{"slug":"competitor-keyword-research","title":"Competitor Keyword Research: A Step-by-Step Guide for Law Firms","seoTitle":"Competitor Keyword Research for Law Firms: 10 Steps","description":"A 10-step competitor keyword research process for law firms: free and paid tools, keyword gaps, a case-value scorecard, plus Google Ads, local and AI search.","banner":"/images/blog-content/competitor-keyword-research/hero.jpg","ogImage":"/images/og/competitor-keyword-research-og.jpg","url":"https://www.masstortmarketingagency.com/blogs/competitor-keyword-research","published":"2026-10-22","modified":"2026-10-22","author":{"name":"Tarun","role":"Founder, Mass Tort Marketing Agency"},"keywords":["competitor keyword research","competitor analysis keyword research","keyword research competitor analysis","competitor keyword analysis","law firm competitor keyword research","competitor keyword research for lawyers","keyword gap analysis","competitor keyword research tool free","content gap analysis"],"blocks":[{"type":"quote","text":"**Quick answer.** Competitor keyword research is the process of finding the search terms that rival websites rank for or bid on, then choosing which ones your site should target. Identify true search competitors, pull their keyword profiles, run a keyword gap, score gaps by business value and ability to rank, then build or refresh pages and track. Free tools (Search Console, a manual SERP review, Keyword Planner) and paid tools (Ahrefs, Semrush, SpyFu, SE Ranking) both work. For a law firm, score by likely signed cases, not traffic."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"**Key takeaways**"},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":["Your real search competitors are often directories, publishers and lead-generation sites rather than the firm across town.","Free tools can do most of the job if you accept limits on data depth, history and speed.","A gap list is only a starting point, and every keyword on it still needs an intent check and a look at the live results page.","Keyword difficulty scores are built differently by each tool, so a score from one tool cannot be compared with a score from another ([Ahrefs](https://ahrefs.com/keyword-difficulty), [Semrush](https://www.semrush.com/kb/1158-what-is-kd)).","Prioritize gaps by case value and attainability, not by search volume.","State bars handle bidding on rival firm names differently, from prohibition to permission with conditions, so check your own state's rules and opinions.","For mass torts, demand follows FDA actions and the formation of multidistrict litigation, so monitor those sources as closely as you monitor rival sites."]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"This guide is for people who do search marketing for plaintiff firms: the in-house marketing manager at a personal injury firm who runs SEO and Google Ads, the managing partner who still does some of the marketing personally, the marketing lead at a mass tort or national firm whose rivals are lead-gen networks and health publishers, and the freelancer or agency strategist who needs the ethics and policy constraints in one place. General SEO practitioners will find the method works for any site; the legal examples are a bonus."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"I run Mass Tort Marketing Agency, which generates personal injury and mass tort cases for plaintiff firms, so this guide scores keywords by the cases they are likely to produce rather than by traffic. That bias is deliberate. A keyword that brings a thousand visits and no retainers is worth less to a firm than one that brings forty visits and three signed clients."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"What follows is a 10-step process with a free route and a paid route for every step, a tools table with dated prices, a case-value scorecard and gap worksheet, a section on Google Ads and the rules on bidding on rival names, local, AI-answer and mass tort layers, a worked example built on a real, dated keyword export, a one-page checklist and an FAQ. Prices and plan details are as of October 2026; confirm them with each vendor before you buy."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"What competitor keyword research is"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Competitor keyword research is the practice of identifying the keywords that competing websites rank for in organic search or bid on in paid search, comparing them with your own rankings, and choosing which gaps to target. It answers three questions: who you compete with in search, what they rank for that you don't, and which of those terms are worth winning."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The rest of this section turns that definition into something you can work with, separates it from the related terms that get mixed up with it, shows what the keywords look like in a legal market, and marks the limits of the method."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"A working definition"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"There are two kinds of competitor keywords. Organic competitor keywords are the queries for which a rival's pages appear in the unpaid results. Paid competitor keywords are the queries on which a rival's ads show. The same domain can compete with you in one and not the other: a firm that spends heavily on Google Ads may barely rank organically, and a directory that ranks everywhere may buy no ads at all. Treat the two lists separately until the planning stage."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The unit of analysis is the query and the URL that ranks for it, not the domain. \"Competitor X ranks for 4,000 keywords\" tells you little. \"Competitor X's truck accident page ranks in the top five for twelve queries your truck accident page does not rank for\" tells you what to build or fix."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Ahrefs puts the core arithmetic simply: \"[Take all the keywords your competitor ranks for and subtract the keywords that your own website ranks for](https://ahrefs.com/content-gap).\" That subtraction produces the raw gap. It is necessary, and it is not enough. A raw gap contains queries with the wrong intent, queries you cannot realistically win this year, queries that would never produce a case and queries that are already covered by a page you have but under different wording. The value of the method comes from the judgment applied after the subtraction: intent, business value and attainability, which the later sections of this guide cover step by step."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Keyword gaps, content gaps and competitive analysis"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Several terms float around this topic, and vendors use them loosely. The table below fixes the meaning used in this guide so that each step produces a clear output."},{"type":"table","header":["Term","What it compares","Typical output","When to use"],"rows":[["Competitor keyword research","Rivals' rankings and ads against your own","Prioritized list of target queries","Strategy planning, new markets"],["Keyword gap analysis","Keyword lists of several domains","Missing, weak and shared keywords","After choosing three to five rivals"],["Content (topic) gap analysis","Topics covered by rivals, not by you","List of pages to create","Content planning, blog calendars"],["Backlink gap (link intersect)","Sites linking to rivals but not you","Outreach and PR targets","When authority limits rankings"],["Page-level (URL vs URL) gap","One rival page against one of yours","Missing subtopics on a page","Refreshing a page that slipped"],["General competitive analysis","Positioning, pricing, offers, reviews","Business strategy notes","Annual planning, rebrands"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The first five rows are search work. The last row is broader. Business \"competitive analysis\" frameworks, the kind that ask about a rival's pricing, positioning, service mix and reputation, show up in the related questions Google displays for this topic. They are useful for a firm's overall strategy, but they are not keyword research, and mixing the two tends to produce long documents with no list of pages to build."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"This guide stays on search. Where the business frameworks overlap, for example when a rival's offer (free case review, no fee unless you win, Spanish-speaking intake) shows up in their ad copy, the overlap is covered in the Google Ads sections. The general frameworks get short answers in the FAQ."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"What competitor keywords look like for a law firm"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"For a plaintiff firm, competitor keywords fall into a handful of recognizable patterns. These are query patterns, not volumes; whether any one of them is worth pursuing depends on your market, which the assessment and scoring sections address."},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":["Practice plus location: \"truck accident lawyer [city]\", \"[city] car accident attorney\", \"slip and fall lawyer near me\". These carry the clearest hiring intent and the hardest competition.","Questions: \"how long do I have to file a car accident claim\", \"what to do after a rideshare accident\", \"how much is my whiplash claim worth\". These are early-stage research queries. They rarely produce a call on the first visit, but they build the topical coverage that supports the money pages.","Mass tort product queries: \"[product] lawsuit\", \"[product] side effects\", \"am I eligible for the [product] lawsuit\", \"[product] settlement amounts\". The eligibility queries are the closest to a signed case.","Navigational queries for rival firms: a competitor's firm name, or a well-known lawyer's name. These belong to paid search planning and come with ethics rules that vary by state, covered later.","Directory-style queries: \"best personal injury lawyer near me\", \"top rated injury attorney [city]\". Directories and review platforms often dominate these, which is why your search competitor list may look very different from your business competitor list.","Comparison and cost queries: \"do I need a lawyer for a minor car accident\", \"how much do personal injury lawyers charge\". These are frequently won by legal publishers rather than firms."]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"When you run a gap against a rival firm, expect most of the missing keywords to fall into the question and location buckets. When you run it against a directory or lead-gen site, expect the \"best\" and eligibility patterns to dominate."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Why the method works, and where it stops"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The method works because rankings are evidence. A query that a rival ranks for has demand, and the pages Google ranks for it show Google's current judgment of what satisfies that query. You are borrowing two things: proof that people search for it, and a visible model of the content type that wins. For a firm deciding where to spend its next six months of content budget, that evidence beats guessing."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"It stops in four places. First, the numbers are estimates: third-party volume and traffic figures are modelled, and no neutral public benchmark measures their accuracy, so check them against your own Search Console and ad data. Second, a rival may rank on brand strength and years of links rather than on the page you are about to imitate. Third, copying is a quality problem. Google's helpful content guidance asks whether content that draws on other sources avoids \"simply copying or rewriting those sources, and instead provide substantial additional value and originality\" ([Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content)). Fourth, many valuable queries show no volume at all: [Ahrefs reports](https://ahrefs.com/blog/long-tail-keywords/) that \"over 95% of conversational long-tail keywords have no measurable search volume\" in its own U.S. database. For the wider picture of how this research fits into a firm's search program, see our guide to [SEO for lawyers](/blogs/seo-for-lawyers)."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"When to run a competitor keyword analysis"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Run a competitor keyword analysis when you start a new strategy or practice area, before you expand or refresh content, when traffic stalls or drops, and on a regular review cycle. Many teams review quarterly; that is a practical convention, not a rule, and the right cycle depends on how fast your market moves."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Each trigger below asks a slightly different question of the same process, so the steps you emphasize change with the reason you are running it."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"New strategies, practice areas and tort launches"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A new site, a new office, a new practice area or a new tort campaign is the clearest case. You have no rankings of your own to learn from, so rivals' rankings are the best available map of demand. A firm adding trucking cases to a car accident practice, for example, needs to know which trucking queries the established local firms rank for, which ones directories own, and which ones nobody serves well."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The same applies when a firm opens a second office in a new metro: the search competitors there may be entirely different firms and directories. For mass tort campaigns, the analysis shows which lead-gen networks and publishers already hold the product queries before you commit to a page or an ad budget. If your firm is moving from a single docket into several, our guide to [expanding from one tort into several](/blogs/scaling-single-tort-to-multi-litigation) covers the operational side."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Expanding or updating existing content"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The second trigger is a content plan. Before you commission another batch of blog posts or practice pages, a gap analysis shows which topics rivals cover that you don't, and which of your existing pages rank on page two where a rival's equivalent sits on page one."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Both outputs are useful. Missing topics become new pages. Weak rankings on existing pages often justify a refresh before any new writing, because a page that already ranks in positions 11 to 20 has a head start that a new URL lacks. The page-level gap and refresh sections later in this guide cover how to compare one of your URLs against a rival's and decide between updating and rebuilding."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Traffic plateaus, declines and intent shifts"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The third trigger is a change in performance: your rankings slip while a rival climbs, traffic flattens despite new content, or the results page for a core query changes shape. Start in Search Console's Performance report, which reports clicks, impressions, CTR and average position and lets you compare date ranges ([Google](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7576553?hl=en)). Comparing the last three months with the previous period shows which queries and pages lost ground."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Then look at who gained. If a directory or publisher took the slot, the intent may have shifted toward research content. If a rival firm took it, compare its page with yours. One thing not to do: change the date on an old page to look fresh. Google lists \"changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed\" as a warning sign in its [helpful content guidance](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content)."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Keyword research in the AI search era"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Keyword research is still relevant, but its scope has grown. Google announced on May 14, 2024 that [AI Overviews would begin rolling out to everyone in the U.S.](https://blog.google/products/search/generative-ai-google-search-may-2024/), and Google says AI Overviews now has over 2.5 billion monthly active users and AI Mode over one billion monthly users ([Google](https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/new-controls-website-owners/)). Google also says sites appearing in AI Overviews and AI Mode are counted in Search Console's Performance report under the Web search type ([Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features))."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Queries still express demand, so the keyword list remains the backbone. What changes is the checking: for important queries, you now also look at which sources AI answers cite and whether your pages are among them. The AI answers section near the end of this guide gives a prompt grid for doing that systematically."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"The competitor keyword research process in 10 steps"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The process has 10 steps: define the goal, find search competitors, pick a few, pull their keywords, run a gap, clean the list, assess each keyword, score the gaps, map keywords to pages, then track and repeat."},{"type":"list","ordered":true,"items":["Define the goal and the case types you want.","List business competitors, then find search competitors.","Pick three to five competitors to study.","Pull their keyword profiles and top pages.","Run a keyword gap against your site.","Clean and cluster the list.","Assess intent, SERP features and difficulty.","Score gaps by case value and attainability.","Map keywords to URLs and build or refresh pages or ads.","Track rankings, competitors and signed cases, and repeat."]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Three to five competitors is a practical convention rather than a standard; it is enough to see patterns and few enough to review by hand."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"The 10 steps at a glance"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The steps feed each other in a loop. The goal you set in step 1 decides which competitors matter in step 2: a firm that wants more trucking cases in one metro will choose different rivals than a firm launching a national product campaign. The competitors you pick in step 3 define the scope of the keyword pull and the gap, and the cleaning and assessment in steps 6 and 7 turn a raw export into a list you can defend to a managing partner."},{"type":"image","src":"/images/blog-content/competitor-keyword-research/01-ten-step-process.jpg","alt":"Ten-step competitor keyword research process diagram with free and paid routes","caption":"The 10-step process: each step has a free route and a paid route."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Here is where each step is covered. Steps 1 and 2 begin in this section and in \"Who your search competitors really are\", below. Finding and narrowing competitors (steps 2 and 3) is covered in \"How to find search competitors for free\" and \"How to find competitors with SEO tools\". Pulling profiles (step 4) has its own section, \"How to pull a competitor's keyword profile\", alongside the free and paid tools comparison. Steps 5 to 8 are covered in \"How to run a keyword gap analysis\", \"How to assess the competitor keywords you find\" and \"Prioritize gaps with a case-value scorecard\". Step 9 runs through \"Page-level gaps and content refreshes\" and \"Competitor keyword research for Google Ads\". Step 10 is the subject of \"Turn the research into a repeatable plan\". Step 10 also feeds step 1: what you learn about which pages produce cases changes the goal next cycle."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Free and paid routes for each step"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Every step can be done with free tools, though the free route is slower and shallower. The paid route buys speed, history and a third-party estimate of rivals' rankings that free tools cannot show. The table describes paid functions generically because report names and menus change; check each tool's documentation for the current location."},{"type":"table","header":["Step","Free route","Paid route","Output"],"rows":[["1. Define goal","Intake and CRM data by case type","Same, plus revenue reports","Target case types and markets"],["2. Find competitors","Incognito SERP review of seed queries","Organic competitors report (e.g., Ahrefs)","Long list of domains"],["3. Pick three to five","Spreadsheet tally of appearances","Competitor overlap or traffic-share view","Short list of rivals"],["4. Pull profiles","Keyword Planner \"Start with a website\"","Organic and paid keywords reports","Rival keyword and page lists"],["5. Run the gap","Manual comparison with Search Console","Keyword gap tool (e.g., Semrush Keyword Gap)","Missing and weak keywords"],["6. Clean and cluster","Spreadsheet filters and sorting","Tool clustering or grouping features","Grouped topic list"],["7. Assess","Live SERP review, Google Trends","Difficulty metrics, SERP feature data","Intent and difficulty notes"],["8. Score","Scorecard in a spreadsheet","Same scorecard with tool data","Ranked backlog"],["9. Map and build","Keyword-to-URL sheet; Ads Transparency Center","Page-level gap, paid keywords report","Briefs, refreshes, ad groups"],["10. Track and repeat","Search Console, CRM signed cases","Rank tracker with competitor tracking","Monthly report, next cycle"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A few notes on the free routes. Keyword Planner's \"Start with a website\" option suggests keywords related to the content of a site you enter, which makes it a rough stand-in for a competitor keyword report. Google Trends shows relative interest over time rather than absolute volume. The Ads Transparency Center lets you look at the ads a competitor runs. Each of these is covered in detail where its step comes up."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"On the paid side, the named examples are illustrations, not endorsements. Ahrefs' organic competitors report, Semrush's Keyword Gap and Mangools' KWFinder Keyword Gap tab all perform the same core function, and the tools comparison later in this guide sets them side by side with dated prices and plan limits."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"What to gather before you start"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Collect access and data before you open any tool. Gathering it first saves time later and keeps the research tied to cases rather than traffic."},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":["Search Console access for every property your firm owns, including old domains that still receive traffic.","Google Ads access. Keyword Planner is free, but to reach it you first need to [complete your Google Ads account setup and create a campaign](https://business.google.com/us/ad-tools/keyword-planner/), and Google requires billing information before you can use basic features such as \"Get ideas for new keywords\" ([Google Ads Help](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7337243?hl=en)).","Intake or CRM data by case type and lead source: calls, forms, chats, qualified leads and signed cases, ideally for the last twelve months.","A list of practice areas and the service areas you actually want cases from, including any you are adding.","Your current keyword-to-URL list: which page is meant to rank for which query. If you don't have one, building it is part of step 9.","A spreadsheet with tabs for competitors, raw keywords, the cleaned gap list and the scorecard."]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The intake data matters most and is the piece most often skipped. Without it, step 8 falls back to volume. If your firm runs paid search, the same data supports [measuring PPC success by cost per signed retainer](/measure-ppc-success-personal-injury), which is the yardstick this guide uses for organic keywords as well."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"Who your search competitors really are"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Your search competitors are whoever occupies the results for the queries you want. For law firms that set includes rival firms, national firms, legal directories, lead-generation networks, publishers and government pages, and it often looks very different from the list of firms you compete with for referrals."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Getting this list right is the most consequential step in the process, because every later step inherits its scope."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Business, search and AI-answer competitors"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"It helps to think in three layers. Business competitors are the firms that sign the same cases you do: the injury firms in your city, the national brands advertising on television, and for mass torts the national plaintiff firms building the same dockets. Search competitors are the domains that appear in the top results for your target queries, whoever they are. AI-answer competitors are the sources that AI Overviews, AI Mode and chat assistants cite when someone asks a question you want to answer."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Semrush's June 16, 2026 guide frames competitor research in similar terms, organizing it into three layers: \"traditional search, AI search, and conversations on social media and in forums\" ([Semrush](https://www.semrush.com/blog/competitor-keywords/)). The labels differ slightly, but the point is the same: the domain list you get from a search tool is only one of the views you need."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The three layers overlap but rarely match. The firm across town may be your fiercest business rival and still be a weak benchmark for search, because it may rank for very few of the queries you care about. Meanwhile a directory that signs no clients at all may hold three of the top five results for \"[city] car accident lawyer\". If you benchmark only against the firms you know, you will study pages that are not winning and ignore the ones that are."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A practical test: list the five firms you consider your main rivals, then search your ten most important queries in an incognito window from your market. Count how often each of your five appears. In many legal markets, some of the domains that appear most often will not be on your list."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"The legal SERP competitor map"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Legal results pages draw from a recognizable set of competitor types. The table maps each type to what it tends to rank for and how a firm should respond. Examples are generic or limited to verified statements by the companies themselves."},{"type":"table","header":["Competitor type","Examples","What they rank for","How to respond"],"rows":[["Local rival firms","Injury firms in your metro","Practice plus city queries","Out-build their practice and location pages"],["National PI brands","Morgan & Morgan, by its own description","Broad practice and city pages","Win on local depth and specificity"],["Legal directories","FindLaw, Avvo, Nolo, Martindale, Lawyers.com","\"Best lawyer\" and cost queries","Get listed; target narrower queries"],["Lead-gen networks","Directory owners' lead engines, case marketers","Eligibility and \"lawsuit\" queries","Answer eligibility better; track their pages"],["Health and legal publishers","Drug information and legal explainer sites","Side effects and how-to questions","Add legal angle and original detail"],["Government and court pages","FDA, JPML","Safety notices, MDL status","Cite them; don't try to outrank them"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A few details matter when you read your own results through this map. Morgan & Morgan's about page describes the firm as operating \"[with 140 offices nationwide](https://www.forthepeople.com/about-us/)\", in the firm's own words; national brands with that footprint compete in many local results at once. FindLaw is no longer a Thomson Reuters company: Thomson Reuters [closed its sale of the FindLaw business to Internet Brands](https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en/press-releases/2024/december/thomson-reuters-sells-findlaw-business-to-internet-brands) on December 2, 2024. Martindale-Avvo [lists its brands](https://www.martindale-avvo.com/about/) as Martindale-Hubbell, Avvo, Nolo, Ngage Live Chat, Lawyers.com and Captorra, and its page footer names Internet Brands. Internet Brands' own [legal page](https://www.internetbrands.com/legal) describes a legal lead \"engine\" with intake, case value taxonomy and scoring features, so a directory publisher in your results may also be operating lead generation."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"That ownership pattern matters when you count competitors. Several of the large directories that appear in legal results share one owner. Five directory results on a page are not five independent rivals; they are closer to one company holding several positions. When you pick three to five competitors to study, choose one representative directory rather than several from the same group, and spend the remaining slots on rival firms and the lead-gen or publisher sites that actually take your clicks."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Government and court pages are a special case. They rank because they are the primary source, and you will rarely outrank them for the notice or docket itself. Treat them as sources to cite and monitor rather than competitors to beat."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Mass tort competitors are mostly not law firms"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"For mass tort queries the competitor set shifts further away from law firms. Search \"[product] lawsuit\" or \"[product] side effects\" and the results are typically a mix of national lead-generation sites, drug and device information publishers, MDL tracker pages, legal news sites and a handful of national plaintiff firms. Government pages also rank: FDA safety communications for the product, and Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation pages once a docket forms."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"This changes how a mass tort marketer should use the method. A gap analysis against one rival firm will miss most of the competition. The more useful exercise is a gap against two or three of the lead-gen and publisher domains that consistently appear across several product queries, because their keyword profiles show the full range of how people search about a product: symptoms, eligibility, settlement amounts, deadlines, specific injuries, and comparisons with related products."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"It also means the content that wins often answers medical and procedural questions before legal ones. A person who suspects a drug harmed them searches the side effect first and the lawsuit second. Firms that only build \"[product] lawyer\" pages compete for a narrow, expensive slice of the demand."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Timing adds another layer: tort search demand rises and falls with regulatory and court events, which is covered in the mass tort section later in this guide. For how these keyword sets translate into signed cases, see our overview of [mass tort lead generation](/mass-tort-lead-generation)."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Local versus national competitors"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Google says local results are \"[mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity](https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091?hl=en)\", and Search Console's documentation notes that search results \"are specific to the time, place, device, and recent history of the person searching\" ([Google](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7576553?hl=en)). For a law firm, that means there is no single competitor list. The firms and directories that rank for \"car accident lawyer\" in one county can differ from those in the next county, and the map results differ again."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Research per market. If your firm serves three metros, run the competitor discovery separately for each, and check results from a location in that market rather than from your office. When you use a paid tool, pick the country or location setting that matches the market; Mangools, for example, lets you [select a country from a dropdown](https://mangools.com/kwfinder/features/competitor-keyword-research/) when you fetch a competitor's keywords. Location-level settings vary by tool, so check what your tool supports before you compare markets."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"National competitors behave differently. A national brand or directory may hold the organic results in every market you serve while ranking poorly in any single map pack, and a strong local firm may own one city's map results without appearing anywhere else. Keep the two views separate in your spreadsheet: a national competitor list for organic and paid results, and a local list per market. The map pack and Business Profile side of local competition is covered later in this guide, and our page on [SEO for personal injury lawyers](/services/personal-injury-seo) describes how local and national work fit together for an injury firm."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"You now know what kinds of competitors to look for; next, find the specific domains."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"How to find search competitors for free"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The free method is a SERP census: search 15 to 30 of your most valuable money and question queries in a clean browser, record every domain in the top results, and count how often each one repeats. Then add two free Google signals, Search Console and Keyword Planner, to catch the competitors a manual census misses."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"You do not need a paid tool to build a first competitor list. You need a spreadsheet, a private browser window and a disciplined sample of searches across your practice areas. The point of the census is to replace \"who we think we compete with\" by \"who Google actually shows next to us\", and those two lists rarely match for a law firm. The firm your partners worry about may not appear once, while a directory, a legal publisher and a lead-generation site show up on almost every query."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Run a manual SERP census"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A census is a structured sample of the results pages you want to win. Done carefully, it produces a ranked list of the domains that occupy your space, plus a record of which SERP features (map pack, ads, AI Overviews) sit above the organic results for each query type."},{"type":"list","ordered":true,"items":["Choose 15 to 30 seed queries. Cover each practice area or tort you serve, and mix query types: money queries (\"[city] truck accident lawyer\"), question queries (\"how long does a car accident claim take\"), and research queries (\"[product] lawsuit\").","Open a private window, or search signed out, so your own history does not shape the results.","Set the location deliberately. For local practice areas, search as a user in your main city; for national torts, search from a neutral location or note which one you used.","Record the domains in positions 1 to 10 for each query, in order.","Note what sits above or beside the organic results: a map pack, text ads, an AI Overview, a video carousel.","Add the date, location and device to every row.","Tally the domains. Count how many queries each domain appears on, and its best position.","Sort by appearances. The domains at the top of the tally are your search competitors for this sample."]},{"type":"image","src":"/images/blog-content/competitor-keyword-research/02-serp-census.jpg","alt":"SERP census worksheet mock-up tallying which domains appear for legal search queries","caption":"A SERP census: record every domain in the top results, then count repeats."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Table 4 is the census sheet. The three rows below are hypothetical, with placeholder names, to show how a completed row reads."},{"type":"table","header":["Query","Date","Location","Pos 1-10 domains","Map pack","Ads","AI Overview","Notes"],"rows":[["[city] truck accident lawyer (hypothetical)","Oct 2026","[city], desktop","Firm A, directory, Firm B, publisher","Yes","4 top","No","Firm A also in pack"],["how long does a car accident claim take (hypothetical)","Oct 2026","[city], mobile","publisher, directory, Firm C","No","None","Yes","Q&A pages dominate"],["[product] lawsuit (hypothetical)","Oct 2026","national, desktop","publisher, lead-gen site, Firm D","No","3 top","Yes","News and gov pages"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Treat every census as a snapshot. Google's own Search Console documentation explains that [search results are specific to the time, place, device, and recent history of the person searching](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7576553?hl=en), which is why the sheet records date, location and device. Two people at the same firm can see different top 10s on the same afternoon. That is not a flaw in the method. It is the reason you sample many queries and count repeats instead of drawing conclusions from one search."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A few practical rules keep the census honest. Record domains, not brands, so that two sites run by one company stay separate until you decide to merge them. Write down subfolders when a large site ranks through one section only, such as a legal publisher's injury section. Keep paid and organic results in separate columns, because a firm that buys the top ad on every query may not rank organically at all. And repeat the same query set on the same device type when you rerun the census, so changes reflect the market rather than your method."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Why the related: operator no longer works"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Some guides still tell readers to type `related:` followed by a competitor's domain to find similar sites. That advice is out of date. Google's current [overview of search operators](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-operators) lists only four operators for debugging a site: `filetype:`, `imagesize:`, `site:` and `src:`. Google's consumer help page, [Refine Google searches](https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?hl=en), lists quotes for an exact match, `site:`, `-` to exclude a word, `before:`, `after:` and `filetype:`. Neither page mentions `related:`."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The removal was reported at the time. [According to cmlabs](https://cmlabs.co/en/news/related-search-operator-is-removed), Google updated its search operator guide in 2023 and removed the related operator. Even when it worked, it returned sites Google judged similar to a URL, which is a different thing from the domains that outrank you on the queries that bring in cases."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The related searches and \"People also search for\" boxes are not a substitute either. Google's help page says related searches are generated from what its systems understand \"about how people search\", not from which sites resemble each other. Use the census above, then confirm and extend it with the tool reports covered in the next section. The operators that do still work have a narrower job: `site:example.com \"truck accident\"` is useful for seeing how many pages a competitor has on a topic, and quotes help you check whether a phrase appears anywhere else."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Search Console and Keyword Planner as discovery tools"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Your own Search Console data shows where competitors are winning, even though it never names them. Filter the Performance report for queries with plenty of impressions but an average position below the first page. Each of those queries has someone else in the top results, and running a handful of them through your census adds competitors you would not have thought to check. Search Console reports four metrics, [clicks, impressions, CTR and average position](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7576553?hl=en), and it only reflects pages Google has found; our guide to [how Google indexes pages](/blogs/google-index) explains why some of your URLs may be missing."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Know the gaps in the data. Google's [performance data deep dive](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/10/performance-data-deep-dive) says anonymized queries, those not \"issued by more than a few dozen users over a two-to-three month period\", are always omitted from the tables. The interface exports at most 1,000 rows; the API allows up to 50,000 rows per day per site per search type. Google also says [Search Console keeps data for the last 16 months](https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10737381?hl=en), so export regularly if you want a longer history."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Keyword Planner adds a competitor-specific angle. Its \"Start with a website\" option lets you [enter any website](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7337243?hl=en), including a rival firm's, and Google suggests keywords related to that site's content. Expect blind spots: keywords with very low volume, or ones Google considers sensitive, are not discoverable, and health terms are a common casualty. That matters for drug and device torts."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Choose three to five competitors to study"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Three to five is a practical convention, not a standard. It also matches how the tools are built: Semrush's [Keyword Gap compares up to five domains](https://www.semrush.com/kb/28-keyword-gap), Mangools' KWFinder lets you [add up to 5 competing websites](https://mangools.com/kwfinder/features/competitor-keyword-research/) to its gap view, and a Moz Campaign tracks [a site plus three competitor websites](https://moz.com/products/pro/pricing)."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Choose a mix rather than the top three names in your tally. In my view the most useful set for a plaintiff firm is one direct rival that competes for the same cases in the same market, one aspirational national player whose content footprint shows what a mature program looks like, and one SERP-only competitor, usually a directory or a legal publisher, that wins the question queries your clients ask before they call anyone. Add a fourth or fifth only when a practice area or tort has a distinct set of rivals."