Competitor Research Template for B2B SEO Teams

Definition

What is a competitor research template?

A competitor research template is a structured document — usually a spreadsheet — where you record what your competitors do and how they perform, so you can compare them side by side and make decisions from data instead of guesses.

The template's job is simple: it forces you to collect the same information about every competitor, in the same format. Without one, competitor research turns into a pile of browser tabs and half-remembered impressions, and the insights never make it into your content plan.

A competitor research template and a competitive analysis report are related but not the same. This article gives you the template; if you need the report format too, the same fields roll straight into one.

The template

The competitor research template, section by section

Copy this into Google Sheets, Notion, or Excel — related searches show people look for Word, PDF, PowerPoint and Excel versions, but the format matters less than the fields. One row per competitor. The five sections below are the columns.

Section 1 — Competitor identification

Before filling anything else, sort your competitors into two lists:

Type	Definition	How to find them
Search competitors	Sites that rank for the keywords you target, even if they sell something different	Google your top keywords and note who shows up repeatedly
Business competitors	Companies selling a similar product to a similar buyer	Your sales team's "who do we lose to?" list, G2/industry directories

They're usually not the same set. A B2B software company's business competitors might be five vendors, but its search competitors often include marketplaces, review sites and media publications. You need both lists: business competitors for positioning, search competitors for SEO decisions.

Fields to record for each competitor:

• Company name and URL
• Competitor type (direct, indirect, or content-only competitor)
• Target buyer and company size they serve
• Pricing model (starting price, free trial or not)
• One-line positioning statement, in their own words, from their homepage

Aim for 4–6 competitors: two you're chasing, two chasing you, one or two content competitors. More than that and the research takes longer than the decisions it informs.

Section 2 — Keyword and ranking landscape

This is the section most generic templates skip, and it's the one that matters most for SEO. For each competitor, record:

FieldWhat to record

Top keywords

the queries they rank on page one for. Use Ahrefs, Semrush, or a free alternative like Ubersuggest's limited reports.

Estimated organic traffic

most tools show a monthly estimate per domain.

Keyword overlap

which of your target keywords they also rank for. High overlap means they're your real search competitor.

Ranking page types

for your priority keywords, note whether the top results are blog posts, landing pages, comparison pages or documentation. This tells you what format Google wants.

Content gaps

keywords they rank for that you don't have a page for. Each one is a candidate topic.

Section 3 — Content and messaging

For each competitor, list:

• Their blog cadence (new posts per month — check the blog archive dates)
• Their strongest content formats: guides, comparison pages, templates, case studies, free tools
• Which of their pages earn the most traffic (sort their subfolders in an SEO tool by traffic)
• Their messaging angle: what they claim makes them different
• Their proof: customer logos, review scores, case studies

The useful output here is a pattern, not a pile of facts. If all three of your main competitors rank with comparison pages and none of them have published original data or research, you've found your opening: a page format everyone uses plus a content angle nobody covers.

Section 4 — Backlinks and authority

Backlinks decide who can rank for hard keywords, so record:

Section 5 — AI search visibility

This is the section almost no template includes, and it's where search is heading. Gartner predicted traditional search engine volume would drop 25% by 2026 as buyers shift to AI chatbots and virtual agents (Gartner, 2024). When a buyer asks ChatGPT or Claude "which vendor should we shortlist?", whoever the model names gets on the list — and everyone else doesn't.

For each competitor, record:

ChatGPT

"which vendor should we shortlist?"

For your category, the strongest options are Competitor A and Competitor B — both are frequently shortlisted by similar teams.

Your brand — not mentioned in this answer

AIGoogle AI Overviews

"which vendor should we shortlist?"

Teams typically compare Competitor A and Competitor B first, citing their comparison pages and pricing.

Your brand — not mentioned in this answer

Test it yourself: ask each assistant the questions your buyers ask, and log the answers in the template. Or automate it — Votrix AI tracks whether ChatGPT, Claude and Google AI Overviews mention you, compares that against competitors, and works on the pages and listings those AI answers draw on.

Examples

Competitor research template examples

A filled-in row helps more than an empty table, so here's a trimmed example for a fictional B2B project-management tool:

Read as decisions: the comparison-keyword space is theirs — build a comparison hub and some free templates; the 9 link-gap sites go on the outreach list this week; AI visibility is the slowest gap to close, so start now.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions