What Is SEO Competitor Analysis or SEO Competitive Analysis?
SEO competitor analysis, also known as “seo competitive analysis” is the process of researching competitors in your industry to understand their strategies for keyword targeting, content creation, and backlink building. Unlike general competitor analysis, which focuses on product offerings and a wider range of marketing strategies, SEO competitor analysis zeroes in on how competitors perform in organic search and what makes high ranking competitor websites successful. The insights gained help you:
- Discover competitors' best-performing keywords
- Identify content gaps and opportunities
- Evaluate backlink profiles and traffic channels
Ultimately, this helps you craft a focused strategy to improve your search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic.
In this article, you will learn:
- What SEO competitor analysis is and why it’s important for your brand
- The difference between niche competitors and SEO competitors
- How to identify and analyze your SEO competitors
- How to perform a keyword gap analysis to uncover untapped opportunities
- Practical next steps to improve your SEO strategy and outpace the competition
Why Is SEO Competitor Analysis Important?
When I work with fashion e-commerce brands who wish to improve their SEO, many of them don’t realize their direct competitors might not be focusing on SEO. Those competitors who have weaker websites in terms of SEO (e.g.ranking for few keywords, low site authority scores and low organic traffic) are not the most relevant to try to outrank when it comes to your SEO strategy. This is why it is so important to dig deeper through the SEO competitive analysis process in order to find out who’s actually dominating in the organic search arena.
Benefits of Conducting an SEO Competitor Analysis
Discover competitors who are doing SEO. To increase organic traffic from search engines, brands need to know who their SEO competitors are. In this article I will explain the difference between niche and SEO competitors.
Identify strategy gaps. Find areas where competitors are excelling in SEO and where your brand can improve. By identifying keywords that bring in traffic for competitors, you can optimize your site to rank for those opportunities too.
Boost your online visibility. Once you understand what’s driving your competitors’ success, you can adopt similar strategies for your site. You can also use your knowledge to develop different strategies and original content to make your brand stand out.
Niche Competitors vs. SEO Competitors
I often find that my clients' direct competitors are not even ranking for relevant keywords. Their organic traffic might be low because they rely on other channels, like paid ads or social media. Once we do an SEO competitor analysis, we discover other SEO competitors who are doing exceptionally well in organic search, often surprising clients who hadn't considered them as competitors.
So before I walk you through how to conduct an SEO competitor analysis, let’s first understand the difference between niche competitors and SEO competitors.
Who are niche competitors?
These are businesses that operate in the same industry or market segment as you and offer similar products or services. For example, if you run a fashion e-commerce store specializing in sustainable athleisure wear, your niche competitors might be other sustainable athleisure brands.
These competitors are determined based on their product offerings, target audience, and overall branding.
Who are SEO Competitors?
These are websites or businesses that compete with you for the same keywords in organic search, regardless of whether they offer similar products or services. An SEO competitor might rank highly for a keyword like “eco-friendly leggings,” even if they sell a broader range of eco-friendly products or focus on content about sustainability rather than retail.
Understanding the distinction between these two helps you prioritize where to focus your SEO efforts. SEO competitive analysis ensures you’re targeting the right opportunities in organic search, even if those competitors don’t match your business model directly.
How to Perform an SEO Competitor Analysis
Step 1: Identify Your Competitors
The first step is identifying who you’re competing against.
Start with creating a list of 5-10 direct competitors in your niche—businesses that offer similar products or services. If you’re a small up-and-coming designer brand, it’s best to compare yourself to businesses of similar size, not giants like Lululemon. This ensures you’re benchmarking your performance against realistic targets.
Next, add SEO competitors to your list. You can use tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to see which websites are ranking for the same keywords as you. These might not always be direct competitors but can offer valuable insights into how your audience is being served through organic search.
Step 2: Gather Data to Identify Your SEO Competitors
Once you have your list of competitors, it’s time to gather data on their SEO performance.
Analyze keyword rankings, traffic sources, and backlink profiles. Compare key metrics such as organic traffic and domain authority to assess their strengths and weaknesses.
Step 3: Understand Why Your SEO Competitors Are Successful
Once you’ve discovered your top SEO competitors, it’s time to uncover the secrets to their success.
Examine the type of content your competitors produce—whether it’s blogs, FAQs, videos, or how-to guides. Identify which of their pages drive the most traffic and analyze why they’re effective. Use this insight to give you ideas for content that your website might be missing and to inspire content that fills gaps in your audience’s needs while standing out from the competition.
Step 5: Perform a Keyword Gap Analysis
Are you missing out on target keyword opportunities that could bring in more organic traffic? You should do a keyword gap analysis to find out. By running a keyword gap analysis on a tool like SEMrush, you will see which keywords your competitors are ranking for that you don’t rank for.
From that list of keywords, prioritize high-volume, low-competition keywords relevant to your niche to maximize your chances of ranking well. Focusing on long-tail keywords (longer keyword phrases) is great for small brands because they’re easier to rank for and can deliver highly targeted traffic.
Step 6: Evaluate Backlink Profiles
Backlinks are an important ranking factor, so analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles to discover linking domains and potential partnership opportunities. Use this data to enhance your own link-building strategy, focusing on acquiring high-quality backlinks that boost your authority.
Step 7: Monitor Traffic Channels
Another way to uncover untapped opportunities is to figure out where your competitors’ traffic comes from. Evaluate their organic, social, paid, email and referral traffic channels. Tailor your strategy to capitalize on areas they may be underutilizing.
Next Steps After Your SEO Competitor Analysis
Conducting an SEO competitive analysis is not just about understanding where you stand but about identifying opportunities to outpace your competition. By differentiating between niche and SEO competitors and analyzing their content and keyword strategies, you can build a comprehensive strategy tailored to your unique business needs.
Here are a few actions you can take using insights you gained from doing an SEO competitor analysis.
Improve how you communicate your unique value proposition to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Use the data you’ve gathered to refine your messaging and target areas where competitors may be falling short.
Focus on long-tail keywords to capture niche-specific traffic. These phrases are not only easier to rank for but also bring in highly targeted audiences that align with your brand.
Optimize individual pages with a clear focus keyword, but don’t stop there.
Build evergreen collections pages. Remember that SEO compounds over time, so while optimizing individual products is important, the fact that products are routinely added and removed means that solely focusing on optimizing product pages is not an ideal long-term solution to increase visibility in search engine results. Building permanent collections pages where each page focuses on one relevant keyword ensures long-term SEO growth.
Produce high-quality content like blogs, guides, and FAQs to enhance your website’s authority while addressing your audience’s needs.
Further reading:
The Complete “How-To” Guide for E-Commerce SEO - From Beginner to Advanced
How to write SEO Friendly Blog Posts
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