Competing effectively in search means understanding your rivals’ strategies—and SE Ranking offers a comprehensive suite to do exactly that. This guide walks you through how to leverage its tools to analyze competitors’ organic and paid performance, backlink profiles, content, and more.
1. Identify and Monitor Your Competitors
Add competitors manually or automatically
Start by entering known competitor domains or let SE Ranking’s “Find My Competitors” feature detect similar sites in your niche .
Once added, SE Ranking compares ranking, visibility, and traffic trends across all tracked keywords—up to 20 competitors depending on your plan .
Track trends over time
Monitor competitors’ ranking movements via performance charts—average position, traffic forecast, visibility, and keyword distribution across top 10/30 results . This reveals which rival sites are gaining or losing momentum.
2. Deep Dive into Organic Traffic & Keywords
Navigate to Organic Traffic Research → Keywords to view a competitor’s traffic trends, keyword spread (positions 1–5, 6–10, etc.), backlink figures, and estimated traffic cost over time .
Use filters like volume, difficulty, CPC, CPC, and SERP features to identify:
- High-opportunity low-competition terms
- Gaps: valuable keywords competitors rank for that you don’t
For content opportunities, export keywords and analyze them in SE Ranking’s keyword research modules.
3. Analyze Paid Campaign Intelligence
Under Paid Traffic Research, uncover details like PPC keywords, monthly ad spend, CPC, and ad count.
This reveals:
- Which keywords your competitors see value in
- Paid terms worth testing in your campaigns
Looking at both organic and paid strategies reveals insights into market demand and budget focus.
4. Explore Backlink Strategy and Gaps
Use Backlink Checker and Backlink Gap Analyzer to assess:
- Competitors’ referring domains, anchor text, and authority metrics
- Gaps between your backlink profile and theirs
Prioritize high-authority, niche-relevant URLs that competitors have but you don’t.
5. Surface Content Gaps and Top Performing Pages
Access Content Marketing Tool and SERP Analyzer to:
- See top-performing competitor pages: structure, length, keywords, and visibility
- Compare content factors with your own pages for insights on improvements
Enable gap analysis by comparing competitor content with yours and identifying missing topics, header structures, or keyword coverage .
6. Monitor Competitor Page Changes
Use the Page Changes Monitor to track critical updates—price changes, new content, meta adjustments—on competitors’ high-value pages.
This real-time alerting keeps you informed of tactical shifts .
7. Evaluate Local and International Performance
Regional Traffic Analysis
SE Ranking breaks down competitor traffic by country and market. Spot rising competitors in specific regions or identify underserved markets in your niche .
Local SEO insights
For businesses with local focus, compare rankings and customer reviews across Google My Business and citations to refine your location-based strategy .
8. Build a Competitor Gap Strategy
With insights in hand, craft action plans:
- Keyword gaps – target competitor terms where you rank poorly or not at all
- Backlink gaps – pursue quality domains linking to competitors
- Content gaps – publish pillar and cluster content addressing missing topics
- Watchlist – react quickly to competitor updates detected by Page Monitor
Schedule regular audits using SE Ranking’s rank tracker, backlink monitor, and competitor tools to keep strategy on track.
9. Automate Reporting and Stay Efficient
Set up white-label reports and visual dashboards for stakeholder updates—covering competitor metrics, keyword trends, content performance, and backlink progress .
SE Ranking integrates with GA, GSC, Looker Studio, and Zapier for streamlined workflows .
Expert Tips from the SEO Community
- SE Ranking combines competitor, content, and backlink tools in one suite—ideal for agency workflows .
- Its content marketing tool helps deconstruct top competitor articles—highlighting structure, headings, and keyword usage .
- Reviewers praise fast site audits, white-label reporting, and local SEO within the platform .
Final Takeaway
SE Ranking offers a 360° competitive analysis framework:
- Track rival sites and keyword trends
- Audit backlink gaps and content weaknesses
- Monitor paid vs organic strategies
- React in real time to competitor changes
- Automate internal and client reporting
When applied methodically, these insights empower you to close competitive gaps and build an SEO strategy rooted in real-world advantage. Ready to start? You can test SE Ranking’s competitor tools with a free trial and build a custom audit and reporting system tailored to your niche.
