competitor-analysis

Competitor Analysis

Analyzes competitor SEO and GEO strategies to reveal repeatable wins, weak spots, and market gaps.

Quick Start

Analyze SEO strategy for [competitor URL]

Compare my site [URL] against [competitor 1], [competitor 2], [competitor 3]

Skill Contract

Expected output: a prioritized competitor brief plus the standard handoff summary for memory/research/.

• Reads: competitor URLs/domains, your own site metrics, business model, target audience, industry context, and any user-provided or tool data.
• Writes: a user-facing analysis and reusable summary.
• Promotes: durable competitor facts, keyword priorities, entity candidates, and pending strategy decisions to memory/hot-cache.md, memory/open-loops.md, and memory/research/.
• Done when: 3-5 competitors are benchmarked across keywords, backlinks, and traffic share in one comparison table; each strength-to-learn and weakness-to-exploit cites evidence; and the deliverable closes with an Immediate / Short-term / Long-term plan.
• Primary next skill: [content-gap-analysis](../content-gap-analysis/SKILL.md) when the competitive landscape is clear.

Handoff Summary

Emit the standard shape from [skill-contract.md §Handoff Summary Format](../../references/skill-contract.md).

Data Sources

Optional integrations: ~~SEO tool, ~~analytics, ~~AI monitor. Without tools, ask for competitor URLs, your site metrics, and industry context. See [CONNECTORS.md](../../CONNECTORS.md).

Decision Gates

Stop and ask — when the competitor set cannot be established:

1. No competitors named and none inferable from CLAUDE.md, prior research, or the user's niche → ask the user to name 2-5 competitors, OR offer to infer them from a target keyword via [serp-analysis](../serp-analysis/SKILL.md) first.

Continue silently — do not stop for: which 3-5 of a longer list to deep-dive (pick the closest direct competitors and note the rest); missing your-own-site metrics (benchmark competitors against each other and mark your row N/A); missing optional tool data (label Estimated and proceed).

Instructions

When a user requests competitor analysis:

1. Identify Competitors — separate direct competitors, indirect alternatives, and content competitors if the user has not named them already.
2. Gather Competitor Data — capture URL, domain age, estimated traffic, domain authority, business model, target audience, and key offerings.
3. Analyze Keyword Rankings — document total rankings, top 10/top 3 counts, high-value keywords, intent mix, and keyword gaps.
4. Audit Content Strategy — review content volume, top performers, publishing patterns, themes, and success factors.
5. Analyze Backlink Profile — review backlink totals, quality mix, top linking domains, link acquisition patterns, and linkable assets.
6. Technical SEO Assessment — evaluate Core Web Vitals, mobile-friendliness, architecture, internal linking, URL structure, and standout strengths/weaknesses.
7. GEO / AI Citation Analysis — test which queries cite competitors, what formats get cited, and where competitors still leave openings.
8. Synthesize Competitive Intelligence — deliver an Executive Summary, comparison table, CITE comparison, strengths to learn from, weaknesses to exploit, keyword opportunities, content recommendations, and an Immediate / Short-term / Long-term plan.

Label every metric Measured (tool/export), User-provided, or Estimated (model inference); never present an estimate as measured; if a required metric is unavailable, mark it N/A — do not invent it.

Quality bar: every strength or weakness ties to a labeled metric and a named competitor — a specific ranking or backlink figure for a named domain, not "strong content presence".

Reference: See [Analysis Templates](references/analysis-templates.md) for the compact templates used at each step.

Example

See [references/example-report.md](references/example-report.md) for a full sample analyzing HubSpot's marketing keyword dominance.

Advanced Analysis Types

Content Gap Analysis

For a pairwise topic-coverage gap map ("content [competitor] has that I don't, sorted by traffic potential"), hand off to [content-gap-analysis](../content-gap-analysis/SKILL.md) — that is its dedicated job.

Video Benchmarking

When a competitor invests in video, benchmark their YouTube outliers (views >=2x their channel average) and the title/thumbnail packaging that drives those wins — those patterns show what topics and framing earn reach. See [platforms/youtube.md](../../references/platforms/youtube.md).

Link Intersection

Find sites linking to [competitor 1] AND [competitor 2] but not me

SERP Feature Analysis

What SERP features do competitors win? (Featured snippets, PAA, etc.)

Historical Tracking

How has [competitor]'s SEO strategy evolved over the past year?

Save Results

Write path: memory/research/competitor-analysis/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md; promote durable competitor facts and entity candidates to memory/hot-cache.md. See [Skill Contract](../../references/skill-contract.md) §Save Results Template.

Reference Materials

• [Analysis Templates](references/analysis-templates.md) — Step-by-step analysis templates
• [Battlecard Template](references/battlecard-template.md) — Quick-reference battlecard format
• [Positioning Frameworks](references/positioning-frameworks.md) — Positioning and differentiation frameworks
• [Example Report](references/example-report.md) — Worked sample
• [platforms/youtube.md](../../references/platforms/youtube.md) — YouTube outlier and title-packaging benchmarks for video-heavy competitors

Next Best Skill

Primary: [content-gap-analysis](../content-gap-analysis/SKILL.md). Also: [serp-analysis](../serp-analysis/SKILL.md) and [backlink-analyzer](../../monitor/backlink-analyzer/SKILL.md). If the goal is a head-to-head "us vs them" page, hand the vetted competitor set to [comparison-page-builder](../../build/comparison-page-builder/SKILL.md).