The sites that compete with you in search are not always the businesses that compete with you for customers. This guide shows how to find them, compare their pages with yours and decide what to do next.
SEO competitor analysis is the work of finding which sites appear for the searches you want, comparing their pages with yours, and deciding what to improve. Search your target phrases the way a customer in your market would, note who keeps appearing, compare content, structure and proof, then turn each gap into one specific task.
What SEO competitor analysis is
SEO competitor analysis is a structured look at the sites that appear when people search for the phrases you want to be found for. You record who they are, what kind of page they show, what those pages cover and how they are built. Then you compare all of it with your own pages and list what to change.
The purpose is to understand what searchers are being offered and where you can be clearer or more useful. It is not to copy. A page built from another page's outline adds nothing for the reader, and Google's guidance on helpful content treats content that mainly summarises what others have said as a warning sign.
Search competitors differ from business competitors. A trade directory, a magazine, a comparison site or a marketplace may fill the results for a phrase where you sell a service, and none of them is a business you would meet in person. Your analysis has to include them, because they win the click.
How to find your SEO competitors
Start from the searches, not from a list of rivals you already know.
- List the handful of phrases that matter most to your business. They should be the ones your customers type when they are ready to compare or buy, plus the questions they ask before that.
- Search each phrase in a private browser window, so that your own history affects the results less. Search it the way a customer in your market would. Results differ by country, language and device, so a business selling in the UK should not judge its competition from American results.
- Record what you see in a sheet: the phrase, each domain in the first screen of results, the address of the page and the type of page it is.
- Count how often each domain appears across your phrases. The ones that recur are your search competitors.
- Ask your sales or support team which names customers mention when they compare options, and add any that did not appear in the results.
Repeat the exercise on a mobile device, because the order and the features shown can differ from a desktop screen.
The four kinds of search competitor
Group what you find, because each kind teaches something different and calls for a different response.
| Kind | What it looks like | What to learn from it |
|---|---|---|
| Direct business rivals | Companies selling the same thing to the same customers | How they describe the offer, what proof they show and how their service pages are built |
| Publishers | Magazines, blogs and comparison sites that write guides | Which questions they answer and in what format |
| Directories and marketplaces | Listing sites, review sites and online marketplaces | Which listings exist, and whether being listed there is part of the answer |
| Very large brands | National or global names that appear for broad phrases | How they organise a large site, though you may not beat them on broad phrases |
You may find that a broad phrase is dominated by sites you cannot realistically outrank. Look for narrower phrases, a specific place or a specific type of customer, where the results are thinner.
What to compare
Compare the same things for every competitor, so that the sheet shows patterns instead of impressions.
| Area | Questions to ask |
|---|---|
| Search intent and page type | Is the result a guide, a product list, a service page, a map or a video? Does your page match that type? |
| Content | Which questions does the page answer? What does it leave out? Is it current? |
| Structure | How are the headings, tables, lists and questions arranged? |
| Titles and descriptions | How do they present themselves in the result, and how does that compare with your result? |
| Trust and proof | Are there named authors, reviews, case studies, clear contact details and policies? |
| Site basics a visitor can see | Does the page work on a mobile screen, load promptly and use https? |
| Links from other sites | Which sites link to them, and why did those sites link? |
| Search features | Do maps, videos, shopping results, answer boxes or AI summaries appear for the phrase? |
SEO competitor analysis, step by step
- Choose the phrases and record the date you searched. Results change, and the date lets you compare later.
- Collect the results into the sheet, following the steps above.
- Pick a short list of competitors to study closely. Choose those that appear most often and those closest to your own offer. A handful is enough, because depth matters more than breadth.
- Open their best pages for each phrase and read them as a customer. Note what you would want from the page that it does not give.
- Fill in the comparison table for each competitor and for your own page.
- Mark the gaps in both directions: topics they cover that you do not, and topics where your page is stronger.
- Turn each gap into a task with one owner, such as a new section, a new page, a clearer title or a request for proof from a customer.
- Put a date in the diary to search the same phrases again, and compare the new results with the sheet.
Competitor keyword research
Competitor keyword research means finding the phrases your competitors are visible for that you have not yet written about. You can do much of it without a paid tool.
Read the headings, menu labels and page titles of the competitor pages you studied, as they show the words the competitor believes customers use. Type those phrases into the search box and note the suggestions and the related searches Google shows. Then open the Performance report in Search Console to see which searches your own site already appears for. The Search Console guide for beginners explains how to read it, and the comparison of Google Analytics, Tag Manager and Search Console sets out what each one reports. Both tools show data for your own site only, never a competitor's.
