Writes: a user-facing analysis and reusable summary.
Promotes: durable competitor facts, keyword priorities, entity candidates, and strategy decisions to memory/hot-cache.md, memory/decisions.md, and memory/research/.
Primary next skill: content-gap-analysis when the competitive landscape is clear.

Handoff Summary

Emit the standard shape from skill-contract.md §Handoff Summary Format.

Data Sources

Optional integrations: ~~SEO tool, ~~analytics, ~~AI monitor. Without tools, ask for competitor URLs, your site metrics, and industry context. See CONNECTORS.md.

Instructions

When a user requests competitor analysis:

Identify Competitors — separate direct competitors, indirect alternatives, and content competitors if the user has not named them already.
Gather Competitor Data — capture URL, domain age, estimated traffic, domain authority, business model, target audience, and key offerings.
Analyze Keyword Rankings — document total rankings, top 10/top 3 counts, high-value keywords, intent mix, and keyword gaps.
Audit Content Strategy — review content volume, top performers, publishing patterns, themes, and success factors.
Analyze Backlink Profile — review backlink totals, quality mix, top linking domains, link acquisition patterns, and linkable assets.
Technical SEO Assessment — evaluate Core Web Vitals, mobile-friendliness, architecture, internal linking, URL structure, and standout strengths/weaknesses.
GEO / AI Citation Analysis — test which queries cite competitors, what formats get cited, and where competitors still leave openings.
Synthesize Competitive Intelligence — deliver an Executive Summary, comparison table, CITE comparison, strengths to learn from, weaknesses to exploit, keyword opportunities, content recommendations, and an Immediate / Short-term / Long-term plan.

Reference: See references/analysis-templates.md for the compact templates used at each step.

Example

See references/example-report.md for a full sample analyzing HubSpot's marketing keyword dominance.

Advanced Analysis Types

Content Gap Analysis

Show me content [competitor] has that I don't, sorted by traffic potential

Link Intersection

Find sites linking to [competitor 1] AND [competitor 2] but not me

SERP Feature Analysis

What SERP features do competitors win? (Featured snippets, PAA, etc.)

Historical Tracking

How has [competitor]'s SEO strategy evolved over the past year?

Tips for Success

Analyze 3-5 competitors, include indirect players, and study both strengths and failures.

Save Results

After delivering, offer to save memory/research/competitor-analysis/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md and promote durable conclusions to memory/hot-cache.md.

Reference Materials

Analysis Templates — Step-by-step analysis templates
Battlecard Template — Quick-reference battlecard format
Positioning Frameworks — Positioning and differentiation frameworks
Example Report — Worked sample

Next Best Skill

Primary: content-gap-analysis. Also: serp-analysis and backlink-analyzer.

competitor-analysis

Competitor Analysis

Quick Start

Skill Contract