How to Conduct an SEO Competitor Analysis

Knowing how your website performs in search engines is essential. But understanding how your competitors are performing is just as important. By learning how to conduct an SEO competitor analysis, you can gain insights into what others in your industry are doing to attract traffic, which keywords they target, and how their backlinks influence rankings.

This guide explains the key steps to perform a structured SEO competitor analysis, without unnecessary jargon or vague concepts. It’s designed to help you focus on practical methods that provide clear results.

What Is an SEO Competitor Analysis?

An SEO competitor analysis involves reviewing your competitors' websites to understand which SEO strategies they use. It helps identify:

• Which keywords they rank for

• How their content performs

• Where their backlinks come from

• What technical optimizations support their ranking

The goal is to compare this data with your own website to highlight areas where you can improve or gain a competitive edge.

Identifying Your Real SEO Competitors

Before analyzing anything, you must identify who your actual SEO competitors are. These are not necessarily your business competitors. SEO competitors are the websites that appear in search engine results for the same keywords you target.

How to Find Your SEO Competitors

1. Search Your Main Keywords: Enter your core keywords in Google and take note of the domains ranking on the first page. These are your top competitors for SEO.

2. Use SEO Tools: Platforms like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Ubersuggest can generate a list of domains that overlap with yours in keyword rankings.

3. Review Niche Competitors: Include competitors who may not have the same business offering but still rank for terms relevant to your audience.
   

Analyzing Competitor Keywords

Once you have a list of SEO competitors, the next step in how to conduct an SEO competitor analysis is to review the keywords they rank for.

How to Check Their Keywords

Use an SEO analysis tool to input a competitor’s domain. This provides a list of keywords, including:

• Target keyword phrases

• Search volumes

• Position in search engine results

• Keyword difficulty

Compare this list to your own keyword strategy. You may find gaps in your content or opportunities to improve your rankings for specific terms.

Finding Content Gaps

Look for keywords that:

• Your competitors rank for, but you don’t

• Have medium to high search volume

• Match your niche or audience interest

These are often called content gaps. Addressing them in your strategy helps you expand your reach in search engines.

Reviewing Content Quality and Structure

Beyond keywords, examine how your competitors create and organize their content.

What to Look For

1. Content Length: Do they write long-form or short articles?

2. Content Format: Are they using lists, how-to guides, or reviews?

3. Internal Linking: How do they connect content pieces?

4. Multimedia Use: Are they including images, videos, charts, or graphs?

Assess the usefulness of the content from a reader’s point of view. This isn’t about style. It’s about clarity, structure, and how well the content meets user intent .

Comparing With Your Own Content

Ask yourself:

• Does your content answer the same questions?

• Is it more detailed or easier to understand?

• Does your page load faster or work better on mobile?

Document your findings and prioritize updates where needed.

Evaluating Backlink Profiles

Links from other websites to your competitors' sites play a major role in their rankings. Evaluating backlinks is a key part of how to conduct an SEO competitor analysis.

Steps to Review Competitor Backlinks

Use an SEO tool to extract their backlink profile. Review:

• The total number of backlinks

• The number of unique referring domains

• Domain authority or trust score of referring sites

• Anchor text used in the links

• The page on their site that received the link
  

Focus on Link Quality, Not Quantity

A competitor might have hundreds of backlinks, but if they come from low-quality sites, the benefit is limited. Look for:

• Links from reputable domains (news, academic, industry-specific)

• Links earned naturally through valuable content

• Editorial links over spammy or paid ones

You can then target similar websites for your outreach strategy or create content that naturally earns similar links.

Technical SEO Performance Review

Sometimes your competitors outrank you not because of better content, but due to a more optimized site structure or faster loading times.

Key Technical Factors to Check

1. Page Speed: Use Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to compare load times.

2. Mobile Friendliness: Run their domain through Google’s mobile test tool.

3. HTTPS: Ensure the competitor uses a secure protocol.

4. Core Web Vitals: These are performance metrics that impact rankings.

5. Crawl Errors: Use tools to check for broken links, redirects, or indexing issues.

Comparing these aspects gives you a broader view of why a site may rank higher even with similar content.

Reviewing User Experience Signals

Search engines consider how users interact with websites. User experience data is harder to measure directly, but you can make inferences.

Elements to Observe

• Bounce Rate Estimates: Some SEO tools estimate bounce rates

• Average Visit Duration: Indicates how engaging the content is

• Navigation Design: Clear, consistent menus improve usability

• Ad Placement: Excessive ads can hurt user satisfaction

Make note of designs or layouts that appear easy to use, and test improvements on your own site to see what works.

Tracking Competitor Changes Over Time

Competitor analysis isn’t a one-time task. Ongoing tracking allows you to respond to new content, backlinks, or keyword shifts.

Set Alerts and Monitor Trends

• Content Changes: Use version tracking tools to get alerts when a competitor updates a high-ranking page.

• New Backlinks: Regularly check for new referring domains to their site.

• Keyword Movements: Watch how their ranking positions change and why.

Staying updated helps you adjust strategies before falling behind.

Creating an Action Plan Based on Analysis

After completing your competitor review, compile the data and use it to create a plan of action.

Focus on Realistic Improvements

• Update old content to cover missed keywords

• Create new content to fill content gaps

• Improve your internal link structure

• Reach out for backlinks to authoritative sources

• Fix technical issues that slow your site down
  

Avoid Copying Competitors

The goal of not to imitate. It’s to understand what works and find a way to improve on it in a way that fits your brand.

Conclusion

Learning how to conduct an SEO competitor analysis is about understanding your place in the search engine landscape. By breaking down your competitors’ strengths and comparing them to your own efforts, you create a data-driven roadmap for growth.

Keep your analysis practical. Focus on key elements like keywords, content quality, backlinks, technical performance, and user experience. Over time, consistent reviews and updates will help you improve your visibility in search results and better serve your audience.