How to Monitor Competitors’ SEO Strategies

In the competitive world of online marketing, understanding what your rivals are doing is as crucial as perfecting your own SEO strategy. Monitoring competitors’ SEO tactics helps you uncover opportunities, avoid pitfalls, and stay ahead in search engine rankings.

If you don’t know where to start or how to keep track of your competition’s SEO moves, this guide breaks down the process step-by-step. By the end, you’ll have actionable ways to spy on your competitors’ keywords, backlinks, content strategies, and overall SEO performance.

---

Why Monitor Competitors’ SEO?

Before diving into the how, let’s quickly cover the why:

• Identify Keyword Opportunities: Discover which keywords your competitors rank for and where you can improve.

• Find Content Gaps: Learn what topics your rivals cover well so you can create better or complementary content.

• Backlink Insights: See where competitors get their links and pursue similar or better link-building opportunities.

• Benchmark Performance: Measure your SEO progress relative to competitors.

• Stay Agile: Spot changes in competitor strategies to adapt your own quickly.

---

Step 1: Identify Your Key Competitors

Not every competitor is worth monitoring. Start by listing your direct competitors who rank for the same keywords or serve the same audience.

• Search Google for your primary keywords and note who ranks on page one.

• Use SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz to find competitor domains.

• Don’t forget emerging competitors or niche players.

---

Step 2: Analyze Competitors’ Keyword Strategies

Keywords are the backbone of SEO, so understanding which ones your competitors target is crucial.

• Use tools like Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer, SEMrush, or SpyFu.

• Enter competitor URLs to see:

  • Their top-ranking keywords

  • Search volume and estimated traffic per keyword

  • Keywords where they recently gained or lost rankings

• Identify “low-hanging fruit” keywords that have moderate competition but high relevance.

• Pay attention to long-tail keywords your competitors might be missing.

---

Step 3: Audit Their Content Strategy

Content quality and relevance heavily influence rankings.

• Examine your competitors’ blog posts, landing pages, and other content.

• Use BuzzSumo or Ahrefs Content Explorer to see which content gets the most shares and backlinks.

• Look for:

  • Content types (blogs, videos, infographics)

  • Publishing frequency

  • Topics and angles they cover

  • How they optimize content for SEO (keywords in titles, headers, meta descriptions)

• Take note of content gaps—areas they haven’t addressed that your audience might care about.

---

Step 4: Examine Their Backlink Profile

Backlinks remain a key ranking factor. Knowing where your competitors get their links can inspire your link-building campaigns.

• Use Ahrefs, Moz Link Explorer, or Majestic to analyze:

  • Number of backlinks and referring domains

  • Link quality and authority

  • Anchor text distribution

  • Types of sites linking to competitors (blogs, news, forums)

• Look for patterns—do they get a lot of guest posts, press mentions, or directory listings?

• Consider reaching out to those sources or similar ones for your own backlinks.

---

Step 5: Monitor Their Technical SEO

While less visible, technical SEO can give your competitors an edge.

• Use Screaming Frog SEO Spider or Sitebulb to crawl competitor sites.

• Check their site speed, mobile usability, URL structure, and internal linking.

• Identify if they are using schema markup or advanced SEO tactics like AMP.

• Spot errors or issues they might have—these can be opportunities to outperform them.

---

Step 6: Track Their Social Media and Online Reputation

Social signals don’t directly impact SEO rankings but influence traffic and brand awareness.

• Follow your competitors on social platforms.

• Use BuzzSumo or Mention to track brand mentions, shares, and engagement.

• Pay attention to how they promote content and engage with followers.

• Learn from their successes and mistakes in content marketing and community building.

---

Step 7: Set Up Alerts and Regular Reporting

SEO is always evolving, so ongoing monitoring is necessary.

• Set up Google Alerts for competitor brand names, new content, and backlinks.

• Use tools like SEMrush Sensor or Ahrefs Alerts to get notified about ranking changes.

• Create a regular report (weekly or monthly) summarizing:

  • Keyword ranking shifts

  • New content published by competitors

  • Backlink changes

  • Technical updates or site changes

---

Step 8: Use Insights to Refine Your Own SEO Strategy

Monitoring competitors is not just about spying; it’s about learning and improving.

• Use keyword gaps to find untapped opportunities.

• Build better, more comprehensive content.

• Adopt link-building tactics that have proven effective.

• Fix technical issues you discover on their sites before they become your problem.

• Keep adapting based on data and market changes.

---

Tools Summary

Here’s a quick rundown of the best tools for competitor SEO monitoring:

---

Final Thoughts

Keeping a close eye on your competitors’ SEO strategies gives you a significant advantage. It’s like having a peek at the playbook so you can make smarter, data-driven decisions.

But remember: monitoring is only part of the equation. The real success comes when you apply what you learn, innovate, and consistently improve your SEO.

Start small—focus on your top 3 competitors, analyze their keywords and backlinks, then gradually expand your efforts. Over time, this practice will help you carve out a stronger position in the search results and grow your organic traffic sustainably.

Also, you can learn more about SEO Audit here.