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Tracking Competitors in SEO

12 min readLast reviewed: March 2025

What to monitor, which tools to use, share of voice concepts, and turning data into action.

What To Monitor About Competitors

  • Organic traffic estimates. Tools like Ahrefs and Semrush estimate competitor organic traffic. Track monthly to see if they are growing faster than you.
  • Keyword rankings. Which keywords are they ranking for? Are they gaining or losing positions in shared keyword targets?
  • New content they publish. What topics are they creating content around? Google Alerts or content monitoring tools notify you when they publish.
  • New backlinks they acquire. Which sites are linking to them? These are potential link targets for you.
  • Site changes. Is their site redesigned? New sections added? Major changes signal SEO focus.

Tools for Competitor Tracking

  • Ahrefs & Semrush: Track competitor traffic estimates, rankings, new backlinks, content. Most comprehensive.
  • Google Alerts: Free. Get notified when competitors are mentioned or publish content.
  • Content gap analysis (in Semrush/Ahrefs): See keywords competitors rank for that you do not.

Share of Voice

Share of Voice (SOV) is your percentage of total search visibility for a keyword set. If you and three competitors all rank for a set of 50 keywords, and combined you appear in 100 position slots across all those keywords:

  • If you have 40 positions, your SOV is 40%
  • If a competitor has 35 positions, their SOV is 35%

SOV is a more meaningful metric than individual rankings because it accounts for your overall market presence. Grow your SOV by ranking for more keywords and higher positions.

Using Competitor Data To Improve Your Strategy

Content gaps: Use Semrush or Ahrefs content gap analysis. Find keywords competitors rank for that you do not. These are content opportunities.

Link sources: Identify where competitors get links from. Reach out to those sites if appropriate.

Topic clusters: What topics do competitors dominate? These are areas where you need more content to compete.

Ranking velocity: If a competitor gained 20 rankings in Q1, they are investing in SEO. Expect increased competition.

Setting Up Monitoring

Monthly reviews: Once per month, pull competitor reports in your tracking tool. Note changes: new rankings, traffic estimates, new backlinks.

Alerts: Set up Google Alerts for competitor brand names. Get notified when they are mentioned, published, or linked to.

Quarterly SOV checks: Calculate share of voice for your core keyword set each quarter. Are you gaining or losing?

Practical Next Step
Pick 2 top competitors. Pull their organic traffic estimate and keyword count from Ahrefs/Semrush. Note it. Repeat monthly for 3 months. Are they growing faster than you? This tells you the competitive intensity.

How This Connects

Competitor tracking provides context for your own performance. If the market is growing 50% but you are growing 20%, you are losing share. If the market is flat but you are growing 30%, you are winning. The next section covers forecasting — making predictions based on historical data.