How to Spy on Your Competitors with Semrush (Even If You’re a One-Person Business)

3-minute read

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If you’re running a business in the UK, choosing the right competitor analysis tool UK marketers trust can unlock massive insights into what’s working in your niche. In this guide, we’ll break down exactly how to use Semrush to uncover your rivals’ strategies and make smarter decisions, faster.

Good news: you don’t need a big budget, agency retainer or SEO degree to find out what your competitors are doing — and outdo them.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to spy on your competitors using Semrush, a powerful SEO and marketing tool — even if you’re a solo founder or brand-new SME.

Let’s dive in 👇

🧠 Why Competitor Research Matters for UK Startups & SMEs

If you’re a one-person business, time is precious. You don’t want to waste hours guessing which keywords to target or what content to write.

Competitor research with Semrush lets you:

• See exactly what’s driving traffic to your competitors
• Discover hidden keywords and backlink opportunities
• Understand your market position in seconds
• Build smarter content and marketing strategies

And the best part? You can do it yourself with just a few clicks.

Semrush is more than just a keyword tool — it’s a full competitor analysis tool UK businesses can use to benchmark performance across SEO, paid ads, and content.

🔧 Tool 1: Domain Overview – Know What You’re Up Against

Start by entering your competitor’s website into Semrush’s Domain Overview.

For example, let’s say you’re a local web designer in Leeds. Pop in a local competitor’s URL — maybe leedswebco.uk — and Semrush will reveal:

• Monthly website traffic (organic & paid)
• Keyword rankings (UK-focused)
• Top-performing pages
• Traffic sources (Google, Facebook, direct, etc.)
• Countries & regions driving the most visits

🔗 Pro Tip: Compare your own website side-by-side using the “Compare domains” tab.

Ready to uncover your competitors’ secrets?

Get started with Semrush today and try the tools yourself.

🔑 Tool 2: Keyword Gap – Find the Keywords They Rank For (That You Don’t)

This is the goldmine.

Head to the Keyword Gap Tool and enter:

• Your website
• 2–4 competitors

Semrush will show:

• Keywords only they rank for
• Keywords you both rank for (but they’re winning)
• Keywords you outrank them on

From here, you can:

• Target missing high-value keywords in future content
• Optimise underperforming pages
• Reverse-engineer their content strategy

📌 Example: You notice your rival ranks for “ecommerce website design Yorkshire” but you don’t — time to create a page or blog targeting that!

See what your competitors rank for – Use Semrush’s free tools

🔗 Tool 3: Backlink Gap – Steal Their Link Strategy

Backlinks still matter in 2025.

With Backlink Gap, you can see:

• Sites linking to your competitors
• Sites not linking to you (yet)
• Shared backlink sources

Use this to:

• Build outreach lists
• Earn backlinks from relevant directories, blogs, media outlets
• See what press/features they’ve landed (and go after similar)

📌 Example: A competitor has backlinks from LeedsBusinessJournal.co.uk and DigitalYorkshire.org? Reach out and pitch your story!

📊 Tool 4: Traffic Analytics – See What’s Driving Their Results

Traffic Analytics offers deeper insights into how users interact with competitor sites:

• Bounce rate
• Visit duration
• Traffic channels
• Device usage (desktop vs mobile)
• Referring sites

You’ll get a feel for:

• What platforms your audience prefers (Instagram? LinkedIn?)
• Whether competitors are investing in ads
• How loyal their visitors are

Perfect for building content funnels and ad strategies tailored to your niche.

Use Semrush’s Keyword Gap tool to find easy wins

🎯 How to Put All This Together in a Simple Strategy

Let’s say you run a boutique fitness studio in Manchester.

Your 5‑step strategy using Semrush competitor tools:

1. Domain Overview: See where fitmanchester.co.uk gets its traffic.
2. Keyword Gap: Find terms like “small group training Manchester” you’ve missed.
3. Backlink Gap: Spot they’ve been featured in Manchester Evening News — pitch your success story!
4. Traffic Analytics: Discover most of their traffic comes from mobile and Facebook.
5. Create Content & Ads: Build a content pillar around “group workouts for busy professionals” and run mobile-first Facebook ads.

Boom — you’ve now got an informed strategy to compete smarter, not harder.

Whether you’re a local tradesperson or an eCommerce brand, having a competitor analysis tool UK focused gives you the edge to grow strategically.

⚡ Real Talk: Why This Works for One-Person Teams

You don’t need:

• A full-time SEO
• Fancy tools or software stacks
• Hours of research

You just need:
✅ A Semrush login
✅ A few competitor URLs
✅ A willingness to test what works

And if you’re a Business Mate client — good news — we’ll guide you through this or even do it for you.

🛠️ Resources for Extra Firepower

• Too Busy for Social Media? This Tool Posts for You – With the Right Content
• The Complete Guide to AI Marketing Tools for UK SMEs: From £109/Month to Market Leadership

👋 Ready to Outrank Your Competitors?

Want us to run a full Semrush-powered competitor audit for your business?

👉 Let’s show you exactly where to start — and how to steal your competitors’ traffic 👀 just visit the banner below.

🔍 FAQs: Competitor Research with Semrush