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"How to find competitors with SEO tools"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Every major SEO suite has an organic-competitors report that ranks domains by how many keywords they share with yours. Use it to confirm the census, catch domains your sample missed, and then clean the list before you pull a single keyword."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Tool reports and the manual census answer slightly different questions. The census tells you who owns the queries you chose. A competitor report tells you who overlaps with the keywords your site already ranks for, across the tool's whole database. A new firm with few rankings gets thin results from a competitor report, so for new sites the census matters more; for established sites the report finds overlap you would never sample by hand."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Organic competitor reports in Ahrefs, Semrush and Mangools"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The three reports work on the same idea with different scoring, and each vendor documents its own."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Ahrefs' Site Explorer has an [Organic competitors report](https://ahrefs.com/academy/how-to-use-ahrefs/site-explorer/organic-competitors). Depending on the mode, it shows competing websites that rank in the top 10 for the keywords your target gets the most traffic from, or competing pages, using the exact URL mode. The table is sorted by the percentage of common keywords. Clicking the number in the \"Competitor's keywords\" column shows the keywords a competitor ranks for that you don't, which is the first glimpse of your gap. You can also add competitors manually from the \"Custom\" dropdown."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Semrush's [Organic Rankings Competitors report](https://www.semrush.com/kb/496-organic-rankings-competitors-report) identifies the main websites a domain competes with for organic traffic. Domains are ranked automatically by Competition Level, which Semrush calculates from the number of keywords each competitor has and the number of keywords the two domains share. You can also sort by Common Keywords."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Mangools takes a keyword-first route. On its [KWFinder competitor research page](https://mangools.com/kwfinder/features/competitor-keyword-research/), you enter a competitor's domain and the tool fetches its top-ranking keywords, with a country selected from a dropdown. Its Keyword Gap tab then shows the keywords competitors rank for that you currently don't."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Beyond these documented features, interfaces change often, so check each tool's help center for current report names. What matters is the function: a list of domains ranked by keyword overlap, and a way to open the keywords behind each overlap figure."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Traffic share for a set of seed keywords"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A traffic-share view flips the question. Instead of asking who overlaps with your whole site, you load a fixed keyword list, such as your census seeds, into a rank tracker or keyword list and ask which domains own the most estimated traffic across that list. Most suites offer some version of this view; check the tool's documentation for where it lives."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A car accident example shows why it helps. Load a list of car accident seeds: \"car accident lawyer [city]\", \"what to do after a car accident\", \"car accident settlement\", \"rear-end collision claim\", \"uninsured driver accident\". The overlap report might rank a large regional firm first because it shares hundreds of keywords with you across practice areas. The traffic-share view for this one cluster may put a directory and a consumer legal publisher on top, because they own the high-volume questions."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Remember that the numbers in this view are estimates. Each tool models traffic from its own volume and click-through assumptions, and there is no neutral public benchmark of their accuracy. Use traffic share to rank domains against each other inside one tool, not as a count of real visits."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Clean the list before you pull keywords"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Raw competitor lists are noisy. Clean them before exporting keywords, or the gap report will fill with terms you can never use."},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":["Remove giants that rank for almost everything, such as Wikipedia, YouTube and Reddit, unless you are deliberately studying that layer (video and forums are covered later in this guide).","Separate directories and legal publishers from law firms. They compete for question and research queries, rarely for \"hire\" queries in a given city. On national tort queries, publishers and lead-generation sites often dominate; that pattern is a core reason mass tort SEO looks different from local PI work.","Flag rankings driven by a competitor's brand. A firm with heavy TV advertising ranks for its own name and slogans, which inflates its keyword count without telling you anything useful.","Keep subfolders when a competitor's relevant content lives in one section. A national publisher's injury subfolder is a competitor; the rest of its domain is noise.","Merge sites with one owner only after you have looked at each separately, since sister directories can rank side by side on the same query."]},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"Free and paid competitor keyword tools compared"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Yes, you can research competitor keywords for free, using Google Search Console, Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, the Ads Transparency Center and the free tiers of Ahrefs and Semrush. Paid tools become necessary when you need complete keyword profiles for other domains, ranking history and gap reports at scale."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The split is simple. Free tools are strong on your own site and on Google's own demand data. They are weak on other people's organic rankings, which is the heart of competitor keyword research. Paid tools fill that gap with their own crawled databases and estimates, and they differ mostly in where they are strongest, how many rows they let you export and how much history they keep."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"What free tools can and cannot show"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Search Console is the most accurate free source, and it only covers sites you have verified. It tells you which queries bring you impressions; it never shows a competitor's queries."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Keyword Planner is free, but its data has limits. [Search Engine Journal reported in 2016](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/googles-keyword-planner-tool-providing-limited-data-low-spending-advertisers/170837/) Google's statement that advertisers with lower monthly spend may see a limited data view, with average monthly searches shown as ranges instead of exact values. Its \"Competition\" column is also easy to misread: Google defines it as [the number of advertisers that showed on each keyword](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/3022575?hl=en) relative to all keywords, which is paid competition and says nothing about how hard a keyword is to rank for organically."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Google Trends shows relative interest, not volume. Each data point is [divided by the total searches of the geography and time range and scaled from 0 to 100](https://support.google.com/trends/answer/4365533?hl=en), and Google adds privacy noise that is most noticeable on low-interest queries. Use it to compare terms and spot timing, not to size demand."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The vendors' free tiers are useful but narrow:"},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":["[Ahrefs Free](https://ahrefs.com/free) is the renamed Ahrefs Webmaster Tools. It requires a verified website, and its Site Explorer shows up to 1,000 backlinks and keywords at once, for your own site.","[Semrush Free](https://www.semrush.com/prices/) needs no credit card and allows one demo project and 10 reports per day across its main tools, as of October 2026.","Moz offers a free Moz Community account with limited access to MozBar, Keyword Explorer and Link Explorer.","[Bing Webmaster Tools](https://www.bing.com/webmasters/about) describes itself as offering free reports and tools; check its help pages for current features.","The Google Ads Transparency Center, Meta's Ad Library and Similarweb's free views can show competitors' ads or traffic signals; their use for paid research is covered later."]},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Competitor keyword tools side by side"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Table 5 compares the main options by their strongest use in competitor research and their entry price. Prices are list prices in USD as of October 2026; confirm with the vendor before you buy, because plans change often."},{"type":"table","header":["Tool","Best for in competitor research","Free option","Entry price (as of Oct 2026)","Source"],"rows":[["Ahrefs","Organic profiles, content and link gaps","Ahrefs Free (own site)","Starter $29/mo; Lite $129/mo","[Ahrefs pricing](https://ahrefs.com/pricing)"],["Semrush","Organic and paid gaps, up to five domains","10 reports/day","SEO $139/mo ($117.33 annual)","[Semrush prices](https://www.semrush.com/prices/)"],["SpyFu","Paid keyword and ad history","Not stated","Basic $39/mo ($29 annual)","[SpyFu pricing](https://www.spyfu.com/pricing)"],["SE Ranking","Research plus daily rank tracking","14-day trial","Core $129/mo ($103.20 annual)","[SE Ranking plans](https://seranking.com/subscription.html)"],["Moz Pro","Campaign tracking with three rivals","Community account","$49/mo","[Moz pricing](https://moz.com/products/pro/pricing)"],["Mangools","Simple keyword gap, up to 5 sites","Not stated","Basic, Premium, Agency tiers","[Mangools plans](https://mangools.com/plans-and-pricing)"],["Google Keyword Planner","Keyword ideas from any website","Free (Ads account)","Free","Google Ads"],["Google Search Console","Your own queries and positions","Free","Free","Google"],["Similarweb","Traffic and channel estimates","Not verified","Not verified","Vendor site"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Prices are list prices in USD as of October 2026; confirm with the vendor. Sources: each vendor's pricing page, accessed October 22, 2026."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A few details matter more than the headline price. Ahrefs' Starter plan, launched in September 2024, is [a $29/month offering](https://ahrefs.com/blog/starter-plan/) with 200 credits a month that includes Keywords Explorer and Rank Tracker, which Ahrefs Free lacks; it renews monthly only, and Lite at $129/mo is the first full plan. Ahrefs' pricing FAQ says it never runs discounts. SpyFu's annual plans save 25%, and the pricing page offers a 30-day money-back guarantee; SpyFu's own homepage says it shows \"every keyword they've ever bought on Google\", which is the company's claim about its paid-search data. SE Ranking's trial needs no credit card. Mangools serves location-based prices, so check its plans page for your market."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Ownership has also changed. Semrush is now an Adobe company: [Adobe completed its acquisition of Semrush](https://news.adobe.com/news/2026/04/adobe-completes-semrush-acquisition) on April 28, 2026, so older articles describing it as an independent public company are out of date."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Plan limits that matter for gap work"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Entry plans are priced for small sites, and competitor research hits their limits fast. Table 6 shows the limits that most affect gap work on each tool's first full plan."},{"type":"table","header":["Limit","Ahrefs Lite","Semrush SEO","SpyFu Basic","SE Ranking Core"],"rows":[["Rows per report / search results","2,500","Not stated","10k rows","Not stated"],["Historical data","6 months","Not stated","10+ years","Not stated"],["Tracked keywords","750 weekly","500 daily","5k weekly","2k daily"],["Competitors per project","20","Not stated","Not stated","Not stated"],["Users included","1 (extra $40/mo)","Extra users from $45/mo","1","1 manager seat"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Limits as listed on each vendor's pricing page, as of October 2026; confirm with the vendor. \"Not stated\" means the figure was not on the page we read."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Row limits deserve the most attention. A large legal directory or publisher can rank for far more keywords than an entry plan lets you export in one report, so the export you download is a slice, not the full profile. Work around it by filtering before you export: one country, positions 1 to 20, the competitor's relevant subfolder, and one practice area at a time. History limits matter for a different reason. Six months of data may miss a seasonal pattern or the moment a rival launched a tort page, which is why Ahrefs' higher plans, Semrush's Pro+ plan with [historical SEO data](https://www.semrush.com/prices/), and SpyFu's longer history appeal to firms that track competitors over years."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Why tools disagree on volume and difficulty"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Each tool builds its own keyword database, models search volume its own way and calculates difficulty on its own scale, so the same keyword gets different numbers in different tools. That is expected, and it is why you should never mix numbers from two tools in one decision."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Difficulty is the clearest case. Ahrefs measures [Keyword Difficulty on a scale from 0 to 100](https://ahrefs.com/keyword-difficulty), says \"the scale is not linear\", and bases it on the number of referring domains the top 10 ranking pages have. Semrush's [KD% is also 0 to 100](https://www.semrush.com/kb/1158-what-is-kd), but it combines several factors, such as the median number of referring domains, the median authority score of ranking domains and SERP qualities of the keyword. A 30 in one tool is not a 30 in the other."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Volume works the same way. Pick one tool as your system of record for a project, compare keywords only inside it, and check the important ones against your own Search Console impressions. The [SEO and PPC glossary](/glossary) defines the terms each vendor uses if a column name is unfamiliar."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"How to pull a competitor's keyword profile"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Export each competitor's ranking keywords, positions 1 to 20 at a minimum, with the ranking URL, volume, estimated traffic, difficulty and SERP features. Start from their top pages so you see which content types win, then sanity-check the estimates against your own data."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A keyword profile is the raw material for the gap analysis. A clean profile per competitor, built the same way each time, lets you compare rivals fairly and rerun the work next quarter without starting over. Most errors in competitor research come from this step: wrong country, brand terms left in, positions 50 to 100 cluttering the list, or a missing URL column that hides which page actually ranks."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Export the right columns"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Before exporting, apply three filters. Set the country (and, where the tool allows it, the location) to the market you serve. Limit positions to 1 to 20, which covers the first two pages where the realistic opportunities sit. Exclude the competitor's brand terms, including name variants and slogans, so their marketing does not swamp the list."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Then export the columns in Table 7. Column names vary by tool; the function is what matters."},{"type":"table","header":["Column","Why it matters","Watch out for"],"rows":[["Keyword","The query itself","Close variants listed separately"],["Position","How well they rank","SERP-feature positions counted as rankings"],["Ranking URL","Which page wins","Several URLs for one keyword"],["Volume","Relative demand","Tool estimate, not Google data"],["Estimated traffic","Which keywords matter to them","Modeled from assumed CTR"],["KD","Rough ranking effort","Not comparable across tools"],["CPC","Commercial value signal","Paid market, not organic value"],["SERP features","Map pack, AI Overview, video","Changes by location and date"],["Intent label","Hire, research or question","Tool labels miss legal nuance"],["Last updated / first seen","Freshness and new rankings","Update cycles differ by tool"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Save each competitor's export as its own sheet with the date, country and tool in the file name. Profiles from different dates or tools are not comparable, and you will need that label when you rerun the work."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Start from competitors' top pages"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Before reading thousands of keywords, sort each competitor's pages by estimated traffic and look at the top 20 to 50. Group them by page type: practice area page, city page, blog post, settlement or verdict page, tool or calculator, and tort page. The groups tell you which content types win in your market faster than any keyword list."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A hypothetical example shows the value. Suppose a rival PI firm's top page by estimated traffic is an \"average car accident settlement\" explainer, ahead of its car accident practice page and every city page. That pattern says searchers in your market want settlement ranges and process explanations before they want a lawyer, and that the rival built a page for that need. A keyword list would show the same thing as scattered questions; the page view shows it as one asset you do not have."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"When you find a winning page, build your own version instead of copying theirs. U.S. Copyright Office Circular 33 says copyright does not protect [any idea, procedure, process, system or method of operation](https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ33.pdf), so the topic and the structure of an answer are open to everyone. The words, examples and presentation are a different matter. Cover the same need with your own expertise, your state's rules and better sources, and you get a page that is both safer and more useful."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Track new keywords and new pages"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A one-time export goes stale. The useful signal is change: the keywords a competitor started ranking for this month and the pages it published to get them. Ahrefs notes that you can see [the speed at which competitors are creating pages](https://ahrefs.com/academy/how-to-use-ahrefs/site-explorer/organic-competitors) with the Compare mode inside its competitive map; other suites offer new-keyword or new-page filters in their own ways."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A simple routine works in any tool. Export each competitor's profile on a fixed schedule, monthly for active markets and quarterly for stable ones, and compare it with the previous export. Filter for keywords that are new to the list and for ranking URLs you have not seen before. New URLs that gain rankings quickly are worth a manual look: they show what a rival is investing in now, not what it built years ago."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Track your own positions alongside theirs. A [local rank tracker](/blogs/local-rank-tracker) shows how both you and your rivals rank across the neighborhoods and suburbs in your market, which a national export cannot do."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"For mass tort firms, change tracking matters even more. A competitor's new landing page for a product can appear before the litigation is widely covered, and that page is one of the earliest public signals that a rival is moving into a tort. The mass tort section later in this guide covers those signals in detail."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Check estimates against your own data"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Third-party numbers are models. Before you commit budget to a gap, check the important keywords against sources that measure real behavior. Table 8 sets out what each source measures."