Competitor analysis is the systematic study of the businesses competing for the same customers as you: who they are, what they sell, at what price, how they communicate and where they beat you. Online, the list has to be drawn up search by search: on 12 Italian commercial searches we checked on 10 October 2026, one organic result in three on page one wasn't a direct competitor but a marketplace, a portal, a social network or a forum. On four UK searches the same day it was one in six, and the comparison sites had moved into a separate box above the results.
This is the script we see most often.
The business owner gives us the names of three or four competitors. The ones they meet at trade fairs, the ones who undercut their quotes, the ones they've known for twenty years.
Then we open Google on the search that brings them customers...
...and on page one there's one of those names. Sometimes none.
The mistakes are almost always three:
- the list made from memory: the competitors you know, not the ones your customers find;
- the SWOT filled in before the data: four boxes of opinions, no numbers;
- the analysis done once, for the business plan, and never opened again.
Two projects we work on show it better than any theory.
Macropix makes LED walls in Milan. In July 2026, on the "ledwall" (LED wall) keyword group measured with Semrush on Google Italy, share of voice put Macropix first with 25.55% and, right behind, Amazon with 18.08%. No industry analysis would have listed Amazon as a competitor of a maker of custom screens.
Sunscape develops solar farms in Italy and looks for land: its customer isn't someone buying energy, it's the landowner. On the search "affitto terreno per fotovoltaico" (leasing land for solar), next to the other developers, page one shows a Facebook post by Enel Green Power and a thread on a property owners' forum.
So should the SWOT go in the bin?
No. It comes later, once you know who to put in it.
In this article:
- our test on 12 Italian SERPs, with the table result by result, and a check on Google UK;
- the 6 steps to run the analysis starting from who's ahead of you on Google;
- what to read in Google Ads to see your paid competitors;
- who AI answers cite, which isn't always who's on page one;
- the tools, starting with the ones that cost nothing.
Let's start.
What competitor analysis is (and where the SWOT comes in)
Competitor analysis gathers comparable data on whoever sells the same thing or meets the same need, and puts it next to yours: offer, prices, channels, messages, results. The end product is a list of decisions, not a document to file away.
Competitors usually fall into three types:
- direct: same product, same customer (two LED wall manufacturers);
- indirect: different product, same need (hiring an LED wall instead of buying one);
- substitutes: doing it yourself or "doing nothing" (printing labels in Word instead of ordering them).
The test below brings out a fourth type that marketing guides don't cover: the one that sells nothing but takes up your Google page. In our Italian test that meant the portal comparing prices, the how-to guide from a popular Italian tech blog, Microsoft's support page explaining how to print labels yourself.
The SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) and Porter's five forces are for reading the data you've gathered. The first looks at your business, the second at the structure of the industry. Neither tells you who your competitors are: the data gathering decides that.
The competitors you know and the ones Google sees (test on 12 Italian searches, checked on Google UK)
On 10 October 2026 we used DataForSEO to pull page one of Google Italy on smartphone for 12 commercial searches, chosen from different sectors: manufacturing, energy, local services, ecommerce, training, insurance. Then we sorted every organic result by hand into three groups:
- direct competitors: businesses selling or making what the search asks for;
- intermediaries: marketplaces, comparison sites, portals and directories (in the Italian test: Amazon, Trovaprezzi, Momondo, PagineGialle, ProntoPro);
- publishers and platforms: media, blogs, forums, social networks, video, public bodies.
Identical URLs repeated on the same page were counted once. In all, 104 organic results. The queries stay in Italian, with an English translation in brackets.
| Search | Organic results | Direct competitors | Intermediaries | Publishers and platforms | Local pack | AI Overview |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ledwall (LED wall) | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0 | yes | no |
| affitto terreno per fotovoltaico (leasing land for solar) | 10 | 6 | 1 | 3 | no | yes |
| tornitura cnc conto terzi (subcontract CNC turning) | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | yes | yes |
| software gestionale piccole imprese (business software for small firms) | 9 | 7 | 0 | 2 | no | yes |
| noleggio furgoni milano (van hire Milan) | 10 | 6 | 4 | 0 | yes | no |
| scarpe antinfortunistiche (safety shoes) | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | yes | no |
| corso di inglese online (online English course) | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | no | yes |
| ristrutturazione bagno costo (bathroom renovation cost) | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | no | yes |
| caldaia a condensazione prezzo (condensing boiler price) | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | no | no |
| stampa etichette adesive (sticker label printing) | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | yes | no |
| assicurazione auto (car insurance) | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | yes | no |
| impresa di pulizie milano (cleaning company Milan) | 10 | 5 | 4 | 1 | yes | no |
| Total | 104 | 69 (66.3%) | 19 (18.3%) | 16 (15.4%) | 7 of 12 | 5 of 12 |
Three things stand out.
