SEO Competitor Analysis: How Do I Find My Niche Rivals?
How to effectively analyse your SEO competitors to find opportunities and inform your strategy.
One of my favorite sayings is “learn from the mistakes of others,” which perfectly describes my approach to competitor analysis. I enjoy figuring out what rivals did wrong to avoid the same pitfalls, while also learning from their successful strategies to incorporate into my own marketing approach.
However, analyzing competitors’ SEO performance without proper context won’t lead to good decision-making. Context is essential when conducting this type of analysis.
Conducting thorough beforehand research provides a complete picture of competition levels, helping businesses adjust their SEO strategy to increase organic traffic, scale, and establish appropriate goals.
3 Big reasons why you need to care about your niche competitor analysis
Reason 1: Country-level and geo-specific competition could be very different
Many companies operate across multiple geographies, and each location presents unique competitive challenges. A business expanding from the UK to the US may face entirely different competitors. Even within a single country, regional expansion can mean competing against different businesses.
Take for example footpatrol.com, a UK sneaker store. The national-level competitors identified by Ahrefs differ significantly from those appearing in localized searches like “air max sale” in London specifically. Local competitors often include neighborhood businesses with strong regional marketing positions.
Google local packs also vary by location. Searching for sneaker stores in London produces different results than searching in Leeds, showing how physical retailers operate in specific areas while often selling online as well.
When analyzing particular search queries, check Google local packs to identify businesses appearing in specific geographic results. Tools like AccuRanker offer location-specific Google SERP visibility across nearly every location.
Reason 2: Pick your keywords wisely to rank high in categories with lower competition level
Careful competitor analysis helps set realistic and achievable marketing goals. Businesses should examine SERP competition levels across relevant products to find breakthrough opportunities where ranking high is possible.
Competing directly against massive e-commerce platforms like Amazon is often futile. Instead, focus efforts on achievable goals that can generate organic traffic growth.
Tools like SEMrush evaluate competition across keyword sets for over 100 countries. However, tools like AccuRanker provide the advantage of checking competition levels in specific locations, which SEMrush cannot do directly.
Anything scoring over 70% on competition metrics indicates extremely difficult ranking prospects. Keywords with such high competition levels should be reconsidered in favor of less saturated options.
Note that country-level competition metrics may not correlate with geo-specific competition.
Reason 3: You want to expand your business and build a competition heatmap for target locations
Success in SEO requires understanding which sites rank for top commercial keywords and whether breaking into top three positions is feasible.
The heatmap concept, borrowed from CRO and UX professionals, can be adapted for competitor analysis. More competitive locations display more vibrant colors on a visualization, providing an at-a-glance view of the competitive landscape.
A step-by-step process of niche competitor analysis
This process cannot be completed overnight, especially when analyzing multiple rivals, but provides tremendous value.
Step 1: Gather a list of relevant keywords
Everything in SEO begins with keywords, which indicate market demand in digital marketing — more searches equal more potential customers.
Search intent matters considerably. Some searches are purely informational, meaning users aren’t ready to purchase. Recent research shows Google uses semantic search to connect keywords, allowing pages to rank for broader terms not explicitly included in their content.
For established businesses with solid customer bases, focus on keywords generating significant traffic and conversions. Connect Google Search Console to Google Analytics to identify these search terms easily.
AccuRanker integrates with Google Search Console, automatically pulling keywords during setup.
For location-specific marketing plans, export search queries delivering traffic and conversions only in target areas.
When exploring new products or services without existing traffic, conduct keyword research. Tools like KwFinder provide extensive options including auto-suggested keywords, related terms, and questions.
Another valuable approach involves identifying rival pages receiving the highest organic visitor counts. Focus on pages with relevant product or service names in their URLs. SEMrush shows pages with the most organic visitors and allows filtering for applicable results.
Step 2: Create a campaign in AccuRanker
After gathering keywords, set up an AccuRanker campaign with multiple geo targets. This capability distinguishes AccuRanker from many rank trackers that require separate campaigns per location.
Add tags to important keywords in a CSV file, including geo-specific detail to filter irrelevant areas. AccuRanker processes correctly formatted CSV files containing keyword and location information.
Step 3: Analyze sites currently ranking in top results
AccuRanker produces results within minutes of campaign initiation. Filter specific locations to check how national competitors rank across selected areas.
If uncertain about true competitors, use AccuRanker’s competitor discovery feature to find sites ranking high in your keywords on Google.
Step 4: Evaluate the level of competition based on uncovered metrics
1. Share of traffic across selected search queries
AccuRanker automatically builds competitive landscapes based on selected filters, including particular locations or tagged keywords. This visualization shows visibility distribution among competitors.
2. How many referring domains they own and whether they’re actively building links
Ahrefs excels at analyzing website backlink profiles. Start by checking the referring domains trend, which reveals whether competitors experienced growth spikes in linked domains, indicating active link-building efforts.
The “Best by links” report in Ahrefs identifies pages receiving the most links. If category pages show high link counts, it signals heavy investment in link building. This information helps determine whether outranking competitors requires equivalent link-building efforts.
3. How successful their content is in terms of traffic
Examine whether competitors run blogs or other content initiatives to decide if starting a blog makes sense and how to structure promotion efforts.
In highly competitive industries, ranking success may require acquiring links to blog content rather than producing new posts. Understanding this distinction helps direct resources effectively.
If beginning a blog, do it well. Many corporate blogs underperform because companies don’t promote them correctly. Audit blogs periodically to ensure alignment with SEO strategy and content remains engaging.
BuzzSumo and Ahrefs together reveal how well competitor posts distribute and perform SEO-wise. BuzzSumo’s Content Analyzer allows filtering by publication date and content length, with length filters helping remove non-content pages.
Ahrefs’ Batch Analysis tool checks monthly organic traffic for identified content pages, showing which pieces drive meaningful visitor numbers.
Following a “less is more” approach focused on link building rather than content creation might prove more effective for competing, particularly if domain ratings are comparable.
This is where I hand the reins over to you
Niche competitor analysis is complex with many nuances and considerations. However, the value becomes clear when crafting SEO strategy. I’ve provided an overview of finding rivals and learning their tactics, but complete coverage of every approach is impossible in one post.
I encourage you to explore the mentioned tools and identify which metrics matter most for your specific analysis.
Once collecting important data through tool exploration, create presentations using beautiful templates. Professional presentations showcase the work completed and demonstrate genuine excitement about upcoming SEO strategy to leadership.
