How to Do Competitor SEO Analysis
Competitor SEO analysis is the process of examining what your competitors are doing well in search and using those insights to improve your own strategy. You do not need expensive tools — a systematic approach with free tools can reveal most of what you need to know.
Step 1: Identify Your Competitors
Your SEO competitors are the sites that rank for the same keywords you are targeting. They may not be your business competitors. Search your target keywords and note the top 3-5 sites that consistently appear.
Step 2: Compare On-Page SEO
Use the RankNibbler SEO Compare tool to run a side-by-side comparison. Enter your page and a competitor's page with a target keyword to see:
- Who has the better title tag, meta description, and H1
- Who has more content (word count)
- Who has better readability
- Who uses the target keyword more effectively
- Who has more structured data and OG tags
Step 3: Analyse Their Content
For each competitor page that outranks you:
- Check their keyword density — what terms do they use that you do not?
- Look at their heading structure — what subtopics do they cover?
- Note their word count — is their content significantly more comprehensive?
- Check their structured data — do they have schema markup you are missing?
Step 4: Check Their Technical SEO
Run a RankNibbler audit on their pages to see their overall SEO score. Check their tech stack to see what CMS, plugins, and analytics they use.
Step 5: Audit Their Site
Use the site audit tool on their domain to see how many pages they have, their average score, and common issues. Use bulk checker to compare multiple pages at once.
Last updated: March 2026