Whether you are launching a brand-new website or optimizing an existing one, you need to understand what your competitors are doing to get a roadmap for what it takes to rank higher.
This DGSOL ultimate guide walks you through each step of conducting a winning SEO competitor analysis so you can gain more visibility, traffic, and conversions.
2. Why SEO Competitor Analysis Matters
Performing an SEO competitor analysis provides actionable insights that can dramatically improve your digital presence. Here is what you stand to gain:
- Discover high-performing keywords: Uncover terms your audience is searching for that you have not yet targeted.
- Find content strategy gaps: Identify missed opportunities your competitors are capitalizing on.
- Spot backlink opportunities: See where they are earning links, and how you can do the same.
- Improve user experience: It helps to improve your UX design and content readability.
- Identify featured snippet opportunities: Reverse-engineer how your competitors grab these top positions.
- Refine technical SEO: Compare site performance, schema markup, and crawlability.
By analyzing and adapting what works for others, you can build an SEO strategy that is grounded in proven performance.
3. Step-by-Step SEO Competitor Analysis Guide
An SEO competitor analysis guide helps you track and ensure you are not left behind as SERPs evolve. Here is the step-by-step SEO competitor analysis guide to identify your competitor’s effective strategy that works best for them, so you can improve your own strategy.
Step 1: Identify Your Top SEO Competitors
Start by figuring out who your actual SEO competitors are. You should identify different competitor strategies in your niche. Your SEO competitors analysis is the websites ranking on page one for the keywords you want to target.
How to find them:
- Google Search: Enter your main keywords and note the domains that consistently rank high.
- SEO Tools: Use tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, or Moz to find competitors based on keyword overlap.
Pro Tip: Look for competitors with similar domain authority and business models. These are your true SEO rivals.
Step 2: Analyze Their Keyword Profile
Use an SEO tool to enter a competitor’s domain to analyze their keyword profile and view their top-ranking keywords.
Look for:
- High-traffic keywords are driving their success
- Keywords they rank for that you don’t (keyword gap)
- The intent behind those keywords (informational, transactional, etc.)
Tools to use:
- Semrush (Organic Research & Keyword Gap tool)
- Ahrefs (Site Explorer & Content Gap)
Action item: Build a list of valuable keywords they rank for that you haven’t targeted yet.
Step 3: Evaluate Their Content Strategy
Now, look at how they create and structure their content. Ask questions like:
- What types of content are they producing? (like Blogs, guides, tools, videos?)
- How long is their content on average?
- Do they use keywords naturally in titles, headers, and body text?
- How often do they update or publish new content?
Content Quality:
How effective is the written content featured on your competitors’ sites?
- Is it written by an expert in the field?
- Does it base on research and factually correct information?
- Is the spelling and grammar on point?
- Is the content genuinely helpful to the readers?
These are all signs of quality content. If the answer is “yes” to all of the above, that’s a strength you’ll need to match or exceed.
But if the content is sloppily written, poorly researched, or outdated, that’s a weakness you can capitalize on.
Signs of Poor Content Quality:
- Out-of-date content – Replace with more timely insights.
- Keyword stuffing – Create more natural, user-focused copy.
- Thin content – Expand with detailed, helpful information.
- Bad image-to-text ratio – Prioritize informative text with supporting visuals.
You can also use tools like Semrush’s SERP Gap Analyzer to identify specific content weaknesses.
Pro Tip: Even if your competitor’s content is solid, you should always aim to make yours better—more comprehensive, more engaging, and more optimized. For this, you can take our content writing services from DGSOL professional writers.
Step 4: Review Their On-Page SEO
Inspect how your competitors structure their pages for search engines:
- Title tags and meta descriptions
- Header tags (H1, H2, H3…)
- Internal linking structure
- URL structure and keyword usage
- Use of schema markup or rich snippets
Use tools like:
- Ahrefs SEO Toolbar
- Screaming Frog
Figure out your on-page optimization against theirs and identify the areas for improvement.
Step 5: Assess Backlink Profiles
High-quality backlinks are one of Google’s top ranking factors. By reverse-engineering your competitors’ link profiles, you can discover where to focus your own outreach.
Tools used to check backlinks:
- Semrush Backlink Analytics
- Ahrefs Site Explorer
What to Look For:
- Top Referring Domains: Prioritize high-authority sources.
- Link-Worthy Content: Identify the most linked pages and what made them stand out?
- Anchor Text Variants: Understand how other sites refer to their content.
- Broken or Lost Links: Reach out to fill those gaps with your own better resources.
