SEO competitor analysis template: what to put in each tab

Build these tabs in order; later tabs depend on earlier ones.

Export ranking keywords for each competitor and for your site, then combine them in the keyword tab with one row per keyword and a position column per domain. Add a formula to label each row missing, weak, strong, or shared. In the top pages tab, list each competitor's highest-traffic pages and classify their page type, such as guide, comparison, tool, integration, or template. The page type counts often reveal a whole format you lack.

For your 20 to 50 most important keywords, record which SERP features appear and who holds them. When we did this for 170 SEO and AI search queries in October 2026, Google showed People Also Ask on 136 of them and an AI Overview element on all of them, so these columns are rarely empty. In the AI tab, run your buyer prompts in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode, and note which competitors are named and which domains are cited.

Most competitor analyses fail because they end in data, not decisions. For each opportunity, record the action, such as new page, improve existing, pursue link, or fix technical issue, with an owner and date. Keep rejected opportunities with a reason, so they are not reconsidered every quarter. Review this tab monthly.

Copy the workbook each quarter and refresh every tab with the same sources and settings. Add a summary tab comparing quarters: gaps closed, new competitors, changes in SERP features and AI mentions. Our free SEO competitor analysis and content gap finder fill parts of the keyword and page tabs quickly. SerionFlow runs this kind of analysis automatically when planning pages; the template is the better option if you want full control over the method.