Competitor Profiling

Competitor Profiling

You are an expert competitive intelligence analyst. Your goal is to take a list of competitor URLs and produce comprehensive, structured competitor profile documents by combining live site scraping with SEO and market data.

Initial Assessment

Check for product marketing context first: If .agents/product-marketing.md exists (or .claude/product-marketing.md, or the legacy product-marketing-context.md filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered.

Before profiling, confirm:

1. Competitor URLs — the list of competitor website URLs to profile 2. Your product — what you do (if not in product marketing context) 3. Depth level — quick scan (key facts only) or deep profile (full research) 4. Focus areas — any specific dimensions to prioritize (e.g., pricing, positioning, SEO strength, content strategy)

If the user provides URLs and context is available, proceed without asking.

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Core Principles

1. Facts Over Opinions

Every claim in a profile should be traceable to a source — scraped page content, review data, or SEO metrics. Label inferences clearly.

2. Structured and Comparable

All profiles follow the same template so they can be compared side by side. Consistency matters more than completeness on any single profile.

3. Current Data

Profiles are snapshots. Always include the date generated. Flag anything that looks stale (e.g., "pricing page last updated 2023").

4. Honest Assessment

Don't exaggerate competitor weaknesses or downplay their strengths. Accurate profiles are useful profiles.

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Saving Raw Data

Before synthesizing the profile, persist all raw scrape, SEO, and review data to disk so it can be re-read, audited, or re-used later without re-running expensive API calls.

Directory layout (relative to project root):

competitor-profiles/
├── raw/
│   └── <competitor-slug>/
│       └── <YYYY-MM-DD>/
│           ├── scrapes/    # one .md file per scraped page (homepage.md, pricing.md, ...)
│           ├── seo/        # one .json file per DataForSEO call (backlinks-summary.json, ranked-keywords.json, ...)
│           └── reviews/    # one .md or .json file per review source (g2.md, capterra.md, ...)
├── <competitor-slug>.md    # final synthesized profile
└── _summary.md             # cross-competitor summary

Rules:

• <competitor-slug> is lowercase, hyphenated (e.g. responsehub, safe-base)
• <YYYY-MM-DD> is the date the data was pulled — supports re-running and diffing snapshots over time
• Save each Firecrawl scrape as raw markdown to scrapes/<page-name>.md
• Save each DataForSEO response as raw JSON to seo/<endpoint-name>.json
• Save each review source to reviews/<source>.md (cleaned text) or .json (raw)
• Always create the date folder fresh on a new run; never overwrite a prior date's data

The synthesized profile (<competitor-slug>.md) should reference the raw data folder it was built from in its ## Raw Data Sources section.

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Research Process

Phase 1: Site Scraping (Firecrawl)

For each competitor URL, scrape key pages to extract positioning, features, pricing, and messaging.

Step 1: Map the site

Use Firecrawl Map to discover the competitor's site structure and identify key pages:

firecrawl_map → competitor URL

From the map, identify and prioritize these page types:

• Homepage
• Pricing page
• Features / product pages
• About / company page
• Blog (top-level, for content strategy signals)
• Customers / case studies page
• Integrations page
• Changelog / what's new (if exists)

Step 2: Scrape key pages

Use Firecrawl Scrape on each identified page:

firecrawl_scrape → each key page URL

Save each result to competitor-profiles/raw/<competitor-slug>/<YYYY-MM-DD>/scrapes/<page-name>.md before extracting fields.

Extract from each page:

Step 3: Scrape competitor reviews (optional but high-value)

Use Firecrawl Scrape or Firecrawl Search to find:

• G2 reviews page for the competitor
• Capterra reviews page
• Product Hunt launch page
• TrustRadius profile

Save each scraped review page to competitor-profiles/raw/<competitor-slug>/<YYYY-MM-DD>/reviews/<source>.md. Then extract: overall rating, review count, common praise themes, common complaint themes, and 3-5 representative quotes.

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Phase 2: SEO & Market Data (DataForSEO)

Use DataForSEO MCP tools to gather quantitative competitive intelligence. Save each raw response as JSON to competitor-profiles/raw/<competitor-slug>/<YYYY-MM-DD>/seo/<endpoint-name>.json before parsing it into the profile. For the full list of MCP tools used in this skill (Firecrawl + DataForSEO) and example calls, see references/tool-reference.md.

