Conduct SEO Competitor Analysis

Competitor analysis in SEO is the discipline of learning why other pages rank, where they are vulnerable, and how you can win by building something meaningfully better for users. In 2025–2026, “better” is no longer only about keywords and backlinks—modern wins come from aligning with search intent, demonstrating real expertise and trust signals, improving user experience, and making content easy for both humans and machines (including LLM-style answer systems) to parse.

This lesson gives you a repeatable framework: identify the right competitors, benchmark performance, find keyword and content gaps, compare authority signals, and turn the insights into a prioritized roadmap you can execute.

SEO competitor analysis vs. business competition

Your true SEO competitors are the domains and pages that appear in the search results for your target queries—whether or not they sell what you sell. A software company can lose an informational SERP to a forum thread, a university tutorial, a YouTube video, or a large publisher. That's why competitor analysis begins in the SERP, not in your industry org chart.

An 8-step competitor analysis framework for 2025–2026

1) Identify your real SERP competitors

• Start with search behavior: Query 10–20 target keywords and record which domains repeatedly rank in the top results.
• Separate by intent: Informational keywords often surface publishers, communities (forums), or reference sites; commercial keywords surface product and affiliate pages.
• Pick a focused set: Select 4–7 competitors you will track consistently (a mix of direct and SERP competitors).
• Useful tools: Semrush (Organic Research → Competitors), Ahrefs (Competing domains), Moz (Organic competitors).

2) Benchmark visibility and trendlines

Avoid one-point-in-time comparisons. SEO strategy depends on trend direction.

• Compare the last 12–16 months of estimated organic traffic and visibility/share-of-voice.
• Track indexed page growth (are they scaling content?)
• Compare authority metrics (DR/DA or similar) cautiously—use them as directional signals, not truth.
• Look for opportunity windows: a competitor that dropped sharply may have quality issues, outdated content, or technical problems you can outperform.

3) Run keyword gap analysis (the highest ROI step)

Keyword gaps reveal what competitors rank for that you do not—and what you can realistically target with the right page type and intent match.

Filtering rule that prevents wasted effort: prioritize by business relevance + intent match first, difficulty second. If you cannot satisfy the intent better than the current top results, the keyword is a trap.

4) Reverse engineer competitor top pages

• Pull each competitor’s top 10–25 organic landing pages.
• For each important page, capture:
• Content type: guide, tutorial, comparison, tool, listicle, review, category page.
• Structure: H2/H3 outline, tables, checklists, definitions, examples.
• E-E-A-T signals: author bio, credentials, citations, update dates, editorial policy.
• Rich results: schema usage, featured snippet patterns, “People also ask” coverage.
• Internal linking: how the page is supported by topic clusters and navigation.

Ask the only question that matters: “What makes this page better for users right now?” Then build the plan to exceed it.

5) Evaluate quality and UX gaps using a scoring rubric

For your priority keywords, compare your page vs. the top competitor page and score 1–5:

• Intent satisfaction (does it fully answer the query?)
• Uniqueness (original examples, data, diagrams, expert explanation)
• Freshness (accuracy, updated references, current screenshots)
• Readability (scannable headings, short paragraphs, clear steps)
• Visual support (figures, tables, code blocks, diagrams)
• Mobile usability and performance (Core Web Vitals mindset)
• Answer clarity (direct definitions and structured sections that can be extracted into snippets)

Your goal isn’t to match content—it’s to create content that is clearly superior in usefulness, clarity, and trust.

6) Compare backlink profiles (quality over quantity)

• Referring domains: diversity matters more than raw link count.
• Link quality: editorial links from credible sites beat directories and spam.
• Anchor distribution: natural anchors are varied; over-optimized anchors can be a risk signal.
• Link velocity: understand whether they are gaining links steadily or in bursts.
• Lost vs. new links: lost links often reveal pages that became outdated or were removed.
• Replicable links: find resource pages, citations, and unlinked brand mentions you can pursue.

7) Compare technical foundations and crawlability

Technical differences often explain “mystery” ranking gaps.

• Indexation and crawl paths (orphan pages, deep pages, internal link depth)
• URL structure and hierarchy consistency
• Schema markup depth (Article, Breadcrumb, FAQ where appropriate, Organization, etc.)
• Performance and stability (fast rendering, fewer layout shifts, efficient assets)
• Mobile usability and accessibility basics
• HTTPS and security signals (modern TLS, safe redirects, no mixed content)

8) Synthesize into an actionable roadmap

Competitor analysis has value only when it becomes a prioritized plan.

1. Quick wins: improve pages ranking 11–30 and strengthen internal linking to them.
2. Gap fills: build missing pages for high-intent keywords where you can be better than existing results.
3. Content upgrades: refresh and expand the pages that are close to winning.
4. Authority initiatives: earn links with genuinely cite-worthy resources (tools, original diagrams, research, checklists).
5. Technical fixes: address indexation, speed, structured data, and crawlability issues that block growth.
6. Topic clusters: organize content into pillar pages supported by focused subtopics to build topical authority.

Reality check: If you copied everything perfectly, would you still be meaningfully better than the current top results? If not, change your angle: target a more specific intent, a narrower audience, or a less competitive query class where your expertise can dominate.

Practical competitor questions that guide strategy

1. What do competitors do exceptionally well in the SERP (format, clarity, trust, UX)?
2. Where are they weak or incomplete (missing subtopics, outdated steps, poor examples, weak visuals)?
3. If you fill the gap, is the search intent valuable enough to matter to your business goals?
4. Which improvements will produce measurable impact (traffic quality, conversions, subscribers, leads)?

Using goals to define metrics

Creating an SEO strategy from competitor insights

1. Map searcher intent and user journeys for your most important topics.
2. Define business goals and the KPIs that represent success.
3. Audit your site and compare it to top SERP competitors to find the highest-impact gaps.
4. Execute improvements in a prioritized order and measure results; iterate monthly.

Final tasks to perform before execution

Determining top competitors