How to Steal Any Competitor's SEO Strategy

TL;DR • 5 min read

→ Identify SEO competitors (not just business competitors)
→ Pull their top pages report—these are validated topics
→ Use Wayback Machine to see what changed before growth
→ Find content gaps where 3+ competitors rank, you don't
→ Analyze their link sources—those sites might link to you too

Keyword research from scratch is inefficient. Your competitors have already figured out what keywords drive traffic in your space.

Don't reinvent. Reverse engineer.

Step 1: Identify Real Competitors

Your business competitors and your search competitors aren't always the same.

Search for your most important keywords. Who ranks? These are your SEO competitors. They might include:

Direct business competitors
Industry publications
Review sites
Educational sites

Make a list of 5-10 sites that consistently appear for keywords you care about. For each keyword, assess whether you can realistically compete.

Common mistake

Don't analyze competitors with 10x your domain authority. If you're a startup competing against Forbes, their strategy won't translate. Find competitors at a similar scale who grew recently.

Step 2: Find Their Top Pages

In Ahrefs or Semrush, pull their "Top Pages" report. Sort by traffic.

This shows you which pages drive the most organic traffic. These are their successful bets. These are the topics and formats that work in your space.

Look for patterns:

What topics appear repeatedly?
What content formats dominate (guides, lists, tools)?
What word counts are common?
What types of pages (blog, product, tool, resource)?

Step 3: Analyze Their Timeline

Use the Wayback Machine (web.archive.org) to see how their site has evolved.

Look at snapshots from 6 months ago, 1 year ago, 2 years ago. What changed?

If their traffic grew significantly, find what they added or changed before that growth. This reveals their strategy:

Did they launch a new content hub?
Did they expand into new topics?
Did they rebuild existing content?
Did they add new tools or resources?

Step 4: Find Their Content Gaps

In Ahrefs, use the "Content Gap" tool. Enter your domain and competitor domains.

This shows keywords your competitors rank for that you don't. These are direct opportunities.

Filter for keywords where multiple competitors rank. If 3+ competitors rank for a keyword and you don't, that's a validated topic.

Quick win

Export the content gap results and sort by volume. The top 10 keywords where you have zero rankings are your priority targets. These are proven opportunities with real search demand.

Step 5: Analyze Their Link Sources

Look at their backlink profile. Where do their links come from?

Find patterns in their link acquisition:

Do they get links from specific types of sites?
Are there linkable assets that attract links?
Do they appear in resource lists you could also target?
What content earns them the most links?

The sites that link to them might also link to you if you create something comparable or better.

The differentiation rule

Copying a competitor's strategy gets you to parity at best. Improve on it. Add what they're missing. Cover angles they ignored. Be better, not just equal.

The Competitive Intel Stack

Here's the complete toolkit:

Ahrefs/Semrush: Top pages, content gap, backlink analysis
Wayback Machine: Historical evolution, timing of changes
Google Search: What's actually ranking right now
SimilarWeb: Traffic trends and sources
BuiltWith: Tech stack and tools they use

Every successful competitor is a free intelligence report. Use them.

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