Semrush Competitor Analysis: A Step-by-Step Workflow for Better Reports
You just landed a new client pitch.
They want to know why their competitor ranks higher. They want data. They want answers. And they want it by Thursday.
So you fire up Semrush, stare at the dashboard, and wonder where to start. Domain Overview? Keyword Gap? Traffic Analytics? There are so many tools inside one tool that it can feel like walking into a cockpit when you just need to drive to the shops.
Here's the thing. Semrush competitor analysis follows a logical workflow once you understand it. Most agencies use the same sequence every time. And once you learn that sequence, building competitor reports becomes almost mechanical.
Let me walk you through it.
Start with Domain Overview for the big picture
Every competitor analysis in Semrush begins at the same place: Domain Overview.
Think of it as a health check for any website. You type in a competitor's domain and Semrush spits out a snapshot. Organic traffic estimates. Paid traffic. Backlink counts. Top organic keywords. The authority score.
You're not looking for granular details yet. You're looking for the shape of things.
Here's what to pay attention to:
- Authority Score — A quick gauge of domain strength on a 0-100 scale
- Organic search traffic trends — Is the competitor growing or declining month over month?
- Top organic keywords — What terms are actually driving their traffic?
- Main organic competitors — Who else is fighting for the same search space?
The organic traffic trend line is particularly telling. A competitor might look dominant today, but if their traffic has been sliding for six months, that changes the entire narrative of your pitch.
According to Semrush's own documentation on Domain Overview, this tool pulls data from a database of over 25 billion keywords. That's a massive dataset. But remember — these are estimates, not gospel. Semrush doesn't have access to anyone's actual Google Analytics. Keep that caveat in mind when presenting numbers to clients.
Domain Overview gives you context. It tells you who you're up against and roughly how strong they are. Now you need specifics.
Use the Keyword Gap tool to find opportunities
This is where things get interesting.
The Keyword Gap tool lets you compare up to five domains side by side and see exactly which keywords each one ranks for. More importantly, it shows you the gaps — keywords your competitors rank for that your client doesn't.
That's where the opportunities live.
Here's the practical workflow most agencies follow:
- Enter your client's domain and two or three competitors
- Filter by "Missing" keywords — terms competitors rank for but your client doesn't rank for at all
- Filter by "Weak" keywords — terms where your client ranks but significantly lower than competitors
- Sort by search volume or keyword difficulty to prioritise
- Export the list and build your content strategy around it
A table makes this easier to digest. Here's what a simplified Keyword Gap output might look like:
| Keyword | Your Client | Competitor A | Competitor B | Opportunity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "best crm software" | Not ranking | Position 4 | Position 7 | Missing |
| "crm for small business" | Position 32 | Position 5 | Position 3 | Weak |
| "free crm tools" | Position 8 | Position 12 | Position 15 | Strong |
The "Missing" and "Weak" columns are gold for client pitches. You're not guessing what content to create. You're showing data-backed gaps that represent real traffic the client is leaving on the table.
One important note: filter out branded keywords. Your client will never rank for a competitor's brand name, and including those terms pollutes your analysis. Semrush lets you exclude keywords containing specific terms — use it.
Pull Traffic Analytics to validate the numbers
Domain Overview gives you estimates based on keyword rankings. Traffic Analytics takes a different approach entirely.
This tool uses clickstream data — anonymised browsing behaviour from a panel of real users — to estimate actual traffic volumes, traffic sources, audience overlap, and user behaviour metrics like bounce rate and visit duration. Semrush explains their Traffic Analytics methodology as combining multiple data sources including clickstream panels and statistical modelling.
Why does this matter? Because organic keyword rankings don't tell the whole story.
A competitor might get 60% of their traffic from social media. Or they might be running aggressive paid campaigns that won't show up in organic analysis. Traffic Analytics reveals the full picture:
- Traffic sources breakdown — Direct, referral, search, social, paid
- Top pages — Which specific URLs get the most visits
- Geographic distribution — Where their audience actually sits
- Audience overlap — How much your client shares an audience with competitors
For agencies working in the Malaysian market specifically, the geographic filter becomes critical. A competitor might look dominant globally but have thin traffic from Malaysia. That changes your strategy completely.
Traffic Analytics is a premium add-on in Semrush, separate from the standard subscription. If you're building competitor reports regularly for clients, it's worth the investment. But if you're a solo practitioner or small team watching costs, you might want to consider whether you need enterprise-level global data or something more focused.
How agencies package this into client pitches
Data is just data until you turn it into a story.
The best agency pitches using Semrush competitor analysis follow a simple narrative structure. Here's the framework that works:
The current state. Use Domain Overview to show where the client stands today. Authority score, traffic estimates, keyword counts. No judgement yet. Just facts.
The competitive landscape. Show the same metrics for two or three competitors. Let the comparison speak for itself. If the client's authority score is 25 and their main competitor sits at 58, that number does the talking.
The gaps. Pull out your Keyword Gap analysis. Show the missing and weak keywords. Quantify the potential traffic those keywords represent. This is where clients lean forward in their chairs.
The recommendation. Based on the gaps, outline a prioritised action plan. Which keywords to target first. What content to create. Where to build links. This is where you earn your fee.
A common mistake is dumping raw Semrush exports into a slide deck. Don't do that. Clients don't want 47 columns of data. They want three to five key insights and a clear path forward.
Export the data, clean it up, and present only what supports your narrative. The raw data lives in an appendix for anyone who wants to dig deeper.
When Semrush might be more than you need
Here's something most "how to use Semrush" articles won't tell you.
Semrush is built for global markets. It tracks keywords across dozens of countries and languages. It has tools for content marketing, social media, PPC research, and more. It's a Swiss Army knife with about 40 blades.
That power comes at a price. The Pro plan starts at $139.95/month. The Guru plan — which you'll need for historical data and content marketing features — runs $249.95/month. Traffic Analytics costs extra on top of that. For agencies handling multiple international clients, this makes perfect sense.
But if your focus is primarily on the Malaysian market, you might be paying for a lot of capability you'll never use.
This is worth thinking about honestly. Do you need keyword data for 25 billion keywords across 130 countries? Or do you need deep, accurate data for Malaysian search specifically?
If your work centres on Malaysian SEO — whether you're an agency, a freelancer, or an in-house marketer — tools built specifically for this market can give you sharper local data without the enterprise price tag. SapuSEO was built from the ground up for Malaysian keyword research and rank tracking. You can start a 7-day trial for just RM2 and see if focused local data serves your workflow better than a global platform you're only using a fraction of.
The Semrush competitor analysis workflow I outlined above is solid and proven. The question is whether you need the full aircraft carrier or a speedboat that knows local waters.
Either way, the workflow stays the same. Understand the landscape. Find the gaps. Build the plan. Win the pitch.