Part of SEO automation
SEO Competitor Analysis
Run an SEO competitor analysis in one session, with the source of every number.
Works with
And 7 more routed sources
Run it from SpringBrand or the assistant you already use
Claude Code
Codex
Cursor
WorkBuddy
Hermes
OpenClaw
Windsurf
Competitor SEO analysis for founders, SEO leads and agencies
1. Describe the job in a sentence
2. The agent picks the tools
Used for this job
Same request works from Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or WorkBuddy over MCP.
What comes back
Find real SEO competitors
- Domains ranked by how many of your keywords they appear for
- Forums, video sites and suites flagged separately from product competitors
- The keywords each domain ranks for
How to do an SEO competitor analysis in 6 steps
An SEO competitor analysis follows the same six steps whichever tool you use: find who ranks, see what they rank for, find the gaps, compare the pages that earn their traffic, compare backlinks, then decide what to do first. Here is each step, and what the agent does for it.
- 01
Find who ranks for your keywords
List the searches you want to win and check who holds Google's top 10 for each. The domains that keep showing up are your SEO competitors, even if you never compete with them for customers.
- 02
Pull their ranking keywords
For each competitor, pull the keywords they rank for with position and search volume from a ranked-keywords source such as DataForSEO, Semrush or Ahrefs.
- 03
Find the keywords they rank for and you don't
Compare their list with yours. The keywords they hold and you don't are your gap; see the keyword gap analysis example in our docs for a worked run.
- 04
Compare their top pages
Look at the pages that earn most of their traffic. Read what those pages cover, how they are structured and which questions they answer that yours don't.
- 05
Compare backlinks
Check which domains link to competitors and not to you, and how much their referring domains overlap with yours.
- 06
Prioritise
Rank the gaps by search volume, how hard they look and how well they fit your product. Turn the top few into page briefs and leave the rest for later.
Your SEO competitors aren't always your business competitors
The first surprise in most SEO competitor analyses is who you are actually up against. We checked Google's top 10 for 33 of our own target keywords on 2026-11-12. The domains that appeared most often were reddit.com (in 16 of 33), youtube.com (14 of 33) and semrush.com (7 of 33), not the products we compete with for customers.
It gets sharper at page level. One of our blog posts ranks around #22 for "construction marketing plans" in DataForSEO's index. On 2026-11-13 the live top results for "construction marketing plan" were Chase, Buildxact, Pipeline CRM, Projul, YouTube, OpenAsset, Indeed, Mailchimp and Top Builder Solutions. None of them sells what we sell, and every one of them is the competition for that page.
So start an SEO competitor analysis from the search results, not from your list of rivals. The agent does this first: it checks who ranks for your keywords and groups the domains it finds before it pulls any competitor data. Search is one channel; to see what the same rivals post, analyze competitors on social.
What the SEO competitor analysis report looks like
Every number in the SEO competitor analysis report says where it came from. One site owner described the problem with their last attempt on r/localseo: "We attempted it, but the previous competitor analysis was not sufficiently rigorous and cannot be treated as a finding." The agent only draws a conclusion when it has a real figure behind it.
For example, a Semrush backlink-competitors call returns each competing domain with a similarity score and the number of referring domains it shares with yours. An Ahrefs top-pages call returns each page's URL, estimated traffic, keyword count and top keyword. Traffic figures from any third-party tool are estimates, and the report labels them that way.
Cheap data first, expensive data last
The same SEO competitor analysis question can cost very different amounts depending on the data source, because providers price per row differently. Start with a broad ranked-keywords pull to see the whole picture, then pull detailed keyword, page or backlink data only for the few competitors and pages that matter. Ask the agent which source it plans to use before a large pull.
