An SEO competitor analysis checklist helps you answer three questions: who actually ranks for the searches you want, why they rank, and what you should do about it. Work through the steps below in order: identify your real search competitors, review the search results, compare keywords, compare content, compare links and authority, check technical health, then turn your findings into a short action list.
The point of working through an SEO competitor analysis checklist is not to copy anyone. It is to understand what searchers and search engines currently reward for your topics, find the gaps your competitors have left, and spend your effort where it is most likely to pay off.
Step 1: Identify your real search competitors
Your business competitors and your search competitors are often different. A local accounting firm may lose clicks to national publishers, software companies and directories, not just other firms.
Checklist:
- List 10 to 20 keywords that matter most to your business: your main services or products, plus the problems customers search for.
- Search each keyword in a private browser window, so your history doesn’t affect what you see.
- Record the domains in the top results for each search.
- Count how often each domain appears. The ones that show up repeatedly are your real search competitors.
- Pick three to five to analyze in depth, including at least one direct business rival.
- Note the type of each competitor: business, publisher, directory, marketplace or tool. You compete with each type differently.
Step 2: Read the search results themselves
Before opening any tool, look at what the results page tells you. Search engines show what they believe searchers want.
- Page type: are the top results guides, service pages, product pages, lists or tools? If every result is a guide, a service page will struggle for that keyword.
- Freshness: are results recent, or are older pages holding on? Recent results suggest the topic rewards updates.
- Search features: note featured snippets, “People also ask” boxes, videos, map results or shopping results. Each one changes how many clicks the normal results get and what format wins.
- Angle: do results target beginners, experts, a specific industry or a price range? The angle tells you what searchers expect.
- Weak spots: thin pages, outdated information or forum threads in the top results suggest an opening for a better page.
Step 3: Compare keywords
Now look at which searches bring traffic to each competitor and which of those you are missing.
- Use an SEO tool such as Ahrefs or a similar keyword database to export each competitor’s top organic keywords and top pages.
- Run a keyword gap comparison between your domain and your competitors, to see terms they rank for and you don’t.
- Filter the results by relevance. Remove keywords that don’t fit your services, audience or location.
- Group the remaining keywords by topic and intent: informational, commercial, transactional.
- Check your own data in Google Search Console for keywords where you already appear but rank low. These are often faster wins than new topics.
- Mark each keyword with a priority based on business value, not just volume.
Add the useful keywords to your keyword map, keeping one main keyword per page. If you don’t have a keyword map yet, our SEO strategy template shows how to build one and plan content around it.
Step 4: Compare content, page by page
Pick the competitor page that ranks best for each of your priority keywords and compare it honestly with your own page (or the page you plan to write).
- Coverage: which subtopics, questions and steps do they cover that you don’t?
- Depth: do they include specifics, such as examples, decision criteria, templates or comparisons, or is the content generic?
- Proof: do they show experience, such as case studies, original images, named authors or data from their own work?
- Structure: are headings clear and scannable? Is the answer near the top?
- Conversion path: what do they ask the reader to do next, and how?
- Freshness: when was the page last meaningfully updated?
- What they missed: note questions the page doesn’t answer, outdated advice, or weak explanations. This is where your page can be genuinely better.
Write down three to five concrete improvements for each of your pages. “Make it better” is not an action; “add a comparison table of the three options” is.
Step 5: Compare authority and links
Links from other websites still help search engines judge which pages deserve attention. You don’t need to match competitors link for link, but you do need to understand the gap.
- Compare the number of referring domains linking to each competitor and to you, using a backlink tool.
- Look at the pages that attract the most links on each competitor’s site. Often they are tools, research, guides or free resources rather than service pages.
- Review the types of sites linking to them: industry associations, partners, news coverage, directories, guest articles.
- Identify link sources you could reasonably earn too, such as associations you belong to or publications that cover your industry.
- Note any patterns that look manipulative. Don’t copy them; they carry risk.
The output of this step should be a short list of linkable assets you could create and a list of relationships worth pursuing.
Step 6: Check technical health and page experience
A competitor with weaker content can still outrank you if your site has technical problems. Compare the basics:
- Page speed and responsiveness on mobile, using a tool such as PageSpeed Insights for your key pages and theirs.
- Mobile usability: is text readable, are buttons easy to tap, does anything shift while loading?
- Site structure: how many clicks from the homepage to key pages, and how well pages link to each other.
- Structured data: do competitors use schema for products, reviews, FAQs, articles or their organization?
- Indexing hygiene on your own site: check Google Search Console for pages excluded unexpectedly, redirect issues and server errors.
You can only see the outside of a competitor’s site, so focus on your own fixes. If your site is new or being rebuilt, our SEO checklist for a new website covers the technical setup in detail.
Step 7: Turn findings into actions
This is the step most competitor analyses skip, and it is the only one that matters. Pull everything into a single table:
| Finding | Action | Page | Effort | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Competitor guide covers pricing factors; ours doesn’t | Add a pricing factors section | Service guide | Low | High |
| No page targets a commercial keyword competitors win | Create a new service page | New | Medium | High |
| Competitors earn links from an industry association | Apply for membership listing | Site-wide | Low | Medium |
Sort by priority and effort. Do the high-priority, low-effort actions first. Limit the list to what you can realistically complete in the next quarter, and park the rest for later.
Common mistakes in SEO competitor analysis
- Analyzing only business rivals and ignoring the publishers and directories that actually take the clicks.
- Collecting huge keyword exports and never filtering them for relevance.
- Copying a competitor’s page structure instead of improving on it.
- Chasing every keyword a competitor ranks for, including ones that bring them no business.
- Ending with a report but no action list, owner or deadline.
- Running the analysis once and never revisiting it.
Using this SEO competitor analysis checklist with your team
Assign each step to the person best placed to do it. Sales or support can judge relevance in Step 3. Whoever writes your content should own Step 4. Your developer can handle Step 6. Then review the action table together and agree who does what.
If you would rather have the analysis done for you, or need help acting on what you find, you can work with GrowthScribe on SEO. Send your site and three competitors to support@growthscribe.com and tell us which keywords matter most to your business.
FAQ
Who are my SEO competitors?
Your SEO competitors are the sites that rank for the searches you want to win. They often include your business rivals, but also publishers, directories, marketplaces and software companies. Search your main keywords and note which domains appear again and again.
How many competitors should I analyze?
Three to five is enough for most businesses. Pick the sites that rank most often for your priority keywords, plus one direct business rival if it is not already on the list. More than that usually produces data you won’t act on.
Do I need paid tools for competitor analysis?
Paid SEO tools make keyword and backlink comparisons much faster, but you can do a useful first pass with manual searches, Google Search Console for your own site, and a careful read of competitors’ pages. Use tools to confirm and scale what you see manually.
How often should I repeat an SEO competitor analysis?
A full analysis once or twice a year is usually enough, with a lighter check of key search results every quarter. Repeat it sooner if a new competitor appears for your main keywords or your traffic changes sharply.
