April 7, 2025
Did you know that over two-thirds (68.7%, to be exact) of Google clicks go to the top three organic search results? Moving downward, your chances of conversion decrease spot by spot. Drop to the second page, and you’re practically invisible.
The question is, how did those guys climb all the way to the top?
And what can you do to take their place?
I bet you’re craving some answers. Don’t worry. There will be plenty of time for that. But first, let me ask you something. I think this is worth thinking about.
How many of your visitors are ending up on your competitor’s site?
Every click for them is a missed opportunity for you. So, what’s their secret? And how can you use it to your advantage? Here’s how: SEO competitor analysis.
Everyone you see on the top of Google’s organic search pages is doing competitor research. Everyone. They use competitor analysis tools to tell them what keywords to use, how to craft better content, and where to get quality backlinks.
So why aren’t you?
Everything you need to get started is in this article, including free competitor analysis tools that I personally tried and reviewed to make things easier for you.
Let’s dive right in.
SEO competitor analysis is when you research your competitors’ SEO strategies to identify their strengths and weaknesses and find a way to outrank them on SERPs.
A typical SEO competitor analysis includes:
| Keyword Analysis | Backlinks Analysis | Content Analysis | Technical SEO Analysis | On-page SEO Analysis | SERP Feature Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What keywords do your competitors use, and how do they use them to match user intent? | How many backlinks do these sites have, and where do these links lead? | What type of content, topics, angles, and styles attract visitors? | Are your competitor sites faster and better structured than yours? | What about their meta tags, keyword placement, and internal links? | Do your competitors use rich snippets and rank for local SEO? |
Let’s say you run an online bookstore that specializes in sci-fi. Your early SEO strategy revolves around several keyword variants, hybrids of “sci-fi,” “science fiction,” “books,” “writers,” and so on. Still, you’re not hitting the mark as expected. What are you missing?
Bad SEO rankings and CTRs happen for a number of reasons. Technical issues like slow website speed and poor UX are one. Low content quality is another. Perhaps you don’t have any relevant backlinks on your site. Or maybe your keywords are missing the target.
I looked at Ubersuggest, and it turns out that the keyword “science fiction books” has a 67 SEO difficulty. That’s a lot. If you have just opened up and you’re not running aggressive social media campaigns to make people aware of you, the competition will eat you alive.
Does that mean you’re in the wrong niche? No.
Look at SEO, for example. Can you imagine how many websites are trying to rank for search terms like “SEO tools,” “SEO tips,” or “website optimization”?
Our competitors are Ahrefs and SEMrush—probably the biggest beasts in the SEO space—but we are still competing with them. How? We keep providing quality.
Personally, I do not focus too much on competition, except in regards to how they are creating a tool (as we want to have Rankioz outperform all our competitors). But in terms of blogs, I don’t chase low-difficulty keywords anymore. I just try to write better than them.
The question is–how do I know what’s “better”? “Better” implies having something “good” to compare my writing to. Which brings us back to SEO competitor analysis.
Analyzing your competitors’ SEO strategies allows you to:
In short, this is about getting to know your enemy. In SEO, any piece of information about your opponents’ operations, plans, and intentions is more than welcome because knowledge gives you the upper hand.
Who doesn’t like free tools? They are usually easy to use and conveniently web-based. Best of all, they don’t ask for your card number. Finding a reliable SEO tool that is also free can skyrocket your business and confidence in the early days.
In this article, you will find nine excellent tools for free SEO competitor analysis. I tried all of them, and I still use some of them. They might lack more advanced features and limit your access to data, but they are packed with two wholesome benefits:
Most bloggers would have you believe that all free tools are like this. I don’t want to do that. The harsh truth about free SEO tools is that they are rarely enough. So, let’s play a little game I like to call “Catch a free SEO tool” so you know what to expect.
