You know the old saying, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” 

That saying may never be truer than when it’s applied to the often cutthroat world of business.

When a competitive business outperforms yours, as an owner, you have to be reflective and ask yourself why.

• Why are they outranking me in search results?
• Why are they outperforming me in annual revenues?
• And why am I not doing anything about it?

Watching and learning from your competition is maybe the most valuable tool you have in business. 

Click the play button above to hear the audio version of this blog. And look for our “Digital Marketing Tips & Tricks” on Spotify.

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It’s Business 101: See what others do well and do it better. We see this analogy in sports all the time.

The Kansas City Chiefs win a few Super Bowls and suddenly every team is trying to install a similarly dynamic offense. Sure, the rub there is you can’t replicate quarterback Patrick Mahomes, but you can still steal their style. 

Analysis of the competition is the strategic process of dissecting what your rivals are doing, understanding their strengths and weaknesses, and using that knowledge to sharpen your own game plan. 

And while analysis is vital when you’re launching your business, it should be an ongoing part of your long-term business strategy. Because in the time it’s taking to read this sentence, your most aggressive competitors have already made changes to the color of their Call to Action buttons to make them brighter and more likely to be clicked.

So, whether you’re aiming to boost search engine visibility, amplify brand awareness, or dominate your niche across marketing platforms, a thorough competitive analysis is your ticket to success. 

Let’s break it down: 

• Why Competitor Analysis is Important
• How to Conduct a Thorough Competitor Analysis
• Putting Your Competitor Analysis Into Action
• Real-Life Examples to Act On

 

Why Competitor Analysis is Important

Imagine launching a campaign without knowing what your competitors are up to. You might pour resources into a strategy they’ve already perfected—or worse, miss an opportunity they’ve overlooked. 

Competitor analysis helps you:

• Benchmark Your Performance: See where you stand in terms of traffic, engagement, and conversions.
• Spot Trends: Identify what’s resonating with your shared audience.
• Uncover Gaps: Find underserved areas your competitors haven’t tapped.
• Refine Your Strategy: Learn from their wins and avoid their flops.

When Avita Group takes on a new client, the first questions we ask are:

• What are your biggest pain points?
• What are your short and long-term goals?
• And who are your biggest competitors?

Answering that third question gives us a clear path for beginning discovery of how this product or industry is being positioned. 

It also gives us a view as to what’s working in this space and how to do that better.

We have a client that rents out a fleet of luxury yachts for private events like yacht weddings located in Marina Del Rey in Southern California. They have stiff competition from wedding and party event planners in the area.

Looking at who dominated that space in LA, we were able to determine the best way to set them apart was to make the boats the star of the marketing strategy as most of the competitors couldn’t offer that choice. 

In doing so, the company has grown their brand in the event planning industry and now has become a staple for unique SoCal events that show up in social platforms and at the top of search results.

How to Conduct a Thorough Competitor Analysis

A solid competitor analysis isn’t about copying—it’s about understanding. 

Here’s a step-by-step guide to doing it right:

Identify Your Competitors
Start with direct competitors (those offering similar products/services) and indirect ones (those vying for the same audience). Use tools like Google Search, social media, or industry reports to build your list.

For example, if you’re a boutique fitness brand, your direct competitor might be a rival gym, while an indirect one could be a fitness app.

Analyze Their Website and SEO
Examine their site structure, navigation, content, and keywords. Tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs can reveal their top-ranking keywords, backlinks, and traffic sources. Are they ranking for “best yoga mats” while you’re stuck on page two? That’s a clue.

Dive into their site structure, content quality, user experience (UX), and calls-to-action (CTAs). Look at their keyword strategy—what terms are they ranking for? 

Document what terms they rank for and make a detailed list of those words. Now, put those words into a tool like Ahrefs to see the monthly search volume for each term, and what the Keyword Difficulty is.

Start by focusing on those words with the highest volume and lowest difficulty. Now liberally use those words or phrases on your most prominent web pages. Use them in the copy of the page as well as in the title tags and meta descriptions to pump up your visibility for those words. 

In addition, are they ranking for high-value keywords you’ve overlooked? And, are there keywords that are similar to those they rank for that they are not exploiting. That could be a clear win if you establish a toe-hold on those words. 

Dive into Social Media
Study their Social Media presence.
Which platforms are they active on? What’s their tone—professional, quirky, or bold? 

Analyze their post frequency, follower growth, engagement rates and audience interaction. Whatever they’re doing, aim to double your output and commitment.

Study Their Content Strategy
Review their blog posts, videos, and downloadable assets. Are they focusing on education, entertainment, or sales? How often do they post? Check engagement metrics like shares, comments, and likes.

Content length can also make a big difference. If a competitor has a blog on a certain subject that’s ranking above you, you can maybe outrank him by outnumbering the word count on the page.