},{"type":"table","header":["Data source","What it measures","Strength","Limitation"],"rows":[["Third-party tool volume","Modeled monthly searches","Covers any keyword","Estimate; varies by tool"],["Third-party traffic estimate","Modeled visits to a URL","Compares competitors","Built on assumed CTR"],["Keyword Planner avg. monthly searches","Google searches incl. close variants","Google's own data","12-month average; ranges for some"],["Google Trends","Relative interest, 0 to 100","Timing and comparison","No absolute volume"],["Search Console impressions","Times your site was shown","Real data for your site","Only your site; anonymized queries omitted"],["Google Ads search terms report","Searches that triggered your ads","Exact paid queries","Low-volume terms omitted"],["Intake / CRM data","Calls, forms and signed cases","Ties queries to cases","Needs source tracking"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Each row has a primary definition behind it. Keyword Planner's [average monthly searches](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/3022575?hl=en) covers a keyword and its close variants, averaged over 12 months by default. The Google Ads [search terms report](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2472708?hl=en) shows the actual searches that triggered your ads, though Google omits some terms without enough query activity for privacy reasons. Intake data is the only source that connects a query to a signed case, and it is only as good as your call and form tracking."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"When the sources disagree, trust the one closest to real behavior. If a tool shows zero volume for a keyword and Search Console shows your page earning impressions for it, believe Search Console. Ahrefs' own [long-tail research](https://ahrefs.com/blog/long-tail-keywords/) found that keywords with fewer than 10 searches a month make up almost 93% of its U.S. database, and that over 95% of conversational long-tail keywords have no measurable search volume. Plenty of real demand sits below what tools can estimate, and in legal search those specific, low-volume questions often come from people close to hiring a lawyer."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"You now have a cleaned keyword list per competitor; the next step is the gap."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"How to run a keyword gap analysis"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A keyword gap analysis compares your ranking keywords with those of up to four competitors, either in a gap tool or by merging exports in a spreadsheet. You then read the result by label: missing, weak, untapped, shared, strong and unique. Each label points to a different action, so the labels matter more than the raw count of keywords."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"By this stage you should have three to five cleaned competitor lists, one per domain, filtered to the country you serve and stripped of navigational brand terms. The gap step turns those separate lists into a single comparison. It answers one question for every keyword: who ranks, at what position, and where do you stand against them? Everything after this section (assessment, scoring, page decisions) depends on reading that comparison correctly, so it is worth slowing down here."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Keyword gap labels explained"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Most gap tools sort the comparison into intersection groups. Semrush publishes the clearest definitions in its [Keyword Gap knowledge base article](https://www.semrush.com/kb/28-keyword-gap), and the wording below is quoted from that page. The third column is my recommendation for what a law firm should do with each group."},{"type":"table","header":["Label","Definition (Semrush wording)","What to do"],"rows":[["Shared","\"keywords, where every site entered has a ranking\"","Check your position; defend or improve"],["Missing","\"all of your competitors have rankings but your site… has no ranking\"","Review first; likely core topics you lack"],["Weak","\"you have a ranking but it is lower than all of your competitors' rankings\"","Improve the existing page before building new"],["Strong","\"you are ranking higher than all of your competitors\"","Protect; refresh on a schedule"],["Untapped","\"you don't have a ranking but one of your competitors does\"","Assess one by one; many are noise"],["Unique","\"you have a ranking but none of your competitors do\"","Note your advantage; link to these pages"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Source: Semrush Knowledge Base, \"Keyword Gap\", accessed October 22, 2026."},{"type":"image","src":"/images/blog-content/competitor-keyword-research/03-gap-labels.jpg","alt":"Keyword gap label matrix showing missing, weak, untapped, shared, strong and unique keywords","caption":"Gap labels at a glance: missing and weak keywords are usually the first to review."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The two groups that usually deserve attention first are Missing and Weak. A Missing keyword is one that every competitor you entered ranks for while you do not, which is a strong hint that the topic is part of the standard set of pages in your market. If three rival injury firms all rank for \"what to do after a truck accident\" and you have nothing, you are probably missing a page that searchers and Google both expect to find on an injury firm's site."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Weak keywords are different. You already have a page, it already ranks, and every competitor ranks higher. That makes them performance problems, not content problems, and they are often cheaper to fix. Untapped keywords are the noisiest group: one competitor ranks and you don't, which may reflect a genuine opportunity or simply that competitor's odd blog post about a celebrity verdict. Treat untapped lists as a pool to sample, not a to-do list."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Other tools use similar but not identical groupings. Ahrefs describes its content gap principle in terms of \"at least x\" competitors ranking (more on that below), and Mangools' Keyword Gap view shows keywords your competitors rank for that you don't. The underlying logic is the same set arithmetic, so once you understand the six labels above you can read any tool's output, even when the names differ."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Run a domain-level gap step by step"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The steps below work in any gap tool, and the last step shows how to reproduce the result in a spreadsheet when you only have exports. The order matters: settings you skip at the start (country, filters, brand exclusions) are much harder to clean up after you export."},{"type":"list","ordered":true,"items":["Choose the country database. A US firm should compare US rankings; a firm in one state may also want to check results in its own metro area later, in the local layer.","Enter your domain first, then your competitors. Semrush's Keyword Gap compares \"up to five competitors\" per its [documentation](https://www.semrush.com/kb/28-keyword-gap), and its meta description phrases the limit as up to five domains, so plan on yours plus four. Mangools' KWFinder lets you \"Add up to 5 competing websites\" in its [Keyword Gap tab](https://mangools.com/kwfinder/features/competitor-keyword-research/).","Pick the keyword type. Semrush separates organic rankings, which it defines as \"within the top 100 results on Google\", from paid keywords \"ranking through Google Ads on Google's top 8 positions\". Run organic first; paid gaps come later in your PPC work.","Set position filters. A sensible default is competitors in the top 10 and you anywhere or nowhere. The Semrush knowledge base gives a worked filter of your domain at \"Custom range from 11 to 20\", which isolates the near-miss keywords where you are on page two.","Exclude brand terms. Remove competitor firm names, attorney names and your own brand so the gap reflects topics rather than navigational searches.","Export the result with every column the tool offers, then add your own columns for intent, case value and target URL."]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"In Ahrefs, the same idea sits inside a broader tool. Ahrefs describes the content gap principle on its [content gap page](https://ahrefs.com/content-gap) as: \"Take all the keywords your competitor ranks for and subtract the keywords that your own website ranks for.\" Filters let you show keywords that any competitor ranks for, that \"at least x\" competitors rank for, or that all of them rank for. In its [July 2023 product update](https://ahrefs.com/blog/whats-new-at-ahrefs-july-2023), Ahrefs introduced a core tool called Competitive Analysis and said \"This is where you'll find the new and improved Content gap tool.\" That update added position filters, such as your site at 11 to 20 with a competitor in the top 10, and a \"Main positions only\" toggle that excludes SERP-feature positions."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The spreadsheet version needs no gap tool at all, only keyword exports from each domain (from any tool, or from Search Console for your own site). Paste every export into one sheet with a column for the domain. Normalize the keyword text: lowercase it and trim spaces so that minor formatting differences do not create false gaps. Then build a pivot table with keywords as rows and domains as columns, showing the best position for each pair."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"From that pivot you can recreate the labels. A count of competitor columns with a value, using `COUNTIF` across the row, tells you how many rivals rank. If your own column is blank and the count equals the number of competitors, the keyword is Missing. If your column is blank and the count is at least one, it is Untapped. If your position is a larger number than every competitor's, which a `MIN` across the competitor columns will show, it is Weak. A lookup such as `XLOOKUP` or `VLOOKUP` against your own export fills in your position and URL. It is slower than a tool, but it is transparent, and you can blend data from different sources."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"One caution applies to both routes. Each tool's keyword database and position tracking differ, so a gap built from one vendor's data will not match a gap built from another's. Pick one source for the domain comparison and stick to it for the whole project."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"True gaps and performance gaps"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A true gap is a keyword where you have no ranking at all. A performance gap is a keyword where you rank, but below your rivals. The distinction matters because the fixes are different, and so are the time frames."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"True gaps (the Missing and Untapped groups) usually need a new page or a new section on an existing page. That means research, writing, attorney review, internal links and time for the page to be crawled and assessed. For a personal injury firm, a true gap might be an entire subtopic such as rideshare accident claims, where the firm handles the cases but has never published a page about them."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Performance gaps (the Weak group, plus your \"weak spots\" at positions 11 to 20) start from an existing asset. The page is indexed, it already ranks for something, and Google has some sense of what it is about. Improving it may mean answering questions the top results answer, adding a section on a sub-intent the page skips, tightening the title so it matches the query, or adding internal links from your stronger pages. These are usually the faster wins, which is why many gap workflows start with them. A firm at position 14 for \"[city] truck accident lawyer\" has a shorter path to page one than a firm with no page at all."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Keep the two groups in separate tabs or tagged columns. When you prioritize later, the effort score will differ between them, and blending them hides that difference."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Keyword, content and backlink gaps"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A keyword gap is one query. A content gap is a whole topic cluster that a rival covers and you don't, and a backlink gap is a set of sites that link to several competitors but not to you. All three show up in the same research, and they lead to different work."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"To find topic gaps, group your Missing and Untapped keywords by theme before you look at them one by one. Fifty separate keywords about \"18-wheeler\", \"trucking company liability\", \"FMCSA hours of service\" and \"black box data after a truck crash\" are not fifty pages. They are one missing cluster: a truck accident practice area hub with supporting pages. Seeing the cluster tells you that a competitor has built out a practice area you have only touched, which is a strategic finding, not a content task."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Backlink gaps follow the same set logic applied to referring domains. Ahrefs' Help Center files both \"Content Gap\" and \"Link Intersect\" under its [Competitive Analysis collection](https://help.ahrefs.com/en/collections/8623369-competitive-analysis), and other tools offer similar views. The generic concept, often called link intersect, lists domains that link to two or more of your competitors but not to you. For law firms, these lists tend to surface local bar associations, legal directories, sponsorship pages, local news coverage and scholarship listings. Some are worth pursuing; many are paid placements or low-value directories. Keep this brief in your workflow: note the patterns, pass promising domains to whoever handles outreach, and keep the keyword work moving."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"How to assess the competitor keywords you find"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Judge each competitor keyword on five things: business value, your ability to rank, search intent, SERP features and content-type fit. Then check that it does not duplicate a keyword another page of yours already targets. A keyword that fails any one of these checks usually drops down the list, however large its volume."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Gap exports are long. A mid-size injury firm compared with four rivals can easily produce thousands of Missing and Untapped rows. Assessment is how you cut that to a few dozen candidates worth scoring. The five checks below are deliberately quick; the detailed weighting comes in the scorecard section."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Business value: does the query lead to a case?"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The first question for a law firm is not \"how many people search this?\" but \"does this search lead to a client we can sign?\" A common convention in SEO guides is a 0 to 3 business value score. Here it is adapted for plaintiff firms."},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":["**3: maps directly to a case type you sign.** \"[city] car accident lawyer\", \"truck accident attorney near me\", \"[product] lawsuit lawyer\" for a firm accepting that tort. The searcher is looking for representation in a case you take.","**2: strong supporting query.** \"how much is my car accident case worth\", \"what to do after a truck accident\", \"statute of limitations for personal injury in [state]\". The searcher is likely an injured person early in the decision, and a good page can lead to a call.","**1: loosely related.** \"how to read a police report\", \"what does subrogation mean\", \"average car insurance rates\". The audience overlaps with your clients, but the query rarely produces a case on its own.","**0: no case potential.** \"how to become a paralegal\", \"law school rankings\", \"car accident in a movie\". Competitors may rank for these, often through old blog posts, and you can ignore them."]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Two adjustments keep the scale honest. First, score against the cases your firm actually signs, not the cases it could theoretically take. A firm that refers out medical malpractice should score malpractice queries lower, even though they are valuable to someone. Second, jurisdiction counts. A \"statute of limitations\" query for a state where none of your attorneys practice has little value for you, however closely it matches your practice area."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Ability to rank: difficulty and authority"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Ability to rank asks whether your site can realistically reach page one for this keyword in a reasonable time. Tools try to answer that with a difficulty score, but each tool calculates it differently, so a score is only meaningful inside the tool that produced it."},{"type":"table","header":["Tool","Scale","Based on","Caution"],"rows":[["Ahrefs KD","0 to 100, non-linear","Referring domains of top 10 pages","Estimates top 10, not top 3"],["Semrush KD%","0 to 100, six bands","Medians of links, authority, SERP qualities","Bands differ from Ahrefs' scale"],["Semrush PKD%","Site-relative","Your site's current authority","Personal to your domain"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Sources: Ahrefs and Semrush documentation, accessed October 22, 2026."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"[Ahrefs' Keyword Difficulty](https://ahrefs.com/keyword-difficulty) uses \"a scale from 0 to 100\" and states that \"The scale is not linear.\" It is based on \"the number of referring domains the top 10 ranking pages have\" and estimates the chance of reaching the top 10, \"not top 3 or top 1\". Ahrefs publishes a mapping: KD 10 corresponds to about 10 referring domains, KD 30 to 36, KD 50 to 84 and KD 70 to 202. Ahrefs also notes that \"'Competition' only refers to paid search results while 'Keyword Difficulty' applies to organic search results.\""},{"type":"paragraph","text":"[Semrush's KD%](https://www.semrush.com/kb/1158-what-is-kd) is \"a percentage from 0 to 100\" built from factors \"such as the median number of referring domains pointing to the URLs that are ranking\", the dofollow/nofollow ratio, \"the median authority score of the domains that are ranking, and the SERP-related qualities of the keyword\". Its bands run 0 to 14 Very easy, 15 to 29 Easy, 30 to 49 Possible, 50 to 69 Difficult, 70 to 84 Hard and 85 to 100 Very hard. Semrush's blog also describes [Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD%)](https://www.semrush.com/blog/competitor-keywords/): \"Terms with a low PKD% are ones your site is well-positioned to rank for based on your current authority.\""},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Because the inputs differ, a KD of 25 in one tool and 25 in another are not the same thing. You will often see \"target keywords under 30\" offered as a safe threshold. Treat that as a rule of thumb at most. There is no universal number. The better test is relative: within one tool, look at the difficulty of keywords you already rank on page one for, and use that range as your own benchmark. A site that already ranks for KD 40 terms can aim higher than a new site that struggles at KD 10."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Difficulty scores are a shortcut. When a keyword matters, check the signals yourself on the live results."},{"type":"table","header":["Signal","How to check","What it tells you"],"rows":[["Referring domains to ranking page","Backlink tool, per URL","How much link equity you must match"],["Domain-level authority metric","Any tool's site score","Whether strong domains crowd the top 10"],["Content depth","Read the top 3 pages","The bar your page must clear"],["Freshness","Visible dates, recent updates","Whether a newer page can break in"],["Directory presence","Count directories in top 10","Space left for firm websites"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The last row is specific to legal search. When half the first page belongs to large legal directories and publishers, a firm website is competing for fewer slots. That does not make the keyword unwinnable, but it lowers the ceiling and should lower the attainability score."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Search intent in legal queries"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Search intent is what the searcher wants from the results page: to learn, to compare, to hire, to reach a specific site or to find someone nearby. In legal search the same topic can carry very different intents, and the page type you build has to match the one Google is already rewarding."},{"type":"table","header":["Intent","Legal example","Best page type","Conversion role"],"rows":[["Informational","what to do after a car accident","Guide or checklist","Early trust; soft call to action"],["Commercial investigation","best truck accident lawyer [city]","Practice page with proof","Shortlisting; consultation request"],["Transactional (hire)","hire injury lawyer near me","Practice or contact page","Direct call or form"],["Navigational","[firm name] reviews","Home or about page","Brand capture"],["Local","car accident lawyer [city]","Location-specific practice page","Calls from the map pack"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Legal queries are also long and varied. Google said in 2019, when it introduced BERT, that \"15 percent of those queries are ones we haven't seen before\", and that BERT \"will help Search better understand one in 10 searches in the U.S. in English\" ([Google](https://blog.google/products/search/search-language-understanding-bert/)). For competitor research, the practical lesson is that the exact keyword in your export is a proxy for a family of similar questions. Classify the intent of the family, not the string."