Here’s how things really are with our free competitor analysis tools:
| Free SEO Competitor Analysis Tool | Is It Really Free? | What’s the Catch? |
|---|---|---|
| Google Search Console | YES | You can’t perform any competitor-specific analyses. |
| Ubersuggest | NO | The free version is capped to three daily searches with incomplete data, and the Competitors feature is for paid users only. |
| Ahrefs Webmaster Tools | NO | You can only check verified domains on a free plan, which makes it not free for competitor analysis. |
| Screaming Frog | YES | While some features require a license, this doesn’t stop you from analyzing competition. |
| MozBar | NO | You can’t see competitor backlinks and keywords until you subscribe. |
| SimilarWeb | NO | Well, yes, it’s free, but only for seven days. |
| SpyFu | NO | Well, yes, but it gives you only five keywords and backlinks and no filtering options. |
| SEO Minion | NO | A few months ago, SEO Minion introduced a $6 fee for all users. |
| AsnwerThePublic | NO | Limited to three daily searches. |
Does that mean that these tools are not worth your time? Absolutely not. Each of them is a valuable learning source for SEO beginners and businesses that are trying to find their place in Google’s universe. If that’s you, keep reading.
If not, all the more reasons to pay attention. SEO tools that are technically not free are either demo versions or limited freemiums. They offer a glimpse of what the full versions can do, which can help you choose the right solution for you.
When do you need a paid SEO competitor analysis tool?
When you start hitting data limits and need more detailed and actionable data, powerful filters, and greater efficiency. If you’re actively competing in a crowded market, you will probably get to this point sooner rather than later.
Without further ado, these are the most useful competitor analysis tools you can find on the SEO market for free.
Can you make your website visible on Google without using Google Search Console? Let’s put it this way: You can walk around Paris without a map, but you will get lost. It’s the same with Google Search Console, only less pleasant.
Like a Paris city map, Google Search Console is free forever. It shows exactly where you are and where you need to go. And you don’t even have to use it all the time. You can keep it in your backpack and take it out when you feel lost.
So, how does Google Search Console help you analyze competitors? Truth be told, it doesn’t, at least not directly. But here’s what it can help you do:
Google Search Console is an essential tool for any type of SEO analysis because it gives you hyper-precise, first-hand, real-time data on your average SERP position, CTR, clicks, and impressions. And it does that for EVERY keyword.
It may not be able to show you what your competitors do better, but it can contextualize your current position and keyword trends. And that’s super important.
Later on, I’ll show you how to use this valuable data to find competitors and analyze their SEO tactics outside of Google Search Console, so stick around.
Pros:
Cons:
I find myself using Ubersuggest more often than I initially thought I would. It’s a great tool for keyword research and SEO audits, but it’s definitely not the best or the most powerful. So, why do I keep gravitating towards it? Two words:
User experience.
Neil Patel, a famed digital marketing specialist and blogger, purchased and upgraded Ubersuggest with usability as a key focus. The result is an SEO tool that feels effortless, exactly like Patel’s writing. I would even say it makes SEO fun.
I will explain how I use Ubersuggest for competitor research in the next section. But let me just say this–it is one of the most complete solutions for researching websites that outrank you on Google. Here’s a quick snapshot of what it does:
Ubersuggest gives you a comprehensive SEO breakdown of any keyword and domain. You get to see key metrics like search volume and keyword difficulty. You also get to spy on competitors’ content and backlinks and access their traffic data.
Are there other tools that do this? Yes. Is Ubersuggest 100% reliable? No. But there’s something about it that sticks. More than anything else, Ubersuggest is accessible: it is affordable, easy to use, and always there when you need it.
Pros:
Cons:
Ahrefs is Ubersuggest for grown-ups. It has all the same functionalities as Patel’s tool, but it doesn’t stop there. It is stronger and more precise, with a larger keyword database (12 million search terms!) and added features for technical SEO.
SEO professionals rely on Ahrefs when they need to:
All this for free? Well, no. Ahrefs’ Competitive Analysis tool goes for $108 per month for an annual subscription (for reference, Patel’s lowest price is $12). If you don’t have the budget for this, you must settle for Ahrefs Webmaster Tools.
With Webmaster Tools, you can audit one verified domain and get access to rudimental competitor intelligence. For example, you can run a quick check for competitors’ organic traffic or get information on their backlinks. Stuff like that.
Obviously, you get much more with the paid Competitive Analysis tool, but Webmaster Tools gives you a small advantage for free. And that counts for something, especially if you are running a small website and learning about SEO.
Pros:
Cons:
A photographer depends on their camera. Carpenter relies on a hammer. What about SEO professionals? We use a tool called Screaming Frog. This website crawler has numerous applications in SEO, including competitor analysis.
You can use a free version of Screaming Frog to:
And it is so easy to use. You give it a URL, and Screaming Frog comes up with this anatomical cross-section of the website. It dissects all its technical aspects into tiny details, revealing the parts that work and those that need fixing.
