SEO Competitor Analysis: How to Do It in 7 Steps (With a Template)

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Is SEO right for you, and how should you start?

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Do people search Google for what you sell?

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An SEO competitor analysis (or competitive SEO analysis) saves months of guessing: the pages that already rank show what Google and AI assistants consider a good answer in your market. This guide gives a seven-step method, the data to collect at each step and a template to fill in. For the definition, see our glossary entry on competitor analysis.

Who are your SEO competitors?

Your SEO competitors are the sites that rank for the queries you want, whatever their business. For a project management software, they include other software vendors but also review sites, media, comparison blogs and templates sites. A local bakery competes with other bakeries in the map results and with recipe blogs on informational queries.

To find them, search your ten most important queries in a private window and note the domains that appear repeatedly in the top 10. Add the brands that AI assistants name when you ask them for recommendations in your category. Keep three to five direct search competitors for the analysis.

How to do an SEO competitor analysis in 7 steps

1. List your target queries and competitors

Start from 10 to 30 queries that matter for sales (product, service and comparison queries), then record the domains in the top 10 for each. The domains that appear on several queries are your main competitors.

2. Compare overall visibility

For each competitor, note estimated organic traffic, number of keywords in the top 10 and authority. The free organic traffic estimator and domain authority checker give a first view; suites such as Semrush or Ahrefs go further.

3. Find the keyword gap

List the keywords where competitors rank and you do not, then filter by relevance to your offer and by difficulty. This is the most valuable output of the analysis. Our guide to keyword gap analysis details the method.

4. Analyze their best content

For your priority keywords, open the top-ranking competitor pages and note their format (guide, list, comparison, tool), depth, structure, freshness and the questions they answer. Ask what is missing that you could add: data, examples, a table, a clearer answer. See competitive content analysis.

5. Compare backlinks

List the sites that link to several competitors but not to you: they already cover your topic and are your best prospects. Look also at which pages earn links (studies, tools, guides) to understand what your market links to.

6. Check technical basics

Compare speed, mobile experience and site structure with a few spot checks. Google's documentation on page experience describes the signals that matter. A large technical gap explains why a competitor with weaker content outranks you.

7. Compare visibility in AI answers

Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the questions your buyers ask and note which brands are named and which sources are cited. Competitors that appear while you do not usually have mentions on review sites, comparisons or forums. Sorank's SEO competitor spy and AI mention tracking automate both sides: keywords of competitors on Google and brands cited instead of you in AI.

An SEO competitor analysis template

Copy this table into a spreadsheet, one column per competitor:

How to turn the analysis into actions

Sort what you found into three lists and give each item an owner and a date:

1. Content to create: gap keywords with clear intent and reachable difficulty, one page per intent.
2. Content to improve: your pages that rank 8 to 20 against weaker competitor pages.
3. Links and mentions to earn: sites that link to several competitors, comparisons that list them, directories of your field.

Repeat the analysis every quarter: competitors publish, rankings move and new players appear in AI answers. Our guides to SEO strategy and SERP analysis help prioritize.

The bottom line

A good SEO competitor analysis ends with a short action list: the keywords to target, the pages to beat and the sites to win links from. Sorank, SEO and GEO software that runs on autopilot, turns that list into results: it finds the keywords, the article generator publishes the content, it obtains natural backlinks automatically and it tracks which competitors AI assistants cite. For a broader audit, read our SEO analysis guide, or see the Sorank plans, with a 3-day free trial. Google's guidance on helpful content is a good reminder of what the winning pages have in common.