Oct 02, 2025
Casey Bjorkdahl is one of the pioneering thought leaders in the SEO community. In 2010, Casey co-founded Vazoola after working for a Digital Marketing Agency for five years in New York City. Vazoola is now one of the fastest growing and most widely recognized SEO marketing firms in the country.
Have you ever tried to compare your SEO to competitors? Chances are you didn't know where to begin.
Competitive analysis in SEO might seem like it should be reserved for agencies with their expensive tools and years of experience.
But the truth is you actually can do a lot of the same work yourself.
When you learn what professionals look for and employ a combination of free and paid tools, you, too, can uncover how competitors earn their rankings. We bet you'll even find some opportunities to strengthen your own.
Ready to learn how to check competitor SEO? Here’s what you need to know.
Key Takeaways
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DIY competitor analysis is possible even without access to agency tools.
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Agencies examine technical, structural, content, and off-site indicators to measure SEO health.
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A mix of free and paid tools makes it possible to evaluate competitor performance.
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Findings from analysis should inform strategy and guide future content efforts.
Table of Contents
What Is an SEO Competitor Analysis?
You've heard of competitive analysis, but do you really understand what it means? What about how to do competitor analysis for SEO?
An SEO competitor analysis reviews how other websites rank, mainly in organic Google search results, what factors contribute to their visibility, and where opportunities exist for your own content. Agencies might use premium platforms to analyze their competitors, but low-cost and free SEO competitor analysis tools make DIY efforts just as possible.
The rise of generative engine optimization shows just how quickly the search environment is evolving. With competitive analysis, you can make your content adapt right alongside these GEO changes.
Just bear in mind, Google accounts for about 89.8% of global search activity, so most competitive analysis should focus on Google’s SERPs.
So, can you really do your own SEO competitor research?
Yes, you can. Agencies often do have the advantage of experience and access to advanced tools, however. Still, marketing managers, content creators, and business owners can all get meaningful insights by following a structured process like the one we're about to break down for you.
As you analyze competitors, record not only what they do well but what they consistently ignore. Those gaps often become your fastest path to ranking growth
How to Identify Your SEO Competitors
Your first step is knowing how to find SEO competitors.
But an SEO competitor isn’t always the same as a market competitor.
A market competitor sells similar products or services. Market competitors tend to be direct competitors because you’re competing for the same dollars.
An SEO competitor, on the other hand, ranks for the keywords you want, even if they’re not in your industry.
Market competitors tend to be indirect competitors because, while you may not be competing for the same consumer dollars, those indirect competitors are potentially distracting attention from you.
For instance, Reddit may outrank you for a keyword even though it doesn’t sell your product. You’ll still want to include it in your analysis.
How do you identify your SEO competitors?
- Search Engines: Enter your target keywords into Google and write down the domains that appear repeatedly.
- Keyword Tools: Use platforms such as Semrush or Ahrefs to generate lists of domains ranking for your keyword set.
- Featured Snippets: Track which sites consistently appear in featured snippets to see who dominates rich results.
- SERP Features: Observe competitors who frequently show up in knowledge panels, image packs, or other SERP features.
Monitor sites that rank for your long-tail keywords even if they are outside your industry. Forums, blogs, and news sites often take traffic you could capture with niche content.
What to Include in an SEO Competitive Analysis
When you evaluate competitors, you can’t see their GA4 or GSC data, but you can still analyze key factors. Focus on the same areas you would review for your own site.
If you’re analyzing competitor websites, focus on elements that reveal their overall search health.
Pay attention to technical factors like load speed and mobile readiness, structural elements like site hierarchy and navigation, the quality and relevance of content, and external signals like backlinks and domain authority.
Each of these areas provides insights into how competitors achieve their visibility, and they highlight ways to improve your own strategy.
Technical Factors
Competitors’ technical health affects their rankings, too. Factors like HTTPS security, mobile-friendliness, site speed, and crawl errors can be checked through public tools.
Google PageSpeed Insights highlights site performance, while the mobile-friendly test ensures usability on smaller screens. Resources like technical SEO audits also provide guidance on how these elements influence visibility.
Structural Factors
Site architecture shapes how search engines and users navigate content. Clean URL structures, breadcrumb navigation, and the presence of schema markup all play roles.
Pages with optimized headings and thoughtful formatting also improve crawlability. Helpful guidance from URL structure best practices and featured snippets show how structure can boost visibility.
Content Quality and Relevance
Content is still the strongest ranking factor… as long as it’s the type of content Google loves.
Analyze whether your competitors’ pages are thorough, well-researched, and updated frequently. Look for outdated content or low-effort posts. Evaluate how internal linking improves content flow and authority distribution.
Study gaps in their content library using content gap analysis. Consistently updated and relevant content sends strong signals to search engines.
Off-Site Signals
Off-site factors show how a competitor site is perceived across the web. Domain authority and backlink quality reflect credibility.
Use backlink tools to check the diversity and trustworthiness of your competitors’ links. Check out ways to increase domain authority, focus on link relevance, and conduct effective backlink audits to benchmark your performance against competitors.
Notice when competitors begin appearing in image packs, FAQs, or People Also Ask boxes. These trends reveal new ways Google is rewarding content you may not yet optimize for.
SEO Competitor Analysis Tools
Every competitive SEO review needs the right digital marketing tools.
While manual observation offers valuable context, software platforms and free online checks provide deeper insights that can’t be gathered by human eyes. These tools uncover hidden details about competitor site speed, backlink networks, keyword strengths, and technical performance.
By combining multiple sources, you get a balanced view of how other domains achieve their rankings. Several free and paid tools provide visibility into competitor performance:
- Google PageSpeed Insights: Reveals loading performance and measures Core Web Vitals for a competitor site.
- Google Mobile-Friendly Test: Confirms responsive design and ensures a website is usable on mobile devices.
- Semrush, Moz, Ahrefs: Highlight keyword gaps, backlink data, and domain metrics that reveal competitor reach.
- SEO META in 1Click: A Chrome plugin that delivers quick on-page SEO insights like meta descriptions and headings.
- Keywords Everywhere: Provides keyword search volume, CPC, and competition data directly in your browser.
- Screaming Frog: Crawls competitor websites to surface technical SEO issues such as broken links and duplicate content.
- Backlink Analysis Tools: Show which domains link to competitors and the quality of those linking sources.
A broader view of tool options is available in resources like digital marketing tools agencies use. Each tool offers data points that together create a fuller picture of competitor health.
Even without access to their analytics, you can review estimated engagement by checking social shares, comment activity, or backlinks earned within a set time period.
What to Do Next with Your Competitive SEO Analytics
Now what?
Once the analysis is complete, your next step is turning data into strategy.
Use your findings to refine your keyword targets, improve site structure, and publish higher-quality content. Fill identified content gaps with valuable resources your competitors lack. You’ll be able to strengthen your link-building strategy by targeting sources that point to competing domains.
Our insights into SEO competitive research only reinforce the fact that continuous monitoring and updating is essential for SEO success.
Remember, competitive SEO is never a one-time task. Positive SEO ROI can take 6-12 months to achieve, but regular analysis helps you keep up and adapt as search algorithms and competitor strategies evolve.
Check how competitors promote their content once it’s published. Track whether they rely on newsletters, social media amplification, or syndication partners to drive visibility.