Some years ago, businesses were able to understand the search visibility of their competitors by checking their ranking position alone. However, today, this is not sufficient. The present SERP ecosystem is dynamic. The reason is that apart from organic results, SERPs now show local packs, shopping units, and AI overviews. Among these elements, the local packs differ based on time of search, device used for searching, and location.
When you opt for manual analysis of SERPs, you cannot capture this complexity. However, the game changes with a Google SERP API. This tool can deliver real-time structured competitive intelligence at scale. This blog aims to let you know how to do competitor analysis with an API:
Steps to Carry Out Competitor Analysis with SERP API
1. Map Your Competitive Landscape
You can begin by spotting around 5-10 core competitors in your domain. When you spot them, do not forget to spot the primary keyword they target. Also, do not restrict yourself to obvious rivals. Rather, make sure to include the emerging players’ ranking for your priority keywords.
Make sure to prepare a master list of keywords in which competition is at its fiercest. For instance, you can choose commercial intent keywords like “affordable web hosting” and “the best CRM Software”. Indeed, the keywords you choose will differ based on your business.
2. Configure Target API Queries
When you search for a Google SERP API, you will come across many of them. Make sure to use the one that returns user-facing, authentic search results, including rich features and AI overviews in structured JSON Format.
Make sure to query with parameters that mirror your audience for each competitor keyword. Examples of queries include language settings, device type, and location. The reason is that when your query has a location, you can do city or country-level targeting. Based on the device used for searching, whether a desktop or mobile, search engine result pages differ considerably. When you do this, you can ensure that you evaluate the actual user experiences and not sanitized data.
3.Extract Multi-Dimensional Insights
Today, when you are engaged in competitor analysis, you should go beyond position tracking. With structured SERP Data, evaluate the following:
•Ad Strategy: Make sure to track messaging shifts and paid placement frequency over time.
• Content Gaps: Check whether some queries trigger AI-generated answers that bypass traditional outcomes entirely.
• SERP Real Estate: Do not forget to check the number of listings occupied by each competitor on the first page. The listings include local packs, ads, and organic search.
• Feature Dominance: Check whether your competitors appear consistently in AI overviews, featured snippets, and people also ask.
4.Monitor Speed, Not Position Alone
Ensure that automated queries are scheduled every 6 to 24 hours. This will help you build trend data. For instance, let us consider that one of your competitors jumps from position 7 to 2 overnight. This is a signal that the competitor is engaged in aggressive optimization. It is a warning sign for you to respond. Make sure to correlate ranking movements with content updates of competitors, along with technical changes and spikes in backlinks.
The other steps you will have to follow in this process include unifying cross-platform intelligence and turning data into action.