A complete competitor SEO analysis is not about exporting a keyword list. It requires first identifying comparable players in the same market, then explaining which channels drive their growth, and finally turning keywords, pages, backlinks, and technical gaps into actionable tasks with owners and priorities.

Similarweb and Semrush serve different stages: Similarweb defines the market and identifies full-channel competitors and growth sources; Semrush breaks down search opportunities into keywords, URLs, links, and site issues. The workflow below can produce a first draft within one workday or expand into monthly monitoring.

Before starting: lock your scope in a research card​

Field Example Why necessary
Target market United States Search volume, rankings, and traffic are region-specific
Device Desktop + Mobile, recorded separately Device composition can differ significantly
Time window Past 12 full months Avoid distortion from single-month activities
Analysis scope Root domain Subdomains and directories cannot be mixed for comparison
Core audience 1–20 person cross-border teams Determines business relevance
Final deliverable 10 content topics, 3 backlink directions, 5 technical tasks Limits invalid exports

All websites must use the same scope. Comparing your example.com root domain with a competitor's /blog/ directory produces "share" metrics with no explanatory value.

Step 1: Build a three-category competitor list​

First have the business team list 5–10 direct competitors, then use Similarweb's Similar Sites and category features to discover sites users actually visit, and finally supplement with Semrush Organic Competitors to find sites sharing the most keywords.

Divide the list into three categories:

  1. Business competitors: sell similar products, competing for the same budget;
  2. Traffic competitors: audience and channel overlap, products may differ;
  3. Search competitors: compete against you in target keyword SERPs.

Score each domain 0–2 on: product similarity, audience similarity, region similarity, comparable scale, and comparable content model. Prioritize 3–5 sites with total scores of 7+. Large encyclopedias, social platforms, or tool directories may dominate keywords but are not necessarily replicable business competitors.

Step 2: Use Similarweb to identify where growth comes from​

Create unified comparisons for yourself and candidate competitors, recording:

  • Monthly visits and 12-month trends;
  • Top countries and devices;
  • Visit duration, pages per visit, and bounce rate;
  • Share of direct, organic search, paid, referral, social, display, and email;
  • Fastest-growing channels;
  • Data stability and any insufficient sample warnings.

Don't just look at total visits. A competitor growing 40% entirely from one display campaign versus six consecutive months of organic search growth should produce different strategies.

Channel diagnosis matrix​

Observation Possible explanation Next validation step
High organic search share with sustained visit growth Content or product page rankings creating compounding effects Semrush Top Pages, keywords, and backlinks
Very high direct traffic Brand, app, private domain, or unattributed traffic Brand term trends, social media, and public activities
Sudden paid search growth New products, promotions, or competitive bidding Paid keywords, ad copy, landing pages
Concentrated referral sources Driven by affiliates, media, or partnerships Referral sites and backlink overlap
Small site with unstable estimates Insufficient signal Switch to SERP, indexed pages, ads, and social media

Frame conclusions as hypotheses, not facts. For example: "Competitor A's organic search appears to be the main growth engine; next step is to check growing URLs and non-brand terms."

Step 3: Break down organic search opportunities in Semrush​

Use the same country database and root domain scope for each filtered domain. Domain Overview first records estimated organic traffic, keyword count, keyword distribution, top pages, and main organic competitors.

Then enter Organic Research:

  1. Find recently growing pages by traffic change;
  2. Exclude branded terms and observe non-branded topics;
  3. Distinguish product pages, category pages, tool pages, articles, and template pages;
  4. Check keywords newly entered top 10, rising from 11—20, and lost rankings;
  5. Open actual SERP to confirm intent and page type.

Third-party estimated traffic is only for sorting. Whether it's worth creating, return to SERP to check ranking page quality, site authority, timeliness, and conversion relationship.

Step 4: Use Keyword Gap to form content gaps ​

Put yourself and up to four core competitors into Keyword Gap. First look at Missing and Weak, then filter in this order:

  • Target country and organic search;
  • Non-branded terms;
  • Informational, commercial, or transactional intent;
  • Difficulty your site can handle;
  • At least two comparable competitors have rankings;
  • Clear relationship with products and audience.

Don't immediately turn each candidate keyword into an article. First cluster same-intent keywords, then record: main query, supporting terms, SERP page type, currently rankable assets, content gap, conversion path, evidence strength.

