I stopped looking at competitor keywords as a giant spreadsheet

The problem isn't finding competitor keywords. It's figuring out which ones actually tell you something useful.

I stopped looking at competitor keywords as a giant spreadsheet, and it changed how I think about competitor research.

Start with patterns, not individual keywords

Suppose a competitor ranks for keywords around:

• accounting software
• accounting software for freelancers
• small business accounting
• invoice software

That's much more useful than copying individual keywords into a content calendar.

Look for what they're building around

When doing competitor keyword research, I now look for a few things:

1. Topics they consistently cover

If a competitor has dozens of pages ranking around the same subject, that's probably part of their broader content strategy.

2. Keywords where they're getting traffic from several related searches

One page might rank for hundreds of variations. Those variations can tell you what search intent Google is associating with the topic.

Is this keyword worth competing for, and do we have a credible way to satisfy the search intent?

This is where automation can help

The tedious part of competitor research isn't necessarily getting the data.

It's combining it.

For example, Inteldo's SEO Analyst can work across sources such as Ahrefs and Google Search Console to investigate competitor and search-performance questions.

A simpler competitor keyword workflow

Step 1: Pick 2–3 competitors

Don't start with ten.

Step 2: Export their ranking keywords

Keep the data, but don't immediately start sorting thousands of rows.

Step 3: Group the keywords by topic and intent

Look for patterns instead of individual terms.

Step 4: Compare those topics with your own coverage

Which topics do they cover that you don't?

Step 5: Check the actual search results

Look at the pages Google is actually ranking.

Step 6: Build a small shortlist

Instead of ending with 5,000 keywords, aim to end with a smaller set of topics worth investigating.

The takeaway

The goal isn't to collect everything your competitors rank for.

It's to understand what they're getting visibility for, why they're getting it, and where there might be an opportunity for you.