Paid tools estimate what competitors rank for and how much traffic they receive. They cannot see a competitor's analytics, so the figures are modelled estimates. Use them to spot a direction, not to quote a number, and check any promising phrase by searching it yourself.
Checking links without copying them
Look at which sites link to your competitors and ask why. A link might exist because the competitor published a useful resource, was mentioned in a news story, took part in an event or is listed in a trade directory. Those reasons tell you what is worth doing yourself. Some links in a competitor's profile may be paid or low quality, and Google's spam policies treat buying links to influence ranking as link spam, so do not copy a link because it is there.
The guide to link building mistakes and what to do instead covers the habits to avoid and the honest ways to earn links.
AI answers and competitor analysis
Some search results now include an AI-written summary, and some assistants answer without a results page at all. When you search your phrases, record whether a summary appears and which sources it names. That shows which pages are treated as reference material for the topic and what format they share. Nobody can promise that a page will be quoted. The guide to SEO, AEO and GEO explains what is known and what is not.
How to use what you find
A comparison is only useful if it produces decisions. The table shows common findings and a sensible response to each.
| What you found | What to do |
|---|---|
| A competitor page answers a question your page skips | Add a section with your own answer, drawn from your experience |
| The results are all guides and your page is a sales page | Write a guide for that phrase, and keep the sales page for phrases that suggest buying |
| Competitors show reviews or case studies and you show none | Collect and publish yours, with permission |
| Nobody answers a question well | Write the page that does |
| A large brand dominates a broad phrase | Target a narrower phrase, a place or a type of customer |
| A competitor ranks with a thin page | Note it. It may be a gap you can fill with a better page |
Where the finding is a new page, write a brief first. The guide to writing an SEO content brief shows what to put in it. Give every task an owner and a date, or the sheet becomes a record of problems and nothing more.
A comparison sheet you can copy
One row per phrase and competitor is enough. This example uses an imaginary bicycle repair shop.
| Phrase | Competitor page | Page type | Covers that we do not | We cover that they do not | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bike repair near me | Local rival, service page | Service page with map | Lists the repairs it carries out | Same-day drop-off, explained clearly | Add a repairs list to our page |
| how to fix a slipping chain | Cycling magazine | Guide with photographs | Step by step photographs | When to bring the bike in | Write a guide with our own photographs |
Mistakes in competitor analysis
- Studying only the businesses you know and missing the directories and publishers that take the click.
- Searching from the wrong country, so the results do not match what your customers see.
- Assuming a high position means a good page. Sometimes the page is simply the best of a weak group.
- Copying outlines and wording, which gives readers nothing new.
- Collecting data and never writing a task list.
- Running the analysis once and never again.
Repeat it when you launch a new service, enter a new market or see a drop in visits, and otherwise once or twice a year. If you want a hand reading the results, the search engine optimisation service page describes the SEO work Liftup does.
Questions and answers
How do I find my SEO competitors?
Search the phrases your customers use, in the country you sell to, and record which sites appear in the results. The domains that keep appearing across your phrases are your SEO competitors. They often include directories, publishers and marketplaces as well as businesses like yours.
What should I compare with my competitors?
Compare the type of page that appears, the questions each page answers, its structure, its titles, the proof it shows and the sites that link to it. Also note search features such as maps, videos and AI summaries. Use the same list for every competitor so that patterns show up.
How do I use what I find?
Turn each gap into one task with an owner and a date: a new section, a new page, a clearer title, or a request for a customer review. Add something of your own to every page, because rewriting another page's outline gives readers no reason to choose yours.
Can I see my competitors' traffic?
Not exactly. Search Console and Analytics show only your own site. Paid tools estimate a competitor's rankings and visits from sampled data, so treat the figures as a rough direction. Check any phrase that looks promising by searching it yourself.
Should I copy a competitor's keywords?
Use them as ideas, not as a shopping list. A competitor may target a phrase for reasons that do not apply to you, such as a different audience or country. Choose phrases that match your offer and write the page that answers the question best.
How often should I repeat a competitor analysis?
Repeat it when you launch a new service, enter a new market or see a drop in visits. Otherwise once or twice a year is enough for most small businesses. Keep the old sheet so that you can compare results over time.