What exactly is SEO competitive analysis?

SEO competitive analysis involves researching the links, keywords, content, and more of your SEO competitors in order to reverse-engineer the most successful elements of these tactics into your own SEO strategy.

Instead of guessing which keywords to target, content to create, or links to build, you can instead see what's already working for others, and build upon that success.



Consider a real-world example: Imagine you operate a grocery store — one of three competing stores in town. Your customers are happy, but you know they also visit other stores because they can't buy everything in one place. So you go on a road trip to gather competitive intelligence. You visit the other stores to understand the popular items they offer. By offering these items yourself — or even superior ones — you help your customers make fewer trips, and in turn, you gain more business.

There are many ways to do a competitor analysis for SEO. Consider this your starter guide. Here's what we'll cover: