competitor-analysis

# Competitor Analysis

Analyzes competitor SEO and GEO strategies to reveal repeatable wins, weak spots, and market gaps.

## Quick Start

```
Analyze SEO strategy for [competitor URL]
```

```
Compare my site [URL] against [competitor 1], [competitor 2], [competitor 3]
```

## Skill Contract

**Expected output**: a prioritized competitor brief plus the standard handoff summary for `memory/research/`.

- **Reads**: competitor URLs/domains, your own site metrics, business model, target audience, industry context, and any user-provided or tool data.
- **Writes**: a user-facing analysis and reusable summary.
- **Promotes**: durable competitor facts, keyword priorities, entity candidates, and pending strategy decisions to `memory/hot-cache.md`, `memory/open-loops.md`, and `memory/research/`.
- **Done when**: 3-5 competitors are benchmarked across keywords, backlinks, and traffic share in one comparison table; each strength-to-learn and weakness-to-exploit cites evidence; and the deliverable closes with an Immediate / Short-term / Long-term plan.
- **Primary next skill**: [content-gap-analysis](https://github.com/aaron-he-zhu/seo-geo-claude-skills/blob/main/research/content-gap-analysis/SKILL.md) when the competitive landscape is clear.

### Handoff Summary

> Emit the standard shape from [skill-contract.md §Handoff Summary Format](https://github.com/aaron-he-zhu/seo-geo-claude-skills/blob/main/references/skill-contract.md).

## Data Sources

Optional integrations: ~~SEO tool, ~~analytics, ~~AI monitor. Without tools, ask for competitor URLs, your site metrics, and industry context. See [CONNECTORS.md](https://github.com/aaron-he-zhu/seo-geo-claude-skills/blob/main/CONNECTORS.md).

## Decision Gates

**Stop and ask** — when the competitor set cannot be established:

1. No competitors named and none inferable from `CLAUDE.md`, prior research, or the user's niche → ask the user to name 2-5 competitors, OR offer to infer them from a target keyword via [serp-analysis](https://github.com/aaron-he-zhu/seo-geo-claude-skills/blob/main/research/serp-analysis/SKILL.md) first.

**Continue silently** — do not stop for: which 3-5 of a longer list to deep-dive (pick the closest direct competitors and note the rest); missing your-own-site metrics (benchmark competitors against each other and mark your row N/A); missing optional tool data (label Estimated and proceed).

## Instructions

When a user requests competitor analysis:

1. **Identify Competitors** — separate direct competitors, indirect alternatives, and content competitors if the user has not named them already.
2. **Gather Competitor Data** — capture URL, domain age, estimated traffic, domain authority, business model, target audience, and key offerings.
3. **Analyze Keyword Rankings** — document total rankings, top 10/top 3 counts, high-value keywords, intent mix, and keyword gaps.
4. **Audit Content Strategy** — review content volume, top performers, publishing patterns, themes, and success factors.
5. **Analyze Backlink Profile** — review backlink totals, quality mix, top linking domains, link acquisition patterns, and linkable assets.
6. **Technical SEO Assessment** — evaluate Core Web Vitals, mobile-friendliness, architecture, internal linking, URL structure, and standout strengths/weaknesses.
7. **GEO / AI Citation Analysis** — test which queries cite competitors, what formats get cited, and where competitors still leave openings.
8. **Synthesize Competitive Intelligence** — deliver an Executive Summary, comparison table, CITE comparison, strengths to learn from, weaknesses to exploit, keyword opportunities, content recommendations, and an Immediate / Short-term / Long-term plan.

Label every metric **Measured** (tool/export), **User-provided**, or **Estimated** (model inference); never present an estimate as measured; if a required metric is unavailable, mark it N/A — do not invent it.

**Quality bar**: every strength or weakness ties to a number and a named competitor — "HubSpot ranks top-3 for 4,200 commercial keywords", not "strong content presence".

> **Reference**: See [Analysis Templates](https://github.com/aaron-he-zhu/seo-geo-claude-skills/blob/main/research/competitor-analysis/references/analysis-templates.md) for the compact templates used at each step.

## Example

See [references/example-report.md](https://github.com/aaron-he-zhu/seo-geo-claude-skills/blob/main/research/competitor-analysis/references/example-report.md) for a full sample analyzing HubSpot's marketing keyword dominance.

## Advanced Analysis Types

### Content Gap Analysis

For a pairwise topic-coverage gap map ("content [competitor] has that I don't, sorted by traffic potential"), hand off to [content-gap-analysis](https://github.com/aaron-he-zhu/seo-geo-claude-skills/blob/main/research/content-gap-analysis/SKILL.md) — that is its dedicated job.

### Link Intersection

```
Find sites linking to [competitor 1] AND [competitor 2] but not me
```

### SERP Feature Analysis

```
What SERP features do competitors win? (Featured snippets, PAA, etc.)
```

### Historical Tracking

```
How has [competitor]'s SEO strategy evolved over the past year?
```

## Tips for Success

Analyze 3-5 competitors, include indirect players, and study both strengths and failures.

### Save Results

Write path: `memory/research/competitor-analysis/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md`; promote durable competitor facts and entity candidates to `memory/hot-cache.md`. See [Skill Contract](https://github.com/aaron-he-zhu/seo-geo-claude-skills/blob/main/references/skill-contract.md) §Save Results Template.

## Reference Materials

- [Analysis Templates](https://github.com/aaron-he-zhu/seo-geo-claude-skills/blob/main/research/competitor-analysis/references/analysis-templates.md) — Step-by-step analysis templates
- [Battlecard Template](https://github.com/aaron-he-zhu/seo-geo-claude-skills/blob/main/research/competitor-analysis/references/battlecard-template.md) — Quick-reference battlecard format
- [Positionin