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Mixed intent is common. \"Car accident settlement amounts\" pulls injured people trying to value their claim, insurance adjusters and students. When the results show both guides and law firm pages, an informational page with a clear route to a consultation usually fits best."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"SERP features and content-type fit"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Open the live results for every keyword you plan to target and note what is there besides the ten blue links: an AI Overview, People Also Ask, video results, a local pack, Local Services Ads, and how many ads sit above the organic results. Those features change how many clicks reach organic pages and what type of page Google is choosing to show."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Then look at the page types. If every top result is a long guide, a thin practice-area page will not compete. If every result is a directory listing, your best path may be a strong profile on those directories rather than a new page. If the top results are mostly ads and a map pack on a mobile phone, the organic opportunity is smaller than the volume suggests."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The keyword this guide targets is a clear example of content-type mismatch. In a Google US desktop search we ran on October 22, 2026, five of the nine organic results for \"competitor keyword research\" were tool pages with a domain input box. A written guide cannot win those slots, because the searchers who click them want to type a domain and get a report. The winnable positions were the step-by-step guides and the tools listicle. Your legal keywords will have their own versions of this pattern, and the fix is the same: target the slots whose page type you can actually build."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"SERP similarity and cannibalization checks"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"If two keywords share most of their top 10 URLs, Google treats them as the same need, and one page should target both. If a keyword is already the target of another page on your site, a new page may compete with it instead of helping."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"SERP similarity is easy to check by hand. Search both keywords and compare the organic URLs. In our October 22, 2026 pull for this guide, the three cluster keywords (\"competitor keyword research\", \"competitor analysis keyword research\" and \"keyword research competitor analysis\") shared six to seven of their nine organic URLs, so one page targets all three. For a law firm, \"car accident lawyer [city]\" and \"[city] auto accident attorney\" will usually show heavy overlap; \"car accident lawyer [city]\" and \"car accident settlement calculator\" usually will not."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Cannibalization is the same problem inside your own site. Before you add a keyword to the plan, search your site for pages that already target it, using `site:example.com \"truck accident\"` or your own rank tracker. Then maintain a keyword-to-URL map: one row per keyword group, one target URL per row. Our mass tort law firm SEO guide shows how that map works across a tort hub and its supporting pages ([our mass tort law firm SEO guide](/blogs/mass-tort-law-firm-seo))."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Some guides describe cannibalization as a ranking penalty. We found no Google documentation describing such a penalty. The practical problem is simpler: two pages chasing one query split your internal links and other signals, and they leave Google to choose which page to show, which may not be the one that converts. Tools can help find overlaps; Semrush lists \"Keyword cannibalization analysis\" as a feature of its Pro+ plan on its [pricing page](https://www.semrush.com/prices/), as of October 2026 (confirm with the vendor). A spreadsheet of your own rankings by URL, sorted by keyword, does the same job for free."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"Prioritize gaps with a case-value scorecard"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Score each remaining gap from 1 to 3 on five factors (case value, intent fit, attainability, effort and strategic fit), weight the scores, and work the list from the top. Skip keywords you cannot win or cannot convert, however attractive their volume looks."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Assessment removes the obvious misfits. Prioritization ranks what is left. Without a scoring model, firms usually default to volume, which pushes broad informational keywords to the top and leaves the queries that produce signed cases buried. The scorecard below is an original framework for plaintiff firms; adapt the factors to your practice."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"The scorecard factors"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Each factor gets a score of 1, 2 or 3. The anchors below keep different people on the team scoring the same way."},{"type":"table","header":["Factor","Score 1","Score 2","Score 3","Weight"],"rows":[["Case value","Loosely related query","Supporting query for a case type","Direct query for a case you sign","x3"],["Intent fit","Page type mismatch","Partial match; mixed results","Results match a page you can build","x2"],["Attainability","Far above your proven difficulty","Near your proven range","Within your proven range","x3"],["Effort","New section or hub","New single page","Refresh of an existing page","x1"],["Strategic fit","Off-priority practice area","Secondary practice area","Priority practice; intake ready","x2"]]},{"type":"image","src":"/images/blog-content/competitor-keyword-research/04-case-value-scorecard.jpg","alt":"Case-value scorecard matrix scoring keyword gaps on value, intent, attainability, effort and fit","caption":"Score gaps by the cases they can produce, not by search volume alone."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The weights are my opinion, not a standard. I weight case value and attainability highest because a keyword that cannot produce a case, or that you cannot reach, has little value whatever else it offers. Intent fit and strategic fit get a middle weight. Effort gets the lowest weight, because a costly page that produces signed cases is still worth building; it simply waits behind cheaper wins with similar value."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"With these weights the maximum score is 33 (3 times 11) and the minimum is 11. Multiply each factor by its weight and add them. If you prefer a simpler model, multiply case value by attainability and use the other three factors to break ties."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Some notes on scoring each factor:"},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":["**Case value** uses the 0 to 3 business value scale from the assessment step, with zeros already removed.","**Intent fit** asks whether the page type Google rewards is one you can build and want to build.","**Attainability** compares the keyword's difficulty and the top 10's authority with keywords you already rank for, in the same tool.","**Effort** scores a refresh highest because the page already exists; a new hub with several supporting pages scores lowest.","**Strategic fit** covers practice-area priority, whether intake can handle the volume, and whether your attorneys can take cases in that jurisdiction."]},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"The gap worksheet template"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The worksheet is where each gap gets recorded, scored and assigned. Copy the columns below into a spreadsheet; the two rows are hypothetical examples, not market data."},{"type":"table","header":["Keyword","Competitor URL","Their position","Your position","Volume (tool)","KD (tool)","Intent","Case value","Score","Target URL","Action"],"rows":[["[city] truck accident lawyer (hypothetical)","Firm A practice page","3","14","Tool estimate","Tool score","Local hire","3","30","/truck-accidents","Refresh"],["rideshare accident claim steps (hypothetical)","Firm B guide","5","None","Tool estimate","Tool score","Informational","2","22","New page","Build"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"What each column is for:"},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":["**Keyword**: the representative keyword for a group of close variants, not every variant.","**Competitor URL** and **Their position**: the strongest rival page and where it ranks, so you know what to read before writing.","**Your position**: blank or \"None\" for true gaps; a number for performance gaps.","**Volume (tool)** and **KD (tool)**: copied from one tool and labelled with its name and export date. Never mix tools in one column.","**Intent**: from the intent table above.","**Case value**: from the 0 to 3 scale.","**Score**: the weighted total from the scorecard.","**Target URL**: the one page responsible for this keyword, which keeps the keyword-to-URL map in the same file.","**Action**: refresh, build, merge, or skip."]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Add a date column if several people work on the sheet, and a notes column for SERP observations such as \"two directories and an AI Overview above the fold\"."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Worked example: this guide's own keyword gap"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"This guide was planned with the same method, and the decisions show how the worksheet works on real data. The source is Mass Tort Marketing Agency's own keyword-gap export dated October 22, 2026, run against one competitor, a legal marketing agency's guide on the same topic. The volumes and KD scores below are that one export's tool estimates, shown per keyword."},{"type":"table","header":["Keyword","Volume (export)","KD (export)","Competitor position","Our decision"],"rows":[["competitor keyword research","1,300","14","48","Primary keyword; target with one guide"],["competitor analysis keyword research","1,300","24","53","Secondary; same page"],["keyword research competitor analysis","1,300","29","64","Secondary; same page"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Source: MTMA keyword-gap export, October 22, 2026 (internal record)."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Four decisions came from this table and the live results:"},{"type":"list","ordered":true,"items":["**We did not add the volumes together.** All three keywords show exactly the same volume, which suggests the tool groups close variants and assigns them a shared figure. Summing them would count the same searches three times.","**One page targets all three.** Our October 22, 2026 search showed the three keywords sharing six to seven of their nine organic URLs. Google treats them as one need, so separate pages would compete with each other.","**We target the how-to slots, not the tool slots.** Five of the nine top results for the primary keyword were tool pages with a domain input box. A guide cannot win those positions, so the plan focuses on the step-by-step guide results.","**The legal long tail is thin.** For \"law firm competitor keyword research\", the top two results on October 22, 2026 were both guides written specifically for law firms. When only a couple of results are written for the legal audience, a strong legal angle can stand out."]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The competitor ranked in the 48 to 64 range for all three terms, so the gap here was not one firm outranking another. Neither of us was on page one. That made the decision about page type and completeness, not about beating a single rival."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Note what the example leaves out. It does not forecast traffic, because tool volumes are estimates and click-through depends on the SERP features above the organic results. It records the decision and the evidence behind it, which is what your worksheet should do."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"A scored backlog for a personal injury firm"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The table below is a hypothetical, illustrative backlog for an imaginary personal injury firm that also takes some mass tort cases. The keywords are realistic; the scores are invented to show how the ranking works and are not market data."},{"type":"table","header":["Keyword (hypothetical)","Case value","Intent fit","Attainability","Effort","Strategic fit","Weighted score","Rank"],"rows":[["[city] motorcycle accident lawyer","3","3","3","2","2","30","1"],["truck accident lawyer [city]","3","3","2","3","3","30","2"],["uber accident claim process","2","3","3","2","3","29","3"],["what to do after a car accident","2","3","1","3","3","24","4"],["[product] lawsuit","3","2","1","1","2","21","5"],["dog bite settlement","2","2","2","2","1","20","6"],["how to read a police report","1","2","3","2","1","20","7"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Weights: case value x3, intent fit x2, attainability x3, effort x1, strategic fit x2. Ties are broken by case value, then attainability."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A few patterns are worth noticing. The motorcycle and truck accident pages tie at 30, and both have a case value of 3, so the tie goes to attainability, where the motorcycle page scores higher. The truck accident page is still a strong second because it is a refresh (effort 3) of a high-value page the firm already has, and a team that wants a fast win could reasonably ship it first. The police report query ties the dog bite query at 20 and loses on case value. \"What to do after a car accident\" has high value and fit but low attainability, since large publishers and directories dominate that SERP. The mass tort keyword scores low on attainability and effort, which is typical for a firm without an existing tort hub."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Backlogs like this belong inside a wider plan that covers budget, channels and intake; a [personal injury law firm marketing plan](/personal-injury-law-firm-marketing-plan) is the right home for it."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Tie keywords to cost per signed retainer"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"For a plaintiff firm, the business metric behind every keyword is signed cases per dollar spent. Search volume, rankings and traffic are steps on the way. The scorecard estimates value in advance; tracking proves it afterwards."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Connecting keywords to retainers takes three pieces of plumbing:"},{"type":"list","ordered":true,"items":["**Tag landing pages by keyword group.** Every page in your keyword-to-URL map belongs to one group, such as \"truck accidents [city]\" or \"rideshare claims\". Record the group on the page, in your analytics and in your call tracking.","**Attribute calls and forms to the landing page.** Use call tracking numbers or form fields that record the entry page, so every inquiry carries its keyword group.","**Connect CRM dispositions.** When intake marks an inquiry as signed, rejected or referred out, that outcome should flow back to the keyword group. Then you can compare groups by signed cases, not by clicks."]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Once that data exists, compare keyword groups on cost and outcome over a long enough period to smooth out single large cases. Our [cost per signed retainer benchmarks](/blogs/cost-per-signed-retainer-2026) explain how the metric is built and why it varies so widely by case type and market."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"For paid search context, WordStream's [2026 Google Ads benchmark report](https://www.wordstream.com/blog/2026-google-ads-benchmarks) lists an average cost per click of $9.87 and an average cost per lead of $131.63 for its \"Attorneys & Legal Services\" category. Those are averages across the whole legal category in WordStream's sample, not personal injury or mass tort figures, and a lead is not a signed case. Benchmarks from different sources rarely agree, for reasons covered in [why law firm marketing benchmarks disagree](/blogs/law-firm-marketing-benchmarks-disagree). Your own signed-case data, by keyword group, is the number that should drive the backlog."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"When not to compete"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Some gaps are real but not worth closing. Skip, or park, keywords in these groups:"},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":["**National brand terms.** Queries containing a large firm's or directory's name are navigational; the searcher wants that brand.","**Queries dominated by government pages.** When the top results are a state DMV, a court or a federal agency, a firm page rarely breaks in.","**Informational queries outside your jurisdiction.** Traffic from states where your attorneys cannot take cases rarely becomes a signed case.","**Queries intake cannot serve.** If your team cannot handle the case type, the leads cost money and reputation.","**SERPs made of tools.** When the first page is calculators or software, an article will not compete."]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"What remains is a ranked list of keyword-to-URL decisions; next, act on the pages and ads."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"Page-level gaps and content refreshes"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A page-level gap compares one of your URLs with the pages that outrank it for the same keyword. You list the subtopics, questions and evidence those pages cover that yours does not, then decide whether to refresh your page or build a new one."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The ranked backlog from the previous section tells you which keywords matter. This section turns each backlog item into a specific job on a specific URL. Domain-level gap reports are good at showing what is missing across a whole site, but most of the work a firm actually does happens one page at a time. A practice-area page that sits at position 9 for its main term is a better investment than a new article on a topic nobody at the firm can write about with authority."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Run a URL-versus-URL gap"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Most SEO platforms let you analyze a single page instead of a whole domain. In Ahrefs, competing pages use the [\"exact URL\" target mode](https://ahrefs.com/academy/how-to-use-ahrefs/site-explorer/organic-competitors), and the organic competitors report can list competing pages that rank in the top 100 for the keywords your target page gets the most traffic from. Other tools offer a similar page-level view; check the documentation for the exact setting."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The method is the same whichever tool you use:"},{"type":"list","ordered":true,"items":["Enter your page as an exact URL and export the keywords it ranks for.","Enter each of the top three to five ranking pages as exact URLs and export their keywords.","Put the lists side by side and mark keywords the competing pages rank for that your page does not.","Group the missing keywords by the subtopic or question they represent."]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Here is a hypothetical example. A firm's \"personal injury settlement amounts\" page ranks for the head term and a few variants. The pages above it also rank for queries about how settlements are taxed, how long payment takes after a settlement, how medical liens reduce the net amount, and how settlement values differ between injury types. Each of those clusters is a section the firm's page is missing. None of them requires a new URL; all of them belong on the page that already ranks."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Audit the pages that outrank you"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Keyword lists show what a competing page covers. A manual read shows why searchers and Google might prefer it. Open each page that outranks yours and work through the same checklist so the comparison stays consistent:"},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":["**Headings and subtopics.** List every H2 and H3. Note the questions they answer that your page does not.","**Depth.** Does the page explain a process step by step, give examples, or show a worked scenario where yours only states a conclusion?","**Freshness and visible dates.** Is there a published or updated date, and does the content reflect current law, procedure or deadlines?","**Author and attorney review.** Is a named attorney credited as author or reviewer, with a bio that explains their practice?","**Schema.** Check for structured data such as Article, FAQ or LegalService markup, using a rich results test or the page source.","**Media.** Count diagrams, tables, videos and original photos, and note what each one explains.","**Internal links.** Note which related practice-area, location and resource pages it links to.","**Conversion path.** Record how a visitor contacts the firm: click-to-call, chat, a short form, a case evaluation form, or an SMS option.","**Trust signals.** Look for bar admissions, verdicts and settlements with sources, awards with the granting body named, and client reviews."]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Google's guidance frames most of this list. On its helpful content page, Google says that among the parts of E-E-A-T, [\"trust is most important\"](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content), and it adds that E-E-A-T \"itself isn't a specific ranking factor\". The same page says Google gives more weight to content with strong E-E-A-T on topics that could affect people's health, financial stability or safety. Injury law sits squarely in that group. Treat the checklist as a way to find gaps in how a reader would judge your page, not as a scoring formula Google uses."