Semrush Competitor Research: A Step-by-Step Guide for Marketers

Understanding your competition is fundamental to building a successful digital strategy. Performing thorough competitor research with Semrush gives you a direct look into what your rivals are doing right, where they're falling short, and how you can strategically position your brand to win. This isn't just about spying; it's about gathering actionable intelligence to inform your SEO, content, and advertising efforts, allowing you to make smarter decisions that drive growth.

This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about using Semrush's powerful toolkit for competitive analysis. We'll break down the essential tools, provide a step-by-step workflow, and show you how to turn raw data into a winning strategy. Whether you're a small business owner or part of a large marketing team, mastering these techniques will give you a significant advantage.

What You'll Learn

• Core Tools: The primary Semrush tools for competitor research include Domain Overview, Keyword Gap, Traffic Analytics, and Backlink Gap, each serving a unique analytical purpose.
• Strategic Workflow: A successful semrush competitor analysis involves identifying your true rivals, analysing their traffic sources, dissecting their keyword and backlink profiles, and monitoring their paid ad strategies.
• Actionable Insights: The goal is not just to collect data, but to find actionable opportunities, such as untapped keywords your competitors rank for or high-authority domains linking to them that you can also target.
• Beyond SEO: Semrush allows you to analyse competitors' social media presence and content marketing efforts, providing a 360-degree view of their digital footprint.
• Cost and Value: While Semrush is a premium platform, its comprehensive suite of tools for analyzing Semrush rivals provides a strong return on investment by consolidating multiple functions into one subscription.

What is Semrush Competitor Research?

Semrush competitor research is the process of using Semrush’s suite of integrated tools to identify, monitor, and analyse the online marketing strategies of your business rivals. It goes far beyond simply knowing who your competitors are. It’s about systematically deconstructing their digital presence to understand their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats—a classic SWOT analysis applied to the digital realm.

At its core, this process involves looking at several key areas of a competitor's strategy. You can uncover the exact organic keywords that drive the most traffic to their site, revealing their content priorities and SEO focus. You can also see which websites are linking back to them, giving you a roadmap for your own link-building campaigns. This level of analysis helps you benchmark your own performance and set realistic goals.

Furthermore, a comprehensive semrush competitor analysis extends into paid advertising and traffic sources. You can see the keywords your competitors are bidding on in Google Ads, the ad copy they're using, and even estimates of their ad spend. By understanding their entire traffic ecosystem—from organic search and paid ads to referral traffic and social media—you can identify gaps in your own strategy and find new channels to reach your target audience.

Key Semrush Tools for Analysing Competitors

Semrush isn't just one tool; it's a powerful collection of specialised reports and analytics dashboards. When it comes to analyzing Semrush rivals, knowing which tool to use for which task is crucial. Each one offers a different lens through which to view your competition, and using them together provides a complete picture.

Domain Overview: The 30,000-Foot View

The Domain Overview report is your starting point. Think of it as a digital passport for any website. You simply enter a competitor's domain, and Semrush provides a high-level summary of its online health and visibility. Key metrics include the Authority Score (Semrush's metric for a domain's overall quality and SEO strength), estimated monthly organic and paid traffic, and the total number of backlinks.

This report is perfect for quick comparisons. You can see at a glance how you stack up against a competitor in terms of traffic volume and backlink profile. It also shows you their top organic keywords, main organic competitors, and a breakdown of their traffic by country, which is invaluable for understanding their market focus.

Organic Research: Uncovering SEO Secrets

While Domain Overview gives you the summary, the Organic Research tool lets you dig into the specifics of a competitor's SEO strategy. Here, you can see a complete list of keywords they rank for in Google's top 100 results. You can filter this data to find their most valuable keywords—those that drive the most traffic or have the highest search volume.

One of the most powerful features is the ability to track keyword position changes over time. You can see if a competitor is gaining or losing visibility for important terms, which might signal a shift in their strategy or a recent Google algorithm update affecting them. This tool is essential for reverse-engineering their content strategy and finding topics you should be targeting.

Keyword Gap: Finding Your Content Opportunities

The Keyword Gap tool is where strategy truly begins. It allows you to compare your own domain's keyword profile against up to four competitors simultaneously. Semrush then categorises the keywords into several groups: Shared, Missing, Weak, Strong, Untapped, and Unique.

The most valuable categories are often 'Missing' and 'Untapped'. 'Missing' keywords are terms your competitors rank for, but you don't. 'Untapped' keywords are those that one or more competitors rank for, but you don't. These lists are a goldmine for your content calendar, showing you exactly where the gaps are in your content strategy that your rivals are already exploiting.

Pro Tip: When using the Keyword Gap tool, start by comparing yourself to just one or two of your closest competitors. Analysing against four major players at once can create a lot of noise. A focused comparison often yields more actionable, high-priority keywords to target first.

Backlink Gap: Building a Better Link Strategy

Similar to the Keyword Gap tool, the Backlink Gap tool lets you compare your backlink profile with your competitors'. You can enter your domain and up to four rivals to find websites that are linking to them but not to you. This is one of the most efficient ways to discover new link-building opportunities.

If a high-authority website is linking to multiple of your competitors, there's a strong chance they would be willing to link to you as well, provided you have relevant, high-quality content. This tool effectively creates a prioritised outreach list for your link-building campaigns, saving you countless hours of manual research.

Traffic Analytics: Understanding Their Audience

Traffic Analytics provides an estimate of any website's traffic, going beyond just organic search. It breaks down a competitor's traffic sources, including Direct, Referral, Search, Social, and Paid. This helps you understand their marketing mix. For example, if a competitor gets a lot of referral traffic, you can investigate which sites are sending them visitors and potentially seek partnerships.

The tool also offers insights into audience engagement, such as average visit duration and bounce rate. While these are estimates, they can help you gauge whether a competitor's website is effectively engaging its visitors. The Audience Overlap report is another key feature, showing you which other websites your competitor's audience frequently visits.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Semrush Competitor Analysis

Knowing the tools is one thing; using them in a coordinated workflow is another. Following a structured process ensures you gather the right data and translate it into actionable steps. Here’s how to conduct a comprehensive semrush competitor analysis from start to finish.

Step 1: Identify Your True Digital Competitors

Your business competitors might not be your main digital competitors. A local shop's biggest business rival could be another store down the street, but online, they might be competing with a national e-commerce site or a popular blog. Use the Organic Research tool in Semrush by entering your own domain and navigating to the 'Competitors' tab.

Semrush will generate a list of domains that rank for many of the same keywords as you. This list represents your true search competitors. Pay close attention to the 'Competition Level' metric, which indicates how closely their keyword profile overlaps with yours. Select the top 3-5 most relevant domains for a deeper analysis.

Step 2: Benchmark Your Performance with Domain Overview

Once you have your list of competitors, run each one (and your own site) through the Domain Overview tool. Create a simple spreadsheet to track key metrics: Authority Score, Organic Search Traffic, Paid Search Traffic, and Backlinks. This gives you a high-level benchmark.

This initial comparison helps you understand where you stand. Are you lagging in authority. Is a competitor dominating paid search. This overview will guide where you focus your deeper analysis.

For example, if a competitor has significantly more backlinks, you know that backlink analysis should be a priority.

Step 3: Uncover Content Gaps with the Keyword Gap Tool

Now, take your domain and your top 3 competitors and plug them into the Keyword Gap tool. Start by filtering for 'Missing' and 'Untapped' keywords where your competitors rank on the first page of Google (e.g., positions 1-10). This filters out the noise and focuses on terms where they are already successful.

Export this list of keywords. This is your immediate content plan. Prioritise these keywords based on search volume, keyword difficulty, and relevance to your business. For each high-priority keyword, analyse the competitor pages that are ranking to understand the type of content you need to create to compete.

Step 4: Reverse-Engineer Their Backlink Strategy

Using the same list of competitors, run a Backlink Gap analysis. The tool will show you domains linking to your rivals but not to you. Filter this list by Authority Score to prioritise outreach to the most valuable and authoritative websites.

