An SEO competitor analysis compares your site with the sites that actually rank for the searches you want. You list those competitors, then find the keywords they rank for and you do not, the topics they cover better, the sites that link to them, and the search features they win. The result is a short, prioritised list of pages to create or improve.
Who are your real search competitors?
Your search competitors are the sites that rank on page one for your target keywords, which are often not the businesses you compete with offline. A coaching institute in Jaipur may compete in search with national edtech platforms, exam news sites, forums and aggregator directories.
To find them:
- List 20 to 30 keywords that matter most to your business, such as "CA foundation coaching in Jaipur" or "IELTS classes online".
- Search each one, ideally in a private window with the location set to your city.
- Note every domain on page one, and count how often each appears.
- The domains that appear most often are your main search competitors.
Split them into types: direct rivals, publishers, directories and marketplaces. You can beat a rival's course page with a better course page, but with a directory a listing may be wiser than trying to outrank it.
How do you find a keyword gap?
A keyword gap is the set of searches where competitors rank and you do not, or rank far lower. Most SEO tools that estimate rankings for other domains have a keyword gap or domain comparison report that does this.
Without a paid tool, you can still do it manually:
- Search your target keywords and record the position of each competitor and of your own site.
- Use your own Google Search Console data to see queries where you appear on page two or three. These are the closest gaps to close.
- Look at competitors' main menus and sitemaps to see which topics and locations they target.
Filter the gap to keywords that match what you actually sell. Ranking for "free JEE notes PDF" helps little if you sell paid classroom coaching and cannot serve that intent. The keyword research guide covers search intent in more detail.
How do you find a content gap?
A content gap is a topic or question your competitors answer well and you do not answer at all, or answer thinly. Compare the top-ranking pages for one keyword with your own page, section by section.
| Compare | Questions to ask |
|---|---|
| Coverage | Do they answer fees, duration, eligibility, batch timings and results? Do you? |
| Format | Do they use tables, comparison charts, videos or FAQs? |
| Evidence | Do they show faculty credentials, student results or dated information? |
| Freshness | Is their information for the current year while yours is old? |
| Page type | Is the top result a guide, a course page or a list? |
Do not copy their content. Use the gaps to decide what your page is missing, then answer it better from your own experience and data.
How do you find a backlink gap?
A backlink gap is the list of sites that link to several of your competitors but not to you. Those sites have already shown they link to businesses like yours, so they are your best outreach targets.
Backlink data for other domains comes from third-party tools with their own crawlers, and each one sees a different subset of the web. Look for patterns rather than exact counts: education portals, local news sites, associations and university pages that link to two or more rivals. Then use the methods in how to earn backlinks to earn similar links honestly.
Which SERP features should you check?
Check which search features appear for each keyword, because they change what "ranking" means. A page in position one can get fewer clicks if an AI Overview, a map pack or a video carousel sits above it.
For each priority keyword, note whether the results show:
- An AI Overview, and which sites it cites.
- A local pack with Google Business Profiles.
- Videos, images or "People also ask" questions.
- Rich results such as review stars or FAQs.
If a local pack appears, your Google Business Profile matters as much as your web page. If an AI Overview appears, check whether competitors are cited and what kind of content earns those citations. Google's search features gallery shows what each feature looks like.
Common mistakes
- Analysing your offline competitors instead of the sites that actually rank.
- Chasing every keyword gap, including ones that do not match your services.
- Copying competitor pages instead of improving on them.
- Treating third-party traffic and authority estimates as exact.
- Doing the analysis once and never repeating it.
How do you track competitors with Spider?
Spider's rank tracking records your Google positions for chosen keywords and whether your site is cited in the AI Overview, so you can spot keywords where others are cited and you are not. Its AI answer tracking checks whether ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini mention or cite you. A page audit of a competitor's top page next to your own compares titles, headings, structured data and speed.
Check this on your own site
Spider's free check tests this and about 100 other things on any page, and links each problem to a guide like this one.
