An SEO competitor analysis is a structured comparison of your site with the sites that outrank you for your target keywords: who they are, which keywords they win, which pages win them and why, and which sources AI answers cite instead of you. The output is a prioritised list of pages to create or improve.
Key takeaways
- Your search competitors are whoever ranks for your keywords, often publishers and marketplaces, not just rival businesses.
- Compare positions keyword by keyword; site-wide averages hide where you lose.
- Analyse the winning page for each priority keyword: intent, sub-questions, depth and original value.
- AI answers have their own competitor set: only 38% of pages cited in AI Overviews rank in the top 10 for the query (Ahrefs, 2026).
- Repeat the analysis quarterly and track the keywords it flags.
Who counts as a competitor in SEO?
SEO competitor research looks at competition in search results, which is a different set from your market competitors. There are three kinds:
Type | Who they are | How to find them | Why they matter |
|---|---|---|---|
Business competitors | Companies selling what you sell | You already know them | Same buyers, but often weak in search |
Search competitors | Any domain in the top 10 for your keywords: rivals, publishers, marketplaces, forums | Count domain appearances across your keywords' results | They take the clicks you want |
AI-answer competitors | Sources ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews cite for your queries | Run your queries and record the cited URLs | They shape the answer before anyone clicks |
A local accounting firm's business competitors are the other firms in town. Its search competitors for "how to file a tax return" are a government site, two finance publishers and a forum.
Step 1: List your search competitors per keyword group
Start from the keywords you want, not the companies you know. Group your keywords by topic or intent (pricing, how-to, product category), check the top 10 Google results for each, and count how often each domain appears. The domains with the most appearances in a group are your search competitors for that group.
Keep competitors per group, because a publisher may dominate your how-to keywords while a rival owns the commercial ones. Keep the non-business domains too: you won't outrank Wikipedia or Reddit by copying them, but a results page full of forums tells you Google wants first-hand discussion there. Pick three to five per group to analyse in depth.
No keyword list yet? Start with keyword research and your Search Console Performance report, which shows the queries you already appear for and your average position.
Step 2: Compare rankings keyword by keyword
Put your position and each competitor's side by side for every keyword. A keyword-level table shows three patterns:
- Wins: you outrank all of them. Protect these pages.
- Near misses: you're at 4 to 20 while a competitor holds 1 to 3. These are often the fastest gains, because Google already finds your page relevant.
- Absences: they rank and you have no ranking page. These go to step 3.
Then calculate win share: for each site, the share of keywords where it holds the best position. If a rival wins 40% of a group and you win 10%, that group is your focus. Take all positions from the same day and country, ideally from a rank tracker with competitor rank tracking, because manual searches vary with location and personalisation.
Step 3: Find the content gap
A content gap is a topic a competitor ranks for that you have no page for. Our guide on how to find competitor keywords covers the methods. Filter the list with three questions: does the intent fit what you sell or teach, can you add something the ranking pages lack, and how many competitors rank for it? One is a fluke; three is a pattern worth a page.
Step 4: Analyse the winning page, not just the domain
For each priority keyword, open the page ranking first and compare it with yours on:
- Intent and format: guide, list, tool or product page?
- Sub-questions: which H2s does it answer that you don't?
- Terms and depth: which concepts it covers under each heading.
- Original value: data, examples, tests or images found nowhere else.
- Freshness: a visible update date and current facts.
- Links: internal links pointing to it (external links need a backlink tool).
- Technical SEO and page experience: indexable, fast on mobile, no intrusive pop-ups.
The goal is not to copy the page. Google's helpful content guidance asks whether content provides "substantial value when compared to other pages in search results." The competitor's page sets the baseline you have to beat.
Step 5: Check who AI answers cite
AI answers have their own competitor set. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode may use a "query fan-out" technique, running related searches across subtopics to find supporting pages. An Ahrefs study of 863K keyword SERPs (March 2026) found that only 38% of pages cited in AI Overviews also ranked in the top 10 for the query. The domains cited for your query are often not your top-10 rivals.
Run your 10 to 20 most important queries in ChatGPT search, Gemini and Google, and record every cited domain. Domains that recur across queries are your AI-answer competitors; note what their cited pages share, such as a clear definition, a comparison table or original data. Our generative engine optimization guide covers how to earn those citations.
