# Finding keyword gaps against a competitor

> A keyword gap is a term a competitor ranks for and you do not. How to list them from two domain lookups, keep the ones worth a page, and track them.

Source: https://netweft.com/blog/finding-keyword-gaps-against-a-competitor
Updated: 2026-10-15

**List the keywords a competitor ranks for, remove the ones your own domain already ranks for, and keep the rest that match a page you could write. In netweft that is two Ranking keywords lookups on Domain overview, a save, a tag, and a tracker on the survivors.**

A keyword gap is a search term a competitor ranks for and your domain does
not. It is the cheapest research there is, because somebody else has already
proved the term brings traffic to a site like yours.

This playbook finds them with two lookups on **Domain overview**, sorts them
with tags on **Saved keywords**, and watches them with a rank tracker.

## 1. Pick one competitor, not five

Choose the competitor whose pages answer the same questions as yours, not the
biggest name in the market. A marketplace that outranks everybody tells you
little about what a single product site can win. Record it under
**Competitors** in the project's [context](/docs/project-context) so the
assistant and [AI visibility](/docs/ai-visibility) compare against it too.

## 2. List what the competitor ranks for

On **Domain overview**, look up the competitor and open **Ranking keywords**.
Each row is a keyword, its position, its search volume, its estimated traffic
and the URL that ranks. A page of 200 rows holds up to
360 credits and settles for less if fewer rows come
back.

Sort by **Traffic**. The keywords at the top are the ones sending the
competitor visits today, which is a better guide than volume alone: a
high-volume term at position 40 sends nothing.

## 3. Remove what you already rank for

Look up your own domain the same way. Any keyword on both lists is not a gap;
it is a position fight, and the [rank tracking](/docs/rank-tracking) history
for it matters more than another lookup.

What is left falls into three groups:

| Group | What it means | What to do |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The competitor ranks in the top 10, you nowhere | a page you do not have | write it, or extend the closest page you have |
| The competitor ranks 11 to 30, you nowhere | a term nobody owns yet | cheapest to win; write it first |
| Branded or navigational for the competitor | people looking for them | skip it |

## 4. Expand the gaps worth a page

On **Keyword ideas** in the same lookup, or in [Keyword
research](/docs/keyword-research) from one of the gap terms as a seed, collect
the variants a single page would answer. One page usually ranks for a cluster
of close terms, so plan pages, not keywords.

Check **Difficulty** before committing. A gap with difficulty above the
difficulty of terms you already rank for is a gap for later.

## 5. Save, tag and track

Save the survivors and tag them, for example `gap: competitor-name`, so the
list stays separable from everything else in **Saved keywords**. Then add the
ones you are about to write for to a tracker, before the page ships, so the
history starts at "not ranking" and shows the climb. A check at the default
depth costs 40 credits per keyword per device; see
[choosing which keywords to track](/blog/choosing-what-to-track) for what a
schedule adds up to.

## What it costs

Two **Ranking keywords** pages of 200 rows hold at most
360 credits each. The same lookup repeated within 24
hours answers from a stored copy at no cost, so going back to re-sort is free.
Saving and tagging cost nothing.