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Refresh an existing page or build a new one"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Once the audit is done, each backlog item needs one of three decisions. These rules of thumb keep the decision quick:"},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":["**Refresh** when your page already ranks somewhere between positions 4 and 20 for the keyword, and the intent of the ranking pages matches the intent of your page. Add the missing sections, update facts, and improve the conversion path.","**Build a new page** when the ranking pages answer a different intent from any page you have, or when you have no page on the topic at all. A \"how long does a truck accident case take\" query rarely belongs on the truck accident practice-area page.","**Merge** when two of your pages compete for the same keyword and neither ranks well. Combine them into the stronger URL and redirect the weaker one."]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Two warnings from Google's helpful content guidance apply here. Google lists [\"changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed\"](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content) as a warning sign, so update the date only when the page has changed in substance. It also lists writing to a particular word count as a warning sign and says it has no preferred word count. Set the scope of a refresh by the subtopics you found missing, not by a length target."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Build better pages, not copies"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A gap analysis tells you what to cover. It does not tell you what to write. Copying the structure and phrasing of a competing page is the fastest way to waste the research. Google's spam policies list as scraping examples [\"Republishing content from other sites without adding any original content or value\"](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies) and copying content, then modifying it only slightly, for example by substituting synonyms or using automated techniques."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"What makes a law firm page better than the page it is competing with is material only the firm can supply:"},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":["Original analysis of how a rule or deadline plays out for a typical client.","Local facts: the courts, filing venues and road or workplace conditions in the area the firm serves.","Attorney insight, written or reviewed by a named lawyer who handles these cases.","Verdict and settlement data you can source to a court record or public report."]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Anything you add is still advertising. [ABA Model Rule 7.1](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_7_1_communication_concerning_a_lawyer_s_services/) bars false or misleading communications about a lawyer or the lawyer's services, and states adopt their own versions with their own comments and opinions. Results claims, comparisons with other firms and words like \"expert\" are common trouble spots. This is general information, not legal advice; check your state's rules, and see our summary of [mass tort marketing compliance rules](/mass-tort-marketing-compliance) for the advertising issues that come up most often."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"Competitor keyword research for Google Ads"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"For paid search, start with a third-party paid-keywords report or ad-history tool to estimate what competitors bid on, then confirm with Google's own data. Keyword Planner, Auction Insights, the search terms report and the Ads Transparency Center show who you actually meet in auctions and what their ads say."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Paid competitor research answers different questions from organic research. You want to know which case types rivals fund, how much of the auction they win, what offers and qualifiers they put in ad text, and which searches waste your budget. Third-party tools give you a starting estimate. Google's first-party tools give you facts about your own auctions, with limits you need to understand before you act on them."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Find the keywords competitors bid on"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Ahrefs, Semrush and SpyFu each offer a paid-keywords view of a competitor domain: the keywords a site appears to have bought ads on, sample ad copy, and estimated traffic and cost. SpyFu's homepage, for example, promises to [\"See every keyword they've ever bought on Google and every ad test they've run\"](https://www.spyfu.com/); that is the company's marketing claim, not an independent measure. Treat every figure in these reports as an estimate. No neutral public benchmark exists for how accurate third-party paid data is, so check it against your own account data before you change budgets."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Google Keyword Planner adds a free first-party view. Its \"Discover new keywords\" option includes [\"Start with a website\"](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7337243?hl=en): you enter a URL and Google looks for keywords related to the content on that site. Entering a competitor's practice-area page returns keyword ideas based on what that page says. Google notes that specifying a keyword and a URL together can produce more ideas than a URL alone."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Two Keyword Planner columns help with paid competition. [\"Competition\"](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/3022575?hl=en) is the number of advertisers that showed on each keyword relative to all keywords across Google, shown as low, medium or high. It measures paid competition, not organic difficulty. The top-of-page bid ranges approximate the 20th and 80th percentiles of historical top-of-page bids, using the last 30 days of data. For a shortlist of terms by case type, see our guide to [which keywords personal injury lawyers should bid on](/personal-injury-ppc-keywords)."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Auction insights: what it shows and what it hides"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"[Auction insights](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2579754?hl=en) is the only report that shows which advertisers you actually compete against in your own auctions. In Google's words, it \"lets you compare your performance with other advertisers who are participating in the same auctions that you are\". It is available for Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns, and for Search it gives six statistics: impression share, overlap rate, outranking share, position above rate, top of page rate and absolute top of the page rate."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The limits matter as much as the data. The report doesn't show insights when impression share is less than 10%, so a small or new campaign may show nothing. Search partners are excluded. Only keywords, ad groups and campaigns that meet a minimum activity threshold get a report. And it never shows competitors' bids, budgets or keyword lists. You see the outcome of shared auctions, not the inputs."},{"type":"table","header":["Metric","Google's definition","How to use it"],"rows":[["Impression share","Your impressions as a share of those you were eligible for","Track whether budget or rank limits you"],["Overlap rate","How often another advertiser's ad received an impression when yours did","Find who you meet most often"],["Outranking share","How often your ad ranked higher, or showed when theirs didn't","Measure head-to-head wins"],["Position above rate","How often their ad showed above yours when both showed","Spot rivals bidding harder on your terms"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Source: Google Ads Help, \"About the auction insights report\", accessed October 22, 2026. Overlap, outranking and position-above wording paraphrases Google's definitions on that page."},{"type":"image","src":"/images/blog-content/competitor-keyword-research/05-auction-insights.jpg","alt":"Auction insights metrics reference card explaining overlap rate, outranking share and position above rate","caption":"Auction insights shows who you meet in the same auctions, but only above 10% impression share."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Google also notes that a competitor's impression share in your report \"may differ from the impression share the competitor can view in their own report\". Read the numbers as relative signals for your auctions only. To open the report, go to Campaigns, Ad groups or Search keywords within the Campaigns menu, tick the items you want, then select \"Auction insights\". Running it at the keyword level for your most expensive case types shows you which firms concentrate on the same cases, which is often different from the list of firms that bid across your whole account."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"See competitors' ads in the Ads Transparency Center"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Google launched the Ads Transparency Center on March 29, 2023 as [\"a searchable repository of verified advertisers across all of our platforms, including Search, Display, and YouTube\"](https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/our-2022-ads-safety-report/), where anyone can search for an advertiser and view its advertiser page. The tool itself is free at [adstransparency.google.com](https://adstransparency.google.com/). According to [9to5Google's launch coverage](https://9to5google.com/2023/03/29/google-ads-transparency-center/), each ad shows the date it last ran, its format (text, video and so on) and the region it was shown in. Check the live tool for the current filters, which may have changed since launch."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Search for each competitor firm by its advertiser name and note what its ads say. A simple log for each firm should capture:"},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":["**Offers.** Free case reviews, \"no fee unless we win\" language, 24/7 availability, home or hospital visits.","**Intake qualifiers.** Phrases that screen leads in the ad itself, such as a diagnosis, a product name, a date range or a state.","**Landing-page themes.** Where the ads point: a practice-area page, a dedicated landing page, a tort page or a quiz-style form.","**Spanish ads.** Whether the firm runs Spanish-language creative, and for which case types.","**Formats.** Whether the firm runs only search text ads or also video and display."]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The point is to see patterns. A rival that has started running ads naming a new product or injury is often building a campaign before its organic pages exist. For social ads, Meta's Ad Library is another free place to view competitors' active ads."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Build ad groups and negatives from competitor themes"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Competitor research becomes useful in an account when you turn it into structure. Group the themes you found into tight ad groups by case type and by intent: a \"truck accident lawyer\" group should not share ads with \"truck accident settlement\" queries, because the searcher is at a different point and the ad and landing page should say different things. Competitor themes also reveal case types you have not funded at all."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The [search terms report](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2472708?hl=en) shows what people actually typed before your ads showed. Google separates a search term, which a person enters, from a keyword, which an advertiser adds to an ad group. Some low-activity search terms are omitted for privacy. Mine the report for irrelevant searches and add them as negatives. Common examples for injury firms:"},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":["Job searches: \"paralegal jobs\", \"lawyer salary\", \"law firm hiring\".","Free or low-cost help: \"free legal aid\", \"pro bono lawyer\", \"legal aid society\".","Other practice areas: divorce, criminal defense, immigration, bankruptcy.","Research and education: \"how to become a lawyer\", \"law school\", \"bar exam\".","Wrong side of the case: \"defense attorney for insurance company\"."]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"One detail catches many accounts. Google's help page on negatives says [\"Negative keywords won't match to close variants or other expansions\"](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2453972?hl=en), so you need to add synonyms and singular or plural versions yourself. The same page says negatives automatically account for casing and misspellings. Build the negative list by theme, review it each month against new search terms, and share it across campaigns."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"For the account structure side of this work, see our [personal injury PPC strategies](/personal-injury-ppc-strategies) and the full [personal injury PPC guide](/personal-injury-ppc). If you would rather have a team run it, here is how our [PPC management for law firms](/services/law-firm-ppc) works."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"Bidding on competitor law firm names: the rules"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Google lets you use a competitor's trademark as a keyword but restricts its use in ad text, and state bars differ: some treat bidding on another lawyer's name as misconduct, while others allow it if the ad is not misleading. Check your own state's rules and opinions before you bid. This section is general information, not legal advice."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Competitor-name bidding is where competitor keyword research for law firms runs into two separate rule systems. Google's advertising policy is one. The rules of professional conduct in each state, and the ethics opinions interpreting them, are the other. An ad can comply with Google's policy and still raise an ethics problem, so you need to check both."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"What Google's trademark policy allows"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Google's [Ads trademark policy](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6118?hl=en) draws a line between keywords and ad text:"},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":["Google will not restrict \"Using trademarks as keywords\", or trademarks in the second-level domain of the display URL.","It will restrict \"Using trademarks in an ad from a direct competitor\", and ads that use a trademark \"in a confusing, deceptive, or misleading way\".","\"The trademark must be used in the ad, not only on the ad's landing page.\"","Google acts on complaints from trademark owners and \"will only accept complaints against specific advertisers identified on the basis of their URL(s)\".","\"A warning will be issued at least 7 days prior to any suspension of your account.\""]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"In practice, a firm can usually add a rival's name as a keyword without breaching Google's policy. Putting that name in the headline or description is a different matter if the rival holds a trademark and complains. Google's policy says nothing about lawyer ethics, though. It only governs what Google will run."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"What state bars and courts have said"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"State authorities have split on competitor-name keywords. The table summarizes the opinions verified for this guide. It is not a survey of every state; most states have no opinion on point, and positions change."},{"type":"table","header":["Jurisdiction","Source and date","Position (short)","Link"],"rows":[["North Carolina","2010 FEO 14, adopted April 27, 2012","Selecting another lawyer's name as keyword violates rules","[NC State Bar](https://www.ncbar.gov/for-lawyers/ethics/adopted-opinions/2010-formal-ethics-opinion-14/)"],["North Carolina","2023 FEO 4, adopted January 19, 2024","Unique firm trade names prohibited; common search terms not","[NC State Bar](https://www.ncbar.gov/for-lawyers/ethics-and-governing-rules/ethics-opinions/opinions/2023-formal-ethics-opinion-4/)"],["Texas","Opinion 661, July 2016","Simply using a competitor's name is not a violation","[Texas ethics committee](https://www.legalethicstexas.com/resources/opinions/opinion-661/)"],["South Carolina","EAO 20-01","May use competitive keyword advertising; no hyperlink diversion","[SC Bar](https://www.scbar.org/media/rhkf1bkz/eao_20-01.pdf)"],["Florida","SC20-1467, March 3, 2022","Permitted if ad clearly names the advertising firm","[Opinion via FindLaw](https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/fl-supreme-court/2164423.html)"],["New Jersey","ACPE Opinion 735, June 25, 2019","Keyword permitted; hyperlink diversion not (secondary summary)","[Eric Goldman](https://blog.ericgoldman.org/?p=20342)"],["New Jersey","Supreme Court, May 22, 2025","Permitted with landing-page disclaimer (secondary summary)","[Olshan Frome Wolosky](https://www.olshanlaw.com/Advertising-Law-Blog/new-jersey-allows-attorneys-to-use-competing-law-firm-names-in-keyword-advertising)"],["Maryland","Ethics Docket 2022-02","Majority: buying a competitor's name violates Rule 8.4","[MSBA](https://msba.org/site/content/Resources-and-Tools-Content/Ethics-Opinions/2022/2022-02.aspx)"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Sources as linked, accessed October 22, 2026. Rows marked \"secondary summary\" rely on law-firm or academic summaries, not the issuing body's own text. General information, not legal advice; rules vary by state and change."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"**North Carolina.** The 2010 opinion says \"it is a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct for a lawyer to select another lawyer's name as a keyword\". Its reasoning relies on Rule 8.4(c), which it quotes: \"It is professional misconduct for a lawyer to engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.\" The 2023 opinion extends this to \"another lawyer's unique firm trade name\", but says the prohibition \"does not apply when the trade name is also a common search term\". Its examples contrast the unique name \"Strike Three Divorce Lawyers\" (prohibited) with \"Durham Family Lawyers\" (permitted), and it warns that the opposite rule would cause a \"trade name land rush\"."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"**Texas.** Opinion 661 says a lawyer \"does not violate the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct by simply using the name of a competing lawyer or law firm as a keyword\". The ad itself still \"must not contain false or misleading communications\", and the opinion expressly \"does not concur with\" North Carolina's 2010 opinion. It cites *Habush v. Cannon*, 828 N.W.2d 876 (Wis. Ct. App. 2013), as finding no violation of Wisconsin's right-of-privacy statute when one firm used a competing firm's name as a keyword. That characterization comes from the Texas opinion; the court's own text was not reviewed for this guide."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"**South Carolina.** EAO 20-01 says \"A lawyer may use internet competitive keyword advertising that includes the names of competing lawyers and law firms.\" It warns against tactics that would create an ad that \"contained or implied derogatory or uncivil statements\", and says \"Surreptitious redirection from a competitor's website to a lawyer's own web page via a hyperlink is prohibited\". The opinion also quotes the Florida Bar Board of Governors' December 2013 minutes: \"The purchase of ad words is permissible as long as the resulting sponsored links clearly are advertising based on their placement and wording\"."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"**Florida.** In case No. SC20-1467, decided March 3, 2022, the Supreme Court of Florida amended Rule 4-7.13 (the provision was added as (b)(12) in 2022; check the current numbering). The new comment calls it impermissible to use another firm's name as a search term that triggers an ad that \"does not clearly indicate\" it is for a different firm. It adds that the ad \"would not be misleading if the first text displayed is the name of the advertising lawyer or law firm\"."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"**New Jersey.** According to Eric Goldman's summary, ACPE Opinion 735 permits buying a competitor lawyer's name as a keyword but not inserting a hyperlink that diverts a user from the searched-for site. According to Olshan Frome Wolosky, the New Jersey Supreme Court on May 22, 2025 permitted the practice with a requirement for a clear and conspicuous disclaimer on the landing page; read the court's opinion itself before relying on any disclaimer wording."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"**Maryland.** The committee's majority opinion says buying a competitor's name as a keyword \"violates the Maryland Attorneys' Rules of Professional Conduct ('MARPC'), Rule 8.4\". MSBA opinions are advisory."