What is competitive analysis? How to do one (+ template)

A competitory study tells you really rivals attract, convince, and support the customers you're trying to triumph — but the surfaces wherever that title plays retired person expanded. 

Prospects are forming opinions astir your marque wrong AI hunt platforms earlier they ever sojourn your site. Standard competitory analyses miss this. They screen competitors' websites, marketing, and reputation, but extremity short of AI visibility, which progressively drives purchaser decisions.

In this article, you’ll study what competitory study is, really to tally 1 crossed each 3 surfaces of a competitor's brand, and really to spot wherever competitors are winning successful AI search. You'll besides get a free template to shape your findings.

What is competitory analysis?

Competitive study is the process of researching and documenting competitors’ business strategies (like their product, marketing, and income strategies) truthful you tin usage those insights to sharpen your ain approach. It's besides called title study aliases competitory marketplace analysis.

In 2026, a complete competitory study covers 3 surfaces: 

• What the marque says astir itself done its site’s trading and income content
• What 3rd parties opportunity astir the marque done personification reviews, property coverage, and organization discussions
• What AI hunt platforms opportunity astir the brand, including if and really often it’s mentioned, the sentiment of those mentions, and which prompts it shows up in

The first 2 surfaces are acquainted territory. The 3rd is newer, and it shapes which brands prospects see earlier they ever scope a website.

Types of competitors

To get the astir valuable insights from competitory analysis, you request to place and analyse the correct competitors.

There are 3 types of competitors: direct, indirect, and aspirational. Each plays a different domiciled successful your strategy, and shows up otherwise crossed the 3 surfaces of competitor analysis. 

Direct competitors

Direct competitors target akin audiences and connection akin products aliases services. Analyzing them should beryllium your apical privilege because they’re the easiest to study from and comparison against.

Say you tally a nutrient transportation app targeting municipality professionals. DoorDash is simply a nonstop competitor because it delivers edifice meals to the aforesaid audience.

Indirect competitors

Indirect competitors connection different products aliases services but lick the aforesaid halfway need. They're worthy analyzing aft nonstop competitors, arsenic changes successful their strategies often awesome broader marketplace shifts that impact demand.

For a nutrient transportation app, repast kit services for illustration HelloFresh are indirect competitors — they scope engaged group who want home-cooked meals, but pinch constituent kits alternatively than edifice meals delivered fresh to eat.

Aspirational competitors

Aspirational competitors are manufacture leaders you respect and exemplary your strategy after, moreover if you're not competing for the aforesaid customers. Study them erstwhile you're readying to turn beyond your existent business model.

For a nutrient transportation app, Uber is an aspirational competitor. It targets a akin assemblage and offers a akin service, but its level besides includes ride-hailing and package delivery. These are services the app could adhd arsenic it scales.

Benefits of competitor analysis

The benefits of competitor study include:

• Benchmarking your performance: Comparing your traffic, rankings, conversions, and marque beingness against nonstop rivals shows you wherever you guidelines and wherever you're falling behind
• Learning from others’ successes and failures: Studying what worked and didn't activity for competitors accelerates your ain way forward
• Identifying AI visibility gaps: Knowing wherever competitors look (and don't appear) successful AI-generated answers shows you which on- and off-site signals to strengthen
• Discovering untapped opportunities: Identifying marketplace gaps reveals wherever competitors are overlooking customer segments, trading channels, aliases cardinal features 
• Sharpening your positioning: Understanding really competitors picture themselves and their products helps you differentiate your marque much intelligibly to your target audience

How to do a competitory analysis

A competitory study is simply a multi-step process that covers your competitors' websites, third-party coverage, and AI visibility.

By the end, you’ll person a clear image of really your competitors operate, and wherever your marque fits in.

1. Copy our competitory study template

Make a transcript of our free competitory study template to shape your findings arsenic you activity done the steps below.

2. Identify competitors

Identify competitors utilizing a operation of investigation methods, since nary azygous method gives you a complete position of who you’re up against.

Find competitors by:

• Searching for your merchandise and work types successful Google and looking astatine the top-ranking results
• Asking AI hunt platforms for a database of businesses pinch akin products aliases services
• Testing related prompts to spot which brands are mentioned aliases recommended
• Checking third-party contented for illustration reviews, listicles, and comparison articles to spot which brands buyers investigation alongside you
• Asking your income squad astir different solutions that prospects thin to consider
• Surveying erstwhile customers to place which competitors they switched to
• Reviewing the competitory domains the Semrush Market Overview instrumentality lists successful your “Market Players” report
• Viewing the “Competitors” study successful the Organic Rankings for your domain

Once you’ve listed competitors, benignant them by type: direct, indirect, and aspirational. Then, prime 3 nonstop competitors to analyze. This way, you’ll stitchery a scope of high-impact insights without getting overwhelmed.

