AI overviews are changing search results, and if you want to show up, you need to know who’s already winning. In this walkthrough, I’ll show you how to analyze competitors, identify the content that gets cited, and turn those insights into a strategy that improves your visibility.
In our last video, we set up tracking for AI overviews to see where we stand with these new types of search visibility opportunities. In this video, we’re looking at competitor analysis within AI overviews to build a strategy that improves visibility and increases our chances of being cited.
Before developing content, we first need to understand who our competitors are and what types of content are being cited. We’re using data from Keyword.com and SE Ranking. From here, we’ll use the insights to shape our strategy and content creation.
Keyword.com Citations Analysis
In Keyword.com’s AI visibility tab, the citations report shows exactly who’s getting cited in AI overviews and what content types are winning.
YouTube leads with nearly double the citations of any other source. Video content clearly carries weight in AI retrieval systems, but blogs, news, media, and community-driven content also appear frequently. The key takeaway: blogs still matter when they directly answer user questions.
Brand Share Leaders
Well-known platforms and SEO-focused companies appear most often, along with social channels. One standout is Reddit, which continues to rise and often displaces traditional sites in rankings.
Bottom Line: This analysis shows who I’m competing against and which content types are being rewarded, giving me direction for building content that can actually win citations.
Topic-Specific Research
Broad trends are useful, but looking at individual queries is even more important. For this example, I chose “What is generative engine optimization?” from my AI search and emerging trends folder. Ranking for this term would be high-value for my business.
Audience Platform Research
Using SparkToro, I compared my audience’s platform usage against the U.S. average. ChatGPT stood out as the biggest outlier, so I focused on tracking both Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT.
Current Performance
I’m not currently being cited for this term, and even Google’s results showed volatility. Some competitors gained citations while others dropped, with rapid shifts week to week.
Bottom Line: The market is moving fast. These fluctuations highlight both the challenge and the opportunity to earn visiblity. Additionally, Google is still testing what sources to cite.
SE Ranking Analysis
SE Ranking offers another perspective by showing overall presence of AI overview queries and tracking daily changes.
Current Visibility
My one existing mention comes from YouTube, reinforcing the trend we saw in Keyword.com. Written content is still underperforming.
Organic Overlap
Strong organic rankings increasingly influence AI citations. Several organic results appear in AI overviews, suggesting that SEO fundamentals remain critical.
Granularity and Authority
Daily tracking reveals quick shifts in rankings, while domain metrics like trust scores and referring domains provide insight into why certain sites rank.
Bottom Line: SE Ranking helps me understand who’s winning, why they’re winning, and how quickly rankings change. .
Manual Competitor Review
Before diving into technical analysis, I manually review competitor URLs to confirm relevance and see what they do differently.
Key Review Questions
- Are these sites actually competing in my space?
- What makes their content unique?
- How is their content structured to trigger citations?
- Where does my content fall short by comparison?
The competitor set is highly relevant, and their success often comes from providing direct answers, clear structure, and depth.
Bottom Line: Manual review ensures I learn from the right competitors and sets the stage for more technical analysis.
Technical Approach: Vector-Based Analysis
For a deeper look, I used a Hugging Face app to run vector-based content analysis.
How It Works
- Crawl competitor content and split it into chunks
- Vectorize those chunks against target keywords
- Compare similarity scores between my content and competitors
Top competitors consistently scored higher because they offered direct definitions and comprehensive coverage. My content ranked well for relevance but lacked practical examples, case studies, and visuals. Most critically, I often discussed the importance of a term without actually defining it upfront.
Bottom Line: Vector analysis shows exactly why competitor content outperforms mine. Even with relevant information, AI systems won’t prioritize it if it isn’t structured to answer questions directly.
Non-Technical Approach: Notebook LM
Notebook LM offers a simple, no-code way to compare content. The tool indexes and vectorizes the content by uploading competitor pages (and my own), then tests how often each source is cited for the same query.
For “What is generative engine optimization?”, the results mirrored the vector analysis: top SEO guides appeared first, with my site showing up inconsistently. I was often missing from critical sections like contextual understanding or brand representation.
I identified the following gaps:
- Strengthen my definitions
- Add missing strategic and practical elements
- Expand into areas competitors consistently cover
Bottom Line: Notebook LM makes competitive analysis more accessible while still surfacing actionable gaps I can use to improve visibility.
Strategy Building
With competitor insights in hand, the next step is turning them into a roadmap. Notebook LM generated a mind map that mirrors how top competitors organize their content.
Content Structure Priorities
- Clear definition first
- Importance and context
- How it works
- Comparisons with traditional SEO
- Core strategies and practical applications
- Measurement and future trends
With that information, I create the following action plan: Update existing pages, close coverage gaps, add examples, and republish. Then track visibility changes in both Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT.
Bottom Line: Research is only valuable if it informs action. With a clear structure and targeted updates, I can reposition my content to compete effectively for AI citations.
What’s Next
In our next video, we’ll put this strategy into practice: updating pages, adding structured data, and optimizing content for retrieval. With competitor research complete, it’s time to implement changes that improve visibility where it matters most.
At SMA Marketing, we specialize in uncovering the insights that help businesses stand out in search — whether it’s AI overviews, SEO, or content strategy. If you’re ready to understand your competition and build content that gets cited, contact us!
And until next time, happy marketing.
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