Don't just look at the domains; analyse the context of the links. Are they from guest posts, resource pages, or product reviews? Understanding how your competitors are earning links will inform your own outreach strategy. For example, if they are frequently featured on industry blogs, you should focus your efforts on guest posting for those same publications.

Step 5: Analyse Their Paid Advertising Campaigns

If paid search is part of your strategy, use the Advertising Research tool. Enter a competitor's domain to see the keywords they are bidding on, view their live ad copy, and see their ad history. This is incredibly useful for understanding their messaging and offers.

You can identify which keywords they consistently spend money on, indicating which terms are most profitable for them. Analysing their ad copy can also give you ideas for your own headlines and descriptions, helping you write more compelling ads that improve your click-through rate (CTR).

Choosing the Right Semrush Tool for Your Goal

With so many features, it's easy to get lost. The key is to match the right tool to your specific objective. Choosing the correct starting point from the wide array of competitor research tools within Semrush saves time and delivers more relevant insights.

If your goal is to build a content plan…
Start with the Keyword Gap tool. Its primary function is to identify the exact search terms your competitors are ranking for that you aren't. This provides a direct, data-backed list of topic ideas that are already proven to attract an audience in your niche. Follow this up with the Topic Research tool to flesh out those ideas into comprehensive content briefs.

If your goal is to improve your domain authority…
Your focus should be on the Backlink Gap and Backlink Analytics tools. Use Backlink Gap first to generate a list of high-potential domains to target for outreach. Then, use Backlink Analytics to do a deep dive on a single competitor's backlink profile, filtering to see their newest or most powerful links to understand their current link-building tactics.

If your goal is to launch or optimise a PPC campaign…
The Advertising Research tool is your destination. It gives you a complete overview of a competitor's paid search strategy. You can see their ad spend trends, their top-performing ad copy, and the keywords they're targeting. This intelligence allows you to enter the market with a much clearer picture of what works, avoiding costly trial and error.

If you need a quick, high-level report for a stakeholder…
Use the Domain Overview report. It's designed to be an executive summary. In a single screen, you can present a clear comparison of your site versus a competitor, covering key performance indicators like traffic, authority, and top keywords. You can also use the 'Compare domains' feature within this tool to generate side-by-side charts perfect for presentations.

Semrush Pricing and Plans

Semrush is a premium suite of tools, and its pricing reflects the comprehensive data and functionality it offers. The features available for competitor research vary depending on the subscription tier you choose. It's important to understand these differences to select a plan that aligns with your needs and budget.

Semrush typically offers three main subscription levels: Pro, Guru, and Business.

• Pro Plan: This is the entry-level plan, designed for freelancers, startups, and marketers with a limited budget. It provides access to all the essential tools for semrush competitors research, including Domain Overview, Organic Research, and the Keyword Gap and Backlink Gap tools. However, it comes with limitations on the number of reports you can run per day and the number of results per report.

• Guru Plan: This is the most popular plan, aimed at small to medium-sized businesses and growing marketing agencies. It includes everything in the Pro plan but with significantly higher limits. The Guru plan also unlocks more advanced features, such as historical data, which allows you to track competitor performance over time, and the Content Marketing Platform.

• Business Plan: This top-tier plan is built for large agencies and enterprises. It offers the highest limits on reports and data, along with premium features like API access and Share of Voice metrics. The Traffic Analytics tool, which provides deep insights into competitor traffic sources and audience behaviour, is fully available at this level.

For the most accurate and up-to-date pricing information, it's always best to visit the official Semrush pricing page. They often offer a free trial, which is a great way to explore the platform's capabilities before committing to a subscription.

Pros and Cons of Using Semrush for Competitor Research

No tool is perfect, and while Semrush is a market leader, it's important to have a balanced view of its strengths and weaknesses. Understanding these can help you maximise its value and know when you might need to supplement its data with other sources.