However, Screaming Frog is a website crawler, which means it needs you to enter a competitor’s URL. So, it doesn’t work the other way around. If you need a way to find competitors you can analyze, you will have to use a different tool.
Pros:
Cons:
Moz is one of the oldest SEO tools in the game, and guess what? It’s still as relevant as it ever was. (An amazing feat, I must say, given today’s competition.) This rings true for both versions of the famous tool, be it paid-for or free-for-all.
What kind of competitor intel can you get from Moz for free?
You can…
Doesn’t seem like much? You’re wrong. Page authority is a very important metric for SEO competitive analysis. Why? It shows you how your pages should look in order to be ranked higher on SERPs. And that’s kind of the entire point.
MozBar does this without fail—and expectedly so, considering that it literally invented domain authority. This is what I like and respect the most about Moz. Instead of living on past glory, it keeps getting better and better with each update.
In 2025, you can rely on Moz to give you the most accurate list of linking domains that are certain to move you up in SERPs. It has a bigger backlink database than Ahrefs and other key competitors, and it is still as user-friendly as in 2008.
Pros:
Cons:
There’s a rumor I keep hearing. It says that SimilarWeb has the best traffic data. Based on what I witnessed while testing this tool, that’s not impossible. Overall, I think this is a useful solution for SEO analysis and competitor benchmarking.
So how do you analyze competition with SimilarWeb? Let’s see.
Sweet, right? It’s too bad you only get a taste of this for a single week. SimilarWeb doesn’t have a freemium plan, so everything you get for free, you get for a limited time. And it gets worse because the starting price for SimilarWeb is $199 a month.
Naturally, you want to know if it’s worth your monthly hosting plan. And I have to say, it might not be. If you need traffic and keyword analysis, there are tools that perform the same and cost less. But SimilarWeb does excel in another thing:
Referral analysis.
If you’re trying to launch an e-commerce or product review site, or if your business relies on referral traffic in any way, SimilarWeb could be a good investment. Audience insights sound impressive, too, but I don’t think the actual data is worth it.
Pros:
Cons:
A lot of my colleagues swear by SpyFu, so I had to check it myself and see why. Was it love at first sight? No. But after getting to know SpyFu better, I must say I really liked it. This tool is a capable ally against competitors, both organic and paid.
Like Ahrefs, it provides a long list of tools for analyzing competition. It draws insight from over 123 million domains and 73 billion search results and notably provides 15 years of historical data. So, it lets you in on your competitors’ growth strategies.
Here’s a quick overview of everything you can do with SpyFu for free:
In addition to historical data, which allows you to see what your biggest competitors did right and which of their strategies ended up as costly mistakes, SpyFu has a few other features that stand out, like SEO Spy Tool and Kombat, for example.
Pros:
Cons:
Whether you’re aware of this or not, SEO Minion is no longer a free tool. Why did I decide to review it anyway? Because it’s only $6 a month! My Netflix account costs more than that. When it comes to SEO tools, $6 is basically free.
So, what can $6 buy you in terms of competitor research?
How is it that this tool offers so many useful features for such an affordable price? Let me explain. SEO Minion is a browser extension rather than a full-sized SEO tool, so it can’t offer a deep dive into your competitors. But it’s still worth the cost.
SEO Minion is lightweight and quick. In my opinion, that’s this tool’s biggest advantage. You can use it for quick keyword density checks and SERP previews while browsing, and you can also use it to inform your strategy with actionable data.
Pros:
Cons:
AnswerThePublic is another SEO tool from Neil Patel, and it shows. As if that wasn’t obvious enough from Patel’s signature approach to keyword research, it’s easy to notice in AnswerThePublic’s most attractive feature, the keyword map.
The map, cloud, or graph–however you want to call it–is a gigantic visual representation of mutually related keywords that correspond to specific topics. It’s fantastic for finding long-tail keywords and questions to use in conversational content.
Personally, I use AnswerThePublic to find answers to questions like:
If you’ve never asked yourself this, well, you should. Patel knows that understanding user intent and behavior is critical for Google rankings, so he puts that data front and center, allowing you to focus on what really matters in benchmarking.
Pros:
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Google Search Console, Ubersuggest, and Ahrefs are the best free tools for analyzing competitor keywords, at least on my list. I usually use a combination of the first two, so that’s what I am going to demonstrate now.
