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SEO competitor analysis: why is your competitor above you, in Google and in ChatGPT?
With an SEO competitor analysis you find out why another business ranks above you. It is almost always one of four things: they have a page you do not, their page answers the question better, more sites link to them, or they have more reviews. Which of the four it is you see in an afternoon. Then you know what to do.
Until recently you only looked at Google. Now there is a second list: the businesses ChatGPT and Gemini name when someone asks for a recommendation. Those are not always the same. This article covers both.
Who are your real competitors?
The first surprise: your SEO competitors are often different businesses than you think.
A career coach in Denver names three local colleagues as competitors. In Google, above her are a national coaching platform, a training institute and a coach from Boulder with a strong blog. Her three colleagues are on page 3.
How to find them:
- Open a private window in your browser.
- Type your five most important queries, one by one.
- Note the first five results per query, without the ads.
- Count which sites come back most often.
The three sites that appear most are your SEO competitors. That is who you compare with.
The analysis in 6 steps
Step 1: which pages do they have that you miss?
This usually pays off most. Open your competitor’s site and go through the menu. Then look at their blog.
Make two columns: their pages and yours. Where is there nothing on your side?
The Denver coach sees that the Boulder coach has separate pages for career coaching, burnout and leadership. She has one page called “Services”. Google cannot show her well for any of those three queries.
Tip: type site:competitor.com into Google. You see all the pages Google knows from that site.
Step 2: how are their best pages built?
Take your competitor’s page that ranks at the top for your most important query. Look at:
- The title. What does the blue line in Google say?
- The first paragraph. Is the answer right there?
- The subheadings. Which questions do they answer?
- The length. Is it 200 words or 1,500?
- What is on it that you lack. Prices, a step-by-step plan, photos, FAQs.
You do not need to copy it. You want to know where the bar is. Then you make something better, with your own facts. How to check your own pages on the same points is in SEO audit.
Step 3: how do their results look in Google?
Search your most important query and put your own result next to your competitor’s. Which would you click?
Often the difference is here. Their title says “Career Coach in Denver: Free 30-Minute Intro Call”. Yours says “Services | Practice Name”. You fix that in ten minutes. The rules are in writing an SEO title.
Step 4: who links to them?
Links from other sites count for Google. You can see part of them for free.
Type your competitor’s business name in quotes into Google, followed by -site:competitor.com. You see where they are mentioned: an industry association, an interview in the local paper, a guest post.
For the full list you need a tool like Ahrefs or Semrush. A trial or one month is enough. Which tool fits which job is in the best SEO tools.
Make a list of places where they appear and you could too.
Step 5: how do they do locally?
Search your service with your city name and look at the map pack. Who is there?
Compare their Google Business Profile with yours:
- number of reviews and the average rating
- how recent the last review is
- whether they respond to reviews
- photos, services, opening hours
A competitor with 85 reviews against your 9 you will not overtake with a better website alone.
Step 6: who does ChatGPT name?
This is the new step. Ask ChatGPT the question a customer would ask. Use plain language.
“I feel stuck at work and I am thinking about a career change. Which career coach near Denver would you recommend?”
Note who gets named and in which order. Then ask the question four more times, in a new chat each time. The answers vary. Whoever is named four out of five times is strong.
Then look at the sources. Many AI assistants show the sites they take their information from. Is there a comparison site or an industry platform? Then you know where you need to be too.
Do the same in Gemini and Perplexity. The outcome differs per assistant. Why is in how each platform picks its sources.
From analysis to a list of actions
After six steps you have a lot of notes. Turn them into a short list.
| What you found | What you do |
|---|---|
| They have pages you miss | Create those pages, one per service or question |
| Their page is more complete | Add prices, steps and questions to yours |
| Their title is better | Rewrite your title and description |
| They are on sites where you are not | Sign up or get in touch |
| They have more reviews | Ask every customer for a review |
| ChatGPT names them and not you | Start with the source the answer cites |
Start at the top. Missing pages and weak titles you can fix yourself, this week. Links and reviews take time. Which queries belong to which page you decide with keyword research with AI.
The Denver coach creates three new pages, rewrites four titles and signs up for the national platform ChatGPT takes its answer from. That is two afternoons of work.
What you cannot keep up by hand
Steps 1 through 5 you do once or twice a year. That is doable.
Step 6 is different. AI assistants’ answers vary per day. Asking once says little. Asking five times for ten customer questions in three assistants is 150 times typing. And next week it looks different again.
That is what a prompt tracker is for. It asks your customer questions to ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity every day. You see per question how often you are named and how often your competitor is. You also see which sites are used as sources.
That is how the GreatCompany prompt tracker works. GreatCompany suggests the competitors AI names in your area itself. Want to know why a competitor wins? Ask the SEO assistant: “Why does ChatGPT name my competitor and not me?” The answer names the customer question, the counts and the source your competitor is on.
How to close the gaps afterwards is in content gap analysis for AI search and on the page about content opportunities.
What not to do
Copying texts. Google recognizes copies, and your customer gains nothing.
Wanting everything they have. You do not need a hundred posts to beat a competitor with a hundred posts. See which five do the most.
Only looking at the biggest. You often learn more from a competitor just above you than from the market leader.
Stopping at analysis. An analysis without action is a nice document. What you can automate of the work after is in automating SEO with AI.
Who does AI name in your area?
Join the waitlist. When we open in the US, your free report shows for which customer questions ChatGPT names you, for which your competitor, and which competitors those are.
Frequently asked questions
- What is an SEO competitor analysis?
- An SEO competitor analysis compares your website with the sites ranking above you for your queries. You look at which pages they have that you miss, how their titles and texts are built, who links to them and how they do locally. The outcome is a list of what you should add or improve.
- How do I find my SEO competitors?
- Type your five most important queries into Google in a private window. The sites that keep coming back in the top results are your SEO competitors. They are often different businesses than you think: comparison sites, national chains or a business from another city.
- Can I do a competitor analysis for free?
- Yes. With Google itself, a private window and a spreadsheet you get far. You look at your competitors' pages, titles and structure by hand. Only for their links and their full keyword list do you need a paid tool, such as Ahrefs or Semrush. A trial is enough for that.
- How do I see which sources ChatGPT uses for my competitor?
- Ask ChatGPT the question your customer asks and look at the sources under the answer. Often those are comparison sites, industry pages and your competitor's own page that answers the question exactly. Note per question which sources recur. You want to be on those too, or you create the page that gives the answer.
- How often should you do a competitor analysis?
- A full analysis once or twice a year is enough. The answers of AI assistants change faster; follow those continuously. Also look every time a competitor overtakes you on an important query.
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