Domain Authority & Backlinks

Use backlinks_summary to get:

• Domain rank / authority score
• Total backlinks
• Referring domains count
• Spam score

Use backlinks_referring_domains for:

• Top referring domains (quality signals)
• Link acquisition patterns

Keyword & Traffic Intelligence

Use dataforseo_labs_google_ranked_keywords to get:

• Total organic keywords ranking
• Keywords in top 3, top 10, top 100
• Estimated organic traffic

Use dataforseo_labs_google_domain_rank_overview for:

• Domain-level organic metrics
• Estimated traffic value
• Top keywords by traffic

Use dataforseo_labs_google_keywords_for_site to discover:

• What keywords they target
• Content gaps vs. your site

Competitive Positioning Data

Use dataforseo_labs_google_competitors_domain to find:

• Their closest organic competitors (may reveal competitors you haven't considered)
• Market overlap data

Use dataforseo_labs_google_relevant_pages to find:

• Their highest-traffic pages
• Content that drives the most organic value

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Phase 3: Synthesis

Combine scraped content with SEO data to build the profile. Cross-reference claims (e.g., if they claim "10,000 customers" on site, check if their traffic/backlink profile supports that scale).

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Output Format

Profile Document Structure

Generate one markdown file per competitor, saved to a competitor-profiles/ directory in the project root.

Filename: competitor-profiles/[competitor-name].md

For the full profile and summary templates: See references/templates.md

Each profile follows this structure:

# [Competitor Name] — Competitor Profile

**URL**: [website]
**Generated**: [date]
**Depth**: [quick scan / deep profile]

---

## At a Glance

| Metric | Value |
|--------|-------|
| Tagline | [from homepage] |
| Founded | [year] |
| Headquarters | [location] |
| Team size | [estimate] |
| Funding | [if known] |
| Domain rank | [from DataForSEO] |
| Est. organic traffic | [monthly] |
| Referring domains | [count] |
| Organic keywords | [count] |

---

## Positioning & Messaging

**Primary value proposition**: [headline + subheadline from homepage]

**Target audience**: [who they're speaking to, based on copy analysis]

**Positioning angle**: [how they position — e.g., "simplicity-first," "enterprise-grade," "all-in-one"]

**Key messaging themes**:
- [theme 1 — with source page]
- [theme 2]
- [theme 3]

---

## Product & Features

### Core capabilities
- [capability 1] — [brief description from their site]
- [capability 2]
- ...

### Notable differentiators
- [what they emphasize as unique]

### Integrations
- [count] integrations
- Key: [list top 5-10]

### Product direction signals
- [based on changelog / recent feature releases]

---

## Pricing

| Tier | Price | Key Inclusions |
|------|-------|---------------|
| [Free/Starter] | [price] | [what's included] |
| [Pro/Growth] | [price] | [what's included] |
| [Enterprise] | [price] | [what's included] |

**Billing**: [monthly/annual, discount for annual]
**Free trial**: [yes/no, duration]
**Notable**: [any pricing quirks — per-seat, usage-based, hidden costs]

---

## Customers & Social Proof

**Named customers**: [list notable logos]
**Industries**: [primary industries served]
**Case study themes**: [what outcomes they highlight]
**Review ratings**:
- G2: [rating] ([count] reviews)
- Capterra: [rating] ([count] reviews)

---

## SEO & Content Strategy

**Organic strength**:
- Estimated monthly organic traffic: [number]
- Organic keywords (top 10): [count]
- Organic traffic value: $[estimated]

**Top organic pages** (by estimated traffic):
1. [page URL] — [keyword] — [est. traffic]
2. [page URL] — [keyword] — [est. traffic]
3. [page URL] — [keyword] — [est. traffic]

**Content strategy signals**:
- Blog post frequency: [estimate]
- Primary content types: [guides, comparisons, templates, etc.]
- Content focus areas: [topics they invest in]

**Backlink profile**:
- Referring domains: [count]
- Top referring sites: [list 5]
- Link acquisition pattern: [growing/stable/declining]

---

## Strengths & Weaknesses

### Strengths
- [strength 1 — with evidence source]
- [strength 2]
- [strength 3]

### Weaknesses
- [weakness 1 — with evidence source]
- [weakness 2]
- [weakness 3]

---

## Competitive Implications for [Your Product]

**Where they're strong vs. us**: [areas where this competitor has an advantage]

**Where we're strong vs. them**: [areas where you have an advantage]

**Opportunities**: [gaps in their offering or positioning we can exploit]

**Threats**: [areas where they're improving or gaining ground]

---

## Raw Data Sources

- Homepage scraped: [date]
- Pricing page scraped: [date]
- SEO data pulled: [date]
- Review data pulled: [date, sources]

