The single most useful thing I do for a new client is show them exactly what the competitor above them is doing that they are not. It is uncomfortable to look at, and it is the fastest route to a plan that actually works.
I show you exactly where competitors outrank and outcite you: keyword gaps, backlink gaps, content gaps, and AI Share of Model across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. You walk away with a prioritized action plan built to close those specific deficits.
The single most useful thing I do for a new client is show them exactly what the competitor above them is doing that they are not. It is uncomfortable to look at, and it is the fastest route to a plan that actually works.
I cover both traditional search and AI search in every analysis, because competitors with a higher AI Share of Model are capturing high-converting traffic from you even when your traditional rankings look strong.
Identifies queries where competitors rank in positions 1–10 but your site ranks outside the top 20 or does not appear at all. Output: keyword priority list ranked by search volume, intent alignment, and ranking difficulty.
Identifies referring domains that link to multiple competitors but not to your site: representing high-probability link acquisition targets. Output: prioritized prospect list with contact approach recommendations.
Maps topics, content formats, and page types that competitors publish and rank for but your site lacks. Output: content opportunity list with recommended formats (comparison articles achieve 32.5% higher AI citation rates than standard posts).
Measures how often your brand vs. competitors appears in AI-generated answers for target queries across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, and Claude. Establishes the SoM baseline before GEO implementation begins.
Competitive analysis has a reputation problem: too many versions are a 60-page PDF of screenshots nobody reads. Mine is built to be acted on. As a senior SEO manager and specialist, I deliver four things.
Here is a habit I run for my own brand and build into client engagements: on a schedule, ask the four major AI engines the buying questions for your category. Who do they name? Which sources do they cite? Log it monthly and you have a trend line for a channel your competitors are not even measuring.
The findings drive real work. If Perplexity keeps citing a competitor's comparison page, that tells you exactly what content to build. If ChatGPT cannot describe your brand accurately, that is an entity problem GEO work fixes. And because AI answers concentrate attention on two or three names instead of ten blue links, being absent costs more than a low Google ranking ever did. The methodology behind this lives in my LLM SEO work, but the competitive lens is where most clients first see why it matters.
Each dimension answers one question you cannot answer from inside your own analytics.
| Dimension | The Question It Answers | What You Get |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword gap | What do they rank for that we do not? | Winnable keyword list, scored by intent |
| Backlink gap | Who links to them but not to us? | A short list of pursuable domains |
| Content gap | What questions do they answer that we ignore? | A prioritized content plan |
| AI Share of Model | Who do the AI engines recommend? | Citation tracking across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude |
SEO competitive analysis identifies where competitors outrank you and why: covering keyword gaps, backlink gaps, content gaps, and AI Share of Model gaps across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. The output is a specific action plan to close competitive deficits.
Share of Model measures how often your brand vs. competitors appears in AI-generated answers for target queries. Tracked by running prompt tests across all five LLM platforms monthly and recording citation frequency. Competitors with high SoM capture AI-referred traffic converting at 4.4x the organic baseline.
Keyword and backlink gap: Ahrefs (Content Gap, Link Intersect, Keyword Explorer) cross-referenced with Google Search Console. Content gap: manual topic mapping. SoM: manual prompt testing across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, and Claude.
Standard scope covers top 3 organic competitors: identified by keyword overlap in Ahrefs. The same 3 competitors are tested for AI Share of Model across all five platforms. Additional competitors can be added.
Structured report including: keyword gap priority list, backlink opportunity list, content gap topic list with recommended formats, and an SoM baseline table showing your brand vs. competitors across all five AI platforms. All findings include specific recommended actions.
AI Share of Model measures how often your brand appears in AI-generated answers for your category's buying questions, across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude, compared to competitors. It is the AI-era equivalent of share of voice: tracked by asking the engines real queries on a schedule and logging who they name and cite.
A full analysis annually, with a light quarterly pulse on rankings movement and a monthly AI Share of Model check. Competitor content and AI citations shift much faster than backlink profiles, so the cheap frequent checks go where the change happens.
Get a complete competitive intelligence report covering keyword gaps, backlink gaps, content gaps, and your AI Share of Model baseline vs. top 3 competitors.
Request a Competitive Analysis →