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"A cautious approach if you bid on rival names"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"If your firm decides to bid on competitor names after checking its state's rules, a conservative setup reduces the risk on both the Google side and the ethics side:"},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":["**Read your state's rules and recent opinions first.** Positions have shifted over time, as the North Carolina and New Jersey rows show, and many states have no opinion on point.","**Never use the rival's name in ad text.** Keep the name in the keyword list only. That avoids Google's ad-text trademark restriction and most of the confusion concerns raised in the opinions above.","**Make the ad clearly identify your firm.** Florida's comment treats the ad as not misleading if the first text displayed is the advertising firm's name. Putting your firm name first is a sensible default anywhere.","**No hyperlink diversion.** South Carolina and New Jersey both reject redirecting users from a competitor's site or name to yours.","**Consider a landing-page disclaimer where required.** According to Olshan Frome Wolosky's summary, New Jersey now requires one. Even where it is not required, a short statement that the page belongs to your firm removes doubt.","**Document the decision.** Record which rules and opinions you checked, the date, and who approved the campaign.","**Ask ethics counsel** when the rules in your state are unclear or when you advertise across state lines."]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Every version of the ad remains subject to your state's equivalent of [ABA Model Rule 7.1](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_7_1_communication_concerning_a_lawyer_s_services/), which bars false or misleading communications about a lawyer or the lawyer's services. This is general information, not legal advice, and state rules vary."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"Competitor keyword research for mass torts"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Mass tort search demand is driven by regulatory and litigation events, so competitor research means watching FDA notices, JPML dockets and rival launches, and mapping keywords to the stage a tort has reached. The keyword set for a tort changes as the litigation moves, and so does the set of sites you compete with."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"This is the work Mass Tort Marketing Agency does every day for plaintiff firms, and it differs from personal injury research in one important way. A car accident keyword set is stable for years. A tort keyword set can go from nothing to crowded in weeks, and firms that publish and bid early can be well placed by the time demand peaks."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"How tort searches change through the litigation"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Most torts pass through recognizable stages, and the search patterns change at each one. The mechanics of the middle stage are set by statute. Under [28 U.S.C. § 1407(a)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28/1407), when civil actions \"involving one or more common questions of fact are pending in different districts\", they may be transferred to one district \"for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings\". The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation makes those transfers, and the statute says the Panel \"shall consist of seven circuit and district judges\"."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The query mix tends to move from \"side effects\" toward \"lawsuit\" and then toward \"settlement amounts\". There is no published dataset that measures how fast that happens for a given tort. You can watch it for a specific product in Google Trends, keeping in mind that Trends shows relative interest, not volume."},{"type":"table","header":["Stage","Typical query patterns","Competitor types","Your move"],"rows":[["Safety signal or news","\"[product] side effects\", \"[product] recall\"","News, health sites, FDA","Monitor; draft an explainer"],["Early lawsuits","\"[product] lawsuit\", \"[product] lawyer\"","Early-mover firms, lead sellers","Publish a tort page; test ads"],["MDL petition and transfer","\"[product] MDL\", \"[product] class action\"","Firms, legal news, aggregators","Expand page; build intake"],["Bellwether trials","\"[product] verdict\", \"[product] trial\"","Legal news, firms","Add case updates with sources"],["Settlement","\"[product] settlement amounts\", \"payout\"","Firms, news, claims sites","Answer eligibility and timing"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Stages and query patterns are illustrative; actual patterns vary by tort and are not quantified here."},{"type":"image","src":"/images/blog-content/competitor-keyword-research/06-tort-lifecycle.jpg","alt":"Timeline of how mass tort search queries shift from safety signal to MDL to settlement","caption":"Tort query patterns shift as litigation moves from safety signals to MDL and settlement."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The scale of federal multidistrict litigation explains why this layer matters. The JPML reported [162 MDL dockets with 204,977 actions pending](https://www.jpml.uscourts.gov/sites/jpml/files/Pending_MDL_Dockets_By_Actions_Pending-October-1-2026.pdf) in its October 1, 2026 actions-pending report. Its docket type summary for the same date lists [67 products liability litigations](https://www.jpml.uscourts.gov/sites/jpml/files/Pending_MDL_Dockets_By_MDL_Type-October-1-2026.pdf). The two reports use different filters, so the numbers are not directly comparable, but both show how many product cases are active at once and how many keyword sets a mass tort firm could be competing in."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Early signals to monitor"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The firms that win tort keywords usually see the signal before the search demand arrives. Set up a simple monitoring routine around these public sources:"},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":["**FDA Drug Safety Communications.** The [FDA's page](https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/drug-safety-communications) provides \"important information to patients and health care professionals about new safety issues\", and offers email alerts. Recent entries listed there include a Kybella labeling change, an Injectafer boxed warning and updated labeling for over-the-counter alli. Those are examples of what the page lists, not predictions of litigation.","**FDA recalls.** The [recalls, market withdrawals and safety alerts page](https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts) lists public notices about certain recalls. FDA notes that \"Not all recalls have press releases or are posted on this page.\"","**The JPML.** The [Panel's website](https://www.jpml.uscourts.gov/) publishes pending MDL reports, uploaded on the first business day of each month, along with hearing information.","**Google Trends for the product name.** Watch relative interest over time. Trends scales data to 0 to 100, and very low-volume terms show as 0, so a flat line early on does not mean nobody is searching.","**News and trade press** covering the product, the manufacturer and early filings."]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Timing examples come straight from the JPML reports. The Depo-Provera MDL (No. 3140) was filed on 11/26/2024 and transferred on 02/07/2025, and it had 6,412 actions pending on 10/1/2026. Looking back at a tort like that in Trends, alongside the dates rival firms launched pages and ads, is one of the clearest ways to judge how early your own monitoring needs to be."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Spot competitor tort launches early"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Rival firms and lead buyers leave visible traces when they enter a tort. A weekly check of the signals below shows who is moving and how seriously:"},{"type":"table","header":["Signal","Where to see it","What it suggests"],"rows":[["New tort landing page","Rival's site, sitemap, `site:` search","Organic and paid launch is near"],["New paid ads","Ads Transparency Center","Budget committed to the tort"],["New keywords in rival profile","Organic keywords report in an SEO tool","Page is indexed and ranking"],["New intake questions on forms","Rival's case evaluation form","Qualification criteria being tested"],["Spanish-language pages","Rival's site, Spanish SERPs","Broader audience targeting"],["Press or blog updates","Rival's news page, press releases","Public positioning on the tort"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A `site:` search such as `site:example.com \"lawsuit\"` combined with a date filter in the search tools can surface new pages on a competitor's domain. Pair it with the Ads Transparency Center check from the Google Ads section above. For the full sequence of steps once you decide to enter a tort, use our [mass tort launch checklist](/resources/mass-tort-launch-checklist), and see how we structure [mass tort PPC campaigns](/services/mass-tort-ppc) around these stages."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"The mass tort keyword taxonomy"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Tort keywords follow repeatable patterns, which makes it possible to build a keyword set for a new tort within hours of a signal. These templates cover most of the demand you will see in competitor profiles:"},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":["\"[product] lawsuit\"","\"[product] side effects\"","\"[product] [injury]\", for example a product name paired with a diagnosis","\"[product] settlement amounts\"","\"am I eligible for [product] lawsuit\"","\"[product] lawyer\"","\"[product] recall\"","Spanish variants, such as \"demanda [producto]\""]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Each pattern maps to a different intent and a different part of the page. \"Side effects\" and \"recall\" queries come from people still learning. \"Lawsuit\" and \"lawyer\" queries come from people ready to act. Eligibility queries are the closest to intake, and the answer should mirror the questions your intake team asks. Tie each keyword group to the screening questions that decide whether a claimant qualifies; our guide to [mass tort qualification criteria](/blogs/mass-tort-qualification-criteria) covers how to set them."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"For a sense of how large a single tort's keyword universe can become, the largest MDL on the JPML's October 1, 2026 report, MDL 2738 (Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Products), had 69,340 actions pending. Competitor research on a tort at that scale involves national firms, lead sellers, news sites and claim aggregators, all targeting the same product-name patterns."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"Local competitor research for injury firms"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"In local results you compete on relevance, distance and prominence, so research the map pack, Business Profiles and Local Services Ads in each market you serve, not only organic keywords. A firm can win every organic gap in a city and still lose most local calls to three profiles in the map pack."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The mass tort taxonomy in the previous section is national by nature. Personal injury work is the opposite: most car, truck and premises cases come from people searching near where they live or where the crash happened. That changes who your competitors are and which signals you need to compare. A keyword tool sees the organic layer. It sees very little of the map pack and nothing of Local Services Ads, which sit above both for many injury queries."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Treat each metro as its own competitive set. The firms that dominate local results in one county can be invisible two counties over, and a statewide keyword export will blur the difference."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Map pack competitors and Business Profile signals"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Google says [local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence](https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091?hl=en). On prominence, the same help page says the factor is \"also based on info like how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have\", and that \"There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google.\" That gives you a short list of things to compare, because the inputs Google names are mostly visible from outside."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Start with the three to five profiles that appear most often in the map pack for your core queries (\"car accident lawyer\", \"truck accident lawyer\", \"personal injury lawyer\") and record what each one shows."},{"type":"table","header":["Signal","Where to check","What to compare"],"rows":[["Primary category","Business Profile listing","Same category as yours or narrower"],["Additional categories","Profile details or third-party viewers","How many, and whether they fit services"],["Review count and recency","Reviews panel, sorted by newest","Volume gap and how recent reviews are"],["Business name compliance","Profile name versus real signage","Keyword stuffing in the name"],["Website landing page","Link from the profile","Homepage or a matching practice page"],["Photos and posts","Profile media and updates","Recency and whether they look real"],["Proximity to searcher","Map position for your test points","Where each office actually sits"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Source: Google Business Profile Help, local ranking and profile guidelines, accessed October 2026."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Two rows need care. Google's [Business Profile guidelines](https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en) say to \"Use as few categories as possible to describe your overall core business\" and not to use categories \"solely as keywords\". They also say a name \"should reflect your business's real-world name\" and that \"Including unnecessary information in your business name isn't permitted, and could result in the suspension of your Business Profile.\" Individual practitioners such as lawyers have separate guidelines. If a competitor's profile name carries extra keywords, note it, but do not copy it. You would be copying a suspension risk."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Distance is the factor you cannot change from a desk, which is why a single rank check misleads. Check results from several points across the city (a grid of locations, which some local rank tools automate) so you see where each competitor wins and where the pack thins out. A firm downtown may own the core while a suburban office wins the outer ring."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Local Services Ads competitors"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Local Services Ads are a separate competitor layer with their own rules. Google's help page says LSAs let businesses \"receive leads directly from potential customers. These leads come in as phone calls and messages\", and that advertisers [\"Pay only for leads related to your business and the services you offer\"](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6224841?hl=en). The page names the badge the \"Google Verified badge\" and warns that \"If you regularly fail to answer calls or respond to messages, your ad ranking may be affected.\""},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The U.S. legal categories on the same page include \"Personal injury lawyer services\", \"Malpractice lawyer services\" and \"Disability lawyer services\", among others. Search each relevant category phrase in your market from a phone, note which firms appear, their review counts and whether the badge shows. Google does not publish LSA cost per lead for legal categories, so do not plan from a number you saw quoted elsewhere. The useful output is a list of who is buying this layer in your city, which tells you whether a rival's phones are fed by ads, by the map pack or by organic pages."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"City modifiers without doorway pages"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"City pages are the obvious response to local gaps, and the riskiest one. Google's spam policies say [doorway abuse](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies) \"is when sites or pages are created to rank for specific, similar search queries\", with the example \"Having multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page.\" The same policies define scaled content abuse as many pages generated \"for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users… no matter how it's created\"."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Build a city page only when you have something local to say: the office address and staff who work there, the courts and venues that hear cases, local roads or crash patterns described from public sources, and how intake works for that area. If the only difference between two pages is the city name, merge them."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Spanish-language competitor keywords"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Research Spanish queries as a separate project. Spanish results often show different competitors, different publishers and different advertisers from the English results for the same case type, so an English gap export tells you little about them."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Set the language and location in each tool before you pull keywords, run your manual SERP census in Spanish, and look up competitors in the [Ads Transparency Center](https://adstransparency.google.com/) to see whether they run Spanish ads. Ask bilingual intake staff how callers describe their situation, because those phrases rarely match a dictionary translation. Translating your English keyword list is not keyword research. It produces terms nobody types and misses the ones people do."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"AI answers, YouTube and forums as competitor layers"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Test which sources AI answers cite for your target queries with a fixed prompt grid, and check the YouTube and forum results that appear on your SERPs. These are competitor layers that keyword tools only partly see, and they need their own short routine."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The organic gap analysis tells you which pages rank. It does not tell you which domains an AI answer quotes, or which video a prospective client watches before calling. Both shape who gets the call."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Test AI answers with a prompt grid"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A prompt grid is a fixed set of questions you ask the same AI platforms on a schedule, recording which sources each answer cites. Fixing the prompts matters more than the number of them: answers vary by wording, location and date, so the only way to see change is to ask the same things the same way each cycle."},{"type":"table","header":["Prompt type","Example prompt","Platforms","What to record"],"rows":[["Category","best truck accident lawyer in [city]","AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT","Cited domains, date, location"],["Comparison","[Firm A] vs [Firm B] for car accidents","ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini","Which firms are named and why"],["Problem","what should I do after a rideshare accident","AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity","Cited guides and publishers"],["Eligibility","who qualifies for the [product] lawsuit","AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini","Cited firms, directories, news"],["Cost","how much does a personal injury lawyer charge","AI Overviews, Perplexity, Gemini","Cited pages and figures quoted"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Record the answer date, the location you tested from, every cited domain and whether your site appears. Over a few cycles you will see which domains keep getting cited for your case types. Those are your AI-answer competitors, and they are often directories, publishers and legal information sites rather than firms."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Your own data helps here. Google says sites appearing in [AI Overviews and AI Mode](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features) \"are included in the overall search traffic in Search Console\", reported \"within the 'Web' search type\". On June 3, 2026, Google also [began testing a Search Console toggle](https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/new-controls-website-owners/) for whether a site appears in and helps ground generative AI Search features, along with insights on \"which pages appear in AI responses and in what countries\". The post's update note says these features had rolled out to all websites worldwide as of August 31, 2026. Check that report alongside the grid."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"For how to act on what the grid shows, see our guide to [AEO for personal injury lawyers](/blogs/aeo-for-personal-injury-lawyers), and our [AI search optimization](/services/ai-search-optimization) page for how that work is scoped."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"YouTube and forum competitors"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Video and forum results take real space on legal SERPs. In a Google US desktop search we ran on October 22, 2026, a YouTube tutorial sat at position 7 for \"competitor keyword research\" itself. Injury queries often show video carousels and discussion threads in the same way."