Competitors Overview
Add a client's competitors and see their search traffic, keywords, and backlinks.
Competitors lets you save the sites a client competes with in Google and put them side by side with the client's own site. You can compare estimated organic keywords, traffic, and backlinks, see which keywords and pages bring each competitor its traffic, and find the keywords and links they have that your client doesn't.
It is the page to open when a client asks "why are they ahead of us?", or when you need a list of sites to ask for links.
Where to find it
Open a client and click Competitors in the client sidebar. The page needs the client's website to be set. If it isn't, a notice at the top says so, with a link to Add it in client settings. If you haven't added a client yet, start with Add Your First Client.
How data loading works
Nothing on this page spends anything when it opens. Every panel that pulls competitor data shows a button with its cost first: Load ranking keywords, for example, is followed by the number of research reports it uses. Research reports come from your account's monthly allowance, and the text under each button shows how many you have left this month.
Results are saved after they load. Opening the same report again soon after is usually free. All traffic and keyword figures are estimates for Google organic search, not numbers from the client's analytics.
See Limits & Add-ons for how research reports are counted, and Pricing for what each plan includes.
Add a competitor
The competitor bar at the top of the page lists every saved competitor for the client, with a count such as 3 of 10.
- Type a domain into the Add a competitor, e.g. example.com field. Use the bare domain, without a page path.
- Click Add. The domain appears as a chip in the bar.
Adding a competitor is free. Each client can have up to 10. Once you reach 10, the field is replaced by a note asking you to remove one first.
Remove a competitor
Click the x on a competitor's chip. It disappears from the bar, the comparison table, and every tab's competitor picker. Removing a competitor is free.
Suggest competitors
If you're not sure who the competition is, click Suggest competitors in the competitor bar. The Suggested competitors dialog has two sections.
From your data (free)
The top section lists sites RankNest already knows about from this client's other work, at no cost:
- Content Mapping: sites whose pages you've analyzed in Content Mapping for this client.
- Cited by AI: sites that AI answers cite for the client's tracked prompts in AI Visibility.
A number beside the source label shows how often that site came up. The client's own site, competitors you've already saved, and general sites such as Wikipedia, Reddit, and YouTube are left out. Click Add on any row to save it. If the section is empty, the client has no Content Mapping analyses or AI citations yet.
Ranking for the same keywords (uses reports)
The lower section finds the sites that rank in Google for the most of the same keywords as the client.
- Click Find competitors. The button shows how many reports it uses.
- Review the table. Each row shows Shared keywords, Avg. position, Organic keywords, and Est. traffic, ranked by how many keywords the site shares with the client.
- Click Add on the sites you want to keep. Rows you've saved read Added.
- Click Done to close the dialog.
Tip: Sites that share the most keywords are not always business competitors. Directories and publishers often rank for the same searches. Add the ones your client actually competes with for customers.
The four tabs
Below the competitor bar are four tabs. The page remembers the last tab you used.
- Overview: the comparison table, plus ranking keywords and top pages for one site. Covered below and in Keywords & Pages.
- Keyword gap: keywords a competitor ranks for that the client doesn't. See Keywords & Pages.
- Backlinks: a backlink summary, referring domains, and backlink list for one site. See Backlinks.
- Backlink gap: sites that link to a competitor but not to the client. See Backlinks.
The Overview tab
The How this site compares table has one row for the client (marked You) and one for each saved competitor. Each row shows:
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Organic keywords | How many Google keywords the site ranks for |
| Est. traffic | Estimated monthly visits from Google organic search |
| Top 10 | Keywords where the site ranks on the first page |
| Backlinks | Total links pointing to the site from other sites |
| Referring domains | How many different sites link to it |
Rows start empty. Click Load on a row to fill it, or click Load all in the table header to fill every empty row at once. Both buttons show the number of reports they use before you click.
Click any row to select it. The panels below the table then show that site's ranking keywords and top pages. The site you select here stays selected on the Backlinks tab too.
Load the client's own figures automatically
Once you load the client's own row, on either the Overview or the Backlinks tab, RankNest remembers that choice for this client in your browser. The next time you open Competitors for the same client, the client's comparison figures and backlink summary load on their own. This is the only data that ever loads without a click, and it only happens after you have loaded it by hand once.
The setting is per browser. On a new device, or after clearing your browser data, you load it by hand again the first time.
Troubleshooting
"This client doesn't have a website set yet." Competitors compares against the client's domain. Open the client's settings and add the website, then come back.
"Competitor data isn't switched on yet." This feature isn't active on your account yet. Your saved competitors are kept, and data loads here once it is.
"You don't have enough research reports left for this." The report needs more than your remaining monthly allowance. See Limits & Add-ons for your options.
Suggest competitors is greyed out. The client has no website set. Add one in client settings.
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Last updated 2026-09-25