Let’s say you run a health and beauty blog. Google Search Console shows that your average position for “beauty tips” is 13, and your CTR is low. You can check the clicks and impressions for every keyword you rank for here:
Obviously, you know what “Clicks” are. But how about “Impressions”? This metric is important because it shows how many times Google users see your site for a specific keyword. A good ratio of clicks to impressions is around 2-5%.
So, how is this useful for competitor research? I’ll explain.
But first, click on Impressions. Google Search Console will now rearrange queries to show you keywords with the most impressions on the top.
Let’s return to your health and beauty blog. It ranks 13th for the keyword “beauty tips,” which is OK, but it could be better. The number of impressions for this keyword is 3,000, but you have zero clicks. That’s not good. Let’s work on that.
Keywords that you rank for but have no clicks or a bad CTR are called striking distance keywords. You don’t have to remember that, but you need to know that they present a lost opportunity for your site. They scream, “Optimize me!”.
How do you do that? Google “beauty tips” and see what comes up. You have 12 sites ranking higher than you in SERPs. Don’t let them scare you.
In part to indulge my ego and in part to embrace a learning opportunity, I would go through each of these sites and see why they outperform me on SERPs. They are definitely doing something better. It’s time to find out what.
I like my data fresh and served at Google, so I never skip the Search Console. But truth be told, you can do all this–and more–using only Ubersuggest.
Like Google Search Console, Ubersuggest is a web-based service. And you know what I really like about it? It doesn’t require you to register or verify site ownership. Just go to https://neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/ and start using it right now.
The number one site ranking for “beauty tips” on Google is Vogue. To show you how this works, I will type in vogue.com in Ubersuggest and hit Search:
This is what I got:
Now, I am not a fashionable guy, but even I know Vogue is one of the largest names in the beauty industry. So unless you already have a well-known beauty brand, I wouldn’t waste my time trying to outrank it for the keyword “beauty tips.”
Just look at how many organic keywords it has. It’s four million!
Your rankability grows with the number of organic keywords your site is targeting. The more organic keywords you have, the better your chances are.
Scroll down, and you will see top-ranking keywords for this domain. Here, you can find a bunch of high-volume keywords that your site isn’t yet targeting:
If there’s a keyword you think you could steal, click on the orange arrow to open an in-depth analysis with traffic volume, SEO difficulty, and more.
Now, I want to show you something really amazing.
In the left sidebar, click on Keyword Research and go to Similar Websites.
Since I’m still seeing results for vogue.com, Ubersuggest has generated an overview of competitive sites for this domain. Here’s what I see when I scroll down:
This is a list of all of Vogue’s competitors, their common keywords, estimated traffic, and backlinks. It’s SEO gold. But the shiniest jewel is in the middle of the table: Keywords Gap. That’s what Vogue’s competitors are missing out on!
Vogue doesn’t need a better ranking, but you do. So, instead of Vogue.com, enter your domain name. It will show you a list of all your competitors and tell you exactly what keywords they use and what keywords to use against them.
Why do you need backlinks, again? It’s simple: Websites that link to you boost your traffic. But there’s more. A link is a vote of confidence that recommends your site as a relevant and high-quality resource for your shared audience.
You know how they say: A friend of an authority domain is Google’s friend. OK, nobody says that, but you get my point. Backlinks make you relevant.
What about competitors’ backlinks? What do they teach you?
Competitor backlink analysis helps you find websites that are willing to link to quality sites in your niche. If they are willing to refer to your rivals, maybe they’ll want to link to you, too. Plus, they tell you more about your competitors’ SEO.
I analyze competitor backlinks using Ahrefs and Moz. Here’s how:
If this is your first time using Ahrefs, you’ll have to sign up for a free account and create a project for your domain. As I already explained, Webmaster Tools allows you to audit a site for free only if you can prove that you are the owner.
Sadly, this means that competitor analysis isn’t exactly free.
Don’t skip this part, though. Ahrefs is a very useful tool, and there might come a time when you will gladly pay to use it. So take this as a sneak peek.
After you create your first project in Webmaster Tools, you’ll arrive at a dashboard with a menu bar at the top. Go to Site Explorer to see a backlinks report:
Enter your competitor’s domain or URL and hit the Search button.
Next, go to the left sidebar and find Backlinks:
You’ll see a backlink report similar to this one:
So, what are you looking at, exactly? On your left, you have a Referring page column. That’s a list of all websites linking to your competitor’s site or URL.