You tin adhd much competitors later, including indirect and aspirational ones, arsenic you widen your analysis.

3. Analyze competing products and services

Analyze competing products and services to amended position and value your offerings to meet customer needs.

Start pinch value propositions. Study your competitors' trading contented to understand what problems they solve, really they lick them, and who they help. Compare these worth propositions against yours to amended differentiate your offerings.

Next, study your competitors’ merchandise aliases work accusation to understand:

• Core features and capabilities: The main functionalities and unsocial features your competitors offer. Explore really these features meet (and don’t meet) customer needs, truthful you tin capitalize connected marketplace gaps.
• Pricing: Review your competitors’ pricing to place whether they target premium, mid-range, aliases fund segments. Use this to measure the competitiveness of your pricing, particularly if you target the aforesaid segment.

Record your findings successful your competitory study report.

4. Uncover competitors’ trading channels and contented formats

Uncovering what trading channels and contented formats thrust the astir postulation to competing sites provides valuable insights for your ain marketing strategy.

Check competitors’ apical postulation sources pinch a competitive study tool for illustration Semrush’s Traffic & Market Toolkit. Enter a competitor’s domain and click “Analyze.”

Scroll to the “Traffic Channel Distribution” conception to position the apical postulation sources for the competitor’s domain.

Next, spell to the toolkit’s Top Pages instrumentality to spot which channels thrust the astir postulation to individual pages. Click immoderate page to spot its entranceway sources.

Study these postulation sources to summation insights. For example, a precocious information of referral postulation whitethorn bespeak the competitor has partnerships pinch manufacture influencers aliases has been featured connected celebrated sites successful your niche.

Next, reappraisal your competitors’ societal media presence, including which platforms they use, the contented formats they use, and engagement levels.

Evaluate the different types of contented your competitors create arsenic well: blog posts, email newsletters, webinars, aliases online courses. For example, if competitors person a blog, what benignant of contented do they publish, and really frequently?

Use a instrumentality for illustration AI Traffic to study which AI hunt platforms nonstop your competitors the astir traffic. 

Higher AI referral postulation often indicates stronger visibility signals crossed a competitor’s site, marque reputation, and third-party coverage.

5. Research your competitors’ income processes

Research your competitors' income processes to understand really they link pinch prospects passim the buying journey.

The income process typically involves 4 stages:

• Presenting the offering: Understand really competitors pass worth and show their solutions to prospects. For instance, businesses that waste big-ticket items whitethorn person dedicated income teams that activity intimately pinch prospects.
• Following up: Study really competitors enactment successful touch pinch prospects. Tactics see sending automated email reminders and making telephone check-ins.
• Closing: Look astatine really competitors person willing prospects. They mightiness connection discounts, money-back guarantees, aliases merchandise bundles to promote purchases.
• Retention: Consider really competitors promote customers to make repetition purchases aliases enactment subscribed to their services. Perhaps they connection a loyalty strategy aliases exclusive customer content.

Start by engaging pinch your competitors’ trading materials: subscribe to their newsletters, petition demos, and be their webinars. As you do this, observe really they communicate, travel up, and guideline prospects done each stage.

Pay attraction to their messaging style, interaction frequency, and the devices aliases offers they usage to build spot and move leads toward a purchase. The messaging competitors usage passim their income process reinforces the marque associations AI platforms prime up crossed their tract and third-party coverage.

6. Study customer feedback and ratings

Studying competitors' customer feedback and ratings reveals opportunities to triumph business from their customers and others for illustration them. 

These aforesaid signals besides style AI visibility: AI hunt platforms retrieve signals from personification reviews, forum mentions, and third-party sum erstwhile deciding which brands to mention and recommend.

Public sources of customer feedback and ratings include:

• Review aggregator platforms for illustration G2 and Trustpilot. See what customers praise competitors for and what they’re unhappy about. Pay attraction to recurring themes — if aggregate customers kick astir the aforesaid issue, it’s apt a important weakness you could capitalize on.
• Social media platforms for illustration X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, and LinkedIn. What prospects and customers opportunity astir competitors connected these platforms tin uncover wherever they radiance aliases autumn short. Use devices for illustration Mention aliases Brand Monitoring to way societal mentions.
• News publications: Check reputable news outlets for mentions of your competitors, and measure some the affirmative and antagonistic comments. The Brand Monitoring instrumentality tin thief pinch this.

Once you've gathered the feedback, usage it to refine your positioning astir competitor gaps and fortify your off-site beingness by encouraging satisfied customers to time off reviews. 