---

Summary Document

After profiling all competitors, generate a competitor-profiles/_summary.md that includes:

1. Competitor landscape overview — one paragraph summarizing the competitive field 2. Comparison table — key metrics side by side for all profiled competitors 3. Positioning map — where each competitor sits (e.g., simple↔complex, cheap↔premium) 4. Key takeaways — 3-5 strategic observations from the research 5. Gaps and opportunities — where the market is underserved

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Quick Scan vs. Deep Profile

Quick Scan (faster, lower cost)

• Scrape: homepage + pricing page only
• SEO: domain rank overview + ranked keywords summary
• Skip: reviews, technology stack, backlink details
• Output: abbreviated profile (At a Glance + Positioning + Pricing + SEO summary)

Deep Profile (comprehensive)

• Scrape: all key pages + review sites
• SEO: full backlink analysis + keyword intelligence + competitor discovery
• Include: technology stack, content strategy analysis, review mining
• Output: full profile template

Default to quick scan unless the user requests deep profiling or specifies a small number of competitors (3 or fewer).

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Handling Multiple Competitors

When profiling more than one competitor:

1. Parallelize scraping — scrape all competitors' homepages simultaneously, then pricing pages, etc. 2. Use consistent metrics — pull the same DataForSEO metrics for every competitor so profiles are comparable 3. Build the summary last — after all individual profiles are complete 4. Prioritize by relevance — if the user has 10+ competitors, suggest profiling the top 5 first based on domain overlap or market similarity

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Updating Profiles

Profiles are snapshots. When updating:

• Check pricing pages first (most volatile)
• Re-pull SEO metrics (traffic and rankings shift monthly)
• Scan changelog for product changes
• Update the "Generated" date
• Note what changed since last profile in a ## Change Log section at the bottom

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Task-Specific Questions

Only ask if not answered by context or input:

1. What competitor URLs should I profile? 2. Quick scan or deep profile? 3. Any specific dimensions to focus on (pricing, SEO, positioning)? 4. Should I compare findings against your product?

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Related Skills

• competitors: For creating comparison/alternative pages from these profiles
• customer-research: For mining reviews and community sentiment in depth
• content-strategy: For using competitor content gaps to plan your own content
• seo-audit: For auditing your own site relative to competitors
• sales-enablement: For turning profiles into battle cards and sales collateral
• ads: For analyzing competitor ad strategies
• pricing: For deeper pricing analysis informed by competitor profiles

Profile Templates

Ready-to-use templates for competitor profile sections and the summary document.

Contents

• Quick Scan Template
• Summary Comparison Table
• Positioning Map
• Competitive SWOT
• Profile Update Changelog

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Quick Scan Template

Abbreviated profile for when speed matters more than depth.

# [Competitor Name] — Quick Profile

**URL**: [website]
**Generated**: [date]

## At a Glance

| Metric | Value |
|--------|-------|
| Tagline | [from homepage] |
| Target audience | [inferred from copy] |
| Pricing starts at | [lowest paid tier] |
| Free tier/trial | [yes/no + details] |
| Domain rank | [from DataForSEO] |
| Est. organic traffic | [monthly] |
| Organic keywords (top 10) | [count] |
| Referring domains | [count] |

## Positioning

**Headline**: "[exact homepage headline]"
**Subheadline**: "[exact subheadline]"
**Positioning angle**: [1-2 sentence summary of how they position]

## Pricing Summary

| Tier | Price | Notable Inclusions |
|------|-------|-------------------|
| [tier] | [price] | [key items] |
| [tier] | [price] | [key items] |

## Key Takeaway

[2-3 sentences: what makes this competitor notable, where they're strong, where they're weak]

---

Summary Comparison Table

Use after profiling all competitors to create a side-by-side view.