Now, look right. Under Anchor and target URL, there’s a list of anchors and clickable URLs leading to corresponding target pages on the competitor’s site.
But wait for the best part: Ahrefs search filters.
Ahrefs allows you to filter competitor backlinks based on their type and other attributes, such as dofollow/nofollow, organic links, and sponsored (paid) links:
Why is this useful? Because it reveals your competitors’ link-building strategies. It tells you not only where competitor links are coming from and how they improve your rivals’ SEO but also why the referring sites have agreed to link to them.
And this kind of knowledge is incredibly powerful. It gives you the advantage you need to replicate quality backlinks. (That’s a nice way to say steal them.)
Replicating backlinks isn’t easy. It requires experience, intuition, and patience… But if you don’t have any of these, you should be able to make some progress with Ahrefs. Here’s what a typical backlink replication strategy looks like:
Learn to recognize links. It will take you a while to see replicable backlinks in your SEO reports, but once you see them… For starters, try training your eyes to spot clumsy paid links because they are completely useless for backlink replication.
If you search for a competitor site in Ahrefs Site Explorer and filter Referring domains to show you only dofollow links and sort them by “links to target”, you will shortly start to notice linking patterns that reveal existing partnerships between sites:
Old friendships are rarely broken, especially when both sides get to profit. I wouldn’t waste my time trying to break up successful SEO partnerships. Eliminate these links, as well, and focus on what’s left because that’s what you can replicate.
Once more, Ahrefs limits your research to a single verified domain if you decide to use it for free. But what if you can’t afford to upgrade? There’s always Moz.
MozBar has been nothing but a loyal ally to the SEO community for the past 15 years. If you can’t or don’t want to pay for Moz Pro, that’s alright. It still has a link highlighter tool that marks up all dofollow links on a page in green wherever you go:
Need I remind you that Moz is the most reliable source of domain authority information? The higher the competitor’s DA, the better it is for backlink analysis.
Oh, and one more thing: If you go to Highlight Links and look down, you can also type in a keyword you want to research, and MozBar will highlight it for you.
Ah, yes, the almighty content. Ever the king. The ruler of Googland and all its subjects. Maybe, and just maybe, you’d be able to rank higher in SERPs without any backlinks. Without quality content that the audience loves, you’re cooked.
So, let’s make sure that doesn’t happen.
There are two ways to use competitors’ content against them:
Obviously, the first method is hard. But I promise you, it’s not as hard as finding a top-ranking site with many keyword oversights. Should you try anyway? Absolutely! Because succeeding in either way will bring you closer to the top.
For this, we will be using SimilarWeb and AnswerThePublic.
Nobody has dibs on SEO keywords, no matter their ranking. If you find a keyword with a high search volume and ranking potential that also has a high SEO difficulty score, and you think you have the right piece of content for it, give it a shot.
Do you know what is the number one SEO factor on Google?
That’s right, it’s content.
Rankioz targets the same keywords as competitors who are much bigger than us, and we outrank them all the time. How? Because we keep benchmarking against competitor content and coming up with ways to make ours more valuable.
You can do the same with a benchmarking tool like SimilarWeb.
If you want to do this, you need to cross two tasks off the list:
SimilarWeb is the right tool for analyzing competitor content from start to finish, and I will show you why. Let’s go step-by-step to avoid any confusion.
After you sign up for SimilarWeb (Click on Start your free trial) and set up your account (Get Started), go to Keyword Research (it’s in the sidebar on your left) and click on Search Competitors under Website Explorer. Like this:
Here, you can generate a list of sites competing for the same keywords as you. Once again, I entered vogue.com. SimilarWeb gave me a table of competitors with a search overlap score, a percentage of shared keywords, and organic traffic:
Why didn’t I just Google a keyword I wanted to rank for and pull my competitor list directly from the SERPs? That’s another way to do it. By using SimilarWeb, I can now access crucial SEO metrics for these sites without manual input.
There’s a tiny arrow icon next to each domain in the list (Side note: Whenever you see a tiny arrow icon in an SEO tool, click on it. There’s always something good behind a tiny arrow icon.) that leads to a quick analysis with key SEO metrics:
Over here, you have crucial SEO information that tells you whether or not this particular domain is a relevant learning resource for your content strategy. You can also switch to a full overview and access additional information in Website Analysis.
How do you know if a competitor’s content is worth analyzing?
