Getting Started with Competitor Research
Our Competitor Research toolset was designed to help you compare your website against other sites. In short, it allows you to quickly see keywords that your competitors are currently ranking for but that your website is not currently ranking for.
Start by entering your website’s URL and another website’s:
You can add as many as three competitive websites at once.
Pro Tip: We recommend starting with one-to-one comparisons. If you add more than one competitor, Positional will show you only the keywords that both websites are currently ranking for and that you aren’t. So, you’ll get fewer keyword suggestions overall.
Use the History dropdown to see previous reports:
Use the filters to drill down to more specific keywords:
For example, you can filter on Keyword, Monthly Search Volume, Competition, and the current ranking position of a given competitor for a specific keyword. You can also sort the columns, for example, by Monthly Search Volume in descending order:
As you’re doing your research, you can quickly save keywords to a Keyword List by selecting them and then clicking on Add Selected To List:
Competitor Research FAQs:
Why am I not seeing any results?
If you’ve added more than one competitor, there might not be as many results because Positional returns only the keywords that all competitive websites are ranking for that you aren’t.
Can I add more than three competitors?
Not yet.
What is a good competitor to analyze?
Of course, you’ve got your direct business competitors. But when thinking about competition, it’s often helpful to go a bit broader.
We would argue that any website that’s serving a similar buyer or audience would be interesting to compare your site against. Even if they aren’t directly competing with your product or service.
Why can’t I see the full history of searches I’ve done?
At the moment, in the History dropdown, Positional shows you only the previous 20 searches that you’ve done.
Where does the keyword data come from?
You’ll see the Semrush logo on many of the tooltips attached to our different keyword research tools. That logo on a tooltip means that Semrush powers some or all of the data presented. We are thrilled to be working with Semrush as a data partner for several toolsets.
In addition, we work with a number of other data providers who provide SERP data and social data to enrich our toolset.