SEO competitor analysis template
Use one row per competitor you found in the search results. The columns below are the ones the agent fills in; you can copy the structure into a spreadsheet and fill it by hand, or ask the agent to return the finished table and export it.
| Column | What goes in it | Where the data comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Competitor (SERP) | A domain that ranks for your target keywords | Live Google results for your keyword list |
| Shared keywords | Keywords you both rank for, with both positions | Ranked-keywords data (DataForSEO, Semrush or Ahrefs) |
| Keywords they rank for, you don't | Your gap list, with search volume | Ranked-keywords data for both domains |
| Their top pages | Pages earning most of their estimated traffic | Top-pages data, plus the pages read directly |
| Backlink overlap | Referring domains you share and the ones you don't | Backlink data (Semrush or Ahrefs) |
| Next action | The one thing to do about this competitor first | Your decision, drafted by the agent |
Competitor SEO analysis, by hand or with an agent
An SEO competitor analysis is the same six steps either way. The difference is who pulls the data and reads the pages.
Without SpringBrand
With SpringBrand
- Without SpringBrand:
Guessing who your SEO competitors are from your list of business rivals
With SpringBrand:Competitors found from the live search results for your own keywords
- Without SpringBrand:
Exporting keyword lists from a suite and matching them in a spreadsheet
With SpringBrand:One request returns the keywords they rank for and you don't, with volume
- Without SpringBrand:
Opening every top page to see what it covers
With SpringBrand:The agent reads their top pages and returns a side-by-side outline
- Without SpringBrand:
A monthly suite plan for a check you run a few times a quarter
With SpringBrand:Pay per call from one credit balance, starting with 100 monthly credits
- Without SpringBrand:
Findings without a source, which nobody can check
With SpringBrand:Every figure tagged with the data source it came from
SEO data from several providers, in one request
Semrush, Ahrefs and DataForSEO data
Ranked keywords, top pages and backlink data come from Semrush, Ahrefs and DataForSEO. Firecrawl and Exa read competitor pages and search the web. One credit balance covers all of them.
Run it from SpringBrand or your coding assistant
Ask in SpringBrand, or connect over MCP and run the same analysis from Claude Code, Codex or Cursor.
Describe the analysis in a sentence
Name your site, your keywords or a competitor. The agent picks the data sources, tells you which ones it used and returns the table.
Find real SEO competitors
Who ranks in Google's top 10 for my 30 target keywords?
Find competitor keywords
Which keywords does competitor.com rank for that we don't?
Compare backlinks
Which domains link to our competitors but not to us?
Read their pages, not just their metrics
The agent reads competitors' top pages for headings, angles and questions answered, so the SEO competitor analysis covers content as well as keywords.
competitor.com/pricing
- H1Plans for every team
- H2What’s included
- H2Frequently asked questions
A source on every number
Each figure says which provider it came from, and traffic numbers are marked as estimates.
Export the gap list
Results come back as a table you can export to a spreadsheet or turn into page briefs. Run the analysis again whenever you want an update.
Agent
Researches and drafts
You
Review and edit
Your tools
CRM, CMS or ad platform
Start now, pay per call
New accounts get 100 credits a month with no card. Calls spend credits from one balance, and purchased top-ups never expire.
Credits on signupOne balanceTop-ups never expirePay per runMonthly credits reset each cycle
Which SEO competitor analysis tool covers keywords, backlinks and AI search?
SEO suites bundle competitor research into a monthly plan, and guides give you a template to fill by hand. SpringBrand runs an SEO competitor analysis per call and works inside your AI assistant. The table shows what each tool's own page says.
| Tool | Entry option | Competitor keywords and backlinks | AI search visibility | Use in Claude Code or Cursor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SpringBrand | 100 credits a month, no card | Yes, from Semrush, Ahrefs and DataForSEO data, per call | Not covered on this page | Yes, over MCP |
| SE Ranking Competitor Research | Trial | Yes, inside the suite | Yes, a section on competitors' AI search visibility | Page mentions bringing data into your own tools via API and MCP |
| Seobility | 14-day trial | Yes, with a competitor dashboard | Page mentions seeing which competitors AI tools recommend | Not stated on the page |
| Moz guide | Template download | A template you fill with your own data | Not stated on the page | Not stated on the page |
Checked 2026-11-13 from each vendor's own page. "Not stated" means the page did not say, not that the feature is missing. Written by SpringBrand, one of the tools listed.
