SEO Competitive Analysis
Understand Your Competition & Find Opportunities to Get Ahead
Your competitors can provide valuable insight into what’s working in your market—but the goal isn’t to simply copy what they’re doing.
I’ll analyze the competitors showing up for the searches that matter to your business to understand where they’re succeeding, where your website may be falling behind, and where opportunities exist to compete more effectively.
That can include the keywords competitors are targeting, the pages and content helping them gain visibility, their local search presence, website structure, backlinks, and other factors that may be contributing to their performance.
The goal is to turn competitive research into actionable opportunities for your own SEO strategy—not create a copy of someone else’s website.
What Competitive Analysis Actually Does
Competitive analysis helps uncover why other businesses are gaining visibility in search and where opportunities exist for your website to compete.
The competitors you think of first aren’t always the same businesses you’re competing against in Google. Different companies may appear for different services, locations, and searches, so I’ll look at the websites actually competing for the visibility that matters to your business.
I’ll examine the strategies and signals contributing to their search presence, including the keywords and topics they target, the content and pages they’ve created, their local search visibility, backlinks, and the overall structure of their websites.
The purpose isn’t to duplicate everything a competitor does. Something working for another business doesn’t automatically make it the right strategy for yours. Competitive research provides context that can help identify gaps, strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities when building your own strategy.
The goal is to understand the competitive landscape and use those insights to make better SEO decisions for your business.
How I Approach Competitive Analysis
Search Competitor Identification
Identify the businesses actually competing with your website for important searches—not just the competitors you already know by name.
Keyword & Visibility Analysis
Compare the searches competitors are appearing for to identify areas where they have stronger visibility and opportunities your website may be missing.
Content & Website Analysis
Review competitor service pages, content, website structure, and topic coverage to understand how they’re addressing important searches and customer needs.
Local Search & Authority Signals
Evaluate factors such as local visibility, Google Business Profiles, reviews, citations, and backlinks that may be contributing to competitors’ search presence.
Competitive Opportunities
Turn the research into actionable priorities by identifying areas where your website can improve, differentiate itself, or pursue opportunities competitors aren’t addressing effectively.
Search Competitor Identification
The businesses you consider your biggest competitors aren’t always the same websites you’re competing against in search results.
Different competitors may appear depending on the service, product, location, or keyword being searched. A business that competes with you offline may have very little search visibility, while another company you rarely think about may consistently appear above you for valuable searches.
I’ll identify the websites actually competing for the searches that matter to your business and look for patterns in where and how they appear. This creates a more accurate picture of the competitive landscape instead of relying only on a predetermined list of businesses.
Understanding who you’re really competing against gives us a better foundation for everything that follows.
The goal is to identify the businesses actually competing for valuable search visibility so your strategy is based on the right competition.
Search Competitors
Important Searches
Market Visibility
Competitive Landscape
Keyword & Visibility Analysis
Once we know who the relevant search competitors are, we can start comparing where they’re gaining visibility and where your website may have opportunities to improve.
I’ll look at the keywords, services, topics, and types of searches competitors are appearing for and compare that visibility with your own website. This can uncover searches where competitors consistently outperform you as well as valuable areas they may not be targeting effectively.
The point isn’t to chase every keyword a competitor ranks for. Some searches may have little relevance or business value to you. The important part is identifying competitive gaps that align with the services, customers, and markets you actually want to grow.
Those insights can help determine where existing pages need stronger optimization and where additional opportunities may exist.
The goal is to find meaningful gaps in search visibility that can help guide where your SEO efforts should be focused.
Keyword Gaps
Search Visibility
Competitor Rankings
SEO Opportunities
Content & Website Analysis
Search visibility isn’t just about keywords. The pages, information, and overall structure of a competitor’s website can provide useful insight into why they’re performing well.
I’ll review how competitors present important services and topics, how thoroughly their pages address what potential customers are looking for, and how their websites organize and connect related information.
This can reveal areas where your website may need stronger service pages, clearer information, better organization, or additional content. It can also uncover opportunities competitors have overlooked entirely.
The purpose isn’t to recreate another company’s website. Competitive content research should help us understand the landscape and then build something that better represents your business, your expertise, and what your customers need.
The goal is to learn from what’s working in your market while identifying ways to make your own website more useful, complete, and competitive.
Content Coverage
Service Pages
Website Structure
Content Opportunities
Local Search & Authority Signals
For local businesses, competitive visibility extends beyond the pages on a website.
I’ll look at how competitors appear in local search and evaluate signals that may be contributing to their visibility. Depending on the business, that can include Google Business Profile optimization, reviews, business information and citations, local relevance, backlinks, and other authority signals.
This can help identify areas where competitors have built a stronger presence as well as opportunities where your business may be able to close the gap.
Not every competitor advantage needs to be copied or matched one-for-one. A competitor having more backlinks or reviews doesn’t automatically mean chasing an arbitrary number is the answer. The important question is which signals are actually meaningful in your market and where improvements make sense for your business.
The goal is to understand the local and authority signals influencing your competitive landscape and identify realistic opportunities to strengthen your own presence.
Local Visibility
Reviews & Citations
Backlinks
Authority Signals
Competitive Opportunities
Competitive research only becomes useful when it leads to action.
After reviewing the competitive landscape, I’ll bring the findings together to identify the areas where improvements can make the most sense for your business. That might mean strengthening an important service page, targeting an overlooked search opportunity, improving local visibility, developing useful content, addressing technical weaknesses, or building stronger authority.
Those opportunities can then be prioritized based on their relevance to your business, competitive difficulty, potential value, and how they fit into the rest of your SEO strategy.
The objective isn’t to beat every competitor at everything. It’s to understand where your business has the best opportunities to compete and where your time and resources can have the greatest impact.
The goal is to turn competitive data into a focused SEO strategy with clear, actionable priorities for your business.
Competitive Gaps
Strategic Priorities
Growth Opportunities
Actionable Insights
Competitive Analysis FAQs
Why Work With SEO by Seth?
When you hire someone to handle your SEO, you should know who is actually doing the work. With SEO by Seth, you work directly with me—from understanding your business and building your strategy to monitoring results and identifying new opportunities.
16+ Years of SEO Experience
I’ve spent more than 16 years working hands-on with SEO campaigns for local businesses across competitive industries and markets.
Work Directly With Me
No account managers or getting passed from person to person. The person you speak with is the same person working on and overseeing your SEO strategy.
Strategy Built Around Your Business
Your business, competition, and market are different. Your SEO strategy should be too. I focus on the opportunities that make sense for your specific goals rather than forcing every client into the same package.
Clear Communication & Real Answers
SEO can get complicated, but communicating it doesn’t have to be. I’ll explain what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, what the results mean, and where I see opportunities to improve.
Free SEO Review
Not sure how your website stacks up against the competition? Let’s take a look.
I’ll review your website’s search visibility and competitive landscape to identify areas where competitors may have an advantage, opportunities your website may be missing, and improvements that could help you compete more effectively. No obligation, no sales pressure—just a straightforward look at where your website stands, what your competitors may be doing better, and where the biggest opportunities may be.