Businesses and their marketers have been analyzing competitors for pretty much forever. Healthy competition is a good thing for business, pushing companies to innovate and improve. But to take advantage of that pressure and enhance your business, you have to gain a complete understanding of both current and potential competitors. That calls for some comprehensive competition analysis – especially in the realm of search engine optimization (SEO).
Well, the same goes for SEO, which hasn’t been a thing for forever and only became important for business in the ’90s. Performing an SEO competitor analysis is a critical step in content and search engine marketing. It is absolutely necessary if you want to rank on a search engine like Google Search, and especially if you want to stand out from (and ahead of) others in your industry. Utilizing tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console can provide invaluable insights into your website’s performance compared to your competitors.
Let’s break down everything you need to know about SEO competitor analysis, including how to properly perform one and which tools can help you conduct them more effectively. From understanding the importance of an SEO competitor analysis template to leveraging social media and content marketing strategies, we’ve got you covered.
What Is SEO Competitor Analysis?
Before we go any further, let’s clarify what exactly an SEO competitor analysis is. In short, it’s a strategic process that involves analyzing the online presence, strategies and performance of your SEO competitors using various SEO competitor analysis tools.
And why are these analyses important? To gain valuable insights that will help you improve your own SEO efforts and online presence. Basically, it’s about learning and evaluating how well (or not-so-well) your competitors are doing in terms of search engine rankings, organic traffic, keywords, content and other SEO-related aspects. Throughout the process, tools like SEO PowerSuite or free SEO tools can assist you in identifying opportunities to enhance your own website’s visibility and performance in search results pages (SERPs).
We know that competition is healthy for business, and the same is true here. If a competitor of yours is doing really well, ranking on page 1 of Google – maybe even in position 1 – it only motivates you to do better for your own business. That healthy competition is what helps you innovate and, in the long term, provide a better experience for your customers. Conducting a thorough competitor keyword analysis can reveal which keywords are driving traffic to your competitors’ sites and how you can incorporate them into your own content strategy.
There’s also an important distinction to be made between direct competitors in the market and SEO competition. In reality, company Y may have more sales than you, but it’s company Z that is doing better SEO work. In this case, company Z would be your focus of the analysis. Identifying your competitors accurately is crucial; they may be direct competitors or indirect competitors, and understanding this helps in tailoring your SEO efforts accordingly.
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Why Is Competitor Analysis So Essential?
The short and sweet of it is this: Competitor analysis is essential simply because it helps you do better by developing an understanding of the current state of the SEO landscape in your industry. It helps you benchmark your SEO efforts against your competitors, which is vital for improving your SEO performance.
The longer, more detailed, and benefit-explaining version of that is as follows.
Identify Strengths, Weaknesses and Gaps In Your SEO Strategy
By performing a competitor analysis, you can more easily identify aspects of your SEO strategy that you’re doing well — and not so well. The same is true for your competitors. What are they currently good at, and what would make their content better? This includes analyzing their website design, content quality, and use of targeted keywords.
Once you’re privy to all the strengths, weaknesses and gaps of you and your industry partners, you can take what you’ve learned and apply it directly to your own SEO marketing efforts. For instance, if you notice that competitors are excelling in social media engagement or utilizing a specific SEO competitor analysis template, you can adopt similar strategies.
Unlock New Ways To Reach Your Audience
If you never check in on what’s happenin’, you’ll never know what’s happenin’. For all you know, before you start running regular competitor analyses, your competition could be employing some new-fangled strategy that you had no idea existed. They might be leveraging Google Ads in a novel way or optimizing their Google Business Profile more effectively. And it could be working really well.
Learning is always a good thing and (almost) never a bad thing, so if you can add another way to reach your audience to your toolbelt, you should. Especially if it has proven effective. Evaluating competitors’ content and their keyword rankings can provide insights into what resonates with your shared audience.
Drive Organic Traffic
The result of all of this (and yes, we’ll outline how to properly analyze your competitors in just a moment) is that you get to optimize your SEO strategy in new and better ways. The outcome? Increased organic traffic to your website, higher-quality content and a more robust understanding of your industry’s SEO landscape. This improvement in SEO performance can lead to better placement in search results, ultimately attracting more potential customers.
How To Research and Analyze SEO Competitors
With all of the following in mind, it’s time to learn how to actually conduct some SEO competitor analysis. We’ve gathered what we feel to be the six most essential steps to an effective competitive analysis. Other blogs will have ten, some five, but we’ve landed on six.
So without further ado…
1. Identify SEO Competitors
The first step is to identify who your main SEO competitors are in your industry or niche. Emphasis on SEO. For the intents and purposes of SEO competitor analysis, these are the websites that rank well for the same keywords or topics that you’re currently targeting or wish to target. Utilizing the Google Keyword Planner can help in discovering who is competing for your desired keywords.
Remember, the organizations ranking well on Google for certain keywords may be completely different from your actual market competitors – or maybe they’re not. Whatever the case, punch a keyword into Google, analyze the SERP (Search Engine Results Page), and make note of the brands that are popping up frequently. Don’t forget to consider both direct competitors and indirect competitors in your analysis.
2. Conduct a Keyword Gap Analysis
Analyze the keywords your competitors are targeting and look for gaps. This involves identifying keywords they are ranking for as well as the ones they might be targeting but haven’t achieved strong results for yet. This will help you identify opportunities for your own content and SEO strategy.
For example, we use tools like MarketMuse and Semrush at Brafton. Conducting keyword research within these platforms is great because they automatically analyze your SEO competitors’ keyword usage. They can literally tell you which keywords they’re using well, which they’re not, and some that are missing altogether. Performing an SEO keyword competition analysis allows you to focus on high-value keywords that your competitors might have overlooked.
3. Focus on Intent Over Volume
A high search volume doesn’t always equal high traffic or even high conversion. In fact, it seldom does. Search intent is a much more important part of SEO than volume alone. If you can give users exactly what they’re looking for, you’ll be better off – from both an SEO and conversion point of view. Understanding search intent helps in creating content that meets the needs of your audience, improving engagement and rankings.
4. Find and Fill Content Library Gaps
Searching for, discovering, and filling both keyword gaps and content library gaps will help you gain an edge over your competition.
For the keyword part of this strategy, it’s all about finding keywords that your competitors are ranking for that you are not, but would like to be. Once those have been identified, running a content gap analysis will help you understand where there may be gaps in your own content strategy. Equipped with the keywords and content types you need to level the playing field, you can get to work on your digital marketing strategy to amend those rifts. This might involve enhancing your website design to better showcase new content or leveraging social media channels for broader distribution.
5. Monitor SERP Rankings
Monitoring SERP rankings is a major part of the SEO process and can provide valuable insight into your competition. A competitor’s website, like yours, will naturally fluctuate as time passes, strategies change, and Google makes updates. Keeping an eye on the search results pages for your target keywords will help you learn not only who your SEO competitors are but how they’re performing over time for your keywords. Regular site audits can help you stay informed about your website’s health in comparison to your competitors.
6. Analyze Backlinks and Technical SEO
This step is easiest done with a specialized tool, like Ahrefs or Moz. Conducting a backlink profile analysis on a competitor’s website will help you develop a sense of the type of backlinks that they’re building. This will give you an idea of which links are reputable or industry-standard. Additionally, examining their technical SEO aspects, such as site speed and mobile responsiveness, can uncover areas where you can outperform them.
When to Conduct a Competitor Analysis
SEO competitive analysis isn’t a one-and-done type of deal. For maximum effectiveness, they need to be carried out regularly. That said, there are a few important moments when conducting an analysis is particularly useful:
- When you’ve launched a new website and are just getting started on your content strategy and SEO efforts.
- When you’re in the planning phase of a robust SEO strategy.
- When you notice that your competitors are outranking you for particular keywords.
- When your rankings have dropped.
Regular competitor analysis ensures you stay ahead in the dynamic field of SEO, adapting to changes in search algorithms and market trends.
Finding the Right SEO Competitor Analysis Tools For the Job
The SEO and content market is chock-full of helpful and valuable tools that make our lives as marketers and SEO professionals much easier. But there also lies the problem: How do you know which SEO tool to choose, or which one is best suited for your business? Well, let’s answer those questions now.
A good competitor analysis tool should provide features that allow you to complete the following tasks with relative ease:
- Keyword research.
- Rank tracking.
- Competitor analysis.
- Backlink analysis.
- On-page optimization.
- Technical SEO auditing.
- Site health monitoring.
- Local SEO support.
- Reporting and advanced analytics.
We’re partial to a few options here at Brafton, such as:
With any one of these options, you should have most of what you need to complete a robust analysis of your SEO competitors. Some of these tools also offer insights into SEO comparison and detailed SEO analysis, allowing you to fine-tune your strategies.
Remember, the right tool can make all the difference in effectively conducting an SEO competitor analysis. Whether it’s uncovering new keywords with Google Keyword Planner or tracking performance with Google Analytics, utilizing these resources is essential.
Happy ranking!
Editor’s Note: Updated January 2025.
