You can run a free SEO competitor analysis with nothing more than a browser, a spreadsheet and an hour. The free version will not give you traffic estimates or link counts, but it gets you further than most people expect. This guide walks through the no-cost route first, then shows where paying for a few single lookups saves real time.
What you need
- A browser with a private or incognito window, so your own search history does not shape the results.
- A spreadsheet with one row per domain.
- A list of five searches that bring you customers or readers. If you run a small game site, that might be "free puzzle games no download" rather than your brand name.
Step 1: find who you are up against
Search each of your five phrases in the private window. Copy every domain on the first page into the sheet. When you are done, count how often each domain appeared and sort by that count.
Any domain that turns up for three or more of your phrases is a real search rival. Strike out the huge sites that rank for almost anything, like Wikipedia, YouTube and Reddit, unless they hold the top spot on most of your phrases. Keep three to five names. Expect at least one of them to be a list site or a directory rather than a product like yours.
Step 2: look at what kind of pages win
Open the page each rival ranks with for your phrases. Do not read the copy yet; just note the format. Is it a playable demo, a list of the "best" options, a comparison of two choices, a long guide? Write the format in the sheet next to the phrase.
Patterns show up fast. If three rivals all rank with a list page for the same kind of search, people searching that phrase want a list, and a product page from you will struggle there.
Step 3: note positions and spot the beatable ones
For each phrase, write down where each rival sits. A rival in second place has a strong hold. A rival in eighth or ninth place is one you can realistically pass with a better page. Mark those in a different colour.
Also mark any phrase where rivals have a page and you have nothing at all. When the same missing page shows up across two or three rivals, it goes near the top of your list.
Step 4: check the basics on their best page and yours
Put a rival's best page next to your closest page and check four things by eye:
- Does each have one clear title and a single main heading?
- Does each load quickly on your phone over mobile data?
- If you turn off JavaScript in the browser settings, does the main text still show?
- Does the address load without bouncing through a chain of redirects?
If your page fails one of these and theirs passes, fix yours first.
Step 5: ask the AI assistants
Open ChatGPT and any other assistant you use and ask the kind of question your visitors would, such as "best free browser puzzle games". Write down which sites get named or linked. This list often differs from Google's page one, and it is free to collect.
Where free stops working
The free route breaks down in three places. You cannot see how much traffic a rival gets or which of its pages earn it. You cannot see who links to a rival. And checking more than a handful of phrases by hand gets slow.
This is where seogeoaeo.ai fits, because it sells single lookups rather than a monthly suite you have to learn. Its home page gives a free preview of your own site's crawl, indexing, on-page and structured data health, so you can try it without paying. Paid plans start at $29 a month for 2,000 credits, and the competitor lookups cost:
| What you want to know | Tool | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Which sites share your Google keywords | Competitor Finder | 38 |
| A rival's top keywords and best pages | Competitor Keywords | 35 |
| Who links to a rival | Backlink Finder | 70 |
| Which pages ChatGPT and AI Overviews cite on a topic | AI Citation Finder | 160 |
One run of Competitor Finder plus Competitor Keywords on three rivals comes to 143 credits, a small slice of the starter plan. Each tool shows its price before it runs, and a failed run is refunded.
The honest trade-off: if you only ever check a few phrases a quarter, the free method may be all you need. Paying makes sense when the hand-counting starts eating your evenings.
Finish with a short list
Whichever route you take, end with three or four things to do, each with the reason you found and a date to check again. For more on the full method, seogeoaeo.ai has a longer step-by-step guide. Repeat the exercise every few months, since rivals publish new pages all the time.