How to Spy on Your Competitors Website SEO Without Getting Caught

When it comes to SEO, understanding what your competition is doing isn’t just helpful—it’s strategic. If your competitors invest in SEO, you need to know whether they’re doing it well or making mistakes you can capitalize on. If no one in your niche is focused on SEO, you have the advantage of being first and the one they have to work to catch. But how do you spy on your competitors without them knowing? And more importantly, how do you use that information to improve your rankings instead of just playing catch-up?

Why You Should Spy on Your Competitors

The biggest reason to monitor your competition is to gauge how hard (or easy) it will be to rank for your SEO keywords. SEO isn’t a solo game—your rankings shift based on what your competitors do.  You have an advantage if your competitors aren’t doing SEO at all. You can optimize your content and dominate search results easier than if lots of sites in your niche are SEO-friendly. 

If your competitors are doing SEO poorly, they aren’t an immediate threat, but you still need to watch them because you know they're aware that SEO is important since they're investing in it and if they realize what they're doing is wrong and start to get it right, they could become a bigger risk in the future. For example, I have a client doing SEO for over 10 years. They rank extremely well for many niche-specific keywords and get tons of organic traffic. One of their competitors started focusing on SEO recently, but their execution is so bad that it’s not helping them. We still check in on them periodically—because things could change if they ever figure out what they’re doing wrong and hire a better SEO team. Today, they aren't a risk to us because what they're doing is incorrect, so they won't rank, but we are at risk if they figure out what they're doing. They could be ranking much higher if they knew about the mistakes that they are making and fixed them. 

If your competitors are doing SEO well, you need to focus on learning and implementing SEO now. It will only continue to get harder to rank high for the keywords that matter to your business. Their rankings might push yours down, so you must analyze what’s working for them and adjust your strategy accordingly.

The Biggest Mistake People Make When Watching Their Competitors

Most people don’t monitor their competitors until they notice a drop in rankings—and by then, they’re already behind. I had a student who recently lost her ranking for a key term. My first question was: Has anything changed with your competitors? She didn’t know, so I sent her off with homework to help her figure out what happened so we could determine the best strategy to get her rankings back quickly. 

I had her check the following to identify what was happening:

• Look at the keyword rankings to see if the competition was ranking above her site now
• Review her copy for the page that's ranking against the competitor's to see which was truly better
• Look at the SEO elements on her page and their page and see if hers needs to be adjusted

Sure enough, her competitor had outranked her. Now, the real question became why. Was their domain authority (DA) higher? Was their content better? Had they optimized their page more effectively? She could build a strategy to recover her lost rankings by identifying the reason. Knowing why the competition is outranking you is key to making changes that help you beat them. 

How to Spy on Your Competition Without Getting Caught

The easiest way to monitor your competitors ethically (and effectively) is by using SEO tools that track rankings and website authority regularly. 

If you have a keyword research & ranking tool that allows you to track competitive rankings, you will want to track the following information to see how your site is doing compared to the competition. 

1. Track Keyword Rankings

Use an SEO tool like Ubersuggest, Keywords Everywhere, or SEMrush to track your rankings and compare them to those of your competitors. Most tools let you monitor specific keywords and see who ranks where. Keep track of your rankings and their rankings each month so you can spot an issue if it starts happening vs reacting to a mess months later when your traffic drops. 

2. Check Domain Authority (DA)

Your DA measures how authoritative your website is compared to others. Moz’s MozBar is a free tool that shows the DA of any website. If your DA is lower than your competitors, you need to focus on building backlinks and improving site authority. Google generally ranks the sites with higher DAs in search results. It's not 100% that way, but most times, you'll find a correlation between DA and rankings. 

3. Analyze Title Tags & Meta Descriptions

If a competitor suddenly outranks you, check their title tags and meta descriptions. Are they more compelling? Do they include stronger keywords? If they’re doing it better than you, adjust your own to compete.

4. Compare Content Quality

Finally, take an honest look at their content. Are they providing more value than you? Do they answer searchers’ questions better? If so, your content needs an upgrade. Just because you think you should rank higher than them doesn't mean that Google agrees. 

Here’s a pro tip: You can paste both your page and theirs into ChatGPT and ask it to compare them. It can suggest ways to optimize your content to compete and have a better chance of outranking the competition.

What to Do With the Information You Gather

Once you understand where you stand against your competitors, use that data strategically to improve your chances of ranking higher than them in the search results. What you want to focus on first will depend on what you find in your spying mission. Here's how you can figure out what to focus on first based on what you find out in your research. 

• If your DA is lower, build backlinks to strengthen your authority.
• If their content is better, improve yours—add more detail, improve formatting, and enhance readability.
• If their SEO is weak, keep optimizing and stay ahead.

Final Thoughts: Learn, But Never Copy When Spying on the Competition

Competitive research is an important part of SEO. Knowing what your competitors are doing, you can stay ahead instead of playing catch-up. But remember: never copy their content. Learn from what they’re doing, improve your strategy, and build a stronger presence in search results. SEO isn’t just about showing up—it’s about earning your place at the top by being the best resource for your audience.