What Is Competitive Analysis? - SEOGuideLab
What Is SEO Competitive Analysis?
SEO competitive analysis is the process of researching your competitors’ strategies across content, backlinks, keywords, and technical SEO, with the goal of identifying gaps and opportunities you can leverage to outrank them.
Done well, competitive analysis helps you:
Discover what’s working for others in your niche.
Uncover missed opportunities for your own site.
Avoid copying mistakes or outdated tactics.
Build a stronger, more original SEO strategy.
Why Competitive Analysis Matters
Your competitors are showing Google what’s worth ranking. But instead of copying them, you need to find:
What they do well.
Where they’re missing the mark.
How you can build something better.
The goal isn’t to duplicate their site — it’s to outperform it.
How To Do A Competitive Analysis?
1. Identify Your Competitors
Start with tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz. Look for competitors in organic search by typing in your top keywords and seeing who shows up. Separate them into:
Direct competitors: Businesses offering the same services/products.
Content competitors: Publishers ranking for similar informational queries.
SERP competitors: Pages ranking high that may not be your direct business rivals (Wikipedia, large directories).
2. Analyze Their Keywords
Use keyword tools to:
Identify top-performing keywords.
Spot gaps where you can rank.
See if they’re targeting informational, transactional, or navigational queries.
Look for clusters or topic areas where they’re dominating.
Tip: Focus on keywords where your site can realistically compete and where the competitor content isn’t stellar.
3. Study Their Content Strategy
Ask these questions:
What content formats are they using? (guides, videos, case studies)
Are they targeting the full buyer journey or just certain stages?
Is their content well-formatted and easy to scan?
What’s missing?
Look for ways to:
Provide deeper, more complete answers.
Add visuals, charts, and tables.
Eliminate fluff.
Improve user experience.
4. Examine Their Backlink Profile
Using tools like Ahrefs, Majestic, or Semrush:
Find where competitors are getting links.
Identify high-quality, relevant sources.
Look for opportunities to earn links from sites where your competitors are featured.
Spot link building strategies they’re using (guest posts, podcast features, resource citations).
Don’t copy spammy or irrelevant links. Quality over quantity always wins.
5. Technical SEO and Site Structure
Check your competitors’:
Robots.txt and sitemap: What are they prioritizing?
Breadcrumbs and URL structure: How are they organizing content?
Page speed and Core Web Vitals: Are they providing a good user experience?
Mobile-friendliness: How do they perform on mobile?
These insights can help you:
Structure your site more effectively.
Discover content prioritization tactics.
Build a better technical foundation.
6. Track Schema and Rich Results
Competitor schema analysis:
Identify what structured data they use on different page types (blogs, product pages, categories).
Look for errors, unused fields, and deprecated libraries.
See which pages are earning rich results.
Only implement schema where relevant. Overuse can harm rather than help.
7. Monitor Updates
Competitor analysis isn’t a one-time event. Set up regular check-ins:
Quarterly reviews of competitor content.
Monthly backlink tracking.
After major Google updates, review what’s changed.
Keep learning from what others do — but always focus on doing it better.
Conclusion
SEO competitive analysis isn’t about copying your competitors—it’s about understanding what makes them successful, identifying their weaknesses, and using that knowledge to build something even stronger. By analyzing keywords, content strategies, backlinks, technical SEO, and structured data, you gain the insights needed to refine your approach and stay one step ahead.
Helpful Resources
10 Tools You Can Use for SEO Competitive Analysis
The Complete Technical SEO Audit Workbook
SEO Site Architecture: Best Practices for 2025