Competitor Analysis
Competitor analysis now runs automatically as part of every full-site (sitemap) audit — how it works and where to find the results.
Competitor analysis is built into full-site (sitemap) audits — you no longer run a separate "competitor audit". When a sitemap audit finishes, SitePulse automatically works out who your competitors are and where they beat you, and includes the findings in the audit results.
Previously a separate audit type
Older versions of SitePulse had a standalone "Competitor" audit type. It has been retired — everything it did (and more) now happens automatically inside sitemap audits, so there is one less thing to configure.
What the analysis covers
- Who your competitors are. You can pin them yourself in the project settings; otherwise SitePulse works them out from who ranks for your topics and who AI assistants mention alongside you.
- Where they beat you. Search rankings, site authority, and topic coverage are compared, and the gaps are clustered into themes ("they own the how-to content for X, you don't").
- What to do about it. The analysis ends with prioritized "close the gap" recommendations, written in terms of pages to create or improve.
Where to find it
- The Competitors entry in the sidebar shows the comparison for your selected project.
- The competitor section inside a completed sitemap audit report holds the full analysis.
- Brand Radar shows the AI-answer side of the same story — who gets mentioned by AI assistants when your customers ask questions.
Getting better competitor data
The analysis works out of the box using your site and public data. Two optional connections make it sharper (both under Project → Settings → Integrations):
- A search data provider (DataForSEO) for real ranking overlaps
- A backlinks provider (Ahrefs) for authority comparison
Without them, SitePulse falls back to lighter public signals — you still get a comparison, just with less depth.