# Beat competitors Human Guide

## What This Is For
Turn competitor keyword data into a prioritized attack plan: identify winnable gaps, defend threatened positions, and sequence content production. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for competitive research: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Beat competitors agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for beat competitors.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Beat competitors guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- **Your domain.** The site you're optimizing.
- **Known competitors.** 3-5 domains competing for the same audience. If unknown, identify them by searching your primary keywords and noting which domains appear repeatedly.
- **Your strengths.** What does your site do well? (authority, content depth, product features, niche expertise)
- **Goals.** Grow traffic? Protect existing rankings? Target specific keywords?
- Search your top 5 keywords — which domains appear in positions 1-10 for multiple terms?
- Check who ranks for your brand + "alternative" or "vs" queries
- Distinguish between **direct competitors** (same product/service) and **content competitors** (compete for same keywords but different business)
- You're competing head-to-head
- Assess position gap: are you within striking distance (1-3 positions away)?
- Assess: is the topic relevant to your business? Worth pursuing?
- These are your defensible positions
- Monitor for competitors entering these terms

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Before You Start, Step 1: Competitor Identification, Step 2: Keyword Overlap Analysis, Keywords You Both Rank For (Battleground), Keywords Only They Rank For (Their Territory), Keywords Only You Rank For (Your Territory), Keywords Neither Ranks For (White Space), Step 3: Opportunity Scoring, Step 4: Attack Plan, Quick Wins (execute first).

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- Competitor ranks but you don't

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Beat competitors human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the calm-north/seojuice-skills skill entry for `beat-competitors`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Beat Competitors

Turn competitor keyword data into a prioritized attack plan: identify winnable
gaps, defend threatened positions, and sequence content production.

## Before You Start

Gather this context (ask if not provided):

1. **Your domain.** The site you're optimizing.
2. **Known competitors.** 3-5 domains competing for the same audience. If unknown, identify them by searching your primary keywords and noting which domains appear repeatedly.
3. **Your strengths.** What does your site do well? (authority, content depth, product features, niche expertise)
4. **Goals.** Grow traffic? Protect existing rankings? Target specific keywords?

## Step 1: Competitor Identification

If competitors aren't known, identify them:

- Search your top 5 keywords — which domains appear in positions 1-10 for multiple terms?
- Check who ranks for your brand + "alternative" or "vs" queries
- Distinguish between **direct competitors** (same product/service) and **content competitors** (compete for same keywords but different business)

Focus on 3-5 competitors maximum. More dilutes the analysis.

## Step 2: Keyword Overlap Analysis

For each competitor, categorize keywords into:

### Keywords You Both Rank For (Battleground)
- You're competing head-to-head
- Assess position gap: are you within striking distance (1-3 positions away)?

### Keywords Only They Rank For (Their Territory)
- These are your content gaps
- Assess: is the topic relevant to your business? Worth pursuing?

### Keywords Only You Rank For (Your Territory)
- These are your defensible positions
- Monitor for competitors entering these terms

### Keywords Neither Ranks For (White Space)
- Uncovered topics with search demand
- First mover advantage opportunity

Map this:

| Keyword | Your Position | Competitor Position | Gap Type | Volume | Action |
|---------|--------------|-------------------|----------|--------|--------|
| ... | 5 | 3 | Battleground | 2,400 | Improve content |
| ... | — | 7 | Their territory | 1,800 | Create new page |
| ... | 4 | — | Your territory | 900 | Defend |
| ... | — | — | White space | 500 | First mover |

## Step 3: Opportunity Scoring

Score each gap using:

```
Attack Score = Volume x Winnability x Business Value
```

**Winnability factors (1-5):**
- 5: Competitor has thin content, low authority page, no backlinks
- 4: Competitor has decent content but you have stronger domain/expertise
- 3: Roughly equal — need better content + promotion to win
- 2: Competitor has strong content and authority — long-term play
- 1: Competitor has dominant position (Wikipedia, major brand) — skip

**Business Value (1-5):**
- 5: Directly drives revenue (transactional keyword, product-related)
- 4: Drives qualified leads (commercial investigation)
- 3: Builds authority in a core topic area
- 2: Drives traffic but low conversion potential
- 1: Vanity keyword with no business connection

## Step 4: Attack Plan

Organize into three tracks:

### Quick Wins (execute first)