Advanced Ways to Use Competitive Research in SEO

If you’ve ever wondered why your competitor’s blog posts outrank yours—even when your content is just as good—it’s time to level up your competitive research skills.

Competitive research isn’t just about spying on what others are doing. It’s about discovering what’s working for them, identifying gaps they’ve missed, and creating a strategy that lets you outrank, outsmart, and outperform in search results.

Here are advanced ways to use competitive research to sharpen your SEO game.

1. Reverse-Engineer Their Top-Performing Keywords

Your competitors’ highest-ranking keywords are like breadcrumbs leading you to opportunities you may have overlooked.

How to do it:

• Use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Ubersuggest to pull a keyword ranking report for your competitors.

• Filter for keywords where they rank in positions 1–10 but with lower domain authority—these are easier wins for you.

• Look for content gaps—keywords where they rank but you have no content targeting them.

Pro Tip: Don’t just copy their keywords—analyze the intent behind each one and create content that offers more value than theirs. Use AI to at least start this research for you.

2. Analyze Their Backlink Profile for Link-Building Opportunities

Backlinks are one of the most powerful ranking factors. By studying who’s linking to your competitors, you can identify sites and influencers that may be open to linking to your content, too.

How to do it:

• Run a backlink audit using Ahrefs, Majestic, or Moz.

• Find recent backlinks—these sites are actively linking to similar content now.

• Pitch them your better, fresher, or more comprehensive resource.

Pro Tip: If multiple competitors are getting links from the same site, that site is a high-probability outreach target for you.

3. Spot and Exploit Content Format Gaps

It’s not always about what your competitors cover—it’s how they cover it. Sometimes the fastest way to outshine them is to present the same information in a format they’re missing.

Examples:

• If they have a blog post, you could create a video tutorial or interactive tool.

• If they only use text, add infographics, charts, and visuals to make yours more engaging.

• If they wrote an ultimate guide two years ago, publish an updated 2025 version with fresh data.

Pro Tip: Repurpose your competitor’s most-shared content into multiple formats—podcasts, reels, webinars—to dominate multiple search and social channels.

4. Track Their SEO Experimentation

Your competitors are likely testing new SEO strategies—structured data, new content types, or internal linking patterns. By tracking changes over time, you can spot tactics that work before they become mainstream.

How to do it:

• Use a SERP tracking tool to monitor their keyword positions.

• Watch for sudden ranking jumps or drops—then analyze what changed.

• Monitor their site structure for new topic clusters or pillar pages.

Pro Tip: Set up Google Alerts for their brand name and new content, so you’re always aware of their latest moves.

5. Use Their Weaknesses to Strengthen Your Strategy

Competitive research isn’t just about what they’re doing well—it’s about spotting weaknesses you can capitalize on.

Look for:

• Low-quality backlinks you can avoid.

• Thin content you can beat with in-depth, authoritative guides.

• Poor user experience (slow load time, clunky mobile view) you can improve upon.

Pro Tip: The goal isn’t to be a carbon copy—it’s to use their blind spots as your opportunity zones.

Final Thoughts

Advanced competitive research in SEO is part detective work, part strategic planning. By reverse-engineering their wins, finding their blind spots, and executing a smarter content strategy, you can climb the rankings faster and more sustainably.

Remember: the best SEO strategy doesn’t just follow trends—it anticipates them.

For more information on SEO, be sure to pick up a copy of SEO Domination in the shop. You can grab it here.