Evaluate Their Paid Ads
Platforms like Facebook Ad Library or SpyFu can show you a competitor’s ad creatives, targeting, and messaging. Are they running discounts while you’re pushing premium pricing? Are they running paid campaigns or retargeting ads or both?

Monitor Customer Feedback
Scour reviews on Google, Yelp, or social media. What do customers love or hate? This is your chance to swoop in where they’re falling short. 

Properly managing online reviews will boost SEO results. So it’s important to actively solicit reviews to beat the competition at the positive word-of-mouth game that’s so vital online.

Putting Your Competitor Analysis Into Action

Once you’ve got the data, it’s time to outmaneuver the competition. 

Here’s how to interpret what you see and act on it:

Boost SEO
Finding: Competitor ranks for “affordable running shoes” with a detailed guide.
Action: Create a better guide—“The Ultimate Guide to Affordable Running Shoes Under $50”—and optimize it with long-tail keywords, internal links, and a sleek UX. Promote it via email and social to earn backlinks.

Enhance Content
Finding: Their blog posts are dry and text-heavy.
Action: Produce visually rich content—infographics, videos, or interactive quizzes—to keep visitors engaged longer, signaling quality to Google.

Dominate Social Media
Finding: They post inconsistently on Instagram.
Action: Build a consistent schedule with a mix of Stories, Reels, and carousel posts. Use their top hashtags plus a few unique ones to widen your reach.

Outshine in Ads
Finding: Their ads focus on price.
Action: Highlight value instead—think “lifetime durability” over “cheap today.” Test bold visuals or customer testimonials to stand out.

Leverage Brand Awareness
Finding: They’re absent from podcasts.
Action: Sponsor a niche podcast your audience loves or start your own. It’s a low-competition channel for building trust.

The Best AI SEO Tools for Businesses to Supercharge Competitor Analysis

AI is a game-changer for, well, just about every aspect of our current existence. But as a competitor analysis tool, AI turns hours of manual work into minutes of actionable insights. 

Here’s how it can help:

Keyword and SEO Insights

Tools like SurferSEO or MarketMuse use AI to analyze competitor content and suggest keyword opportunities you’re missing.

Social Media Tracking

Platforms like Brandwatch leverage AI to monitor competitor activity, sentiment, and trending hashtags in real time.

Content Gap Analysis

The content gap is the difference between what you and your competitors are offering on each prospective website. This is where you can glean why others are ranking above you. 

Is their content more in-depth? More visual? And are they tackling an approach to their presentation or to a topic that you are not?

Ad Performance

AI platforms like Adbeat analyze competitor ad spend and performance, revealing what’s worth emulating or avoiding.

Predictive Trends

Advanced AI can forecast industry shifts based on competitor moves, giving you a head start.

For instance, a small e-commerce store selling eco-friendly products could use AI to discover that a competitor’s top blog post—“10 Ways to Live Plastic-Free”—drives massive traffic. With that intel, you could create a rival piece like “15 Zero-Waste Tricks for Beginners” and optimize it for SEO.

 

Real-Life Examples to Act On

Local Coffee Shop

Competitor Insight: A rival café’s Instagram is all latte art, but their website lacks an online store.
Action: Launch an e-commerce section for your beans and gear, optimized for “buy specialty coffee online.” Promote it with a Reel of your roasting process.

 

SaaS Startup

Competitor Insight: A competitor’s blog ranks high but hasn’t been updated in six months.
Action: Publish fresh, keyword-rich content weekly (e.g., “2025 Trends in Project Management Software”) to steal their traffic.

 

Fitness Coach

Competitor Insight: They’re big on YouTube but ignore TikTok.
Action: Post quick workout tips on TikTok with trending audio, linking back to your longer YouTube videos for a double whammy.

 

Final Thoughts: Stay Curious, Stay Ahead

Competitor analysis isn’t a one-and-done task—it’s an ongoing habit. 

Your frenemies are evolving, and so should you. 

By blending human creativity with AI-powered precision, you can turn their moves into your advantage, whether it’s climbing search rankings, winning social media, or amplifying your brand. 

Start small: pick one competitor, run a quick audit, and act on one insight this week. Then continue the analysis at least once a month looking at those companies ranking above you. 

By putting in the effort to keep your enemies close, the results will speak for themselves.

 

Avita Group – Digital Marketing Company in California

Avita Group is one of the longest-tenured, five-star rated digital marketing agencies in California. Our clients often have had previous agency experiences and ultimately find a long-term home with Avita Group.

We offer fractional CMO services to boost your brand and your business by maximizing your SEO and PPC management, online reputation services, and ways to use the best free AI tools to improve your website and boost your business.

The Avita Group team boasts a collective experience of over 30 years in the industry led by Founder and CEO, Brad Weber, and has worked with a variety of multi-million dollar companies to help them improve their ROI, build better brand awareness, and mitigate negative online reviews.

Contact us for a free consultation to evaluate how we can transform and elevate your business.