Create new, update, or merge ​

Current state Action
No corresponding URL, SERP dominated by guides Create new guide
Existing URL ranking 11—30, intent matches Update and add evidence
Two URLs competing for same intent Merge or reposition
SERP dominated by product/category pages Optimize commercial pages, don't force blog competition
Competitor content thin but strong backlinks Plan both content and digital PR assets

Step 5: Reverse-engineer content system from top pages ​

Don't just copy single titles. Categorize competitor Top Pages by format and journey: definition guides, comparison pages, alternatives, tutorials, troubleshooting, templates/calculators, case studies, commercial landing pages.

Calculate count per page type, estimated traffic share, update frequency, and internal linking method. What's truly replicable is the content system: for example, one complete tutorial connecting three comparison pages, two troubleshooting pages, and product pages, rather than writing one longer isolated article.

For each candidate topic write "why users need another article": missing current pricing, no real step images, no small-site errors, no permission boundaries, no downloadable templates. This sentence is the original value constraint.

Step 6: Do backlink gap ​

Use Backlink Gap to compare your domain with 3—4 comparable competitors, prioritize finding referring domains that link to two or more competitors but not to you. Remove:

  • Sites unrelated to industry;
  • Auto-scraped, link farms, and abnormal sitewide links;
  • Closed or long-unupdated pages;
  • Pages obviously selling manipulated ranking links;
  • Domains where content match reason cannot be found.

For retained domains record target page, reason for linking to competitors, replaceable or supplementary assets, contact person, and outreach angle. Don't treat exported email lists as results; being able to answer "why they would cite RelayX" is the opportunity.

Step 7: Audit if you can capture opportunities ​

Run Site Audit before adding new content, and spot-check Search Console. Prioritize fixing foundational issues that prevent content from performing:

  1. Important URLs uncrawlable, mistakenly noindexed, or canonical errors;
  2. 5xx, redirect chains, and mass 404s;
  3. Duplicate titles, H1s, and thin duplicate pages;
  4. Orphan pages, excessive internal link depth, and incorrect nofollow;
  5. Structured data and mobile rendering issues;
  6. Sitemap missing content that should be indexed.

If technical foundations block crawling, more content just adds to inventory.

Step 8: Prioritize with ICE-E​

Score each task 1—5 on:

Priority = Impact × Confidence × Evidence ÷ Effort

"Evidence" as a separate column prevents teams from over-investing based on one high search volume number. Higher scores when two tools agree, actual SERP matches, and at least two competitors succeed; lower scores for small sites with no data or only one estimate source.

Finally keep only tasks completable in 30 days: 2—4 priority content pieces, 3—5 existing page updates, 3 technical fixes, 10—20 high-quality backlink prospects.

Step 9: Establish Baseline and Acceptance​

Before publishing, save baselines for keywords, target URLs, rankings, impressions, clicks, conversions, and referring domains. Validate after 4—8 weeks using your own Search Console, GA4, and server logs:

  • Whether crawled and indexed;
  • Whether target queries generate impressions;
  • Whether average ranking and clicks improved;
  • Whether users proceed to next commercial pages;
  • Whether earned natural mentions or links;
  • Which hypotheses were falsified.

Similarweb and Semrush continue monitoring competitive landscape; success is determined by first-party data and business outcomes.

Reproducible Final Deliverables​

Worksheets Required Fields
Market & Competitors Domain, type, country, device, trend, channel, data confidence
Content Gaps Query, intent, SERP type, competitor URL, existing URL, action, owner
Link Opportunities Referring domain, competitor page, link rationale, target asset, contact, status
Technical Tasks Issue, affected URLs, severity, fix, validation method
30-Day Board Task, impact, confidence, evidence, effort, deadline, result

FAQ​

Should I start with Semrush or Similarweb​

Start with Similarweb to judge market, comparable competitors, and growth channels, then use Semrush to break down search. If already focused on own-site technical and keyword issues, begin directly with Semrush and Search Console.

What if the two tools show different competitors​

This is normal. Similarweb leans toward audience and traffic relationships; Semrush Organic Competitors leans toward shared keywords. Choose lists based on current problem—no need to force-merge into one ranking.

Can small sites without Similarweb data still be analyzed​

Yes. Use Semrush keyword visibility, actual SERPs, indexed pages, ad library, social, public pricing, and customer reviews as signals, and reduce confidence in traffic scale conclusions.

How many keywords should be exported at once​

Only export what your team can review and execute. Initial analysis keeps 50—200 candidates filtered by intent and business relevance, ultimately converting to 10—20 tasks—usually more effective than uncleaned thousands of rows.

Further Reading & Next Steps​

Data Sources & Verification Notes ​

This article was reviewed by the RelayX Editorial Team on August 24, 2026 based on the following official sources. Product features, quotas, and prices are subject to change; when making purchase decisions, please revisit the official pages and RelayX real-time product pages for verification.