# Using a competitor keyword research tool, step by step

> From finding your search rivals to a ranked list of missing keywords in four runs and 191 credits.

URL: https://claudegpt.si/news/competitor-keyword-research-tool-steps  
Published: 2026-10-25T19:38:57.432Z  
Author: ClaudeGPT Si Newsroom  
Section: Guides  
Topics: Keyword research, Competitor research, SEO  
Publisher: ClaudeGPT Si

## Key takeaways

- Competitor Finder, Competitor Keywords, Keyword Gap and Keyword Metrics run in sequence for 191 credits in total.
- Keyword Gap only returns a rival's top-20 keywords where you do not rank at all, not keywords where you rank lower.
- Keyword Metrics takes up to 100 keywords per run and adds yearly trend to volume, difficulty and cost per click.

A competitor keyword research tool tells you which Google searches a rival ranks for, so you can find topics worth writing about without guessing. This walkthrough uses four seogeoaeo.ai tools in sequence, from "who are my rivals" to a ranked list of keywords to work on, and notes the input and credit cost at each step.

## What you need

- Your own domain.
- A market code (for example `us`, `gb` or `de`), because rankings differ by country.
- A seogeoaeo.ai plan. The smallest is $29 a month for 2,000 credits; the full walkthrough below uses 191.

## Step 1: confirm who your search rivals are (38 credits)

Open Competitor Finder, enter your domain and pick the market. You get back two groups. Close competitors are sites where at least 5% of their ranking keywords are ones you rank for too. Large general sites, such as Wikipedia, rank for almost everything and sit in a separate group so you can ignore them.

Each site comes with estimated monthly visits and average rank. Choose one close competitor that is a bit larger than you. A site ten times your size will return a keyword list you cannot act on.

If your domain is new and the close list is empty, skip this step and use a rival you already know.

## Step 2: pull the rival's keywords (35 credits)

Run Competitor Keywords on that rival's domain in the same market. The output lists the searches it ranks for with:

- monthly search volume
- difficulty
- cost per click

The tool also sorts them into blog topics and keywords worth bidding on. Skim the blog topics first. You are looking for clusters, such as five variations of a "how to" question, rather than single terms.

Note the scope: the lookup covers the whole domain, not one folder, and only the country you chose.

## Step 3: cut it down to what you are missing (85 credits)

The full list includes keywords you already rank for. Keyword Gap removes them. Enter your domain as `url` and the rival as `competitor`. It returns searches where the rival appears in the top 20 and you do not rank at all.

One thing it will not show: shared keywords where you rank lower than the rival. If you want those, compare the Step 2 list with your Search Console queries by hand.

## Step 4: rank your shortlist (33 credits)

By now you have a long list. Pick the 30 to 100 terms that fit your product and paste them, one per line, into Keyword Metrics. It returns monthly searches, difficulty, cost per click and yearly trend for each, and sorts them into easy wins, blog topics and bidding candidates. The limit is 100 keywords per run.

Order your backlog by easy wins first, then by trend. A term with steady volume and low difficulty is a better first article than a high-volume term you will not rank for this year.

## The bill

| Step | Tool | Credits |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Competitor Finder | 38 |
| 2 | Competitor Keywords | 35 |
| 3 | Keyword Gap | 85 |
| 4 | Keyword Metrics | 33 |
| | Total | 191 |

Each tool shows its price before it runs, and a run that fails before producing a result is refunded.

## Free tools that help along the way

Google Keyword Planner estimates monthly searches for words you enter, which is a free sanity check on Step 4. It will not tell you who ranks. Search Console shows the queries your own site already appears for, which is the best way to spot the "we rank, but low" keywords that Keyword Gap skips.

## Running it from your editor

Every tool is also an MCP tool and a REST endpoint, so you can run the whole sequence from Claude Code or Cursor. The slugs are `competitor-finder`, `competitor-keywords`, `keyword-gap` and `keyword-metrics`.

## What to read with care

Volumes, difficulty and visits are estimates from a data provider. Use them to rank keywords against each other. And none of these tools reports what a rival bids on in Google Ads; the "worth bidding on" group is a suggestion drawn from search data, not a view into the rival's ad account.

If you need to watch your positions on these keywords week by week, use a rank tracker alongside; seogeoaeo.ai does not track rankings.

[Open Competitor Keywords](https://seogeoaeo.ai/tools/competitor-keywords) to run Step 2 on a rival you already know.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is there a free competitor keyword research tool?

Not for rankings. Keyword Planner estimates search volumes for free, and Search Console shows your own queries, but neither shows what a rival ranks for.

### Can I see the keywords a competitor bids on?

No. Google does not publish bid keywords. Competitor keyword tools show the searches a site ranks for organically.

### Can I run these tools from my editor?

Yes. Each one is an MCP tool and a REST endpoint, so Claude Code or Cursor can run the sequence with an API key.

## Sources

- [Competitor Finder](https://seogeoaeo.ai/tools/competitor-finder), seogeoaeo.ai
- [Competitor Keywords](https://seogeoaeo.ai/tools/competitor-keywords), seogeoaeo.ai
- [Keyword Gap](https://seogeoaeo.ai/tools/keyword-gap), seogeoaeo.ai
- [Keyword Metrics](https://seogeoaeo.ai/tools/keyword-metrics), seogeoaeo.ai
- [seogeoaeo.ai pricing](https://seogeoaeo.ai/pricing), seogeoaeo.ai
- [seogeoaeo.ai tool reference](https://seogeoaeo.ai/llms-full.txt), seogeoaeo.ai
- [About Keyword Planner](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7337243), Google