Competitor Keyword Analysis: An Agency Playbook

Run competitor keyword analysis against 3 real search competitors per client, not the names they give you. The 4 pulls, the filter, and tool prices.

Competitor keyword analysis means pulling the keywords a client's search competitors rank for, comparing them with the client's own rankings, and turning the gap into a ranked list of pages to write or fix. My verdict for agencies: run it as a domain-versus-domain gap against three real search competitors per client (not just the businesses the client names), then filter the gap by hand before anyone writes a word. You need a tool that returns ranked keywords plus a keyword intersection. Ahrefs includes API and MCP access from its $129/mo Lite plan; DFY Hub's SEO MCP runs the same pulls from Claude or ChatGPT on credits, and you can start free.

Last updated: October 2026

The competitors your client names are usually the wrong list

Ask a roofing client who their competitors are and you'll get three company names from across town. Fair enough. Those are the businesses they lose bids to.

But they're often not the sites they lose searches to.

For a lot of local service keywords, the pages outranking your client include lead-gen directories, home-improvement content sites, national franchise pages and the occasional manufacturer guide. None of those will ever quote a roof. All of them take clicks your client wants. If you've ever suspected a directory was outranking your client in its own city, it's worth checking. It often is. That's the little-known difference that changes the whole analysis: business competitors and search competitors are two different lists, and a keyword gap against the wrong list produces confident nonsense. That's why so many gap reports end up ignored by the client who paid for them.

So build both lists and keep them separate.

Business competitors come from the market. DFY Hub's competitor discovery finds a client's local competitors by business type and location from Google Places data.
Search competitors come from the results pages. The SEO MCP's SERP Competitors tool takes a set of up to 200 keywords and returns the domains that rank most often across them, with visibility and average position.

Run the keyword gap against search competitors. Use the business list for the map pack, reviews and positioning conversations.

The four pulls behind every competitor keyword analysis

The mechanics are the same whatever tool you use. Here's the order I'd run them in:

Pull each competitor's ranked keywords. Every keyword the domain ranks for, with position, estimated traffic, search volume and the URL that ranks.
Pull your client's ranked keywords. Same report, your side.
Run the intersection. Keywords the competitor ranks for and the client doesn't (the content gap), plus shared keywords where the competitor ranks higher (the optimization gap).
Score the gap. Volume, difficulty and search intent for each gap keyword, so informational queries become guides and commercial ones become service or comparison pages.

In the SEO MCP, those map to Domain Ranked Keywords, Domain Keyword Intersection, Bulk Keyword Difficulty (up to 1,000 keywords per call) and Search Intent Classification, all in its 18-tool Labs category. You don't need to remember the names. You ask, "Find the keywords competitor.com ranks for in the top 10 that myclient.com doesn't rank for at all, then add difficulty and intent," and the assistant chains them.

If you want the full single-competitor teardown, with traffic, backlink authority, tech stack and on-page review alongside keywords, our competitor analysis guide walks through it step by step. One threshold from that guide worth borrowing: a keyword overlap above 15% means genuine competition, and below 5% means the domain is playing in a different space.

Filter the gap before anyone writes a word

A raw gap export isn't a deliverable. I'd never send one to a client, and I'd push back on any agency that does.

Run a gap against a regional HVAC competitor and you'll get hundreds of keywords. Some will be for services your client doesn't offer. Some will be for towns they don't serve. Some will be the competitor's own brand name. Some will be informational queries with real volume and no buying intent at all.

A person has to cut those. The assistant can sort by volume and difficulty in seconds, but it doesn't know that your client stopped doing commercial work last spring, or that the owner refuses to drive past the river. That judgment is the part of the job that's yours, and it's the part clients are actually paying for.

What's left after filtering is usually short: maybe 10 to 30 keywords per competitor that the client could realistically rank for and would actually want the calls from. Group them by topic, then decide whether each group needs a new page or a new section on an existing one. Not every gap deserves its own URL.

Local clients need a second view

Here's the limitation of any organic keyword database, ours included: the rankings don't reflect where each searcher is standing, and traffic numbers are modeled estimates, not measured visits. For a national site that's fine. For a plumber, it misses most of the story.

Map pack rankings change block by block. A client can rank third at the office and nowhere six miles out, which a keyword gap report will never show. Pair the gap with a grid view of the map pack for the handful of money keywords; how to track local SEO rankings on a grid covers the setup.

And when the work starts paying off, the client needs to see it. Showing which gap keywords now rank, and where, is the kind of thing that belongs in a monthly report; automated SEO reports with AI summaries covers that side.

Choosing a tool: what you're actually paying for

Every major SEO vendor now ships an API or MCP server, so access isn't the differentiator. Data depth, breadth and billing are.

Tool	List price (late Sept 2026, check before buying)	Where it's strongest
Ahrefs	$129 to $449/mo (Lite to Advanced); API and MCP from Lite	Deep keyword database, best-in-class backlink index
SE Ranking	$129 to $279/mo (Core and Growth), MCP and API credits included	All-in-one SEO platform, white-label reporting
Mangools	$49 to $129/mo	Simple, beginner-friendly keyword and SERP tools
DFY Hub SEO MCP	Free to start, then credit-based	Breadth on one connection, one per-account credit balance

To be straight about it: Ahrefs and Semrush both have deeper keyword databases than we do. If your agency sells pure keyword research at scale, that depth may be worth a dedicated seat.

The SEO MCP's case is breadth and billing. One connection covers keyword research and Labs data, SERP analysis, backlink analysis, geo-grid scanning, Google business data, and app store and e-commerce data, 93 tools in all. Credits come from one balance on your account, priced per account with no per-user fees, so a second team member doesn't mean a second seat.

On the platform side, DFY Hub plans are billed per client. Local Dominator ($99/mo per client) includes the competitor intelligence dashboard, and Competitor Content Gap Analysis is part of Full Stack ($399/mo per client). Each paid plan includes everything in the tier below it.

Frequently asked questions

What is competitor keyword analysis?

It's the process of finding the keywords your competitors rank for, comparing them with your own rankings, and prioritizing the gaps. The core reports are each competitor's ranked keywords, your own ranked keywords, and an intersection showing keywords they rank for that you don't. Volume, difficulty and intent data then tell you which gaps are worth a page.

How many competitors should an agency analyze per client?

Three is a good default. One competitor skews the results toward that business's history. Three lets you spot keywords where two or more competitors rank and your client doesn't, which are the strongest signals. Choose them from the search results for the client's main keywords, not only from the businesses the client names.

Can I run competitor keyword analysis from Claude or ChatGPT?

Yes. DFY Hub's SEO MCP connects to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other MCP-compatible tools through a hosted server URL and a sign-in with your DFY Hub account. You ask in plain English, and the assistant calls tools like Domain Ranked Keywords and Domain Keyword Intersection. Review the results before they go to a client.

How is DFY Hub priced for agencies?

DFY Hub platform plans are billed per client: Local Dominator is $99/mo, Growth Engine $199/mo and Full Stack $399/mo, each covering one client, with a free Starter tier for one business. SEO MCP credits are separate and per account, drawn from one balance with no per-user fees. You can start the SEO MCP free.