To conduct an SEO competitor analysis, identify your main competitors through search engines and analysis tools. Then examine their keywords, content strategy, backlinks, and technical SEO to uncover opportunities for improving your own rankings.
Essential Analysis Steps
Start by searching your target keywords to see which sites consistently rank at the top. Use SEO tools to gather detailed data:
- Ahrefs and SEMrush help identify competitor keywords and analyze their backlink profiles
- thruuu lets you analyze up to 100 search results and compare SERP similarities between queries
- Moz provides domain authority metrics and link quality assessment
- SpyFu specializes in keyword gap analysis to find terms competitors rank for that you don’t
Focus your analysis on four key areas: keyword rankings (what terms drive their traffic), content performance (their top pages and topics), backlink sources (who links to them and why), and technical factors (site speed, mobile optimization, structured data).
Document your findings in a spreadsheet. Look for content gaps where competitors have thin coverage, high-potential keywords they’re ranking for that you’re not, and technical improvements that could give you an edge.
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