Aggressive insights (or competitor insights) are items of details about rival companies that empower you to make higher choices to your personal enterprise.
To get aggressive insights, it’s good to manually analyze the actions, plans, and outcomes of different companies in your area of interest. Or use specialised instruments.
Let’s discover 9 key aggressive insights and easy methods to get them:
1. Market Share for Numerous Metrics
Calculate the market share for each firm in your trade. That method, you possibly can put each enterprise’s efficiency into perspective and establish your largest threats.
However don’t simply consider share of income. See which firms dominate based mostly on related trade metrics, comparable to:
- Unit gross sales
- Month-to-month energetic customers
- Net site visitors
That method, you possibly can work out which helps firms achieve completely different areas.
Let’s say you wish to consider your and your opponents’ share of internet site visitors.
With Semrush’s Site visitors & Market Toolkit — Market Overview Dashboard, you possibly can rapidly learn how internet site visitors in your area of interest is cut up between domains.
Enter the domains of your opponents.
Then, select the timeframe and nation or area of site visitors you wish to look at.

The dashboard will analyze site visitors to your area and as much as 99 opponents’ domains.
Within the Development Quadrant part, you possibly can see the place you and your rivals stand within the aggressive panorama.

Scroll all the way down to the Market Gamers part to see every firm’s share of market site visitors.

2. Site visitors Acquisition Channels
Realizing the place opponents get their web site site visitors from may help you establish acquisition channels you’re lacking out on. And areas the place you’re underperforming.
Go to the Site visitors Overview dashboard within the Site visitors & Market Toolkit to see which channels drive essentially the most site visitors in your market.
You possibly can choose as much as 5 domains to match. Analyze your largest rivals.

Right here’s a breakdown of the principle site visitors acquisition channels. And techniques to enhance your efficiency in each:
Whereas the Site visitors Overview dashboard offers you a high-level view, Semrush additionally gives devoted dashboards for every site visitors channel.
The AI Site visitors dashboard, for instance, reveals how instruments like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot are sending site visitors to competitor websites.

You should use this dashboard—and others—to benchmark visibility, establish rising developments, and refine your technique to remain aggressive within the AI-first period
Additional studying: Do a Digital Advertising and marketing Competitor Evaluation
3. Social Media Presence
In case your opponents are on social media platforms that you simply aren’t, you could possibly be lacking out on useful attain and engagement.
Most companies hyperlink to their social media profiles of their web site footer. So, you possibly can manually test what platforms they’re utilizing.

However you will get a greater (and faster) understanding utilizing the dashboards contained in the Site visitors & Market Toolkit.
For instance, contained in the Natural Social dashboard, you possibly can view your opponents individually to see which social media platforms ship essentially the most site visitors to your chosen domains.

For instance, snapchat.com, youtube.com, and pinterest.com are among the many prime platforms sending site visitors to nike.com
Right here’s a fast overview of the platforms lined:
|
A set of on-line communities/boards. Advertising and marketing on Reddit will be difficult, however it’s a great way to achieve area of interest audiences. |
|
A picture- and video-sharing platform. It’s significantly good for manufacturers in trend, inside design, and so forth. |
YouTube |
A video-sharing platform with a preferred search perform. You should use YouTube search engine optimization strategies to extend your content material’s attain. |
|
A digital pinboard that permits you to submit photographs, movies, and hyperlinks. You should use the Pinterest Tendencies device to seek out widespread matters. |
Fb |
A social community that’s significantly good for native companies. Examine Fb Enterprise Supervisor for assist getting began. |
X (previously Twitter) |
A microblogging platform that’s generally used for advertising and marketing and customer support |
Different |
This class covers different social platforms like TikTok and Snapchat |
For extra aggressive insights, use the Social Tracker device (a part of Semrush Social).
You possibly can see which rivals’ posts get essentially the most engagement on Fb, X, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest.
And examine choose viewers, exercise, and engagement metrics.

Then, use the inspiration and insights you acquire from evaluating your opponents’ efficiency to information your personal social content material technique.
4. Product and Service Choices
Analyzing opponents’ services and products may help you establish potential areas for innovation. And decide methods to distinguish your providing.
You possibly can concentrate on components like high quality, pricing, and options.
Let’s say you personal a yoga clothes model.
You may discover that none of your opponents use the identical high-quality supplies that you simply do. So, you resolve to concentrate on this distinctive promoting proposition (USP) in your advertising and marketing supplies.
And maybe you be taught that one in all your opponents gives all kinds of colour choices. So, you are impressed to develop your personal colour choices.
5. Goal Audiences
Discover out which goal audiences your opponents are pursuing. So you possibly can make sure you’re not lacking out on any essential segments.
You may also search for gaps in the whole market. And attempt to fill them.
Opponents’ web sites can present perception into who’s being focused—and how.
For instance, Slack has devoted touchdown pages for numerous departments and industries. Every one focuses on completely different product advantages.

The corporate additionally creates content material for various goal audiences.
The variety of sources out there for every phase signifies how essential the phase is to the model. Whereas the content material itself gives perception into Slack’s personalization technique.

We are able to additionally study Slack’s clients by its success tales.
If you wish to pursue the identical sorts of shoppers, you need to use these tales to collect helpful data to your purchaser personas (e.g., particulars about their ache factors).

