Website Competitor Analysis Using SEMrush Tool: A Step-by-Step Guide

In the current cutthroat digital arena, knowledge isn’t just power—it is profit. Conducting a thorough website competitor analysis is similar to getting a backstage pass to your rivals’ playbook. It reveals what is working (and what is not) in your niche, allowing you to craft relevant strategies that don’t just compete, but dominate.

One of the best tools for conducting an effective website competitor analysis is SEMrush, a powerful SEO and competitive intelligence platform. We have already discussed about the importance of SEMRush tool in digital marketing and how it can help in taking vital decisions to improve SEO strategies and execution. In this blog, we will take you through how to conduct a comprehensive competitor analysis using SEMrush tool, covering key metrics like traffic, keywords, backlinks, and more.

Why Competitor Analysis Matters

Before diving into the how-to, let us understand why competitor analysis is essential:

  1. Identify Market Gaps – Discover untapped opportunities your competitors may be missing.
  2. Improve SEO Strategy – Learn which keywords and backlinks are driving their traffic.
  3. Enhance Content Marketing – See what type of content performs best in your niche.
  4. Optimize Paid Campaigns – Analyze competitor ad strategies to refine your PPC efforts.
  5. Benchmark Performance – Compare your website metrics against competitors to set realistic goals.

Now, let’s explore how SEMrush can help you achieve these insights.

Step 1: Identify Your Competitors

Before analyzing the competitors, you need to know who they are. SEMrush tool provides multiple ways to find them:

A. Organic Competitors

These are websites ranking for similar keywords as yours.

  1. Log in to SEMrush account and go to the Competitive Research Map under the “Competitors” tab.
  2. Enter your domain name and click “Analyze.”
  3. SEMrush will display a list of websites that compete for the same organic keywords.

B. Paid Competitors

These competitors run ads targeting similar keywords.

  1. Navigate to Advertising Research > Competitors.
  2. Enter your domain to see who’s bidding on the same keywords in Google Ads.

C. Industry-Specific Competitors

If you already know your top competitors, add them manually in the “My Competitors” section for tracking.

Step 2: Analyze Competitor Traffic & Engagement

Understanding how much traffic your competitors get and how users engage with their site is crucial.

A. Traffic Analytics Overview

  1. Go to Traffic Analytics > Overview and enter a competitor’s domain.
  2. Key metrics to check:
    • Total Visits – How much traffic they receive monthly.
    • Pages per Visit – Engagement depth.
    • Average Visit Duration – How long users stay.
    • Bounce Rate – Percentage of visitors who leave without interaction.

B. Traffic Sources

See where their traffic comes from:

  • Organic Search (SEO performance)
  • Paid Search (Google Ads)
  • Direct Traffic (Brand searches)
  • Referral Traffic (Backlinks)
  • Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

This helps you identify which channels are most effective for them.

Step 3: Keyword Gap Analysis

Keywords are the backbone of any search engine optimization (SEO). SEMrush is an amazing keyword research tool that can help you in identifying the right keywords to rank higher and beat the competition. SEMrush’s Keyword Gap Tool helps you find:

  • Shared Keywords (What you and competitors rank for)
  • Missing Keywords (Opportunities you haven’t targeted yet)
  • Weak Keywords (Where you rank lower than competitors)

How to Use the Keyword Gap Tool

  1. Go to Keyword Analytics > Keyword Gap.
  2. Enter your domain and up to 4 competitors.
  3. Click “Compare” to see overlapping and unique keywords.
  4. Filter by position, search volume, and difficulty to prioritize opportunities.

Actionable Tip: Target high-volume, low-competition keywords your competitors rank for but you don’t.

Step 4: Backlink Analysis

Backlinks significantly impact SEO rankings. Analyzing competitor backlinks helps you:

  • Identify high-authority sites linking to them.
  • Discover guest posting and outreach opportunities.
  • Spot toxic links to avoid.

A. Backlink Analytics

  1. Navigate to Backlink Analytics and enter a competitor’s domain.
  2. Key metrics:
    • Total Backlinks – Number of referring domains.
    • Referring Domains – Unique websites linking to them.
    • Authority Score – Domain strength (higher = better).

B. Top Pages by Backlinks

See which pages attract the most backlinks—this reveals their best-performing content.

C. New & Lost Backlinks

Track recent backlink gains/losses to understand their link-building strategies.

Actionable Tip: Reach out to the same referring domains for potential backlinks.

Step 5: Content & On-Page SEO Analysis

Content is king, and SEMrush helps you analyze competitors’ top-performing pages.

