Before you start
- The target website URL (yours or the one you're researching)
- A free account on Similarweb (paid tier helps for deeper data)
- Access to Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz - or willingness to use their free trial tiers
- A simple tracker (spreadsheet or doc) to log discovered domains with their source method
The playbook
7 steps
Use Similarweb's Competitors tab to find traffic-overlap domains
Open similarweb.com, paste the target URL, click Competitors. The free tier surfaces 5 traffic-overlap competitors - websites whose audience meaningfully overlaps with the target. These are the highest-signal starting domains because they're behaviorally connected: the same humans visit them. Log each domain in your tracker with 'source: similarweb-traffic-overlap'.
# Direct URL pattern: # https://www.similarweb.com/website/<domain>/competitors/ # Replace <domain> with example.com (no protocol, no www)Expected outcome
5 traffic-overlap competitor domains logged with source tag.
Pull Ahrefs Site Explorer → Organic Competitors for keyword-overlap domains
Ahrefs ranks competitor domains by shared keyword coverage. These often differ from Similarweb's traffic-overlap list because keyword overlap and traffic overlap measure different things. Open Site Explorer → enter URL → Organic competitors → export top 20. The keyword-overlap domains are who you're competing with for organic intent - critical for SEO and content strategy.
Expected outcome
Top 20 keyword-overlap domains exported and logged with 'source: ahrefs-keyword-overlap'.
Use Semrush Domain Overview → Competitors for a second keyword-overlap pass
Semrush's Competitive Positioning Map plots domains by traffic vs keyword count - useful visual for spotting domains you didn't know were direct competitors. Cross-reference with the Ahrefs list; domains appearing on both with high overlap scores are your highest-confidence competitor set.
Expected outcome
Semrush competitor list captured; cross-referenced with Ahrefs results for high-confidence overlap.
Mine the SERP manually for the target's top 10 commercial queries
Open an incognito window. Search the 10 highest-intent queries the target ranks for (use Ahrefs/Semrush to find them). Note the top 10 organic results for each. Domains appearing in 3+ SERPs are core SEO competitors. Domains appearing in 1-2 SERPs are tangential. Manual SERP mining catches newer domains that tools haven't indexed yet.
TipUse a US-based incognito session or VPN to a US IP for canonical results. Personalized SERPs corrupt this exercise.Expected outcome
SERP frequency map - domains ranked by appearance count across top 10 commercial queries.
Run a link-intersect analysis to find linked-from-the-same-places domains
Ahrefs Site Explorer → Link intersect tool. Enter the target domain → 'show domains linking to it'. The output is domains that share backlink profiles with the target. Domains with overlapping backlinks are usually being covered by the same publications, listicles, and comparison sites - which means they're being considered as competitors by the broader web.
Expected outcome
Link-intersect domains added to tracker with 'source: backlink-overlap'.
Search 'alternatives to <target>' and '<target> vs' to find competitor-mention domains
Google '<target brand> alternatives' and '<target brand> vs'. The results - listicles, comparison sites, Reddit threads, G2 pages - explicitly name the brands customers consider when shopping the target. The domains hosting these mentions are competitor-aware sites. The brands mentioned are competitor candidates. This step catches recent entrants that tools haven't indexed.
# Useful search operators: # "<brand> alternatives" # "<brand> vs" # "best alternatives to <brand>" # site:reddit.com <brand> alternative # site:g2.com <brand>Expected outcome
Mention-graph competitors logged from comparison content.
Synthesize and tier the discovered domain set
Three tiers. **Tier 1 (head-to-head)**: domains appearing in 3+ discovery methods. These are unambiguous competitors. **Tier 2 (situational)**: 2 method overlaps. Worth monitoring but not the priority. **Tier 3 (peripheral)**: 1 method only. Watch-list. Output: a tiered list, typically 5-15 total domains, with Tier 1 being 3-7 of them.
Expected outcome
Tiered competitor-domain list ready for downstream monitoring and analysis work.
Shuttergen
Find the domains. Then audit their creative.
Discovery surfaces the websites. Shuttergen turns those websites into a live creative audit - what each competitor is shipping on Meta and TikTok, which creatives are winning, and the variants you ship to compete.