When visit duration and pages per visit are low but the bounce rate is high, that means the website doesn’t provide any particular value. It’s not worth your time.
SimilarWeb also lets you analyze competitor keywords and backlinks. Both options are in the left sidebar, if you want to check them out. Sadly, only Keyword Research is free. Backlink Analysis requires an upgrade before the end of the free trial.
The last piece missing from the puzzle is a Popular Pages report, which allows you to pinpoint competitor blog posts with the highest click-through and engagement rates, a.k.a. competitors’ content that your shared audience really enjoys.
Now, you have a bunch of rival blog posts that are performing better than you because A) they use more relevant keywords, and B) their content is really good.
In a moment, I’ll tell you more about finding quality keywords. But first, you need to open these blog posts one by one and answer the following questions:
There are more questions like these, but you get the point.
Pro tip: I like to organize my answers in a table. That way, I have a clear picture of overlaps and differences between my site and other competitors.
An average article should be around 1500-2500 words long and include 10-15 different keywords (the optimal keyword density for a well-optimized blog post is 1-2%). So, you’ll need more relevant search terms to support your primary keyword.
SimilarWeb can help you with this, too, but AnswerThePublic is better.
Simply type in your primary keyword or topic and hit Search. It will generate a wheel of related search terms, questions, prepositions, comparisons, and more:
Take all this insight and draft an SEO content brief to follow while writing. Then, the only thing left to do is create the best content anyone has ever created.
Is there an easier way to beat competition in the game of keywords?
With some luck, yes. Remember, we’ve already talked about a tool that lets you analyze competitor keywords and identify potential lost opportunities – Ubersuggest. But, if you decide to buy SimilarWeb, let me introduce an alternative.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Keyword Gap tool.
You can find it in Keyword Research > Keywords. Click on Add Site for Keyword Gap. It’s brilliant. The report shows you a complete comparative breakdown of two or more domains, with core keywords, wins, opportunities, and losses.
If there are any queries that your audience is pursuing but the competition is unaware of, this is where you’ll find them. And when you’re done, you can also use the Keyword Gap tool to discover and fix oversights on your own keyword list.
Content is still king. Try not to forget that. If you are ever lucky enough to snatch a good keyword right before your competitor’s nose, don’t waste it on a scrambled-together piece of content that nobody will want to read. Make the most of it.
There are a million reasons why you should never underestimate the power of technical SEO analysis. And I feel like these three are convincing enough:
According to this Google post, speed is an official ranking factor:
And so is security, according to Google Search Central Blog:
While widely accepted as one of the leading factors that influence ranking on SERPs, user experience has never been officially confirmed as a ranking factor by Google. In reality, nothing is more important than visitors enjoying your site.
The best tools for technical SEO analysis are Screaming Frog and SEO Minion. They have more or less the same capabilities, except for these little sidenotes: 1. Screaming Frog’s precision is matchless, and 2. You can actually use it for free.
So, let’s see how to use Screaming Frog to analyze technical SEO.
But first, let’s check speed.
Screaming Frog has a feature called PageSpeed Insights, but we can’t use it for free. Alright, then. Go to https://pagespeed.web.dev/ and enter a URL. After you click on Analyze, you will get a report for performance, accessibility, etc:
Scroll down, and you will see suggestions on how to make your pages faster on desktop and mobile. Improvement tasks are listed in order of urgency:
Next up is security.
Download, install, and run Screaming Frog on your computer. Enter your domain and hit Start. The spider will take a few minutes to crawl your site. When it’s done, click on the Security tab on the left and Issues on the right. Like this:
Under Issues, the program will automatically scroll down to Security tasks demanding your attention. On your right, you will see a list of URLs affected by this issue, while below, you will find an issue description and tips for fixing it.
Following the same or similar path, you can use Screaming Frog to analyze all other aspects of UX. Look on your top left for tabs with reports on:
Can you analyze your competitors’ technical SEO? Technically, you can. There are no limitations on how many domains Screaming Frog allows you to audit, whether verified or not. You could learn a lot by crawling your top competitors’ sites.
Competitor analysis could be a lot, but don’t get discouraged just because it’s hard work. I wanted to show you that getting to understand your competitors’ SEO strategies really does make a difference, so I looked for real-life proof. Here’s what I found.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, when online learning was at its all-time high, global classroom provider Learning with Experts found itself in trouble. Why? Because, all of a sudden, everyone started capitalizing on the eLearning trend.