A. Top Pages Report

  1. Go to Organic Research > Pages.
  2. See which pages get the most organic traffic.
  3. Analyze their structure, word count, and keyword usage.

B. Content Audit

Use SEMrush’s SEO Content Template to compare your content with competitors:

  • Keyword density
  • Readability score
  • Backlink opportunities

C. On-Page SEO Checker

Enter a competitor’s URL to see:

  • Meta title & description optimization
  • Header tags (H1, H2, H3)
  • Internal linking structure

Actionable Tip: Improve your content by incorporating missing elements from competitors’ best pages.

Step 6: Paid Advertising (PPC) Analysis

If competitors are running Google Ads, SEMrush helps you spy on their strategies.

A. Advertising Research

  1. Go to Advertising Research > Ads Copies.
  2. Enter a competitor’s domain to see:
    • Active ad copies
    • Keywords they bid on
    • Ad spend estimates

B. PLA (Product Listing Ads) Research

For eCommerce sites, analyze competitor shopping ads.

Actionable Tip: Use competitor ad copies as inspiration (but don’t copy directly).

Step 7: Social Media & Brand Visibility

SEMrush’s Social Media Tracker helps monitor competitors’ social performance.

  1. Go to Social Media Tracker.
  2. Add competitor profiles (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.).
  3. Track engagement metrics (likes, shares, comments).

Actionable Tip: Identify trending topics and replicate successful strategies.

Step 8: Generate a Competitor Analysis Report

SEMrush allows you to export data for further analysis:

  1. Click “Export” on any report.
  2. Choose CSV, PDF, or Google Sheets.
  3. Share insights with your team for strategy refinement.

Final Thoughts

Competitor analysis isn’t about copying others—it’s about learning, adapting, and outperforming. By leveraging SEMrush, you gain actionable insights into:
✅ Traffic sources & engagement
✅ Keyword opportunities
✅ Backlink strategies
✅ Content & on-page SEO
✅ Paid advertising tactics

Regularly monitoring competitors ensures you stay ahead in SEO, content, and digital marketing.

The Importance of SEMrush Tool in Digital Marketing

When we talk about digital marketing, data and insights are important in developing strategies that can help outperform competitors and reach a wider audience. SEMrush is one of the most powerful tools available and has become a highly useful tool for digital marketers due to its wide array of features that help optimize SEO, conduct competitive analysis, streamline content marketing, and enhance PPC campaigns. With the SEMrush tool, digital marketers can better understand the market trends, audience behavior, and competitor strategies, empowering them to create and adjust campaigns that can drive long-term results. In this article, we will have a look into why SEMrush is so important for digital marketers and how it helps in supporting every aspect of a successful digital marketing strategy.

1. Detailed Competitor Analysis

  • In the digital marketing arena, you will always get an upperhand if you try to understand your competition. SEMrush tool clearly excels in competitor analysis by providing valuable insights into various aspects of competitor strategies. With SEMrush, digital marketers can get an idea on which which keywords their competitors rank for, examine their traffic sources, and even review their backlink profiles. This vital information lets you evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors’ strategies and identify potential gaps in the market on which you can capitalize on.
  • Moreover, SEMrush tool offers a detailed look at competitors’ advertising strategies. The tool analyzes competitors’ ads, which helps marketers to gain insights into what kind of messaging and offers resonate with their respective target audience, allowing them to refine their own strategies. Understanding the keywords, ad formats, and platforms that work best for the competitors will definitely help marketers make data-backed decisions on their own digital campaigns.

2. Keyword Research and SEO

  • One of the fundamental aspects of SEMrush is its robust keyword research capabilities. Keyword research is crucial for SEO and content marketing, and SEMrush has tools like the “Keyword Magic Tool” in its armory to help marketers discover high-value keywords. This tool provides comprehensive data, that includes search volume, keyword difficulty, CPC (cost-per-click), and competitive density, which helps users select the most effective keywords for their SEO campaign strategies.
  • The Keyword Magic Tool also helps users identify long-tail keywords, which tend to have lower competition but high user intent. Going after long-tail keywords can drive highly relevant traffic and improve conversion rates. SEMrush’s keyword tools also provide suggestions for related terms, allowing digital marketers to build a robust keyword strategy that encompasses a wider range of potential search queries. This will make it easier to rank the content for a variety of terms, maximizing reach across different keyword categories.

3. On-Page SEO and Technical Site Audits

  • Search engines favor websites that provide a smooth user experience, and technical SEO is a big part of that. SEMrush offers a comprehensive Site Audit tool that scans websites for technical SEO issues, including broken links, duplicate content, site speed, mobile usability, and more. These are crucial aspects of SEO, as search engines prioritize sites that perform well and provide users with a seamless experience. By addressing the issues highlighted in a site audit, marketers can improve their website’s health score, ensuring it’s optimized for search engines.
  • The SEMrush Site Audit tool also provides actionable insights and recommendations for fixes. For example, if the audit identifies duplicate content, the tool offers solutions on how to address it, such as using canonical tags or updating content. SEMrush makes it easy to address technical issues, even for marketers who may not have a technical background. By resolving these issues, you not only improve your SEO but also enhance user experience, which can reduce bounce rates and encourage more time spent on the site.

4. Content Marketing Insights

  • Content marketing is an essential aspect of digital marketing, and SEMrush tool offers several features that make content strategy development more effective. Tools like the “SEO Content Template” and “Topic Research” help digital marketers plan and create high-quality content that aligns with what audiences are searching for. The SEO Content Template analyzes top-ranking pages for a given keyword, suggests optimal content length, readability, and target keywords to help marketers create content that is competitive in search results.
  • The Topic Research tool allows users to find the trending topics and commonly asked questions, which can inspire content ideas that address user intent. By tuning your content on popular topics and keywords, you increase its relevance to your audience. SEMrush’s content tools are incredibly valuable for ensuring your content is both relevant and optimized for search engines, and leads to better rankings, more engagement, and higher traffic.

5. Backlink Analysis and Link Building Opportunities

  • Backlinks are the major factors in SEO, as they signal to search engines that your website is credible, valuable, and authoritative. SEMrush’s Backlink Analytics and Link Building Tool gives valuable insights into the backlink profile of your website and help you discover new link-building opportunities. The backlink tool by SEMRush allows online marketers to analyze their competitors’ backlink profiles, thereby identifying potential sources of high-quality backlinks.
  • SEMrush also provides a score for each backlink, helping marketers focus on high-authority websites rather than low-quality links that might hurt their SEO efforts. By building backlinks with credible sites, you will be able to improve your own website’s authority, which brings a positive impact on search engine rankings. Additionally, SEMrush’s backlink tools help you to monitor your own backlinks, so you can identify any low-quality links and take steps to disavow them if necessary.

6. PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Advertising Insights

  • SEMrush is not only useful for organic SEO; it also provides powerful tools for paid search / PPC campaigns. With SEMrush, digital marketers can get an idea on what keywords competitors are bidding on, their ad copies, and the Cost Per Click (CPC) associated with these keywords. This level of insight provided by SEMRush tool helps you create more effective PPC campaigns by refining keyword choices, ad messaging, and budget allocation based on competitor data.
  • By monitoring and examining the PPC campaigns of your competitors, you can avoid bidding on high-cost keywords with low ROI, and focus on keywords that offer better opportunities. Additionally, SEMrush tool lets you analyze ad copy, which can inspire new ad ideas and improve click-through rates. PPC campaigns are a significant investment, and SEMrush helps in ensuring that every money spent yields maximum impact.

7. Social Media Management and Analytics

  • SEMrush includes tools for managing and analyzing social media, which is essential for brands that are looking to engage with audiences and build a strong digital presence. The Social Media Toolkit from SEMrush allows digital marketers to schedule posts, track engagement, and measure social media performance. This enables businesses to manage all their social media accounts in one place and maintain a consistent posting schedule, which is vital for audience engagement and reach.
  • The social media analytics feature provides insights into what type of content resonates most with followers, allowing marketers to refine their social media strategies accordingly. This data-driven approach helps businesses grow their social media following and drive more traffic to their website.

8. Performance Tracking and Reporting

  • SEMrush allows you to track your website’s performance over time, so you can monitor the results of your SEO and digital marketing activities. With the Position Tracking tool, you can track your rankings for specific keywords in real-time and identify trends in search visibility. This is especially helpful for measuring the effectiveness of ongoing campaigns and adjusting strategies as needed.
  • Reporting is another valuable feature of SEMrush. You will be able to generate customizable reports that combine data from various tools, which is particularly useful for presenting to clients or stakeholders. SEMrush reports provide clear, actionable insights that can support data-driven decision-making and demonstrate the ROI of digital marketing efforts.

Conclusion

SEMrush has become an important tool in the digital marketing world because of its comprehensive suite of tools. From SEO and competitor analysis to content marketing, PPC, and social media insights, SEMrush covers every aspect of a successful digital marketing strategy. By using SEMrush, businesses can streamline their marketing efforts, make informed decisions based on real-time data, and stay competitive in an ever-evolving industry.