Competitor tracking

Competitor tracking lets you monitor your competitors' online presence with deterministic DataForSEO metrics. See how their keyword portfolio overlaps with yours, export PDF snapshots, and turn AI-generated action items into tasks you can complete directly from the dashboard.

Plan requirements

Free and trial plans: Track 1 competitor Starter plan: Track up to 3 competitors Growth plan: Track up to 10 competitors Business plan: Track up to 25 competitors Enterprise plan: Unlimited competitors View pricing and upgrade

Credit costs

• Adding a competitor: 30 credits
• Auto-detect competitors: 5 credits
• Weekly refresh: 30 credits per active competitor, charged as soon as the 06:00 UTC refresh job starts

Competitors are automatically refreshed weekly. If you don't have enough credits when the cron job runs, the refresh is skipped, the competitor stays paused, and no new data is collected until credits are available.

How to add a competitor

1. Go to Insights > Competitors in your dashboard
2. Click Add competitor
3. Either enter the competitor's domain manually or use Auto-detect to find competitors in your industry
4. Review the sitemap analysis showing their page count and structure
5. Confirm to add the competitor and start tracking

Competitor list view

The competitor table highlights the two metrics merchants ask about most often:

• Keyword gaps – the number of keywords your competitor ranks for that you do not. Higher values mean there is more content opportunity for you.
• SERP overlap – the percentage of tracked keywords where both you and the competitor appear. This helps you spot head-to-head battles.

Every row is now clickable. Select any competitor to jump straight into the detail view (no more opening a context menu first).

Competitor detail tabs

You will see six tabs across the top of the detail drawer. Each tab contains metrics refreshed weekly.

Overview

• Summary cards for total pages, ecommerce catalog size, domain authority (0–100 scale), keyword gaps, and SERP overlap
• Action items list generated by ConvertMate AI with links that pre-fill Ask Anything prompts. Mark items complete to keep track of what your team already handled—the completion state persists per browser.
• PDF export button that downloads the entire report (all tabs) so you can share it with stakeholders.

SEO analysis

• Keyword position distribution chart grouped by Top 3, Top 10, Top 30, and Beyond. Buckets are clickable—selecting one opens a drill-down table of the exact keywords in that range.
• Historic charts for total pages, SEO content velocity, and product counts so you can monitor growth over time.
• Domain authority trend, sitemap link, and quick navigation to the Products tab when ecommerce data is available.

Keyword gaps

• Full table of keywords your competitor ranks for that you currently do not.
• Filters for country, language, and search intent.
• Shortcut CTAs into Ask Anything that set up a pre-written brief for filling each gap.

SERP overlap

• Venn-style comparison that shows how many keywords you and the competitor both rank for.
• Drill-down table for overlapping keywords, including position, search volume, and landing page.
• Suggested actions highlighting where you can overtake the competitor (e.g., when you sit at positions 4–8 and they are top 3).

News & social

• Social media profiles are shown at the top of the tab with platform links, follower counts, and recent activity descriptions. Profile data stays stable across refreshes — only the activity summary updates each week.
• News coverage timeline below shows news articles found during each weekly refresh, grouped by date. You can scroll through past refreshes to see how media coverage evolves over time.
• Each news entry includes the article title, publication source, date, and a brief snippet. Where available, articles link directly to the original publisher.

Page changes

• Timeline of every crawl, including "No changes" checkpoints so you can prove monitoring coverage.
• Snapshot of newly added and removed pages per crawl.
• Links back into Content Collections or Content Strategies to repurpose ideas from pages that recently changed.

Managing tracked competitors

Pause tracking

If you want to temporarily stop tracking a competitor without removing their data:

1. Click the Pause button on the competitor row or detail page
2. Weekly refreshes will stop and won't consume credits
3. Click Resume when ready to continue tracking

Manual refresh

To get updated data before the weekly refresh:

1. Click the Refresh button on any active competitor
2. The system charges 30 credits immediately (the same amount as the scheduled refresh)
3. Updated data will be available within a few minutes
4. You'll receive an email notification when the refresh completes

When a refresh is skipped for low credits

• The 06:00 UTC cron checks your balance before enqueuing each competitor. If you have fewer than 30 credits per tracked competitor, that competitor is skipped for the week.
• The row shows a Paused badge until you add credits or upgrade your plan. Manual refreshes are also blocked until the balance is sufficient.
• Once you purchase more credits (or your monthly allocation renews), refreshes automatically resume during the next run without any extra steps.

Remove a competitor

1. Click the Remove button on the competitor row or detail page
2. Confirm the deletion
3. All collected data for that competitor will be permanently deleted

Comparing competitors

When you have 2 or more competitors tracked, use the Compare button to see a side-by-side comparison of key metrics including:

• Total pages and blog posts
• Product and collection pages
• Domain authority
• Estimated traffic

This helps identify where competitors are investing their resources and where you have opportunities to differentiate.

Email notifications

You'll receive email notifications when:

• A new competitor analysis completes
• A weekly refresh completes with updated data
• An analysis encounters an error

Each notification includes a quick summary with total pages, blog posts, keyword gaps, SERP overlaps, news mentions, social profiles found, and any page changes detected since the previous refresh.

Best practices

Start with direct competitors: Focus on businesses selling similar products to similar customers rather than aspirational brands. Review insights weekly: Check the AI-generated insights after each refresh to spot new opportunities. Act on content gaps: Use identified content gaps to inform your content calendar and SEO strategy. Monitor traffic trends: Declining competitor traffic might signal market changes or opportunities. Check AI search presence: Use the AI search checker to understand how competitors appear in AI-powered search results. Combine with SEO audits: Run SEO audits on your own site to compare your technical health against competitors.

Troubleshooting

"Analysis in progress" taking too long

Analysis typically completes within 5-10 minutes. The page auto-refreshes every 10 seconds during analysis. If it takes longer, try refreshing the page manually. If issues persist, contact support.

Inaccurate page counts

Page counts are estimated from sitemap analysis. If a competitor doesn't have a complete sitemap, counts may be lower than actual.

Missing metrics

Some metrics require the competitor's website to be publicly accessible. Private or geo-restricted sites may have incomplete data.

Products tab not showing

The Products tab only appears when the competitor has detectable e-commerce product data. Non-e-commerce competitors won't show this tab.

Credits consumed but no data

If analysis fails after credits are deducted, you'll receive an email notification. Contact support for a credit refund if needed.

Related features

• SEO audits: Analyze your own site's SEO health
• AI search monitoring: Track brand presence in AI search results
• Content strategy: Build a content plan based on competitive insights