The more technical the search, the more the SERP matches the market. On "tornitura cnc conto terzi" the ten results are ten engineering workshops. If you do subcontract work, the businesses ahead of you are your real competitors, and the classic analysis works.
The closer the search is to the consumer, the more room the others take. On "ristrutturazione bagno costo" the businesses are 3 results out of 7: the first is a Facebook video, the second a Reddit thread. On Google UK, the first organic result for "bathroom renovation cost" was a Reddit thread too. On "caldaia a condensazione prezzo" and "noleggio furgoni milano" intermediaries take 4 positions.
The spaces outside the ten blue links weigh as much as the links. The local pack with the map appears on 7 searches out of 12, the AI Overview on 5. On "ledwall" and "impresa di pulizie milano" the map sits above the first organic result, and on "van hire manchester" on Google UK it did the same.
Google says so in its documentation: how relevant a result is also depends on the searcher's location, language and device, and the features on the results page change with the query (Google Search Central, how Search works). In plain terms: your competitors on Google aren't one list, they're one list per search. If you want a refresher on how a results page is built, it's all in SERP: what it is and how to read it.
Are 12 searches enough to believe it?
As an exact percentage, no: it's an indicative sample, and repeating the test on desktop or from another city changes some results. We ran a smaller check on Google UK the same day, on smartphone, with four comparable searches: "bathroom renovation cost", "van hire manchester", "cnc turning services" and "sticker label printing". Of 36 organic results, 30 were businesses selling the service, so one in six wasn't a direct competitor, half the Italian share. The intermediaries hadn't gone away, though: on "van hire manchester" Google showed a "Find results on" box above everything else with Momondo, Kayak, Skyscanner, Expedia and Cheapflights, and on "cnc turning services" a similar box with Europages, Cylex and another directory. The local pack appeared on 3 of the 4, the AI Overview on 2. As a direction, then, yes: it's the same pattern as the Macropix case, where the second name in the ranking is a general marketplace.
Do you know who takes your customers on Google, search by search?
You've just seen that many page-one results aren't direct competitors, and that the map and the AI Overview change from one search to the next. Let's start from the searches that bring you customers: for each one we line up who's ahead of you, why, and what it takes to overtake them.
Book a strategy consultationHow to do a competitor analysis in 6 steps (starting from Google, not from memory)
The method we use starts from sales data, goes through the SERP and only reaches the SWOT at the end. Six steps, in this order.
1. Start from the deals you lost
The first source isn't a tool. It's your last 20-30 lost deals: who the customer went to, and why. Ask your sales team, reread the emails. These are the competitors who actually beat you, and it's the shortest list you'll ever have.
Crayon's 2025 report on competitive intelligence (more than 400 responses collected between December 2024 and February 2025, international sample) says sellers come up against a competitor in nearly 7 deals out of 10, and that 55% of companies have more competitive deals than a year before. The sample isn't broken down by country: take it as an order of magnitude, not as a measure of your market.
2. Make a list for every search that brings you customers
Take the 10-20 searches that bring in enquiries (you'll find them in Search Console and in your Google Ads campaigns; if you don't have them yet, start with keyword research) and for each one note who holds three different spaces:
- organic results: search on a smartphone, in a private window. To work on hundreds of keywords use Semrush's organic competitors report, which works out the level of competition from the number of keywords two domains have in common (Semrush Knowledge Base);
- ads: the auction insights report in Google Ads, if you have campaigns running (more on this below);
- map: the local pack, if your customers search with the name of their town or city.
The result is a search-by-competitor matrix. You almost always find names that weren't on your list, and some of the "usual suspects" who aren't on Google at all.