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Search YouTube for your main case types and note which channels and titles rank: firms, legal explainers and news clips all compete for the same viewer. Read forum threads that rank for your queries too. They show the exact language clients use (\"insurance lowballed me\", \"do I need a lawyer for a minor crash\"), which is better keyword input than any tool's suggestions."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Bing deserves one check as well. Statcounter's [U.S. search engine market share figures for September 2026](https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/all/united-states-of-america) put Google at 85.19% and Bing at 9.89%, measured from referral page views rather than search counts. That share is small but not zero, so a quick look at who ranks there for your top queries is worth the time."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"Turn the research into a repeatable plan"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Put the steps on one checklist, run a light review monthly and a full gap analysis on a regular cycle (many teams use quarterly), and report to partners in signed cases, not rankings. The research only pays off if it repeats; a single gap analysis goes stale as soon as competitors publish."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The cadence below is a suggestion. Markets move at different speeds: a mass tort firm watching a new litigation needs faster checks than a single-office firm in a stable market."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"The one-page checklist"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"This checklist compresses the full process into one sheet you can run each review cycle."},{"type":"image","src":"/images/blog-content/competitor-keyword-research/07-checklist.jpg","alt":"One-page competitor keyword research checklist for law firm marketing teams","caption":"The one-page checklist: print it and run it each review cycle."},{"type":"list","ordered":true,"items":["Write down the practice areas, markets and case types in scope for this cycle.","Run a manual SERP census for your core queries in each market.","Pick three to five search competitors, removing directories you cannot outrank.","Pull each competitor's keyword profile and top pages, with the export date.","Run a domain-level gap and label keywords as missing, weak or shared.","Check volumes and positions against your own Search Console and search terms data.","Score each gap for case value, ability to rank and intent fit.","Check the live SERP for format and cannibalization before assigning a URL.","Run URL-versus-URL gaps for the pages that outrank your existing pages.","Review competitor ads, auction insights and the Ads Transparency Center.","Check every competitor-name idea against your state bar's rules first.","Repeat the census for local results, the map pack and Local Services Ads.","Run the Spanish-language census if you take Spanish-speaking clients.","Run the AI prompt grid and log cited domains.","Update rank tracking and the partner report with the new keyword groups."]},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Cadence, tracking and reporting to partners"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Split the work into light recurring checks and heavier periodic analysis. The cadences below are suggestions, not rules."},{"type":"table","header":["Task","Cadence (suggested)","Owner","Output"],"rows":[["Rank tracking","Weekly","Marketing lead","Position changes by keyword group"],["Competitor new pages and keywords","Monthly","SEO specialist","List of new competitor pages"],["SERP census","Quarterly","SEO specialist","Updated competitor set per market"],["Full gap analysis","Quarterly or twice a year","SEO specialist","Scored gap backlog"],["Auction insights review","Monthly","PPC manager","New or rising competitors in auctions"],["AI prompt grid","Monthly","Marketing lead","Cited domains log"],["FDA and JPML monitoring","Weekly (mass tort firms)","Litigation marketing lead","New signals and tort watchlist"],["Partner report","Monthly","Marketing lead","Leads and signed cases by group"]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The JPML posts its Pending MDL Reports on the first business day of each month, according to its [Pending MDLs page](https://www.jpml.uscourts.gov/pending-mdls-0), which makes a monthly check the natural minimum for mass tort teams."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Partners do not need ranking screenshots. Report by keyword group: which groups you won or moved, which pages shipped, and the leads and signed cases each group produced. That requires intake to tag the source page or campaign on every lead, which is the same discipline covered in our [mass tort intake guide](/blogs/mass-tort-intake-guide). When a keyword group brings calls that do not sign, the problem may be the query, the page or intake, and only tagged data tells you which."},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Common mistakes and misleading data"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Most failed gap projects fail for a small set of repeated reasons:"},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":["Studying the wrong competitors: the firm across town instead of the sites that actually rank.","Chasing volume over case value, so traffic rises while signed cases do not.","Comparing keyword difficulty scores across tools, which use different models.","Adding up volumes for close variants that a tool has already clustered.","Trusting \"zero volume\" labels on long-tail legal queries that do bring calls.","Copying a competitor's page structure and wording instead of building a better page.","Creating a new page that competes with one you already have.","Reading brand-driven or directory rankings as gaps you can realistically close.","Ignoring intake capacity, so new leads arrive faster than staff can call them back."]},{"type":"heading","level":3,"text":"DIY, in-house or outside help"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"DIY works when the scope is small: one market, a few practice areas and someone who can give the process steady time each month. The free route covers most of the first steps, and the checklist above keeps it consistent."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Outside help makes more sense with several markets, mass torts that need fast monitoring, or paid search where competitor-name ethics rules apply. When you talk to an agency, ask how it finds search competitors, which tools it uses and why, and whether it reports in leads and signed cases. For mass tort practices, that is the work our [mass tort SEO](/services/mass-tort-seo) team does, and our comparison page explains [how a lead-generation partner differs from an SEO-only agency](/rankings-io-alternative). For the wider channel picture, see our guide to [law firm marketing](/blogs/law-firm-marketing)."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"Sources and methodology"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"This guide was built from primary documentation, our own dated SERP pulls and keyword export, and a close reading of the guides that currently rank for the topic. It was researched on October 22, 2026."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We ran Google US desktop searches for \"competitor keyword research\", two close variants and a legal long-tail check on October 22, 2026. The keyword volumes and difficulty scores in the worked example come from MTMA's own keyword-gap export dated October 22, 2026. Prices and plan details were read from vendor pricing pages and are stated as of October 2026; confirm them with the vendor before you buy. No tool was tested hands-on for this article: tool descriptions come from each vendor's own documentation."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Secondary sources were used only with attribution in the sentence where they appear: cmlabs, Search Engine Journal, 9to5Google, Eric Goldman, Olshan Frome Wolosky and WordStream. Competing guides read for coverage included a legal marketing agency's interactive guide, an independent consultant's guide for law firms, and guides from SE Ranking, SEOBoost and Semrush. The legal sections are general information, not legal advice, and rules vary by state."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Key primary sources (all accessed October 22, 2026):"},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":["[Google Search Central: overview of search operators](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-operators)","[Google Search Central: spam policies](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies)","[Google Search Central: AI features and your website](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features)","[Google Search Central Blog: Search Console performance data deep dive](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/10/performance-data-deep-dive)","[Google Ads Help: auction insights](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2579754?hl=en)","[Google Ads Help: Local Services Ads](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6224841?hl=en)","[Google Business Profile Help: local ranking](https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091?hl=en)","[Google Ads trademark policy](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6118?hl=en)","[Texas Professional Ethics Committee Opinion 661](https://www.legalethicstexas.com/resources/opinions/opinion-661/)","[North Carolina 2010 Formal Ethics Opinion 14](https://www.ncbar.gov/for-lawyers/ethics/adopted-opinions/2010-formal-ethics-opinion-14/)","[Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation](https://www.jpml.uscourts.gov/)","[U.S. Copyright Office Circular 33](https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ33.pdf)"]}],"faqs":[{"question":"What is competitor keyword research?","answer":"Competitor keyword research is the process of finding the search queries your competitors rank for or bid on, comparing them with your own, and deciding which gaps are worth closing. For a law firm, the competitors that matter are the sites ranking for your target queries, which often include directories and publishers as well as other firms. The output is a prioritized list of keywords and pages, scored by how likely each one is to bring a signed case."},{"question":"Is there a free tool to research competitor keywords?","answer":"Yes, with limits. Ahrefs Free gives verified site owners some keyword data for their own site, Google Keyword Planner can suggest keywords from any website you enter, and a manual search of the results page shows who ranks for your core queries. Search Console shows your own queries. None of these gives a full competitor keyword profile, which is the main thing paid tools add. Many teams start free and buy a single month when they need a full gap export."},{"question":"What keywords are my competitors using?","answer":"Start with what you can see: search your core case types and note who ranks and who runs ads. Then use a competitor keyword report in an SEO tool, which lists the queries a domain ranks for with estimated volume and position, and a paid-keywords report for their ads. Begin with their top pages, because a few pages usually carry most of their traffic. Treat every number as a tool estimate and check it against your own data."},{"question":"What does competitor research mean?","answer":"In marketing, competitor research means studying the businesses that compete for the same customers so you can see where you are stronger or weaker. In search, it narrows to the sites that compete for the same queries, which may not be the firms you compete with for referrals or lateral hires. Competitor keyword research is the search-specific part: which queries, pages and ads bring those rivals their visibility, and which of them you could win."},{"question":"Is keyword research still relevant with AI search?","answer":"Yes. People still type and speak queries, and Google counts appearances in AI Overviews and AI Mode within Search Console's Web search type, so query-level data still applies. What changes is the scope: you also need to check which sources AI answers cite for your key questions. Treat keyword research as the base layer and add a fixed prompt grid on top, rather than replacing one with the other."},{"question":"How do I find my SEO competitors?","answer":"Search your ten to twenty most valuable queries in each market and record every domain on page one. The domains that appear most often are your search competitors. Then confirm the list with an organic competitors report in an SEO tool, which ranks domains by shared keywords. Remove directories and national publishers you cannot realistically outrank, keep the firms and sites you can, and narrow to a working set."},{"question":"Does Google's related: operator still work?","answer":"No, not as a documented tool. Google's current list of search operators no longer includes `related:`, and cmlabs reported in 2023 that Google removed it from its guide. Some guides still recommend it, but it is not a reliable way to find competitors today. Use a manual results-page census, the \"Start with a website\" option in Keyword Planner, or a tool's organic competitors report instead."},{"question":"How many competitors should I analyze?","answer":"There is no standard number. Three to five is a practical convention: enough to show patterns, few enough to review by hand. Tools set their own limits, for example Semrush's Keyword Gap compares up to five domains at once. If you work in several markets, pick three to five per market rather than one national list, because local competitors differ from city to city."},{"question":"What is the difference between a keyword gap and a content gap?","answer":"A keyword gap is a list of queries competitors rank for and you do not, or where you rank worse. A content gap is the topic or page that is missing behind those queries. One content gap often covers dozens of keyword gaps, because a single strong page can rank for many related queries. Use the keyword gap to find the opportunity and the content gap to decide what to build."},{"question":"What are the best competitor keyword research tools?","answer":"The main paid options are Ahrefs, Semrush, SE Ranking, SpyFu, Moz and Mangools, each with competitor and gap reports that differ in database, limits and price. The free options are Google Keyword Planner, Search Console, Google Trends and Ahrefs Free. The right choice depends on whether you need organic data, paid data or both, and on how many markets you track. Check current prices and plan limits with each vendor before buying."},{"question":"Can Google Keyword Planner show a competitor's keywords?","answer":"Not directly. Keyword Planner's \"Start with a website\" option suggests keywords related to the content of any site you enter, which works as a discovery tool. It does not show which keywords that site ranks for or bids on, and its volumes are averages that some low-spend accounts see only as ranges. Use it for ideas, then confirm what competitors actually rank for with a manual search or an SEO tool."},{"question":"How accurate are competitor traffic and volume estimates?","answer":"They are estimates, and there is no neutral public benchmark for how accurate any vendor is. Tools model traffic from estimated volume and position, cluster close variants and assign shared volumes, and often disagree with each other. Use them to compare and rank opportunities, not as forecasts. Check them against your own Search Console impressions and your paid search terms data wherever the two overlap."},{"question":"What is a good keyword difficulty score to target?","answer":"There is no universal number. Each tool calculates difficulty differently: Ahrefs bases its score on referring domains to the top-ranking pages, while Semrush combines several median factors. A score from one tool cannot be compared with another. Low scores are a useful starting filter for newer sites, but the better test is the live results page: if pages like yours already rank, the query is within reach."},{"question":"How do I find keywords my competitors rank for but I don't?","answer":"Run a keyword gap analysis. Enter your domain and three to five competitors into a gap tool, filter to keywords where competitors rank and you do not, and export the list. Ahrefs describes the principle as taking all the keywords a competitor ranks for and subtracting the ones you rank for. Then score the list for case value, ability to rank and intent before you plan any pages."},{"question":"Can I see what keywords competitors bid on in Google Ads?","answer":"Partly. Third-party tools estimate competitors' paid keywords and ad copy. Google's own auction insights report shows how often you meet other advertisers in the same auctions, but it shows no bids, budgets or keyword lists. The Ads Transparency Center shows ads from verified advertisers. Together these give a useful picture of who is bidding and what they say, but not the exact keyword list."},{"question":"Can a law firm bid on a competitor's name in Google Ads?","answer":"It depends on your state. Google's trademark policy does not restrict trademarks as keywords, but lawyer ethics rules are a separate layer, and the states split. North Carolina's ethics opinion treats it as a violation, while Texas Opinion 661 says simply using a competitor's name as a keyword is not one. This is general information, not legal advice. Check your own state bar's rules and opinions before you bid on any competitor name."},{"question":"How often should I do competitor keyword research?","answer":"Run light checks monthly (new competitor pages, rank movement, auction insights and the AI prompt grid) and a full gap analysis on a regular cycle. Many teams use quarterly, but that is a convention, not a rule. Mass tort firms need faster monitoring of FDA and JPML signals, and a firm entering a new market or practice area should run a full analysis before launch."},{"question":"How long does competitor keyword research take?","answer":"It depends on scope: the number of markets, practice areas and competitors, whether you include paid search, local results and Spanish queries, and how much cleanup the exports need. A single practice area in one city is a much smaller job than a multi-state mass tort program. Rather than plan around a fixed time, scope the cycle with the checklist and track how long your own team takes."},{"question":"What is a competitor analysis example for a law firm?","answer":"Here is a hypothetical example. A single-office injury firm in [city] searches its top fifteen queries and finds that two local firms and a legal directory hold most first-page spots. A gap export shows the firms rank for truck accident and dog bite queries where it has no pages. The firm scores those gaps, builds one detailed truck accident page with local court information, and tracks leads from it."},{"question":"What are the four P's of competitive analysis?","answer":"The four P's usually refer to the marketing mix: product, price, place and promotion. Applied to competitors, you compare what each rival offers, how it prices or structures fees, where and how clients reach it, and how it promotes itself. For a law firm, search visibility sits mainly under promotion and place, which is why competitor keyword research is one part of a wider competitive analysis."},{"question":"What are the five steps of a competitive analysis?","answer":"A common, generic sequence is: identify your competitors, gather information on what they offer and how they market, compare their strengths and weaknesses with yours, find the gaps and opportunities, and turn them into actions you track. Competitor keyword research follows the same shape for search, with keyword profiles, gap analysis and a scored backlog standing in for the general steps."},{"question":"How do mass tort firms research competitor keywords?","answer":"Mass tort firms research by litigation stage. Early on, they watch FDA safety communications, recalls and JPML filings, and check which publishers and firms start ranking for \"[product] lawsuit\" queries. As the litigation matures, they track who adds eligibility, settlement and injury-specific pages, and who bids in the auctions. Because tort searches shift quickly, the cadence is faster than in personal injury, and signed-case tracking by tort matters most."},{"question":"How do I research local competitors for a personal injury firm?","answer":"Check the map pack, Business Profiles and Local Services Ads separately from organic results. Note each competitor's categories, review count and recency, landing page and office location, and test from several points across the city because distance shapes results. Search the Local Services Ads categories for injury work to see who buys leads there. Then run your organic gap for the same market."},{"question":"Should I hire an agency for competitor keyword research?","answer":"Hire help when the scope outgrows your team: several markets, mass torts that need constant monitoring, or paid search where competitor-name ethics rules apply. A single-market firm with a few practice areas can often do it in-house with the checklist. If you hire, ask how the agency picks competitors, which tools it uses, and whether it reports in leads and signed cases rather than rankings."}],"related":["legal-case-management-software","mass-tort-law-firm-seo","law-firm-marketing","legal-ai-tools"]}