How do I research my competitors?

Press Competitors on the rail. Its pages answer the questions a small business asks about the competition: how do I compare, who else is out there, which searches and topics are they winning, who links to them, and what did they change this week. Competitors are on every paid plan; Minimum tracks 3 a project, Entrepreneur 5 and Enterprise as many as you like.

#Overview

You and each competitor on one row each, yours first:

• Authority: how strong each site is from the sites that link to it, 0 to 100. From the monthly backlink figures, or from Open PageRank on the same 0 to 100 scale until those arrive. The table says which.
• Search traffic and Searches ranked: estimated visits a month from Google and how many searches each site shows up for. These are estimates from a keyword database, refreshed once a month, not anyone's real figures.
• Linking sites: how many different websites link to each site.
• AI answers: how often the latest AI answers named each site. A competitor counts once its name is in AI answers setup.
• Share of voice: of the clicks on your tracked searches, the share each site takes.
• SEO and Speed: Google PageSpeed scores for the home page, checked every Sunday.

Above the table, Where they beat you, where you beat them lists only clear differences, for example "Dwell leads you on search traffic (2 times)". Close figures count as level. Anything we do not have a figure for is listed under What would complete the picture, with the one thing that gets it. We never fill a gap with a guess.

#Find competitors

The sites that keep turning up on page one of Google for your tracked searches and are not on your list yet, with how many of your searches each appears for and the share of the clicks it takes. Press Add to start tracking one. Marketplaces, social networks and encyclopaedias that rank for everything are left out. Suggestions come from the weekly Google results for your searches, so they appear after the first Sunday check.

#Keyword gap

Every search sorted into three kinds:

• Missing: a competitor ranks and you do not.
• Weak: you both rank, and they are higher.
• Strong: you rank at or above all of them.

It uses your tracked searches with the positions for you and each competitor (checked every two weeks), the searches each competitor ranks for (once a month), and, free, the searches their pages are written for. Filter by kind, by competitor or by typing a search. Track this keyword adds it to your tracked searches; Plan content puts a post for it in your blog plan.

#Content gap

Topics your competitors cover that you do not, from reading their sites: whole topics where they have several pages and you have none, topics where they go much deeper, and single pages aimed at searches you do not show up for. Plan content adds a post to your blog plan. Write a brief writes the outline for that post and opens it in the Writer; it uses AI, so it is on Entrepreneur and Enterprise. Nothing listed yet? Press Compare sites to read a competitor's site first.

#Backlink gap

Links your competitors have and Compare backlinks are the same pages as in Backlinks: see links your competitors have and backlink checker.

#What changed

What changed at your competitors since the last look: new pages on their site, pages aimed at a different search, big moves on your tracked searches (five places or more, or onto or off page one), links gained or lost, and their speed. Changes show after the second look.

#How often it updates

Rankings and share of voice every two weeks, on Sunday. Their sites are read every Sunday. Backlinks, traffic estimates and searches ranked once a month, fetched the first time you open the overview or keyword gap that month. There is no button to check again by hand.

#Questions people ask

#Why do I not see Search traffic or Searches ranked?

Those columns need a paid keyword database. While it is not switched on for your account, they are left out rather than estimated.

#The overview says this month's data allowance is used. What now?

Every project has a monthly allowance for paid data. When it is used, the figures from the last refresh stay on screen and the new ones arrive when the allowance resets, on the date shown.