Do I need to share my SEO tool logins?
- SearchRead pagesDraftPost or send
Research, not actions
The agent pulls data and reads public pages. It doesn't change your site or contact anyone.
- Password
No account access needed
Competitor data comes from SpringBrand's connected providers. You don't share passwords for your SEO tools.
- sourcesourcesource
Sources on every result
Every figure says which provider it came from, so you can check it before you act.
Credit balance
MonthlyTop-ups never expireCredits you can see
Calls spend credits from one balance. Purchased top-ups never expire; monthly credits reset each billing cycle.
Common questions about SEO competitor analysis
How do I do an SEO competitor analysis?
Find the domains that rank for your target keywords, pull the keywords they rank for, list the ones you don't rank for, compare their top pages and backlinks with yours, then prioritise the gaps. The six steps above walk through each one.
How do I find which keywords my competitors rank for?
Use a ranked-keywords data source such as DataForSEO, Semrush or Ahrefs: give it the competitor's domain and it returns the keywords it ranks for, with position and search volume. In SpringBrand you ask for it in one sentence and get the list back as a table.
How can I check a competitor's backlinks at low cost?
No-cost options are limited: webmaster tools only show links to sites you own, and no-cost backlink checkers usually cap the rows. New SpringBrand accounts get 100 credits a month with no card, which you can spend on a backlink lookup from Semrush or Ahrefs data.
Is there a low-cost SEO competitor analysis tool?
Most suites offer a trial, and guides such as Moz's offer a template. New SpringBrand accounts get 100 credits a month with no card, which covers a small competitor analysis per call rather than a subscription.
Can I automate an SEO competitor analysis?
You can hand the data pulling and page reading to an agent. In SpringBrand you describe the analysis once, the agent runs every step and returns the gap list, and you run the same request again when you want an update. SpringBrand's agent pulls that data from Semrush, Ahrefs and DataForSEO and returns a sourced gap list; new accounts get 100 credits a month.
Can ChatGPT do an SEO competitor analysis?
Not on its own: a chat model has no live ranking, keyword or backlink data. Connected to a data source it can. Through SpringBrand, Claude Code, Codex or Cursor can pull Semrush, Ahrefs or DataForSEO data and do the analysis on real numbers.
How do I find keyword gaps between my site and competitors?
Pull the ranked keywords for your domain and for each competitor, then list the keywords they rank for and you don't, sorted by search volume. Our docs include a keyword gap analysis example you can follow step by step.
More SEO research tools
- Keyword gap analysis example
Prioritize search topics competitors cover and map them to your pages.
- Competitor analysis agent
A competitor analysis agent that reads competitor sites, search results and public conversation, then lines them up side by side with sources attached.
- Keyword position checker
Use this keyword rank checker to see where your site ranks on Google for a keyword, country and device, plus the top results. Works in Claude Code too.
- Semrush alternative
Looking for a Semrush alternative? Compare SpringBrand vs Semrush on price, billing, data sources and AI-agent access, and pull Semrush and Ahrefs data per call.
- SEO automation
SEO automation platform for your AI agent: automated keyword research, competitor analysis, site audits, and client SEO reports, with sample outputs.
- SEO reporting dashboard
Build an SEO dashboard that answers what changed, why and what to do next. Template, a real-data example, and an agent that drafts it from Semrush, Ahrefs or DataForSEO data.
- Client ranking report
Build a search engine ranking report clients can trust: a template, a real-data example and an agent that drafts it from DataForSEO, Semrush or Ahrefs data.
Run your first SEO competitor analysis
New accounts get 100 credits a month, enough for a first SEO competitor analysis.