Keeping a close eye on competitors is essential if you want to stay ahead in search.
A solid competitor analysis can reveal where rivals are gaining ground, which strategies are working for them, and where opportunities exist for your own brand to outperform.
To uncover the most effective approaches, I asked senior SEOs from agencies, in-house teams, and major publishers to share their competitor analysis best practices.
I’ve compiled their expert insights into a practical checklist that you can easily follow to gain an edge over competitors.
1. Keyword Research & Gaps
The foundation of competitor analysis often begins with keyword research.
By identifying which keywords your competitors are ranking for—and discovering gaps in your own strategy—you can start building a more effective SEO plan.
What did the experts say?
In my conversation with Kirsty Nevison from Breakout Media, she emphasized how identifying keyword gaps is key to outpacing competitors.
She explained how tools like SE Ranking allow you to quickly spot those opportunities and create optimized content to fill them.
SE Ranking’s ability to highlight keyword gaps is a great way to find opportunities competitors are missing.
Kirsty Nevison, Head of Search Engine Optimization at Breakout Media
Mollie Ellerton from Hookflash recommended analyzing Share of Search and Share of Voice to identify which brands dominated search visibility for high-priority keywords.
She noted that tools like seoClarity and Authoritas were useful for mapping out competitors being searched for the most, providing insights into both business and search competitors – a key part of the process that so many SEOs overlook.
Share of Search helps us understand who dominates search visibility, while Share of Voice reveals which competitors are winning for high-priority keywords.
Mollie Ellerton, Head of Search Engine Optimization at Hookflash
On the other hand, Andy Mollison from Reflect Digital shared how Sistrix provides clear visibility into competitors’ keyword shifts over time, helping you track how they’re adapting their strategies.
Sistrix’s visibility graphs make it easy to see when a competitor’s rankings increase or decrease, helping you understand why.
Andy Mollison, Head of Search Engine Optimization at Reflect Digital
Keyword research checklist:
- Find keyword gaps: Use SE Ranking to find keywords where competitors rank but you don’t. These gaps give you the chance to create highly targeted content to close the competitive gap.
- Analyze Share of Search & Voice: Use tools like seoClarity and Authoritas to help map out which competitors hold the most visibility in search for high-priority keywords.
- Identify competitors’ top-ranking keywords: Use Sistrix to track competitors’ keyword visibility. Seeing how their rankings evolve can provide insights into visibility shifts, and how they adapt their SEO strategy.
2. Content Gap Analysis
After identifying keywords, the next step is analyzing your competitors’ content.
This involves discovering which topics they cover that you don’t, analyzing the depth of their content, and monitoring ongoing updates to stay ahead.
What did the experts say?
Kirsty Nevison from Breakout Media noted that SE Ranking helps her identify content gaps by exporting blog rankings and pinpointing topics her competitors cover that she hasn’t.
Meanwhile, Tom Neale from Octo SEO shared how Google’s NLP Tool allows him to dig deeper into competitor content and spot important entities that can improve your own content quality.
Harry Clarkson-Bennett from The Telegraph uses custom tools or scripts to monitor competitors’ new content through XML sitemaps.
This allows him to track how competitors are expanding their content strategies, especially during key events or emerging trends, keeping his own team ahead in publishing volume and content strategy.
Custom tools that scrape competitors’ XML sitemaps allow us to track content output and publishing strategies, especially during key events.
Harry Clarkson-Bennett, SEO Director at The Telegraph
Adam Vowles from Twinkl Educational Publishing also uses a similar approach.
Using scripts to monitor XML sitemaps lets us track changes in our competitors’ content strategies, keeping us one step ahead.
Adam Vowles, Director of SEO at Twinkl Educational Publishing
Once these content gaps are identified, tools like Ahrefs and Surfer SEO can help by monitoring updates competitors make to their content, including changes to meta descriptions, page titles, and on-page elements.
This ensures that you stay updated on competitors’ evolving content strategies and can adjust your own content accordingly.
Content gap analysis checklist
- Identify content gaps: Use SE Ranking to export competitor blog rankings and pinpoint topics they rank for that you haven’t covered.
- Analyze content depth: Once you’ve identified the gaps, use Google NLP Tool to analyze how deep competitors go into these topics.
- Monitor XML sitemaps for new content: Monitor competitors’ XML sitemaps and identify when new content is published. This is especially useful during major events or trends where fresh content is crucial.
- Track competitor content changes: After creating content to fill these gaps, use Ahrefs or Surfer to monitor competitors’ content updates, such as changes to titles, meta descriptions, headings, and on-page content.
3. E-E-A-T & Unique Content
After identifying content gaps, it’s crucial not just to fill them but to create content that stands out from your competitors.
Offering unique perspectives and high-quality content can help you outperform competitors and align with Google’s E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) guidelines.
What did the experts say?
When speaking with Robert Mitkow from Hertz, he highlighted that while automated tools are valuable, manual desk research is essential for finding unique angles.
By manually reviewing competitors’ sites, forums, and social media platforms, you can uncover unique user pain points and emerging trends.
Providing unique content that will gain search visibility and attract traffic is not only about writing high-quality original copy but also sharing a different perspective on a subject matter versus the competition. This unique spin is what will make your pages stand out and score highly on Google’s E-E-A-T search quality guidelines.
Robert Mitkow, Digital Experience Manager at Hertz
Unique content & EEAT checklist:
- Conduct manual competitor analysis: Spend time reviewing competitors’ websites to find unique angles and perspectives for your content.
- Monitor user forums: Use Rankalyzer to track discussions on forums like Reddit, Quora, and other platforms to stay ahead of user concerns, new trends, and unique angles competitors may miss.
- Leverage unique selling points (USPs): Highlight what makes your products or services different, and incorporate these into your content.
- Align with E-E-A-T guidelines: Ensure your content demonstrates experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
4. SERP & Intent Analysis
Competitors who successfully align their content with user search intent often rank higher in search results.
By analyzing which content Google is rewarding for various search intents, you can refine your own content to better meet user needs.
What did the experts say?
When I reached out to Sophie Brannon from Studio Hawk, she pointed out that Google itself can provide key insights.
“Google will tell you what it prefers to rank,” she said, explaining how observing top-ranking content can reveal the intent behind each query.
Always refer back to Google directly to take inspiration for your strategy.
Sophie Brannon, Co-Founder & Director of StudioHawk US
Ben Johnston from Harvest Digital highlighted the growing importance of search intent and natural language processing (NLP).
By focusing on matching content intent to target keywords and closing the intent gap, SEOs can better align with what Google expects.
NLP and search intent are key in closing the gap between your content and user needs, allowing us to stay ahead of shifts in search behaviour.
Ben Johnston, SEO Director at Harvest Digital
Meanwhile, Itamar Blauer from WhitePress recommended using Keyword Insights to analyze SERP similarity.
This tool helps you decide whether multiple keywords should be targeted on the same page or through separate pieces of content.
Keyword Insights’ SERP similarity feature helps identify what content Google is rewarding for different search intents, allowing us to refine our strategies accordingly.
Itamar Blauer, Head of Marketing & Growth (UK) at WhitePress
SERP & intent analysis checklist
- Evaluate competitors’ content: Review the top-ranking pages for your target keywords and analyze how they satisfy user intent. Look for common themes in the content type and use this to inform your content approach.
- Analyze SERP similarity: Use tools like Keyword Insights to identify which URLs rank for multiple queries. This gives you insight into competitors that are effectively targeting user intent across different search terms.
- Refine your content for intent: Once you have a clear understanding of what Google is rewarding, optimize your content to better meet the intent behind those queries.
5. Backlink Analysis
Backlinks remain one of the strongest indicators of authority and trust for search engines.
By analyzing your competitors’ backlink profiles, you can identify potential opportunities to build links from the same high-quality sources or uncover areas where your competitors are gaining an advantage.
What did the experts say?
Ed Watkinson from GRV Media, noted the importance of tracking competitors’ backlinks using tools like Majestic.
He emphasized that understanding where competitors are earning authoritative backlinks is essential for replicating their link-building success.
Additionally, Jelo Guia, Outreach Manager at Position Digital pointed out that Ahrefs plays a critical role in helping monitor changes to competitors’ backlink profiles over time, showing you which links they’ve gained or lost.
Ahrefs allows us to monitor new and lost backlinks for all our competitors, providing our outreach team with a fresh list of new link opportunities every month.
Jelo Guia, SEO Outreach Manager at Position Digital
Backlink analysis checklist
- Analyze competitor backlink profiles: Use tools like Majestic or Ahrefs to get an overview of your competitors’ backlink profiles—what kinds of domains and pages link to them.
- Identify link-building opportunities: Look for referring domains that link to multiple competitors but not to you. Reach out to these domains with quality content or relationship-building efforts to secure backlinks.
- Monitor backlink changes: Monitor how your competitors’ backlink profiles evolve over time. If a competitor loses a valuable backlink, you can potentially step in to claim that link.
6. Technical SEO & Site Performance
A technically sound website is crucial for maintaining high rankings and delivering a seamless user experience.
By analyzing competitors’ technical strengths—such as site speed, core web vitals, and overall site structure—you can identify areas where they excel and replicate these strategies to improve your own performance.
What did the experts say?
Rodrigo Lasanta from Verkeer explained how Screaming Frog can help analyze competitors’ on-page optimizations, such as meta titles and internal linking.
I use Screaming Frog to gain insights into competitors’ website structures and SEO practices. It helps me analyze their meta data, H1 tags, and internal linking strategies, and identify strengths or weaknesses.
Rodrigo Lasanta, Account Director at Verkeer
Similarly, Davide (Binh) Tien from Journey Further uses it to crawl competitors’ categories to extract their content and product range, providing valuable insights into their site structure and offerings.
I use Screaming Frog to crawl the competitors’ categories, specifically extracting either the copy on each or the full product range.
Davide (Binh) Tien, Senior Technical SEO Manager at Journey Further
Tom Neale from Octo SEO suggested comparing competitor page load speed and core web vitals’ metrics.
Technical SEO checklist
- Analyze competitor on-page optimization: Use Screaming Frog to assess competitors’ meta titles, headers, internal linking strategies, and content structure. This helps you identify areas where you can improve.
- Benchmark competitors’ site speed: Compare your site’s speed and core web vitals against your competitors. Look for areas where they outperform you, and use these metrics to optimize your site for better performance.
- Track site performance changes: Monitor how your competitors’ site performance evolves over time. If there’s a sudden spike in page load speed, check what optimizations they’ve done.
7. Branded Search & Awareness
Tracking branded search volume helps you measure how well your competitors are known within your industry.
By analyzing search trends for brand-specific keywords, you can gain valuable insights into their brand visibility and compare it with your own.
A growing branded search volume often signals successful marketing campaigns or increased brand recognition.
What did the experts say?
When I reached out to Dominic Bryce from Click2Convert, he emphasized the importance of measuring branded search demand over time.
He shared how tools like Google Trends and Keyword Planner allow you to monitor competitors’ branded keywords and track how they’re building awareness compared to your own efforts.
Tracking branded search demand reveals how competitors are building awareness, helping us fine-tune our strategy to stay ahead.
Dominic Bryce, Head of SEO at Click2Convert
Branded search & awareness checklist
- Track branded search volume: Use Google Trends to monitor branded search volumes for your competitors. See which ones are gaining traction in the industry.
- Monitor branded keywords: With Keyword Planner, track the performance of branded keywords that are driving traffic to your competitors.
- Adapt your strategy: Based on your analysis, you can adjust your own branding strategy. For instance, If competitors are seeing branded search growth for a particular product, consider focusing more of your efforts on that area.
8. Competitor Keyword Tracking
Monitoring how your competitors rank for important keywords over time is key to understanding their SEO strategy and identifying new opportunities.
By regularly tracking competitor keyword movements, you can adjust your own strategy and take advantage of gaps in their rankings.
What did the experts say?
When I spoke with Yvie Ansari from Snaptrip Group, she recommended setting up bespoke visibility reports in Looker Studio to track not only keyword rankings but also domains and pages, categorized by intent, topic, and target audience.
This granular approach allows you to dig into specific areas where you’re underperforming compared to competitors.
The way I usually look at competitor tracking is by having a visibility report… This data really helps me dig into specific areas and what could be leveraged based on what competitors are doing.
Yvie Ansari, Head of SEO at Snaptrip Group
Roman Rohoza from Sitechecker highlighted the importance of tracking competitor SERP dynamics.
Sitechecker allows us to monitor competitors’ SERP dynamics and keyword shifts, helping us stay on top of evolving strategies.
Roman Rohoza, Head of SEO at Sitechecker
Mihaela Sfartz from The Lotter Enterprises advocates using AWR for detailed rank-tracking reports.
AWR provides valuable insights into how competitor rankings evolve over time, helping us track the impact of their SEO updates.
Mihaela Sfartz, Head of SEO at The Lotter Enterprises
Competitor keyword tracking checklist
- Create bespoke visibility reports: Use Looker Studio to set up custom reports that track your domain and competitors’, keywords (categorized by intent and topic), and pages. This helps you identify specific areas where you can improve.
- Track competitor keyword movements: Use Sitechecker to track competitors’ keyword visibility and SERP performance. By observing shifts in keyword rankings, you can adapt your own strategy to target high-value terms where competitors may be slipping.
- Monitor keyword ranking trends: Use AWR to monitor how your competitors’ keyword rankings fluctuate over time, allowing you to track long-term trends and identify areas where competitors are gaining or losing visibility.
9. Monitor Competitor Content & Backlink Changes
Staying updated on competitors’ content and backlink changes is critical for maintaining your competitive edge.
As competitors update their content or adjust their backlink strategies, it’s important to understand how those changes affect their rankings so you can react quickly and adjust your own strategy.
What did the experts say?
When speaking with Andrew Holland, Director of SEO at JBH, he pointed out the value of tools like Ahrefs for monitoring competitors’ website changes and understanding how those changes impact their search rankings.
By tracking these fluctuations, you can adjust your own strategy to either exploit opportunities or defend against potential ranking losses.
Ahrefs collects a lot of data that will help assess the impact of competitor actions, like page title changes, on rankings. It’s a tool with real potential for understanding how competitors’ adjustments affect their performance.
Andrew Holland, Director of Search Engine Optimization at JBH
Sanjay Purewal from HUB also highlighted the importance of regularly analyzing how competitors’ content evolves over time.
He suggested using tools like the Wayback Machine to manually track and compare past versions of competitor pages, documenting content updates and changes to strategy.
Analyzing how competitors’ content evolves over time is key to understanding their strategies. By reviewing changes, you can spot patterns that might explain shifts in rankings.
Sanjay Purewal, Head of Search Engine Optimization at HUB
Content & backlink monitoring checklist
- Track competitor content updates: Use Ahrefs to monitor competitors’ updates to their meta titles, descriptions, and on-page content. This allows you to see which optimizations competitors are implementing and how those updates might affect their rankings over time.
- Monitor backlink gains and losses: Track your competitors’ backlink profiles to see which new backlinks they’re acquiring and which they’re losing. When a competitor loses a high-quality backlink, it opens up an opportunity for you to acquire that link for your own site.
- Analyze the impact of changes on rankings: Monitor how competitors’ website changes, including content updates and backlinks, affect their rankings. This insight helps you adjust your SEO strategy by capitalizing on competitors’ missed opportunities or replicating what’s working for them.
Stay One Step Ahead of Competitors
Understanding what your competitors are doing well is only useful if you know how to act on it.
At Position Digital, our SEO strategy service helps you turn research into results with expert keyword research, competitor analysis, and content planning tailored to your goals.
Contact us today to see how we can help you grow your visibility!
