won’t Match Perfectly
If you compare your Search Console data to what Semrush or Ahrefs reports about your own site, the numbers will differ. Sometimes significantly. This isn’t a bug. Google Search Console shows actual first-party data: real clicks and impressions recorded by Google. Third-party tools estimate those numbers based on their own crawl data, keyword databases, and traffic models. They’re working with a sample, not the full picture.
Third-party tools tend to undercount long-tail keywords (longer, more specific phrases with low search volume) because their crawlers can’t capture every possible query. They’re most accurate for higher-volume keywords where their databases have plenty of data points. For your own site, always treat Search Console as the ground truth and use third-party tools as a supplement for competitive research.
A Practical Process for Keyword Research
Start with your own site. Open Search Console’s Performance report, sort by impressions, and look for queries where you get lots of impressions but few clicks. These are keywords where you’re visible but not compelling enough to earn the click, often because your title tag or meta description needs work, or because you’re ranking on page two and need to push into page one.
Next, identify your top three to five competitors. Plug each domain into a tool like Semrush, Ahrefs, or Moz and export their organic keyword lists. Look for patterns: keywords multiple competitors rank for that you don’t, high-volume terms where competitors hold weak positions (page two or lower), and content topics you haven’t covered at all.
Finally, cross-reference what you find. Google Keyword Planner, which is free with a Google Ads account, provides search volume estimates and seasonal trend data for any keyword. Use it to validate whether the keywords you’ve found from competitor research actually have enough search demand to justify creating content around them. A keyword your competitor ranks for isn’t worth chasing if only 20 people search for it each month, unless those 20 people are exactly your target audience.
The combination of Search Console for your own data, a third-party tool for competitor intelligence, and Keyword Planner for volume validation gives you a complete picture without paying for more than one subscription.