Pitfalls
What goes wrong
Trusting Similarweb alone
Similarweb's competitor list is traffic-overlap-based. It misses brands with smaller traffic but stronger keyword/intent overlap. Single-tool reliance produces a partial competitor set; always combine 3+ methods.
Confusing media sites with business competitors
Wirecutter, RunRepeat, G2, and similar review/listicle sites may dominate your SERPs but they're media competitors, not business competitors. The strategic response is different (content + PR, not product). Tag them separately.
Skipping the manual SERP step
Tools are great for breadth but miss recent entrants. A brand launched 4 months ago may already be taking SERP share but won't appear in Similarweb or Ahrefs competitor lists. Manual SERP mining is non-negotiable.
Including 5+ year old comparison data
A G2 alternatives page from 2020 lists brands that may have pivoted or shut down. Filter for content from the last 18 months when mining comparison-source domains.
Letting the list grow past 15 domains
More than 15 tracked domains and your team can't act on the intelligence. Be aggressive about cutting; keep the high-confidence set under 15.
Limits
When this playbook won't work
- Brand-new websites with <6 months of data - tools have no signal yet
- Hyper-local businesses where international tooling datasets don't index regional players
- B2B products with very small TAM - SEO/traffic overlap is too thin to surface signal
- White-label or affiliate-dominated categories where the domain on the URL isn't the operator
- Emerging product categories where the competitive set hasn't crystallized yet
Why domain-level discovery matters more than brand-level discovery
Brand-level competitor research starts with names. Domain-level competitor research starts with URLs. The distinction matters because the URL contains evidence the brand name doesn't: domain authority, organic traffic, paid traffic, backlink profile, content velocity, SERP positioning. The URL is the fingerprint; the brand name is the label.
Discovery anchored to URLs is more falsifiable. You can run tools against a URL and get measurable comparisons. You cannot run tools against 'the brand competitors my CEO thinks we have'. The URL gives you data; the brand list gives you opinions.
Domain-level discovery surfaces competitors that brand-level discovery misses. A new domain ranking in your SERPs without much PR profile won't show up in 'competitors we know about' conversations. It WILL show up in Similarweb's traffic-overlap or Ahrefs' keyword-overlap. Tool-driven domain discovery is the corrective lens on team intuition.
Find the domains. Then audit their creative. Discovery surfaces the websites. Shuttergen turns those websites into a live creative audit - what each competitor is shipping on Meta and TikTok, which creatives are winning, and the variants you ship to compete.
What to do once you have the competitor-domain list
The list is step zero of competitive intelligence. Downstream work - on-page audits, paid-strategy tear-downs, creative monitoring, pricing comparisons, content gap analysis - is where strategic decisions get informed. The discovery is plumbing; the analysis is the value.
Tier 1 domains get weekly tracking. 15 minutes per week per domain: new pages shipped, new keywords ranking, new ads running, pricing changes, hiring signals. Tier 2 gets a quarterly full audit. Tier 3 gets passive notifications (Google Alerts on the domain) only.
Re-run the discovery quarterly. New domains emerge, established ones exit categories, the competitive landscape shifts. A discovery list older than 6 months is starting to mislead the team.
Internal: how to find competitors of a website, find competitors, how to find website competitors, competitor monitoring tools.
FAQ
Frequently asked
What's the fastest way to find competitor websites?
Can I find competitor websites for free?
How many competitor websites should I track?
Why do different tools return different competitor lists?
How do I find competitor websites for a brand-new site?
Should I include media sites in my competitor list?
How often should I refresh the list?
Related
Keep reading
Resource
How to find competitors of a website
Long-form sister keyword.
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How to find website competitors
Sister keyword variant.
Resource
Find competitors
Multi-channel discovery.
Resource
Competitor monitoring tools
Ongoing monitoring stack.
Research
Anatomy Of Good Meta Ad Library
Audit framework for the discovered domain set.
Find the domains. Then audit their creative.
Discovery surfaces the websites. Shuttergen turns those websites into a live creative audit - what each competitor is shipping on Meta and TikTok, which creatives are winning, and the variants you ship to compete.