Dimension 12 of 12
SEO competitor analysis
Updated
What is seo competitor research?
SEO competitor analysis compares how well rivals rank in search: domain authority, organic and paid traffic, number of ranking keywords, backlinks and referring domains, site structure, page speed, indexed pages and technical errors. Your SEO competitors are whoever ranks for your top keywords, even if they sell something different.
Why it matters
Search is often the cheapest channel at scale. Knowing why a competitor outranks you, whether it is authority, content or technical health, tells you what to fix first.
What to capture
| Field | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Authority | Domain authority or authority score |
| Traffic | Organic and paid traffic, and the split |
| Keywords | Number of organic keywords and their top terms |
| Backlinks | Total backlinks, follow links and referring domains |
| Site structure | Sitemap, URL structure and number of pages |
| Page speed | Load time on desktop and mobile |
| Indexed pages | Pages Google has indexed |
| Technical health | Meta tags, heading tags, image alt text, broken links, redirects and 404 pages |
Where to find it
- SEMrush and Ahrefs: Authority, traffic, keywords and backlinks
- Google search: Search site:theirdomain.com for a rough indexed page count
- PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix: Page speed on desktop and mobile
- Their website: Sitemap, robots.txt and URL structure
How to do it, step by step
- Search your top ten keywords and list every domain on page one: these are your SEO competitors.
- Record authority, organic traffic and keyword count for each.
- Compare backlinks and referring domains, and note the sites linking to them but not to you.
- Run page speed tests and check their sitemap and URL structure.
- List the technical issues you have that they do not.
Questions this answers
- Who ranks for your keywords, including companies you never thought of as competitors?
- Is the gap authority, content or technical health?
- Which sites link to competitors but not to you?
Do this research in CompetitionOS
CompetitionOS finds your SEO competitors from the Google results for your keywords, saves each result as evidence with its position, and pulls SEMrush domain data. It also checks your visibility in AI answers, which is where search is heading.
- Find competitors with AI discovery or from the Google results for your keywords
- Keep one shared competitor library across projects, split by direct, indirect and search competitors
- Save evidence with its source: search results, website snapshots and SEMrush data
- Check whether ChatGPT and Claude mention your brand, and which competitors they name instead
- Connect Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor so an assistant can do the research for you
- Export every project to CSV or Excel
Are AI assistants recommending you, or your competitors?
Buyers now ask ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity which tool to use. CompetitionOS runs the questions your buyers ask, records which brands each answer names, and shows where competitors are mentioned and you are not. That is answer engine optimisation (AEO), alongside your SEO.
Frequently asked questions
Who are my SEO competitors?
Any site that ranks on page one for your target keywords. They may be publishers, marketplaces or directories, not just companies selling the same product.
What should an SEO competitor analysis include?
Authority, organic and paid traffic, keywords, backlinks, site structure, page speed, indexed pages and technical errors.
What is AEO, and how is it different from SEO?
Answer engine optimisation is getting your brand quoted in AI answers from ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews. SEO earns the click; AEO earns the mention. Clear, direct answers and structured data help both.