Hey Reader,

You’ll LOVE this one!

When your site isn't ranking, there's usually a very obvious reason why.

It's not some mysterious Google algorithm update.

It's not your site speed being 0.2 seconds too slow.

And whatever your crappy agency tries to sell you, it's definitely not because you forgot to include your keyword in the meta description 🤡

In about 80% of cases, the reason is brutally simple:

Your competitors are doing something fundamental better than you are.

And you can identify exactly what that is through a proper gap analysis.

Today, I'm going to share the exact competitor analysis framework I use with clients who are struggling to rank.

This isn't some fluffy "check their Domain Authority" BS – it's a systematic approach to finding actionable competitive advantages.

(Btw, in case you want this executed for you, HMU!)

1. The Content Volume Gap

First up, let's look at sheer content production.

Here's what to analyze:

• Total indexable pages: How many pages do your competitors have in Google's index vs. you?
• Blog content count: How many actual blog posts have they published?
• Content velocity: How frequently are they publishing new content?
• Content age: What percentage of their content was published/updated in the last 12 months?

How to check this:

site:competitor.com
site:competitor.com/blog
​

While "quality over quantity" sounds nice, topical authority often requires a critical mass of content. If competitors have 10x your content, you're fighting an uphill battle no matter how "high-quality" your posts are.

Quick Fix: If you're dramatically behind, focus on creating content clusters around your most commercially valuable topics first, rather than random blog posts.

2. The Keyword Gap

Next, let's look at keyword targeting.

What to analyze:

• Total keyword universe: How many keywords do they rank for vs. you?
• Missing opportunity keywords: Which valuable keywords do they rank for that you don't target at all?
• Overlapping keywords: For keywords you both target, who ranks better and why?
• Strategic keyword categories: Have they focused on specific keyword categories you've neglected?

How to check this:

Run a keyword gap analysis in Semrush or Ahrefs, focusing on:

• Keywords they rank for that you don't
• Keywords where they outrank you
• Keywords with commercial intent (not just informational)

Quick Fix: Identify the top 10 most valuable keywords your competitors rank for that you don't, and create dedicated content targeting these terms.

3. The Backlink Gap

Now for everyone's least favorite SEO topic: backlinks.

But here's where most analyses go wrong – they just compare total backlink counts. That's useless.

What to analyze instead:

• Clean referring domains: After filtering out low-quality links, how many unique domains link to them vs. you?
• Referring domain relevancy: What percentage of their backlinks come from sites in your industry?
• Link placement: Are their links primarily in-content or sidebar/footer?
• Link velocity: Are they consistently gaining new links or was it all from years ago?

How to check this:

Export backlink data from Ahrefs/Semrush and manually filter out:

• Links from sites with no organic traffic
• Links from irrelevant niches
• Web 2.0/forum/profile links
• Links from sites with excessive outbound links

What's left is a much more accurate picture.

For a client in the fitness space, their competitor had 3,200 backlinks versus their 890. Sounds devastating, right? After cleaning the data, the reality was 220 quality referring domains vs. 175 – a much more manageable gap.

Quick Fix: Identify the most relevant, highest-traffic sites linking to competitors but not to you, and prioritize these for your outreach.

4. Backlink Quality: Not All Links Are Created Equal

Now let's look at the actual quality of those backlinks.

What to analyze:

• Linking domain traffic: How much organic traffic do sites linking to them receive?
• Linking domain authority: What's the average DR/DA of their backlink sources?
• Editorial standards: Are their links from sites with strict editorial policies?
• Relevance strength: Are links coming from closely related topics?

How to check this: In your backlink analysis tool:

• Sort referring domains by estimated organic traffic
• Look at the top 20 linking domains for both you and competitors
• Check if links are from contextually relevant pages

Quick Fix: Rather than pursuing volume, identify the 10 most authoritative sites in your niche and focus your efforts on getting featured there, even if it takes months.

5. Content Quality Gap: The Brutal Truth

Finally, let's address the elephant in the room – is your content actually as good as you think it is?

What to analyze:

• E-E-A-T signals: Does their content demonstrate expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness?
• Depth of coverage: Does their content answer questions more comprehensively?
• Content uniqueness: Is their content presenting original insights or research?
• User experience: Is their content better structured, more readable, or enhanced with helpful visuals?
• Searcher intent match: Does their content better address what users are actually looking for?

How to check this: For 5 competing pages that outrank you:

• Compare word count, but don't obsess over it
• Count specific examples, case studies, and data points
• Note whether they include visuals/videos/tools you don't
• Check if they address questions you missed

Quick Fix: Identify your 5 most important pages that underperform, and enhance them with specific examples, case studies, original data, and visual elements.

The Bottom Line

While SEO can sometimes feel like black magic, the truth is much simpler:

In 80% of cases, your competitors are outranking you for obvious, quantifiable reasons.

Do this analysis thoroughly, identify your primary gap, and focus relentlessly on closing it before worrying about minor technical tweaks or chasing the latest SEO trend.

What gap do you think is holding your site back? Hit reply and let me know – I'd love to hear your self-assessment.

- Nick

P.S. If you want me to run this analysis for your site against a specific competitor, I have a few consulting slots open next month. Just reply to this email and we'll set up a time to talk.