Faced with fierce competition, Learning with Experts reached out to Re:signal, one of the top-rated SEO agencies in the UK. They needed assistance with their SERP visibility and hoped Re:signal could help them stand out from the crowd.
The agency quickly came up with three solutions:
Right now, we’re interested in the first solution because it relied on competitor analysis to inform Learning with Experts’ keyword strategy. Here’s how:
Using a keyword gap tool, Re:signal compared their client’s existing keyword list with their competitors’ keywords. They discovered a whopping 265 missed opportunities, including some frequently used search terms like “online classes.”
Next, the agency employed a keyword finder to pinpoint long-tail keywords related to these search terms. The idea behind this approach was to create a keyword skeleton for blog posts that would perfectly match their audience’s search intent.
And it worked like crazy! In only five months, Learning with Exerts was able to attract 59% more website visitors and grow its revenue by—wait for it—94%!
Some time ago, Ahrefs wanted to show how using their flagship tool for the Skyscraper Technique ends in success, especially when you vet the linking domains before pitching to them. Their post skyrocketed to the SERP top, so they decided to turn what they did into a detailed case study that also works as a step-by-step how-to.
Besides promoting their tool, their goal was to build a top-ranking post from backlinks by convincing linking domains that their content bests competitors’.
So here’s what they did:
First, they used competitor analysis to discover a high-quality keyword for what they wanted to do, and they ended up with this winner: “SEO statistics.”
After scrutinizing competitor content and writing a better, updated, and more relevant list of SEO statistics, they initiated an extensive and excruciatingly exhaustive competitor backlink analysis, which resulted in a list of 515 sites to pitch to.
And then, they pitched their content to every one of them. A combination of automated email templates and data-backed personalization helped them pique the interest of 83 people and ultimately get 36 links (9 from high authority domains).
Was it a success? A conversion rate of 5.71% doesn’t seem much. But let’s not forget that Ahrefs started with 515 deliverable email addresses, which they got by narrowing down 1,986 URLs. The result? They’re crushing it at #1 on the SERP.
You feel like there’s a million things you need to do, but you don’t know where to start? Sometimes, it’s useful to go the other way around and cross off everything you shouldn’t do first. We’ve all made these mistakes, but you don’t have to.
This will be hard but try not to pick favorites and obsess over them. I know that you’ve finally got the chance to destroy your arch-enemy. I get it. You’ve been dreaming about this since your childhood. But I promise you it’s not worth it, and I’ll tell you why.
Google maintains a web index of 400 billion documents! Let me repeat that: 400 billion! Wherever you are on SERPs, you have competitors up and down. No one could blame you for focusing on higher-ranking sites, but here’s what nobody’s talking about:
Top-ranking sites are not a threat to you.
Look down: That’s where your real competition is.
Focusing on dethroning or outranking a single competitor is a rookie mistake made out of a beginner’s passion. We’ve all been there. But while you’re busy overanalyzing your nemesis, millions of others are analyzing you. And getting better and better at it.
Use filter-rich competitor monitoring tools like Ahrefs and SimilarWeb to keep an eye on sites that are moving up fast. Key industry players, the ones on the top, are keeping the status quo. Up-and-coming sites are changing the game. They are the disruptors.
Underestimate them for a second, and you’re done.
Let’s say you make and sell croissants. From the SEO perspective, all you have is this sweet, melodic word with a French flair and a delicate finish. It’s a spectacular word, but tough luck – you’ll need do-follow backlinks from at least 63 sites to rank in the top 10 for this keyword, according to the Ahrefs Keyword Difficulty tool.
So, how do you crack this nut? You use long-tail keywords.
Some key facts about long-tail keywords are that they are 3-5 words long and specific, so they don’t have a lot of search volume. So, why use them?
To stand out and differentiate yourself. What makes your croissants special enough to steal the attention of croissant lovers who probably already have a designated croissant maker (I just live saying croissant)? Put that in the keyword.
Like this:
See how “croissant” has a “hard” tag for keyword difficulty, but “chocolate croissants,” “almonds croissant,” “ham and cheese croissant,” and “croissant sandwich” are tagged with “easy” or “medium”? And you’ve only added a single word!
Now let’s make it even more specific:
Here’s the thing–the longer the keyword, the easier you rank for it.
Long-tail keywords are like this because they correspond to a very specific search intent and consequently have a high click-through rate. You don’t search for sweet croissants and click on ham and cheese. You know exactly what you want.
Keyword research tools like Ubersuggest and SpyFu can help you discover questions and other long-tail keywords based on your main keyword, as well as look for keyword gaps for ultra-specific search terms that your rivals aren’t using.
I wanted to check Ikea’s domain authority some time ago, so I used Moz Free Domain Authority Checker. It’s free, fast, and reliable. Here’s what I got:
The same day, I was using Ahrefs for a competitor analysis, and I received a result that seemed suspicious. So, I typed in Ikea.com to test its accuracy.
Ahrefs generated this neat-looking domain authority report:
Close, but not quite there. And try not to forget that Moz and Ahrefs are both considered the most accurate domain authority checkers in the SEO game.
So, which one is right? Should I ignore logic and dare say–both?
Backlinko did a study on this with an exhaustive analysis of how both of them calculate domain authority or rating, as Ahrefs calls it. In both cases, links are the primary ranking factor, but there are slight differences in the way their algorithms work.
The point I’m trying to make is that no SEO tool is 100% accurate, be it Moz or Ahrefs, free or paid. Why? Google’s ever-changing algorithm and the increasing complexity of ranking factors are key reasons, but they are not the only ones. Factors like crawlers, access to data, and localization also make an enormous difference.
Good SEO practices drive 1,000%+ more traffic than organic social media, according to BrightEdge. But why would you trust some SEO guys who are just trying to sell things over your cousin Jeff who says he tried it and it doesn’t work?
I’m not calling Jeff a liar, but it sounds like he didn’t know how to apply SEO insights to his business. If you decide to do competitor analysis for SEO, you need to know exactly why you’re doing it and what business goals you want to achieve.
Here’s what happens when you fail to do that:
Most importantly, you miss your opportunity for differentiation.
Remember branding? It revolves around “competitive edges” and “unique selling points” that emphasize the importance of being different. If you don’t have an original product, you need an original package, service, logo, voice, and so on.
Overanalyzing your competitors can make you lose sight of that.
Whatever SEO strategy your competitors are using, make it your own. Don’t just copy the competition. If you don’t let your business goals inform your keywords, content, and linking domains, it will all be for nothing. You’ll end up like Jeff.
I guess ChatGPT can be used for just about anything – even SEO competitor analysis! I’ve created a prompt that you can use to get started:
Here is what I get when I run that prompt for “SEO competitor analysis:”
So, how do I use this to my advantage? My main focus is on the content gaps—what competitors don’t have and what I can include to stand out. For example, I’ve added plenty of visuals, created a checklist, and written significantly more content than my competitors for this article. Fingers crossed it pays off!
Competitor website analysis is a dirty little trick that can catapult you straight to the top, but you need to do it the right way. Here are my key takeaways:
SEO is a long game, so don’t waste your time. Every day you wait, your competitors move further ahead. Go ahead, then Pick any tool from the list, type in a domain, and hit “Search.” All those answers you were looking for are right there.
Some of the best free tools for SEO competitor analysis are:
Other tools that can be useful for benchmarking your SEO efforts against competitor sites are Google Search Console (for performance and keyword analysis), Screaming Frog (for on-page SEO and technical audits), and AnswerThePublic (for researching content ideas and search queries).
The best SEO analysis tools for competitive benchmarking (Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, MozBar, SimilarWeb) provide accurate and reliable data, even though they are free. However, they often hide advanced features and historical data behind the paywall.
On the other hand, tools that are 100% free are often less trustworthy. Their keyword and backlink reports are often outdated, incomplete, and inaccurate compared to paid tools because they pull data from smaller databases and use less accurate crawlers.
The optimal frequency of competitor analysis depends on factors like SEO strategy, number of competitors, market saturation, and more. For most small businesses in moderately competitive landscapes, quarterly analyses with monthly reviews are more than enough.
The first thing you must do to perform a competitor analysis is to identify the sites you are competing against. Your competitors offer the same or similar products/services as you, so they cater to the same audience and use the same keywords. Google the keywords you want to target and make a list of top-ranking sites.
Finding an SEO tool that allows you to perform a competitor backlink analysis for free could be tricky. Most of these solutions, like Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, provide free SEO reports for domains with verified ownerships or hide backlink data behind a paywall, as MozBar does. One of the best tools that lets you check competitors’ backlinks for free is Ubersuggest, but it limits searches to three domains a day.
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