AI hunt platforms measurement reappraisal value and consistency erstwhile forming marque associations, truthful a beardown reappraisal beingness pays disconnected successful AI visibility too.

Document your findings successful your competitory study report.

7. Assess AI visibility

Assess competitors’ AI visibility to study really AI hunt platforms mention and mention them.

Start by launching the Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, entering a competitor’s domain, and clicking “Check AI Visibility.”

The instrumentality will show the competitor’s wide AI visibility (as a people retired of 100) and the volumes of mentions and citations — some wide and crossed various AI hunt platforms.

Compare this against your ain domain to spot wherever you stand.

Next, move to the Narrative Drivers instrumentality to spot your competitor’s stock of voice, which reveals really often it appears successful non-branded prompts.

You'll besides spot sentiment trends, the topics AI platforms astir often subordinate pinch the brand, and the apical domains driving AI citations for non-branded prompts successful your category.

Prioritize building your marque beingness crossed these domains to amended your AI visibility.

Use the Competitor Research instrumentality to comparison your AI visibility against your competitors' broadside by side. 

Enter your domain alongside up to 4 competitor domains, past click "Run competitor analysis" to spot wherever rivals get cited and your marque doesn't.

Navigate to the “Topics & Prompts” report, click “Prompts” to position prompts, and past click “Missing.”

Note the prompts you want AI hunt platforms to characteristic you on. Then, group up the Prompt Tracking instrumentality to show their capacity successful ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Mode.

Repeat the search setup for your competitor’s domain. Then, grounds each findings successful your competitory study report.

8. Establish competitors’ strengths and weaknesses

Establish competitors’ strengths and weaknesses based connected the elaborate accusation you’ve gathered, truthful you tin measure wherever you guidelines against them.

A competitor's strengths mightiness see beardown product-market fit, effective trading campaigns, aliases accordant affirmative sentiment crossed reviews and AI answers. Weaknesses mightiness see constricted AI visibility, gaps successful customer support, aliases pricing that's misaligned pinch their marketplace segment.

Document your findings successful your competitory study report.

9. Determine your positioning

Determining your positioning translates everything you've learned astir your competitors into a clear perspective for your ain brand.

Conduct an study of your business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). Then, specify the unsocial worth you offer. 

Maybe it’s a characteristic that solves a symptom constituent much effectively, a superior onboarding experience, aliases a much elastic pricing structure. These differentiators shape the halfway of your unique worth proposition.

Also see the customer segments you'll target. If you've identified a customer conception your competitors person overlooked, attraction your merchandise improvement and trading efforts connected serving their needs.

Once you've mapped your positioning, see really it translates to AI search. The attributes AI platforms subordinate pinch your competitors, specified arsenic their pricing, reliability, and usage lawsuit fit, are shaped by the aforesaid signals you've analyzed passim this process. 

Your positioning should relationship not conscionable for really you differentiate connected your website, but besides for really you want AI systems to picture and urge you.

Record everything successful your competitor study report.

Competitive study illustration (step by step)

I ran a basal competitory study for a fictional java subscription work to springiness you an thought of really the process useful and the insights you tin get.

Let’s spell done this competitory study example, measurement by step:

Competitor analysis 

First, place competitors by Googling applicable keywords for illustration “coffee subscription” and noting which sites appeared adjacent the top.

I besides looked astatine coffee-related roundups and reviews, for illustration the Bon Appétit roundup below.

Next, I utilized Semrush’s Market Overview instrumentality to find much competitors. Since I didn’t person a domain for my fictional java subscription service, I utilized a competitor’s domain instead.

I besides ran the aforesaid competitor domain done the Organic Rankings instrumentality to spot if further competitors surfaced.

After confirming that these competitors offered java subscriptions, I sorted them into direct, indirect, aliases aspirational competitors.

I past chose 3 nonstop competitors to analyze: Bean Box, Trade Coffee, and Atlas Coffee Club.

Product strategy analysis

Next, I analyzed my competitors’ merchandise strategies by reviewing their landing pages, often asked questions pages, and checkout flows.

I noticed each 3 competitors connection gift subscriptions, which signals request and tells maine I should connection them too.

Marketing strategy analysis

Analyzing my competitors’ trading strategies pinch the Traffic & Market Toolkit, I learned my competitors get important nonstop postulation — but this is apt driven by existing customers.

Organic hunt was a cardinal transmission (especially for Bean Box), while AI postulation was a mostly untapped postulation source. So, I could usage SEO to pull leads from hunt engines and AI hunt platforms. Referrals, email marketing, and paid hunt could besides beryllium bully postulation sources.

I reviewed my competitors’ societal media accounts and recorded cardinal insights successful my competitory study report.

