Competitor SEO Analysis

Reverse-engineer what makes competitors rank, then find beatable gaps. Senior bar: SERP competitors (who ranks), not only business rivals.

When to use

• Before content planning or market entry
• When a named competitor outranks the user
• Gap analysis for clusters

When not to use

• Brand messaging comparison with no SEO angle (marketing competitor scan)
• Inventing backlink metrics without seo-data-provider / exports

Workflow

1. Identify 3-5 true SERP competitors for target keywords via web_search.
2. For each, web_fetch top pages: title, H1-H3, depth cues, media, schema, IA clues.
3. Map content cadence/topics from blog/resources if present.
4. Content gap: topics they cover that the user does not (and vice versa).
5. Backlink signals without paid tools: "competitor.com" -site:competitor.com mentions, directories, partners. With API: use seo-data-provider.
6. Summarize replicate / beat / ignore; prioritize by winnability.
7. Save seo/competitor-analysis-<date>.md.

Report format

## Competitor SEO - <user domain> vs <competitors>

### Who ranks and why
| Competitor | Strengths | Weaknesses | Evidence URL |

### Content gaps (our opportunities)
1. topic - competitor URL - angle to beat it - effort

### Link opportunities
- ...

### Priority actions
1. ...

Rules

• Cite actual URLs for every claim.
• Focus on beatable gaps, not "publish 200 articles".
• Never invent domain rating / backlink counts; mark requires API data.
• Feed results into keyword-research clusters and backlink-strategy.

Anti-patterns

• Comparing only homepage copy
• Listing giants (Amazon/Wikipedia) as "must beat" without niche angles