To see which audiences really go to rivals’ web sites, use Semrush’s Site visitors & Market Toolkit — Viewers Overlap and Demographics Dashboards.
Simply enter as much as 5 opponents’ domains to see breakdowns for:
- Demographics: Age, gender, and nation
- Viewers Overlaps: Shared site visitors, widespread pursuits, and cross-site conduct

Within the Viewers Overlap dashboard you possibly can see essentially the most visited domains for every model’s viewers.
These might be nice locations to earn protection (by hyperlink constructing or digital PR) or to promote your corporation.

6. Standard Webpages
Analyzing your opponents’ most visited webpages helps you’re employed out which merchandise, providers, and content material varieties are widespread in your area of interest.
To get began, enter a rival area into the Semrush Site visitors & Market Toolkit.
Then, head to the High Pages dashboard. Select the time vary and placement you’re fascinated with.

You’ll discover the next metrics for every web page:
Site visitors Share |
Web page views as a proportion of general area site visitors |
1Y Pattern |
How web page views have fluctuated over the previous 12 months |
Distinctive Pageviews |
The variety of visits to the web page (scroll to the best for a breakdown by acquisition channel) |
Distinctive Guests |
The variety of particular person customers who visited the web page |
Entrances |
The variety of web site visits that began on that web page |
Avg. Go to Length |
How lengthy the typical go to lasted (MM:SS) |
Exits |
The variety of web site visits that ended on that web page |
To evaluation the content material on any web page, click on the icon to open the URL within the “Web page” column:

Then, apply any competitor insights you collect to your personal enterprise technique.
For instance, you may take into account:
- Stocking merchandise that generate a lot of web page views
- Creating your personal variations of weblog posts that generate a lot of entrances
- Mimicking seasonal touchdown pages that appeal to a lot of visits in December
Additional studying: Do a Aggressive Content material Evaluation
7. Google Key phrase Rankings
Taking a look at opponents’ Google key phrase rankings (i.e., when and the place they seem in search outcomes) is likely one of the greatest methods to identify search engine optimization alternatives. As a result of you possibly can see what’s working to your rivals and attempt to outperform them.
To get began, enter your area and a competitor’s area into the Key phrase Hole device.
Then, select your nation and click on “Evaluate.”

Scroll all the way down to the key phrase desk and choose “Weak.”
This can present you search queries that the competitor outranks you for. You possibly can see your precise positions within the corresponding columns.

To enhance these positions, you’ll in all probability have to optimize the rating pages.
Subsequent, go to the “Lacking” tab. To see key phrases the competitor ranks for however you don’t.

To earn rankings for these key phrases, you’ll in all probability have to create high quality content material from scratch.
However you must solely goal key phrases which might be related to your corporation and target market.
Should you need assistance prioritizing, concentrate on the next columns:
- Quantity: The typical variety of searches the key phrase receives per 30 days. The upper the amount, the upper the potential site visitors.
- KD%: The key phrase issue rating, which measures the key phrase’s competitiveness. The decrease the rating, the simpler it ought to be to earn a excessive rating.
- Intent: The final function behind the search. Sometimes, key phrases with transactional search intent usually tend to generate conversions.
Additional studying: Do an search engine optimization Competitor Evaluation
8. Promoting Methods and Outcomes
Realizing the place opponents promote (and what outcomes they’re getting) doesn’t simply warn you to promoting alternatives. It helps you perceive your competitor’s positioning technique—i.e., how they’re portraying their model to customers.
We suggest that you simply use:
For instance, let’s check out Slack’s promoting exercise in AdClarity.
We are able to see that the corporate spent an estimated $27K on video and banner promoting within the U.S. throughout December 2023 (they weren’t operating social advertisements presently). And generated round 5.7M impressions.

The “High Advertisements” part reveals what messaging and visuals Slack used to draw curiosity.

Whereas the “High publishers and apps” part reveals the place the advertisements had been positioned.

9. Reputational Strengths and Weaknesses
It’s essential to grasp what customers take into consideration your opponents. As a result of you possibly can attempt to emulate their strengths. And capitalize on their weaknesses.
For instance:
- In case your major competitor is praised for having nice customer support, you may wish to undertake a few of their insurance policies your self
- In case your major competitor is criticized for poor-quality service, highlighting your personal five-star opinions might assist you to get extra clients
Third-party evaluation platforms are a number of the greatest locations to collect competitor insights.
Determine websites that your goal audiences use (e.g., Google and Yelp). Then, learn by latest opinions about your opponents and attempt to establish widespread themes.

We additionally suggest references to your opponents on-line.
Search these model names in Google and discover the outcomes to see what individuals are saying. (You’ll have to skip previous the model’s personal web site, social profiles, and so forth.)
The “Information” part is usually a significantly good place to seek out latest commentary.

See what individuals are saying on social media websites, too.
Like this:

Alternatively, streamline the whole course of with the Model Monitoring app.
Simply add a competitor’s title to see the place they’re talked about within the press or social media. And whether or not the sentiment is optimistic, detrimental, or impartial.

Within the “Analytics” tab, you possibly can observe the general sentiment steadiness. And take a look at developments over time.

Begin Gathering Aggressive Insights
Whichever strategies you utilize to collect competitor insights, do it on an ongoing foundation. As a result of the earlier you establish modifications within the aggressive panorama, the earlier you possibly can act on them.
With Semrush, it’s quicker and simpler to get the digital advertising and marketing insights you want.
Discover out for your self by beginning your free trial.