Your competitors are outpacing you. It is necessary to identify the cause of this and resolve the problem. This is why SEO competitor audits are needed.

It shows what your main competitors are doing. Where are they getting their traffic from? What keywords are working for them? Who is linking to them? And where are their weaknesses?

Now that you have all this information, it is time to take action.

What Is an SEO Competitor Audit?

SEO competitor Audit is a thorough examination of how your competitors have established their online presence. You analyze all aspects of their SEO campaigns.

This includes looking at their keyword strategy, analyzing their content, evaluating their backlinks, examining their website structure, and even their local presence.

Why is it done? Because the goal is to find out how you can do better than they do. It's that simple.

Why Does an SEO Competitor Audit Matter?

However, most companies limit themselves to just improving their websites. They optimize their pages. They create new content. They built some backlinks. Then they sit back and wait.

However, the SEO process doesn't work on its own. Your competitors are also busy with the same task. Some do it better than others.

An SEO competitor audit will tell you the following information:

Which keywords your competitors rank for, and you don't;
From which sources do they collect their backlinks;
What type of content generates the most traffic for them;
Their level of domain authority;
The weaknesses in their strategy can be used against them.

Otherwise, you'll be shooting in the dark without it.

Step 1: Find Your Real SEO Competitors

Your SEO competitors and your business competitors are not always the same. A local shop down the street might not rank at all. A blog in another city might outrank you for your best keywords.

Start by searching Google for your best keywords. See who comes up. Those sites are your real SEO competitors. What to look for:

Sites that rank on the first page for multiple of your keywords
Brands that target the same audience as you
Blogs and media sites that work in your specific niche
Indirect competitors that fill related needs

Make a list. Aim for five to ten strong competitors. That's enough to build a clear picture.

Step 2: Audit Their Keywords

Keywords are at the heart of any SEO competitor audit. Find out which keywords your competitors rank for and write down the ones you haven't focused on yet. These will be your weak spots.

Be sure to pay attention to the following:

High traffic/low competition keywords that help them rank
Long tail keywords that consistently send them traffic
Keywords that they rank on page 2 or 3
Topics they haven't done well on yet

The last point is very important because whenever your competitor ranks on page 2, you can easily surpass them with good content. Many great tools can help you do this research: SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz.

Step 3: Analyze Their Backlink Profile

Backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors used by Google. Therefore, backlink analysis helps you understand a lot about your competitors.

See how many backlinks your competitors have. Also, see which websites provide these backlinks. Links from popular news sites are more valuable than links from blogs by unknown authors.

Ask yourself the following questions:

Which websites link to them but not to you?
Are there any guest posting opportunities that you are not using?
Do they have any broken backlinks that you can replace?
Are there any backlinks to low-quality sites among your competitors' backlinks?

These questions will help you determine where to focus your efforts when conducting an SEO competitor audit.

Step 4: Review Their On-Page SEO

Take a closer look at the pages. What methods are your competitors using to create their content? Is it effective?

Look at their title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, the number of words used on their best pages, and internal linking.

Signs of strong on-page SEO include:

Keyword-rich title tags
Fast page loading
Good page header hierarchy (H1, H2, H3)
Good internal linking between relevant pages

Relevant, organized, and useful information that answers questions

If you find any shortcomings in them, it means one thing: you write better content than they do, organize it better, and load faster than they do!

Step 5: Check Their Local and National Presence

When your business targets only local customers, local SEO becomes important.

Analyze your competitors' Google Business Profiles.

See how many reviews they get?
How is their feedback system working?
What is their presence like in local directories?

See where they are showing up from a national or global perspective.

Do they rank for any other cities or regions?
Do they target any markets where you don't do business?

Through this SEO competitor audit process, you can identify opportunities for your own business to improve. You may find any markets that your competitors have missed.

Step 6: Turn the Data Into a Plan

Data has no value on its own. Its true value depends on how you use it. After completing an SEO competitor audit, you will create an action plan. Start with some easy-to-find opportunities. Target keywords that your competitors are failing at. Fix easy-to-fix on-page issues. Reach out to websites that are linking to your competitors, not you.

Next, focus on your big moves. Create better content focused on your core topics. Speed up your website. Gain higher authority links. Explore new geographic markets that your competitors haven't yet covered.

A well-conducted SEO competitor audit not only shows you where you are currently, but also where you should be going.

How Often Should You Run an SEO Competitor Audit?

SEO is a rapidly changing field. Your competitors will change their strategies, Google will change its policies, and new competitors will enter your industry. Conduct a full audit of your competitors' SEO performance at least once every six months, especially every three months in more dynamic industries. Monitor their performance on rankings and link building between these audits.

How SEOtive Can Help

SEO competitor audits require time, specialized tools, and expertise to analyze the collected data properly.

SEOtive has been providing SEO audit services since 2009. In their 15 years of operation, SEOtive has helped over 500 brands increase their website traffic and rank above competitors. Their experienced team has analyzed over 2,000 websites and delivered an average 300% increase in visitor numbers for their clients.

SEOtive's SEO competitor audit service provides the following benefits:

Your competitors' keyword deficiencies and content strategies
Their backlink profiles and link sources
Their on-page SEO strengths and weaknesses
Your competitors' search presence on a local and national level
A customized action plan tailored to your specific goals

SEOtive uses high-quality tools such as SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz, and Screaming Frog. After each SEO audit, a report is provided that you can use not just to view the statistics, but also to take action. Their services are available to clients in the US, UK, Europe, and other countries worldwide. Their initial consultation is completely free.

Don't hesitate to choose SEOtive's SEO competitor audit!

By Hasan Sumon

Jul 05, 2026