Step 6: Turn the findings into a plan
Rank the actions by payoff and effort: near-miss pages first, then content gaps with a clear intent fit, then AI-citation gaps. Write each as a page-level task naming the keyword, the competitor page to beat and what you'll add. Re-run the full analysis quarterly, or after a core update or a new competitor appears, and track the target keywords weekly to see whether the changes worked.
SEO competitor analysis template (with an example)
Copy the columns. The rows are an illustrative example for an online plant shop, with made-up positions ("-" means not in the top 20).
Keyword | Intent | You | Rival shop | Garden magazine | Marketplace | Cited by ChatGPT or Gemini | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
buy monstera online | Commercial | 6 | 2 | - | 1 | Rival, marketplace | Add a care guide and size chart to the product page |
monstera care | Informational | 14 | - | 1 | - | Magazine | Guide with your own watering schedule and photos |
pet safe indoor plants | Informational | - | 4 | 2 | - | Magazine, a vet site | Content gap: new list page citing toxicity sources |
same day plant delivery | Transactional | 3 | 5 | - | 8 | You | Protect: keep stock and delivery details current |
Win share in this sample: the magazine wins 2 of 4 keywords (50%), you and the marketplace win 1 each (25%), and the rival shop wins none. The business rival you worried about is not the search competitor taking your informational traffic; the magazine is.
How to do this in RankTera
RankTera finds competitors automatically from the Google results of the keywords you track. Open a website in the Rank Tracker, click Your Competitors, pick up to 3 domains in Select Competitors, and the table compares your position with theirs keyword by keyword; the Stats pie shows each site's share of keyword wins. Competitor positions are refreshed with each rank check and only the latest one is shown, so copy them into your template when you want a dated record. For a single keyword, SERP Details lists the Google top 10 (or your rank ±5), and the weekly ChatGPT and Gemini checks show whether your domain is cited, with up to 10 cited source URLs per engine. KW Research then lists the terms the top pages use under their headings for step 4.
What we found: how the top results cover this topic
On October 15, 2026 we ran "seo competitor analysis" through RankTera's KW Research for US Google results. The five top-ranking pages it analysed (seranking.com, moz.com, seobility.net, competitiveintelligencealliance.io and siteimprove.com) averaged 1,630 words, and it extracted 81 keywords from the text under their headings. "SEO competitor analysis" appeared 5 times per page on average, "SEO strategy" 3 times, and "search competitors", "search intent", "technical SEO" and "search rankings" twice each.
Our SERP analysis the same day found that three of the top six results (positions 1, 2 and 4) were tool product pages, not guides. The six had a median of 1,424 words; one had an FAQ section and none used a table. Searchers get a mix of tools and methods, so this guide pairs the method with a template you can fill in.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best tool for SEO competitor analysis?
No single tool covers every step. Rank trackers compare positions keyword by keyword, keyword tools find content gaps, backlink tools compare authority, and Google Search Console shows your own side. Choose by what you will act on: for most small teams that means keyword-level rankings and the pages that win them.
What are the four P's of competitor analysis?
The four P's are product, price, place and promotion, the marketing-mix lens for comparing business competitors. They help with market strategy but say nothing about rankings. An SEO competitor analysis adds the search layer: which domains rank for your keywords, which pages win, and which sources AI answers cite.
What are the 5 steps of a competitive analysis?
A common version is: identify competitors, gather data on them, compare it with your own performance, find gaps and opportunities, and act. In SEO that becomes listing search competitors, comparing rankings, finding content gaps, analysing winning pages and planning. This guide adds a sixth step for AI-answer citations.
How often should you do an SEO competitor analysis?
Do a full analysis once a quarter, plus a quick check when rankings drop, after a Google core update, or when a new domain starts appearing for your main keywords. Positions move constantly, so track competitor rankings for your important keywords weekly or daily between full analyses.
Can you do an SEO competitor analysis for free?
Yes, for a small keyword set. Search each keyword in a private window, note the top 10 domains in a spreadsheet, use Google Search Console for your own positions, and run your main queries in ChatGPT and Gemini to see who they cite. Paid tools save that manual work once you track more than a few dozen keywords.
Compare your rankings with your competitors
An SEO competitor analysis is only useful if you keep watching the keywords it flags. RankTera tracks your Google positions daily or weekly, finds the competitors in your results automatically, and checks every week whether ChatGPT and Gemini cite you. Start your 14-day free tier, no card needed, or see the plans on the pricing page.