3. Compare offer and price in a table
For the direct competitors left, put the same items in columns: range, price band, delivery times, guarantees, typical customer, how you request a quote. Then a score from 1 to 5 for each item. It's the part marketing guides describe well, and it has to be done. On a list of names chosen with data, though.
4. Compare pages, not sites
On Google it isn't a site that wins, it's a page. When a competitor is ahead of you on a search, open their page and yours side by side: who answers the question first? Who shows a price, or at least what it depends on? Who has case studies, photos, technical data? On "ledwall" in Italy almost every title on page one promises the same thing: what they are, how they work, what they cost. It's the format Google rewards for that search intent.
The Macropix case adds a detail: "ledwall prezzo" (LED wall price) gets 720 searches a month in Italy and it's a keyword almost every manufacturer avoids so as not to expose their price lists. Macropix went from absent in 2020 to first position in 2025. The full method is in SEO for manufacturing.
5. Estimate traffic, knowing it's an estimate
A competitor's traffic can't be measured: it can only be estimated. Similarweb says it combines data shared by websites, a device panel, partnerships and public data, then calibrates them with statistical models (Similarweb methodology). Semrush and Ahrefs start from rankings instead, multiplied by search volumes and estimated click-through rates.
They're fine for comparing trends and orders of magnitude. NOT for saying "they get 12,000 visits and we get 9,000". We've shown where the model breaks down with data from two sites in how to check a website's traffic, and the differences between the two tools are in Semrush vs Similarweb.
6. Finish with three decisions (this is where the SWOT comes in)
Only now does the SWOT make sense, because the boxes fill up with facts. For example: "we don't appear on the map for Manchester, the three competitors in the local pack do" instead of "online presence needs improving".
Then three decisions, not thirty: one search to cover with a new page, one page to rewrite, one channel to open or close. To turn them into a plan with numbers to judge it by, the method is in SEO strategy.
Paid competitors: what auction insights tells you (and what it doesn't)
Auction insights is the Google Ads report that compares your account with the other advertisers in the same auctions. It costs nothing and you can open it at campaign, ad group or keyword level. On the Search Network it shows six statistics, defined like this in the Google Ads Help Centre:
| Statistic | What it measures | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Impression share | impressions received divided by the estimated impressions you were eligible for | how much of the demand you leave to others |
| Overlap rate | how often another advertiser's ad got an impression at the same time as yours | who is really buying the same searches as you |
| Position above rate | how often the other advertiser's ad showed in a higher position than yours | who beats you in the auction |
| Top of page rate | how often an ad appeared above the organic results | who pays to be at the top |
| Absolute top of the page rate | how often it was the very first ad above the organic results | who holds the first line |
| Outranking share | how often your ad ranked above the other one, or showed when the other didn't | where you're strongest |
What it doesn't tell you: how much the others spend, what CPC they pay, how many enquiries they get. And it only sees the auctions you take part in: if you don't buy a search, the competitors on that search stay invisible. For the ads of advertisers you don't meet in the auction there's Google's Ads Transparency Centre, which shows an advertiser's live ads but not their results. How the auction and costs work is explained in pay per click.
And what if the competitors in the auction pay less than me?
Before you look at the others, look at what you're measuring. When we took over the account of Valore Solare, an Italian solar company, in its first full month (October 2025) it had spent €1,909 for 9 enquiries: €212 each. The conversions column was full of technical events from the website, 15,267 in a month against 5,467 clicks, and Google's automated bidding was optimising towards those.
Once tracking and campaigns were rebuilt, the project collected 1,506 enquiries at an average cost of €70.78. No comparison with competitors would have fixed that first number. It's why in our Google Ads campaigns tracking comes before any auction analysis.
Who AI answers cite (not always who's on page one)
The AI Overview is the summary Google generates at the top of the results, with links to the sources it draws on. In the Italian test it appears on 5 searches out of 12, and the sources cited don't match the top ten organic results.
Two examples from the same Italian extraction:
- on "software gestionale piccole imprese" the AI Overview cites, among others, TeamSystem, Zucchetti and Buffetti, Italian business software brands that aren't among the nine organic results;
- on "corso di inglese online" it cites Babbel and Accademia Domani, both missing from the organic page one;
Google UK shows the same thing: on "bathroom renovation cost" the AI Overview cites Checkatrade, Dajon Interiors, Westside Bathrooms and an Instagram reel, none of which is among the eight organic results on page one. It means that in generated answers there's a second ranking of competitors, and it has to be checked separately: the same searches on Google, then the same questions on ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, noting who gets named. We've tested how these systems choose their sources in AI search engines; to keep an eye on the AI Overview there are the tools that actually read the SERP. Working on this ranking is what we do with GEO, optimisation for AI search engines.
How many competitors to analyse and how often (it depends on the search, not the sector)
The most-read guides suggest 5 to 10 competitors: Asana's guide to competitive analysis, for example. Starting from Google, the number sorts itself out: for each important search, the 3-5 domains above you, plus the ones that beat you in deals. Many of them repeat from one search to the next, and the list gets shorter.
For frequency, three rhythms are enough:
- every month, rankings on the searches that bring enquiries (a rank tracker is enough);
- every quarter, the search-by-competitor matrix and the auction insights report;
- every year, offer, prices and SWOT, or sooner if a new competitor arrives.
The UK figures explain why you can no longer skip the online part. According to the ONS retail sales bulletin for August 2026, 28.8% of retail sales in Great Britain were made online that month, up from 28.4% in July. More than one pound in four goes through a website, and the search that leads to it is where your competitors are waiting.
Tools for competitor analysis (the ones that cost nothing first)
Half the work can be done without subscriptions. Paid tools come in when the searches to check run into the hundreds.
| Tool | What it tells you about competitors | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Google on a smartphone, in a private window | who holds the organic results, map and AI Overview on a single search | none |
| Google Search Console | the searches you appear on and your average position, for your own site only | none |
| Auction insights (Google Ads) | who buys the same searches as you and how often they beat you | none, with live campaigns |
| Google Ads Transparency Centre | an advertiser's live ads | none |
| Semrush | organic competitors, shared and missing keywords, share of voice | paid |
| Ahrefs | competitors' keywords, top pages and backlinks | paid |
| Similarweb | estimated traffic and where it comes from | paid for the full data |
For prices and detailed comparisons: best SEO tools and Semrush alternatives. If you want to understand where your competitors' links come from, start with a backlink check.
What to take away (and the competitor that sells nothing)
First the list by search, then the SWOT.
On page one, many results aren't direct competitors: one in three in Italy, one in six in our UK check.
The map appears on 7 searches out of 12, the AI Overview on 5.
Auction insights only sees the auctions you take part in.
Competitors' traffic is estimated, not measured.
One last thing, rarely said in the industry. The most dangerous competitor often sells nothing. It's the Reddit thread answering "how much does a new bathroom cost", the how-to article on printing labels at home. They get there before you, at the moment the customer decides whether to buy and from whom. You don't beat them by cutting your price: you beat them with a page that answers the same question better.
If you want to know who's ahead of you on your searches, see how we work on SEO or get in touch.
Until next time!
Frequently asked questions about competitor analysis
No. Competitor analysis gathers data on whoever is competing for your customers: offer, prices, channels, rankings on Google. The SWOT arranges that data into your business's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. You gather first, then fill in the SWOT.
It depends. On technical B2B searches, almost: on "tornitura cnc conto terzi" (subcontract CNC turning) on Google Italy the 10 organic results were 10 engineering workshops. On consumer searches, no: on 12 Italian searches checked on 10 October 2026, one organic result in three was a marketplace, a portal, a social network or a forum. On four UK searches the same day it was one in six.
Yes, to get started. The SERP on a smartphone, Google Search Console, the auction insights report in Google Ads and the Ads Transparency Centre cover the list of competitors and their ads. To find out which keywords a competitor ranks for you need a suite such as Semrush or Ahrefs.
It depends on the searches that bring you customers. For each one, the 3-5 domains ahead of you are enough, plus the businesses that beat you in deals. General guides suggest 5 to 10 competitors, but the right number comes out of the SERP.
No, not exactly. Similarweb, Semrush and Ahrefs give estimates built on statistical models or on rankings and search volumes. They're for comparing trends and orders of magnitude, not for counting visits.
It depends on the level. Rankings on the searches that bring enquiries are checked every month, the competitor map by search and the auction insights report every quarter, offer and prices once a year or when a new competitor arrives.
