Library·SOP·SEO
Choose whether to study a competitor’s ranking pages, find genuinely new search topics, or investigate its backlink patterns, and leave with the right next procedure.
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Clarity, structure and references reviewed in this version. This is not a test in a live account.
Choose whether to study a competitor’s ranking pages, find genuinely new search topics, or investigate its backlink patterns, and leave with the right next procedure.
This SOP covers:
This does not cover:
Start with the work you are deciding, not a Semrush tool name. The right route depends on whether you need a page-and-keyword plan, a net-new content plan, or a link-pattern plan.
Create a note in your project called “Competitor Research Plan.” Write one sentence that names your website, the audience and country you serve, and the decision you need to make. For example: “For our Portuguese kayak shop, should we learn from a competitor’s search pages, find a subject our site lacks, or inspect who links to its guides before we plan SEO work?” A competitor’s size alone is not a useful research question.
Decide what makes a site useful for your question. A search competitor is a site that appears in Google for the same words and questions people type (searches) as your site; it may sell different products. A useful link peer has pages or readers connected to an audience you can serve. Choose for this overlap, not for a large traffic, link, or authority estimate. Record why the peer fits in Competitor Research Plan.
Choose the procedure by its promised result. Each route uses different rows and answers a different business question.
Choose the one route that best answers the decision in Competitor Research Plan. Record its title and expected output in that note, then follow the linked procedure.
If you want to see which searches (the words or questions people type into Google) bring a competitor’s pages into unpaid Google results, follow the linked procedure first. “Organic search” means these unpaid results. The procedure maps those searches to the competitor’s pages and topics and gives you an action plan. After you complete it, use that map and plan to choose a realistic page or topic action for your own site.
If you want to know which useful subjects relevant search competitors cover that your site does not, and whether to create a new page, follow the linked procedure. It checks your current pages and search intent—what the searcher is trying to find or do—before it recommends a new page. Its output is a prioritized list of justified new content opportunities; a missing keyword alone does not mean you need another article.
If you want to understand which pages link to a relevant peer, what target pages and link patterns appear, and what audience-serving page or resource your business could reasonably improve, follow the linked procedure. It produces a profile comparison, a documented sample of source pages, and an internal action plan. It does not prescribe contacting, buying links from, or disavowing sources.
If your question spans content and backlinks, write the two decisions separately in Competitor Research Plan. Keyword rankings show which searches bring pages into unpaid Google results; backlink rows show the pages that link to a site, which pages they link to, and the link details. Neither report explains the other. Start with the decision that must be made first, then use the second procedure only if its separate output is still needed.
The chosen procedure needs comparable report settings and enough accessible data to produce its promised result. Confirm those basics before you spend time analyzing the wrong scope.
In Competitor Research Plan, write the country whose Google results you are comparing and the part of each website you will study, such as the whole site or a folder like /blog. If a keyword report asks for a device, choose computer or phone results and record your choice. For backlink research, record the two website scopes and report date; add a country only if that report has a country or market setting. Use comparable site scopes and the same report date.
Open the report for your selected route and make sure results appear. If its procedure needs a full table export, check that your current Semrush plan lets you download the needed rows as CSV or Excel. After exporting, compare each file’s data-row count (not its header) with the report total for the same filters. If you split the report into files, add their data-row counts and compare the sum with the total. If export is blocked or counts differ, record the limit in Competitor Research Plan and pause the full-coverage procedure. Semrush trials disable exports even when a paid plan normally includes them.
Complete Competitor Research Plan with the selected procedure, peer, scope, and output you need. For keyword strategy, expect a list connecting searches to competitor pages and prioritized actions. For new-content research, expect a checked list of new topics with reasons each may deserve a page. For backlink research, expect a profile comparison, inspected sample of source pages, and feasible internal action plan. Keep estimates labeled as estimates and possible explanations labeled as hypotheses.
