You cannot see another site's search traffic. Google Search Console only shows data for sites you have verified as yours. What you can do is use a tool that estimates which keywords a competitor ranks for, then check the promising terms against real search results before acting on them.

Measured versus estimated

  • Measured: your own clicks, impressions and average positions in Google Search Console.
  • Estimated: a competitor's keywords, positions and traffic in third-party tools. Semrush, for example, estimates traffic from a site's position for each keyword, that keyword's monthly search volume and the typical click-through rate for that position.

Use competitor traffic figures to rank which terms matter more, not as numbers to report or plan revenue on.

The workflow

  1. Pick three real competitors. Not the biggest names in your category, but stores of similar size that appear when you search for your own products.
  2. Pull their ranking keywords. In Semrush, choose the database for the country you sell in, enter the competitor's domain in Organic Research and open the Positions report. Use the positions filter to keep the top 20.
  3. Remove what you cannot use: their brand name, products you do not sell, and informational terms with no link to buying.
  4. Group the rest by page type: product terms ("linen apron"), category terms ("kitchen aprons") and questions ("how to wash linen").
  5. Check the results page yourself for the top 10–20 terms. If it shows only marketplaces and large retailers, a small store will struggle there. If small shops and blog posts appear, the term is realistic.
  6. Map each group to one page. Category terms go to a category page, questions to a guide. One page per intent, not one page per wording of a keyword.

A worked example

Take a small store selling linen kitchen textiles. It checks three shops of similar size, and after filtering 140 terms remain. Grouping them shows about 40 are variations of "linen apron", 25 are about washing and care, and the rest are scattered. That gives two concrete tasks: make the apron category page answer what those searches want (sizes, colours, care), and write one care guide.

Without a paid tool

A limited version is free: search your main product terms, note which competitors appear, and read what their ranking pages contain. It is slower, and you only see terms you already thought of, which is exactly the gap a keyword tool fills.

Where Semrush fits

Semrush fits this workflow because Organic Research lists a competitor's estimated keywords and positions in one table, and its Keyword Gap tool compares your keyword profile with up to five competitors side by side. It is more than you need if you only check a handful of terms a month; the free method above covers that.