“Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different.” - Michael Porter
Most SEOs try to beat competitors by publishing more content or building random links.
That rarely works.
If you want to outrank competitors consistently, you need to reverse-engineer what’s already winning… then build something better, stronger, and more aligned with real search intent.
You will find thousands of detailed SEO strategies online, but very few will tell you how to apply them in the best possible manner.
Let’s walk through exactly how to do it - step by step.
1️⃣ First: Build a Real Competitor Map (Not Just a List of Sites)
Most people track only “obvious” competitors.
Big mistake.
You actually have three different competitor types:
Direct competitors:
They sell what you sell.
Search competitors:
They rank for your keywords - but aren’t in your market.
SERP feature competitors:
Review sites, blogs, Reddit, marketplaces, etc. dominating the page.
Why this matters:
Sometimes the site stealing your traffic isn’t your business rival.
It’s a publisher sitting at the top of the SERP.
Action item:
Create a simple sheet with: Domain | Strengths | Weaknesses | Business Model | Notes.
In many industries, 20–30% of lost traffic goes to non-commercial pages and aggregators.
That’s opportunity.
2️⃣ Find Keyword Gaps - But Prioritize Ruthlessly
Keyword brainstorming is obsolete.
Instead, run keyword gap analysis across competitors and sort results into buckets:
Competitor owns it - high intent
Competitor owns it - informational
Unowned or lightly optimized
Cannibalized (multiple weak pages ranking)
Now filter with three questions:
Does this keyword tie directly to revenue?
Can we realistically rank for it?
How deep does the content need to be to win?
If it does not pass all three filters, skip it.
Don’t compete everywhere. Compete where you can dominate.
3️⃣ Stop Trusting “Difficulty Scores” - Study the SERP
Keyword difficulty isn’t a number. It’s what Google is already rewarding.
Open the SERP manually and analyze:
What’s the real intent here?
What content format is winning?
Are big publishers dominating? Brands? Marketplaces?
Are SERP features stealing clicks?
How deep and structured are the top pages?
Does freshness matter?
If your page doesn’t match the SERP’s intent and structure…
…it won’t rank - even if it’s “better written.”
Google doesn’t rank the best content. It ranks the most relevant content.
4️⃣ Use Content Gaps to Build Topic Authority (Not Random Articles)
When you find gaps, don’t publish isolated posts.
Build topic clusters:
One pillar page = definitive guide
Multiple supporting articles answering specific questions
Intent-based internal linking (hub → spokes → hub)
Conversion CTAs aligned with where the reader is in their journey
This signals topical authority.
Over time, Google starts trusting you for the entire category - not just one page.
Sites with tight topical clusters usually win over sites with “everything content.”
5️⃣ Rewrite to Win (Not Just “Refresh”)
When competitors outrank you, they’re showing you what works.
Do a teardown of their page:
What questions do they answer that you don’t?
Where do they provide clarity you’re missing?
What visuals, tools, or examples do they use?
What credibility signals are present?
How is the page internally supported?
Then rebuild your content around a simple rule:
Make it more complete, easier to consume, and more trustworthy.
No fluff. No padding.
Depth means solving the problem - not hitting a word count.
6️⃣ Close Link Gaps - But Only with Assets Worth Linking To
Backlinks still move rankings.
But link spam doesn’t.
Run link intersect analysis:
Which sites link to multiple competitors - but not you?
Which competitor pages get natural links?
What types of content attract those links?
Then create link-worthy assets:
Data studies
Benchmarks
Comparison resources
Tools and calculators
Unique research and insights
After that, do targeted outreach - not mass email blasts.
Links are votes. Earn votes.
7️⃣ Attack “Leftover Keywords” Competitors Ignore
This is one of the fastest competitive wins.
Look for:
Long-tail queries with clear intent
“How to implement/configure/integrate” searches
Comparison queries (X vs Y)
Geographically modified terms
Low volume keywords that convert
Competitors ignore these because they seem small.
They are wrong.
These keywords create steady, compounding pipelines of qualified traffic.
And they build authority quietly while everyone else chases trophy keywords.
8️⃣ Turn Competitor Weaknesses Into Advantages
Audit competitor weaknesses:
Outdated articles
Thin content
Slow pages
Poor UX and readability
Weak internal linking
No schema or rich results
Generic, non-differentiated messaging
Your job isn’t to beat them everywhere.
Your job is to be decisively better where it matters.
Over time, those small edges compound into big ranking wins.
9️⃣ Use Technical SEO as Your “Tie-Breaker”
When two pages are similar in authority and content…
Technical SEO decides the winner.
Focus on:
Crawl efficiency
Logical site structure
Index hygiene
Strong schema usage
Fast performance
Mobile usability
Clean canonical rules
Minimal thin pages
Think like a search engine:
Make your site ridiculously easy to understand.
🔟 Build a Competitive Intelligence Loop
Competitive SEO is ongoing.
Run this every month:
Track keyword shifts vs competitors.
Monitor their new content rollout.
Deconstruct sudden ranking jumps.
Reclaim lost positions.
Monitor backlinks acquired.
Update aging content strategically.
What gets measured improves. What doesn’t slowly disappears.
Put It All Together
Here’s the step by step process:
Map real competitors.
Run keyword and content gap analysis.
Validate everything with SERP intent.
Build clusters - not standalone posts.
Rebuild content to be meaningfully better.
Close link gaps with real assets.
Own ignored long-tail and comparison queries.
Use technical SEO as leverage.
Review competitors monthly.
When you consistently:
Diagnose why competitors win
Engineer stronger alternatives
Repeat the cycle faster than they do
…you don’t just outrank them.
You build an advantage that compounds.
Peace out