Bonus Tip: Use Semrush’s Backlink Gap Tool to find domains linking to multiple competitors but not to you, so these are prime outreach targets.
Step 6: Audit Technical SEO Performance
Even great content will not rank well if a site has technical issues. Run a crawl of your competitor’s site to check:
- Site speed and Core Web Vitals
- Mobile usability
- Crawlability and indexability
- Structured data implementation
- Use of HTTPS, redirects, canonical tags, etc.
Tools used to audit:
- Screaming Frog
- Google PageSpeed Insights
- GTmetrix
If your competitors have technical issues, this is a big opportunity for you to outrank them with a better-optimized site.
Step 7: Compare Domain Authority & Traffic
Compare your site metrics with your competitors to see how much ground you need to cover for your website.
Use Moz or Ahrefs to check:
- Domain Authority (Moz) or Domain Rating (Ahrefs)
- Total monthly organic traffic
- Number of ranking keywords
Step 8: Identify SEO Gaps and Opportunities
Once you’ve gathered all this data, identify the SEO gaps and opportunities that you use for your own website, look for:
- Keyword gaps: What keywords are they ranking for that you are not?
- Content gaps: What topics are they covering that you have missed?
- Backlink gaps: What referring domains link to them but not you?
- On-page gaps: Are their pages more optimized than yours?
Compile these findings into a list of actionable opportunities for your SEO strategy.
Step 9: Track Featured Snippets and SERP Features
Google often rewards well-structured content with featured snippets. These occupy the top of the SERP and dramatically increase CTR.
How to Analyze Them:
- Use Semrush’s SERP Features tool to find if competitors rank for featured snippets
- Look at the format: Are they using lists, tables, or definitions?
- Check the clarity and structure of the content, capturing the snippet
Strategy: Recreate or improve the answer with better formatting and more detail to try and “steal” the snippet spot.
Step 10: Evaluate Readability and User Experience
Readability is not just a UX issue, but it affects SEO too, so a well-formatted, easy-to-read content gets more engagement and lower bounce rates.
Analyze these checklists:
- Paragraph Length: Shorter is usually better for digital reading
- Headings: Use clear, scannable H2s and H3s
- Visual Aids: Charts, infographics, and images can increase time on page
- Overall Design: Mobile responsiveness, font size, and white space all affect readability
When you compare your site to top competitors and improve layout or formatting as needed.
Step 11: Build a Plan to Outrank Them
Based on your findings, you can now:
- Create better content for the same target keywords
- Acquire backlinks from the same or similar referring domains
- Fix your technical SEO issues
- Optimize your on-page SEO for better relevance and UX
- Fill keyword and content gaps they’ve missed
3. Tools Used for SEO Competitor Analysis
Having the right tools is crucial to perform accurate and comprehensive competitor analysis. Here are some of the best in the industry:
General SEO Suites:
- SEMrush – Ideal for keyword gap analysis, backlink audits, and domain comparisons.
- Ahrefs – Powerful for content gap analysis, top pages, and link acquisition insights.
- Moz Pro – Useful for domain authority checks, on-page grading, and keyword tracking.
Technical SEO Tools
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider – Great for crawling competitors’ metadata, headings, internal links, etc.
- Google PageSpeed Insights – To assess site performance and Core Web Vitals.
- Mobile-Friendly Test (Google) – For analyzing mobile responsiveness.
Content and Readability Tools
- Hemingway Editor – Measures content readability.
- Grammarly – Helps ensure error-free and easy-to-read copy.
SERP Monitoring & Snippet Tracking
- SE Ranking – Tracks featured snippets and SERP movements.
- Surfer SEO – Compares on-page content with competitors for keyword optimization.
Using these tools in combination allows you to create a comprehensive snapshot of how your competitors are succeeding—and how you can do it better.
4. How Often Should You Do SEO Competitor Analysis?
In the digital world, consistency is key, so it is necessary to do a deep audit, which can be done quarterly or should be conducted monthly to monitor shifts in rankings, new content, or link gains.
When to Perform an Audit:
- After a major Google algorithm update, you should do competitor analysis
- When a competitor gains significant traffic or rankings
- Before launching a new campaign or content cluster
An SEO competitor analysis guide is not about copying, but it is about identifying the competitor gaps, understanding user intent, and adopting a better version for your own website. When you follow this step-by-step guide, you will uncover keyword and content gaps, gain new backlink opportunities, optimize on-page and technical SEO, and create a strategy based on what’s proven to work for them
At DGSOL, we specialize in data-driven SEO strategies that beat the competition. Get your free SEO competitor audit today at https://dgsol.co.uk and take the first step toward dominating the SERPs.
