Beginner-Friendly Topic
Take your time - it's perfectly normal to re-read this topic 2-3 times. Try the interactive code editor below to run code yourself. Use the Q&A section to check your understanding before moving on.You've got this!
Competitor Analysis
Learn to analyze your competitors' SEO strategies to identify opportunities and improve your own approach. This is a foundational concept in search engine optimization that professional developers rely on daily. The explanations below are written to be beginner-friendly while covering the depth and nuance that comes from real-world SEO experience. Take your time with each section and practice the examples
Why Competitor Analysis Matters
Understanding what your competitors are doing helps you identify gaps in your own strategy, discover new opportunities, and avoid their mistakes.. This is an essential concept that every SEO developer must understand thoroughly. In professional development environments, getting this right can mean the difference between code that works reliably and code that breaks in production. The following sections break this down into clear, digestible pieces with practical examples you can try immediately
SEO competitor analysis: ranking benchmarks, backlink profiles, content gaps, and traffic estimation.
Competitor Analysis Framework
- Step 1 - Identify Competitors: Direct competitors (same products/services), indirect competitors (different approach, same audience), top-ranking competitors for your target keywords, local competitors
- Step 2 - Analyze Their Content: What topics they cover, what content formats they use, how often they publish, their content quality, and gaps you can fill
- Step 3 - Examine Their Keywords: What keywords they rank for, keyword difficulty, long-tail keywords they target, keywords they're missing
- Step 4 - Study Their Backlink Profile: Where backlinks come from, their domain authority, link building strategies, opportunities you can replicate
- Step 5 - Technical SEO Analysis: Website speed, mobile-friendliness, site structure, schema markup usage
- Step 6 - Social Media Presence: Active platforms, audience engagement, top-performing content, strategies to learn from
Tools for Competitor Analysis
- SEMrush: comprehensive competitor analysis
- Ahrefs: Backlink analysis and keyword research
- SpyFu: Historical keyword data and ad intelligence
- SimilarWeb: Traffic and audience insights
- BuzzSumo: Content performance analysis
- Google Search Console: Your own performance data
Actionable Insights from Analysis
- Opportunity Identification: Find keywords they rank for but you don't, identify content gaps, discover new link building opportunities, spot technical improvements
- Strategy Improvements: Learn from their successful content, adopt effective link building tactics, improve technical SEO based on their strengths
- Competitive Advantages: Focus on areas where you can outperform them, create better content, build stronger industry relationships, develop unique value propositions
Practical Exercise - SEO Foundations Audit Checklist
# SEO Fundamentals: Site Audit Starter
# Goal: Audit any website's basic SEO health using free tools
## STEP 1 - robots.txt check
# Visit: https://yoursite.com/robots.txt
# ✅ GOOD: Allows crawlers to index important pages
# ❌ BAD: Disallow: / (blocks entire site)
User-agent: *
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /private/
Allow: /
Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml
## STEP 2 - Title Tag + Meta Description audit
# Open any page, view source (Ctrl+U), search for <title>
# Check these criteria:
TITLE TAG CHECKLIST:
✅ Between 50-60 characters?
✅ Includes primary keyword near the start?
✅ Unique (not same as other pages)?
✅ Includes brand name at end?
❌ Over 60 characters? (Google truncates it)
❌ Missing keyword? (Wasted opportunity)
META DESCRIPTION CHECKLIST:
✅ Between 120-158 characters?
✅ Contains the primary keyword?
✅ Has a clear CTA (Click, Learn, Discover)?
❌ Duplicate across pages?
## STEP 3 - E-E-A-T Quick Signals Check
# Score your page on these signals (1 point each):
[ ] Author bio with credentials visible
[ ] Contact page with real address/phone
[ ] About page with company/team info
[ ] HTTPS (padlock in browser bar)
[ ] External authoritative sources cited
[ ] Last updated date displayed
SCORE: _/6
5-6 = Strong E-E-A-T | 3-4 = Needs improvement | 0-2 = Poor
## STEP 4 - SERP Preview (use Portent's SERP Preview tool)
# Test your title + description at:
# https://portent.com/serp-preview-tool/
# Adjust until it looks compelling in the previewQuick Quiz - SEO Fundamentals & strategy
Tip
Tip
Practice Competitor Analysis in small, isolated examples before integrating into larger projects. Breaking concepts into small experiments builds genuine understanding faster than reading alone.
Practice Task
Note
Practice Task - (1) Write a working example of Competitor Analysis from scratch without looking at notes. (2) Modify it to handle an edge case (empty input, null value, or error state). (3) Share your solution in the Priygop community for feedback.
Common Mistake
Warning
A common mistake with Competitor Analysis is skipping edge case testing - empty inputs, null values, and unexpected data types. Always validate boundary conditions to write robust, production-ready seo code.
Key Takeaways
- Learn to analyze your competitors' SEO strategies to identify opportunities and improve your own approach.
- Step 1 - Identify Competitors: Direct competitors (same products/services), indirect competitors (different approach, same audience), top-ranking competitors for your target keywords, local competitors
- Step 2 - Analyze Their Content: What topics they cover, what content formats they use, how often they publish, their content quality, and gaps you can fill
- Step 3 - Examine Their Keywords: What keywords they rank for, keyword difficulty, long-tail keywords they target, keywords they're missing