Pros

• All-in-One Toolkit: The biggest advantage of Semrush is its sheer breadth of features. You can analyse SEO, PPC, content, social media, and market trends all within a single platform, eliminating the need for multiple separate subscriptions.
• Massive Data Sets: Semrush crawls a vast portion of the web, giving it one of the largest keyword and backlink databases in the industry. This leads to more comprehensive and generally reliable data for your analysis.
• Action-Oriented Tools: Features like Keyword Gap and Backlink Gap are specifically designed to produce actionable lists of opportunities. They don't just show you data; they help you decide what to do next.
• User-Friendly Interface: Despite its complexity, the platform is relatively intuitive. Most reports are well-designed with clear visualisations, making it accessible even for those who aren't data scientists.

Cons

• Cost: Semrush is a significant investment, especially for smaller businesses or individual consultants. The entry-level plan can be restrictive, often pushing users towards the more expensive Guru tier.
• Data is Estimated: It's crucial to remember that metrics like traffic, ad spend, and bounce rate are third-party estimates, not actuals from Google Analytics. While they are excellent for directional analysis and comparison, they should not be treated as absolute truth. According to a study by Search Engine Journal, data accuracy can vary between tools, so it's wise to look for trends rather than fixate on exact numbers.
• Learning Curve: While the interface is good, the sheer number of tools and reports can be overwhelming for new users. To get the most out of the platform, you need to invest time in learning how to use its more advanced features.

Pro Tip: To validate Semrush's traffic estimates, compare its data for your own website against your Google Analytics data. This will give you a sense of the margin of error (e.g., Semrush might consistently overestimate or underestimate by a certain percentage), which you can then apply when analysing competitors.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are answers to some common questions that arise when using Semrush for competitor analysis.

How accurate is Semrush's competitor traffic data?

Semrush's traffic data is an estimate based on a sophisticated algorithm that analyses keyword search volumes, click-through rates, and ranking positions. It is not 100% accurate because it is not pulling data directly from a competitor's Google Analytics. However, it is widely considered one of the most reliable third-party estimators available. The real value lies in its ability to show trends over time and to compare multiple domains using the same methodology, which provides excellent relative insights.

Can I use Semrush to find local competitors?

Yes, you can. Semrush allows you to set a specific country's database for your research. For more local analysis, you can use the Position Tracking tool to monitor keyword rankings in a specific city or postcode. By tracking a set of location-based keywords (e.g., "plumber in Manchester"), you can see which local businesses consistently appear in the search results, effectively identifying your main local search competitors.

What is a good Authority Score in Semrush?

Authority Score is a relative metric, not an absolute one. A 'good' score depends entirely on your industry and the competitors you are up against. A score of 40 might be excellent in a small, niche market, while a score of 70 might be average in a highly competitive global industry. The best way to use Authority Score is for comparison.

Your goal should be to have an Authority Score that is comparable to or higher than the direct competitors you identified in your research.

How often should I conduct a competitor analysis?

Competitor analysis should not be a one-time event. The digital landscape changes constantly. A light competitor check-in should be done monthly to monitor any major shifts in traffic or keyword rankings. A deep-dive analysis, like the step-by-step process outlined above, is best performed on a quarterly or bi-annual basis.

This allows you to stay on top of new competitor strategies and adapt your own plans accordingly.

Final Thoughts

Mastering semrush competitors research is a powerful skill that can transform your marketing strategy from reactive to proactive. By systematically analysing your rivals, you move beyond guesswork and start making data-driven decisions that have a real impact on your bottom line. The insights you gain can refine your content calendar, supercharge your link-building efforts, and optimise your advertising spend.

The Semrush toolkit provides everything you need to deconstruct a competitor's digital footprint. From the high-level Domain Overview to the granular insights of the Keyword Gap and Backlink Gap tools, you have a complete arsenal at your disposal. While there is a learning curve and a cost involved, the ability to uncover your competitors' winning strategies is an invaluable advantage in any market.

If you're serious about growing your online presence, it's time to look beyond your own analytics and start understanding the competitive landscape. Use the steps and tools outlined in this guide to begin your analysis. The opportunities you uncover could be the key to your next breakthrough. Ready to get started.

You can explore the full suite of tools on the Semrush website.