🚀 How to Steal Your Competitors’ Traffic (Ethically) Using SEO Tools

In the high-stakes world of digital marketing, knowing how to outrank your competition is one of the most powerful skills you can possess. But this isn't about shady tactics or black-hat SEO. This is about using data and proven tools to ethically uncover what your competitors are doing right – and doing it better.

This guide will walk you through how to ethically steal your competitors' traffic using industry-leading tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, Ubersuggest, and Google tools. We’ll show you how to:

• Identify your competitors

• Analyze their keyword strategies

• Spot content gaps

• Reverse-engineer their backlink profiles

• Discover their best-performing content

• Build smarter, better-optimized content

Let’s dive in.

🔎 Step 1: Identify Your Real SEO Competitors

Before you can analyze anyone, you need to know who your true search competitors are. These may not be the same as your business competitors.

Use Google:

Search for your primary keywords and make a list of the top 10 domains ranking for each. Look for those that appear frequently.

Use Ahrefs/SEMrush:

Enter your domain into:

• Ahrefs > Site Explorer > "Competing Domains"

• SEMrush > Organic Research > "Competitors"

These tools will automatically show domains ranking for the same keywords as you, sorted by competition level.

🌍 Step 2: Analyze Competitor Keywords

Once you know your competitors, the next step is to uncover which keywords are driving their traffic.

Ahrefs:

• Go to Site Explorer

• Enter a competitor domain

• Click "Organic Keywords"

You’ll see:

• Which keywords they rank for

• Their positions

• Search volume

• Traffic estimates

Filter by position (e.g. positions 1-10) to focus on the keywords driving real results.

SEMrush:

• Use "Organic Research"

• Filter for high-volume, low-difficulty keywords

Ubersuggest:

• Use the Traffic Analyzer

• View keywords by estimated traffic and SEO difficulty

🔹 Step 3: Find Content Gaps

This is where the gold lies. You want to find keywords your competitors rank for but you don’t.

Ahrefs Content Gap Tool:

• Site Explorer > Content Gap

• Enter up to 3 competitor domains

• Enter your own domain

Ahrefs will show all the keywords your competitors rank for but you don’t.

These are prime opportunities to create content targeting those exact queries.

SEMrush Keyword Gap:

• Compare domains side-by-side

• Identify unique keywords

• Sort by volume or KD (keyword difficulty)

📂 Step 4: Discover Their Best Performing Content

Knowing what type of content gets them the most traffic gives you direct inspiration for what to write – and how to do it better.

Ahrefs:

• Site Explorer > Top Pages

Sort by:

• Organic traffic

• Keywords per page

BuzzSumo (Optional Tool):

• Discover most shared content

• Filter by engagement, shares, or backlinks

Ask:

• What’s the format? (Listicle, guide, video?)

• What’s the intent? (Informational, transactional?)

• Can I add more value?

🧡 Step 5: Reverse-Engineer Their Backlink Profile

Backlinks still play a huge role in SEO. If your competitors are outranking you, chances are they have strong backlinks.

Ahrefs:

• Site Explorer > Backlinks

• Export the list

Filter by:

• DR (Domain Rating)

• Dofollow links

• Content type (blog, forum, news)

Look for backlink sources you could also reach out to or pitch with better content.

SEMrush:

• Use the Backlink Analytics tool

• View top anchors and referring domains

Focus on:

• Where they’re getting linked

• What content is getting those links

Now create content worth linking to — guides, stats, visuals, etc.

✨ Step 6: Build Better, Smarter Content

Now that you have:

• Keywords

• Content types

• Competitor best pages

• Backlink data

It's time to out-create them.

Use a content brief for each page you plan to create, including:

• Primary + secondary keywords

• Suggested title and H2s

• Word count

• Content format (how-to, list, case study)

• Internal link targets

Optimize for:

• Search intent

• UX/UI (clean layout, readable fonts)

• Core Web Vitals

• Schema markup

And don't forget to add your CTA. Traffic is great, but conversions matter more.

🌐 Step 7: Track Your Results

You can’t improve what you don’t measure.

Google Search Console:

• Track impressions, clicks, CTR

• See keyword performance over time

Ahrefs/SEMrush:

• Set up position tracking

• Compare domain visibility to competitors

Keep revisiting the Content Gap tools every 30-60 days to uncover new opportunities.

🔧 Bonus Tools to Help You Steal Traffic Ethically

• Google Trends – Spot rising keywords early

• Answer the Public – Uncover user intent questions

• Surfer SEO – Content optimization suggestions

• ChatGPT – Generate briefs, outlines, or rewrites

• Screaming Frog – Analyze competitor site structure and on-page SEO

🚀 Final Thoughts

"Stealing" traffic isn’t about copying — it's about leveraging insights to out-rank and out-value. With the right tools and tactics, you can tap into the keyword strategies, content gaps, and backlink wins that make your competition successful.

And the best part? These strategies scale. Once you have a system, you can repeat it for every niche you enter.

Remember:

• Let data guide your content

• Be consistent

• Focus on quality and relevance

Your competitors have already done the research. Use that momentum to build something even better.