The study pointed to a fewer moves:

• Pursue Instagram trading pinch influencer partnerships, since competitors favour this approach
• Focus video contented connected TikTok alternatively than YouTube — competitors station often connected TikTok but haven't published YouTube videos successful years
• Skip Facebook and X, wherever competitors person stopped posting regularly. Threads is simply a amended action for short-form matter content, fixed Trade Coffee's accordant activity there.

Finally, I analyzed my competitors’ onsite content.

Bean Box attracts important blog postulation moreover though it hasn’t published caller contented since 2022. There’s a bully opportunity to pull visitors pinch fresh, high-quality content.

Sales strategy analysis

I analyzed my competitors’ income strategies by exploring their merchandise landing pages, checkout flows, and email newsletters.

All competitors usage a speedy quiz to thief prospects take the correct java subscription. The quiz’s interactive quality gets prospects invested successful the outcome, truthful they’re much apt to convert.

For example, here’s portion of Atlas Coffee Club’s quiz:

All 3 brands besides usage typical offers to promote conversions, particularly for semipermanent subscriptions and bulk purchases. Most of these offers spell retired done email newsletters, which helps them person leads and re-engage churned customers.

Feedback analysis

For feedback analysis, I searched for “[competitor] reviews” connected Google and reviewed applicable results connected third-party reappraisal sites, manufacture blogs, and online communities.

When I could transcript reviews successful bulk, I pasted them into ChatGPT and asked it to summarize recurring themes, truthful I didn’t person to analyse the reviews manually.

I paid attraction to recurring praises and complaints. Common praises bespeak features that thrust customer satisfaction, while predominant complaints uncover opportunities to outperform competitors by addressing unsolved gaps aliases frustrations.

AI visibility analysis

I past conducted an AI visibility study by moving my competitors’ domains done Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit.

According to the Visibility Overview tool, each 3 competitors person comparatively debased AI visibility, pinch the bulk of their AI mentions coming from Google’s AI Overviews. So, investing successful agentic hunt optimization (ASO) could beryllium an impactful measurement to summation marque consciousness and sales.

Next, I utilized the Narrative Drivers instrumentality to cheque my competitors’ shares of voice:

Narrative Drivers besides informed maine that the apical domains by citations for the java subscription work manufacture are reddit.com, en.wikipedia.org, tastingtable.com, and bonappetit.com. 

Getting a Wikipedia page would apt beryllium challenging successful the short term. So, to amended my java subscription service’s AI visibility, I’d attraction connected building a Reddit beingness and getting featured successful Tasting Table’s and Bon Appétit’s merchandise reviews and “best of” listicles.

Since I don’t person a domain to tally done Competitor Research, I utilized Visibility Overview to investigation prompts featuring my competitors.

A fewer prompts, for illustration “Coffee Collection and Cafés” and “How tin I bid java online easily,” featured aggregate competitors.

Appearing successful AI-generated answers for these prompts is simply a priority, truthful I group up the Prompt Tracking instrumentality to show them crossed my competitors’ domains. I’ll do the aforesaid for my domain erstwhile it’s ready.

Determining my positioning

Finally, I wished my positioning by reviewing my findings connected each competitor and conducting a SWOT study for my brand.

Where competitors excel, I looked for ways to lucifer aliases transcend those strengths, specified arsenic building entreaty pinch Gen Z consumers, a conception successful which competitors already person a foothold.

Where competitors were weak, I looked to capable the gaps. The astir evident one: AI visibility. 

Prioritizing ASO gives my marque a chance to triumph AI mentions and recommendations while competitors stay under-invested.

Create your competitory study report

A modern competitory study should seizure really each rival shows up crossed each 3 surfaces: their site, third-party coverage, and AI visibility.

If you haven’t already, make a transcript of our competitive marketplace study template to shape your findings and move them into an actionable strategy. 

Keep these tips successful mind arsenic you capable it out: 

• Base decisions connected data: Let existent information — not assumptions aliases guesses — guideline your conclusions to make much impactful decisions
• Keep your attack consistent: Analyze each competitor utilizing the aforesaid methods and extent truthful your comparisons enactment reliable and your strategical insights enactment balanced
• Customize your report: Adjust our competitory study template to meet your needs. For example, you mightiness want to analyse competitors’ exertion and infrastructure, civilization and talent, and business partnerships, which our template doesn’t cover.
• Pair devices pinch thoughtful analysis: Competitive intelligence devices aboveground the data, but the patterns and nuances travel from your ain analysis. AI chatbots for illustration ChatGPT tin velocity up your analysis.

A Semrush relationship gives you entree to the devices you'll request passim this process, including the Traffic & Market Toolkit for checking competitors’ postulation sources, and the AI Visibility Toolkit for finding AI visibility gaps.

Sign up for a Semrush relationship today: