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Competitors

How to find your real organic competitors, track their positions and share of voice, and compare traffic and backlinks side by side.

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One place for competitors#

Competitors (under Competition in the left menu) has four tabs:

  1. Organic competitors — sites that rank for the same keywords as you, found automatically.
  2. Positions — how the competitors you track rank for your tracked keywords, run by run.
  3. Share of Voice — your share of the visibility across your keywords compared with theirs.
  4. Competitor analysis — a side-by-side comparison of you and up to three competitors: traffic, keywords and backlinks.

Map competitors (businesses next to you on Google Maps) are a separate item, Map competitors, because they come from map scans. See Map grid scans.

Organic competitors#

The first time you open the tab, click the button to load the list (the price is on it). The list is saved with the project; opening it again is free. Refresh · N credits fetches a new list.

The table#

ColumnMeaning
DomainThe competitor's site, with logo and link
DRDomain Rating by Ahrefs, or "not measured"
OverlapBar and percentage: common keywords out of all their keywords
CommonKeywords both of you rank for
ShareTheir share of the common keywords
TheirsKeywords they rank for in total
Only yoursKeywords you rank for and they don't
TrafficTheir estimated organic traffic
Avg positionTheir average position on the common keywords

Every header and KPI has an ⓘ with the exact definition. Sort by clicking a header. Export CSV saves the table.

The bubble chart#

Each competitor is a bubble: horizontal position is common keywords, vertical position is traffic, size is their total keywords. A dashed line marks your own traffic ("You · N visits"). When traffic varies a lot between sites, the vertical axis switches to a logarithmic scale; use Linear / Log to change it (your choice is remembered). The five closest competitors are labelled; point at any bubble for its numbers.

Broad sites and "Not a competitor"#

Big forums, marketplaces and news sites often share some keywords with you but are not real competitors. Rankfinity hides a site automatically when its traffic is far above the rest of the list and its overlap with you is tiny. Hidden sites are listed under Broad sites hidden (N) — show, with their numbers and an Is a competitor button if you disagree.

You can also hide any site yourself with ✕ Not a competitor on its row. This is remembered for the project. Hidden sites stay out of the chart, the KPIs, the closest competitor and the suggestions for Competitor analysis.

Tracking competitors#

Tick rows and click Track selected to add them to the project's competitor list (up to 10 per project). Tracked competitors appear in Positions, Share of Voice, the rank tracking SERP and reports. You can also add one by hand with + Add competitor.

Positions#

For each tracked keyword, your position and every tracked competitor's position, taken from your rank checks. Choose two runs to compare (Base and Compare) to see who moved. This uses results you already paid for, so it is free. You need at least two rank checks.

Share of Voice#

Share of Voice estimates what part of the clicks for your tracked keywords goes to each domain, based on positions and search volume. A trend shows how your share changes run by run. It is the best single number to answer "are we gaining on them?".

Competitor analysis#

Compare yourself with up to three competitors in one report:

  1. Open the Competitor analysis tab. It starts filled: your domain and the tracked competitors (or the top three organic competitors). The last saved comparison is shown straight away.
  2. Change domains if you want. + Add competitor adds a field; ✕ removes one.
  3. Click Run. The price depends on the number of competitors and is on the button.

You get:

  • Traffic and keywords for each domain, with a bubble chart.
  • Common keywords with each domain's position; cells where a competitor beats you are highlighted.
  • Backlinks — you vs them — a large table in groups: Authority (DR, rank), Volume (backlinks, referring domains, IPs, subnets), Quality (dofollow share, spam, link types and attributes, education and government domains), Growth (new, lost and net in 30 days, domains per month), Anchors, Pages and Top domains. The best value in each row is green where "higher is better" or "lower is better" applies. If backlinks are not loaded for a domain, a Load backlinks · N credits button fetches them; Load link details adds anchors and most-linked pages.
  • Link gap — sites linking to competitors but not to you, with DR, "links to N of M" competitors and a filter per competitor. Use + Campaign to send a site to Link Builder.

Click Save report to keep the comparison; it then opens instantly and for free. Export CSV saves all tables.

Common questions#

Why is a huge website missing from my organic competitors? It was probably hidden as a broad site. Open Broad sites hidden and click Is a competitor if it really is one.

Positions is empty. You need tracked competitors and at least one rank check. Add competitors, then run Rank tracking.

Are map competitors the same as organic competitors? No. Map competitors are businesses in the Google Maps local pack around you. Organic competitors are websites in the normal results.

Can a client hide competitors? No. Clients can view; changing the list is for the agency.

Still stuck? Write to office@rankfinity.app.