How to Analyze Your Competitors’ Content

Last Updated: March 2024

Now that you understand your competitors’ SERP strengths, and the architecture of the SERP, it’s time to take a look at your competitors' top-performing content.

In this case, we're interested in which content earned our competitors the most links. Since links are necessary for ranking - indeed, they're one of the biggest ranking factors - it makes sense to focus on topics that others like to link to.

This is one of the oldest, most reliable methods of content creation in SEO. It works like this:

1. Discover your competitor's top content

2. Create your own content that significantly improves upon it in one or more ways

3. Promote your content to a similar group of people (we’ll talk about this in the next chapter)

As we mentioned, in this case, we're looking for the content that earned our competitors the most links. To do this, we’ll head over to Link Explorer:

1. Enter your competitor's domain

2. Click on the Top Pages tab in the left navigation

3. Change the Status Code dropdown to 200-OK

This report shows all of a domain's linked URLs, sorted by Page Authority. Here's a sample of the top content for the site PetCareRx:

By looking at the URLs, we can see that a few of the most linked (which means the most popular) topics include:

• The lifespan of a dog by breed

• Trifexis for dogs

• Medication for dogs

• The lifespan of a cat by breed

• Heartgard for dogs

From this, we can begin to brainstorm topic ideas we could tackle or improve upon.

But that’s just the first step in our investigation. Let’s dig deeper, and explore your competitors' most visible content a little more closely.

Let's jump into Keyword Gap:

1. Enter your domain (1800petmeds.com)

2. Enter up to three competitors’ domains (petcarerx.com and chewy.com)

3. Scroll down to the Top Competing Content table. Here’s where you can dig into the pieces of content that your competitors are ranking well for, and the top keywords they rank for:

We can see the competitors’ top URLs, along with the top ranking keywords for that page. In this example, we can see content related to:

• Flea and tick collars for a dog

• Info about pugs

• Litter boxes for cats

• Dog ear mites

• Dewormer for cats and dogs

• Dog car seats

• What dogs can and can’t eat

Don't forget: Export the Top Competing Content to a CSV, and copy and paste the data into the Top Competing Content tab of the SEO Competitor Analysis Template.

We’ll make no bones about it - Moz is a world-class provider of data, and the tools are effective and easy to use. But surpassing your competitors in the SERPs is not just about researching and analyzing data. We also have to build, build, build!

As we mentioned in the introduction, the goal is to not simply recreate your competitor's content - that would have little chance of success - but to significantly improve upon it. You could add elements to make it more appealing or useful, such as:

• Expand on the topic in text

• Include subtopics

• Add creative images

• Produce a helpful video

• Add facts and statistics

• Quote industry leaders

• Provide detailed instructions

• Show a product comparison

• Create an engaging infographic

• Provide a case study

• Add frequently asked questions and answers

• Use a unique branded voice

• Create a how-to guide

• Compose a top 10 list based on your industry

• Add valuable charts or tables

There are scenarios in which you won’t be the content creator. For example, perhaps you’re an SEO manager, and the company you work for has a content team. Or maybe you know that you need content, but don’t have the expertise or time to do it yourself, so you hire a freelance writer. Both situations call for a solution: a content brief. Check out this guide on how to write an SEO-focused content brief that your writers will love!

Next up: How To Perform A Competitor Backlink Analysis