The Trap of Traditional Comparison
In business and SEO, we’re often tempted to measure our performance against a familiar set of named competitors—those companies we know, respect, or fear. But this approach is comforting at best, misleading at worst, and ultimately self-limiting.
Once, when presenting to a room full of sales and business intelligence executives at a Fortune 50 company, I was asked to produce a report on how they performed against a list of named competitors. We already spent over 20 hours a month generating reports for executives that were either not read or not actioned. The last thing I wanted to do was waste time on another report. Without Thinking, I blurted out:
We either suck more or less than they do, so shouldn’t that effort be spent elsewhere?
The real problem is that for a large company with a portfolio of products and services, there is not a perfect fit among competitors. To add more context to the statement, the competitors were all enterprise clients. At this time in the Search evolution, few enterprises, especially in B2B, were doing anything related to search. This means everyone did poorly.
I did understand that for most of these executives, this was an ego play, especially since we were ahead of the game. I have never been a fan of focusing on named competitors since it limits the field of view. In SEO reporting, the only meaningful comparison is to the sites actively earning the visibility, attention, and clicks we want. Anything else is brand theater.
The Problem with the “Named Competitors” Mindset
False Sense of Security
If we’re outperforming our traditional industry peers, we might assume we’re doing well, ignoring the reality that others, often outside our radar, dominate the SERPs and siphon away value.
Missed Opportunities
Limiting our comparison set prevents us from learning from unexpected winners—smaller players, niche publishers, tool providers, or adjacent industries that may be innovating faster than we are.
SERP ≠ Industry
Search engines don’t rank peer groups. They rank answers. Google doesn’t care about your industry positioning—it cares about relevance, authority, and usefulness. If a forum thread or a low-budget tutorial is outranking your enterprise site, that’s your competition now.
The Real Competitive Set: Anyone Ranking Above or Near You
SERP as the True Battleground
Your competitors are anyone occupying space in the search results that you want. These may include:
- Publishers
- Aggregators
- Forums
- Influencers
- Resellers
- Even your OEM partners
If they’re standing between you and your customer, they’re a threat—whether or not they’re in your industry.
Dynamic and Algorithmic
SERPs change constantly. New entrants, algorithm shifts, and content freshness can reorder visibility overnight. Named competitors rarely account for this fluidity, but the SERP does.
Shelf Space Matters
Every position above you is revenue you’re not capturing. If five different non-partner players outrank you for a key query, you’re not just losing a rank; you’re losing a share of voice, clicks, and, often, a share of the market.
The Hidden Cost: Competitive Blind Spots Undermine Web Effectiveness
Your website is not just a collection of content it’s a business asset that exists to capture demand, build trust, and generate measurable value.
When you only benchmark against familiar competitors, you’re not managing a performance asset. You’re managing comfort metrics.
This is a web effectiveness problem hiding in plain sight.
- Are we capturing available demand—or leaking it to unexpected players?
- Are we adapting to what actually wins on the SERP—or just what looks good in a report?
- Are we benchmarking our way into a plateau?
Every site outranking you is a red flag that your site is underperforming its potential—and its role in the broader value chain.
Time Allocation: Stop Wasting SEO Cycles on the Wrong Enemies
Too much SEO time is spent auditing “known competitors” because they’re convenient to analyze or fit neatly into executive reports. But these efforts often yield little insight and even less impact. Time is your most valuable SEO resource.
Let’s be blunt:
- Most of this work is competitive theater, not competitive advantage.
- You’re benchmarking brands, not behaviors. Google doesn’t care if your competitor is public or private it cares if they satisfy intent.
- You’re burning time that could be spent analyzing actual threats, reverse-engineering winning formats, or proactively testing what performs in evolving SERP formats and AI summaries.
And here’s the kicker:
In the world of AI-powered search, you’re not just trying to outrank; you’re trying to be included. If your content isn’t in the inputs that train or fuel answer engines, you’ve already lost the conversation.
Time is your most valuable SEO resource. Spend it studying who’s winning—not who’s familiar.
Why a Broader Perspective Drives Better Strategy
Uncover Hidden Threats
Broadening your lens helps you spot up-and-comers and unconventional competitors before they become business threats.
Benchmark Against the Best
You’ll often find the best SEO tactics from players you’ve never considered, comparison engines, niche bloggers, marketplaces, or open-source communities.
Drive Innovation
If a single blog post or YouTube video is outranking your enterprise site, it’s not a fluke—it’s a sign that someone else cracked the code. Studying them can spark your next leap forward.
How to Expand Your Competitive Analysis
- Map the SERP, Not the Market
List all domains ranking above or near you for key queries. Don’t filter by vertical—filter by presence. - Analyze Strategy, Not Brand
What are they doing that’s working? How are they structuring content, building links, or designing for engagement? - Identify Gaps and Playbooks
Are they using formats or channels you’ve overlooked? Is your technical foundation holding you back? - Refresh Regularly
Set a schedule—monthly or quarterly—to remap the SERP landscape and track newcomers and climbers.
Conclusion: Rethink the Question That Drives Your Strategy
Don’t just ask:
“Are we doing better than our competitors?”
Ask instead:
“Who’s winning our audience’s attention—and what can we learn from them?”
Named competitors may satisfy the boardroom. But the SERP is where the battle for growth actually happens.