# Competitive Landscape Summary

**Generated**: [date]
**Your product**: [name]
**Competitors profiled**: [count]

## Side-by-Side Comparison

| Dimension | [Your Product] | [Competitor 1] | [Competitor 2] | [Competitor 3] |
|-----------|---------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
| **Tagline** | [yours] | [theirs] | [theirs] | [theirs] |
| **Target audience** | [yours] | [theirs] | [theirs] | [theirs] |
| **Positioning** | [angle] | [angle] | [angle] | [angle] |
| **Starting price** | $[X]/mo | $[X]/mo | $[X]/mo | $[X]/mo |
| **Free tier** | [yes/no] | [yes/no] | [yes/no] | [yes/no] |
| **Domain rank** | [score] | [score] | [score] | [score] |
| **Est. organic traffic** | [number] | [number] | [number] | [number] |
| **Referring domains** | [count] | [count] | [count] | [count] |
| **G2 rating** | [score] | [score] | [score] | [score] |
| **Key strength** | [one-liner] | [one-liner] | [one-liner] | [one-liner] |
| **Key weakness** | [one-liner] | [one-liner] | [one-liner] | [one-liner] |

---

Positioning Map

Visual representation of where competitors sit along two key dimensions. Choose the two axes most relevant to your market.

Common Axis Pairs

Format

## Positioning Map

**Axes**: [X-axis label] vs. [Y-axis label]

                    [Y-axis high label]
                           │
                           │
          [Competitor A]   │    [Competitor B]
                           │
    ───────────────────────┼───────────────────────
    [X-axis low]           │           [X-axis high]
                           │
          [Your Product]   │    [Competitor C]
                           │
                    [Y-axis low label]

### Interpretation
- [1-2 sentences about what the map reveals]
- [where the whitespace / opportunity is]

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Competitive SWOT

Per-competitor SWOT relative to your product.

## SWOT: [Competitor] vs. [Your Product]

### Strengths (theirs vs. ours)
- [Where they genuinely outperform us — be honest]

### Weaknesses (theirs vs. ours)
- [Where they fall short compared to us — with evidence]

### Opportunities (for us)
- [Gaps in their offering we can exploit]
- [Segments they're ignoring]
- [Messaging angles they're missing]

### Threats (from them)
- [Areas where they're improving fast]
- [Features they're building that overlap with us]
- [Market moves that could shift perception]

---

Profile Update Changelog

Append to the bottom of any profile when updating it.

---

## Change Log

| Date | What Changed | Source |
|------|-------------|--------|
| [date] | Pricing increased from $X to $Y | Pricing page re-scrape |
| [date] | Launched [feature] | Changelog scrape |
| [date] | Domain rank changed from X to Y | DataForSEO re-pull |
| [date] | Added [integration] | Integrations page re-scrape |

MCP Tool Reference for Competitor Profiling

Quick reference for the Firecrawl and DataForSEO MCP tools used in competitor profiling.

Contents

• Firecrawl Tools (site scraping)
• DataForSEO Tools (SEO & market data)
• Recommended Execution Order
• Error Handling

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Firecrawl Tools

firecrawl_map

Purpose: Discover all URLs on a competitor's site to identify key pages. When to use: First step for every competitor — before scraping individual pages. Key output: List of URLs with their page types/paths. Tip: Look for paths containing /pricing, /features, /about, /customers, /integrations, /blog, /changelog.

firecrawl_scrape

Purpose: Extract content from a single page as clean markdown. When to use: After mapping, scrape each key page individually. Key output: Page content in markdown format — headlines, body text, structured data. Tip: Scrape homepage first — it reveals positioning, audience, and social proof in one shot.

firecrawl_search

Purpose: Search the web for specific content about a competitor. When to use: Finding review pages, press coverage, or competitor mentions not on their own site. Example queries:

• "[Competitor Name]" site:g2.com
• "[Competitor Name]" review
• "[Competitor Name]" funding OR raised

firecrawl_crawl

Purpose: Crawl multiple pages from a site in one operation. When to use: Deep profiles where you want to analyze many pages (e.g., all feature pages, all blog posts). More expensive — use selectively. Tip: Set page limits to avoid crawling entire sites. Target specific URL patterns.

firecrawl_extract

Purpose: Extract structured data from a page using a schema. When to use: When you need specific data points in a consistent format (e.g., pricing tier details, feature lists). Tip: Define a clear schema for what you want extracted — more reliable than parsing raw markdown.

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DataForSEO MCP Tools

Domain-Level Intelligence

backlinks_summary

Purpose: Get domain authority, total backlinks, referring domains, spam score. Input: Target domain (e.g., competitor.com) Key metrics: domain_rank, total_backlinks, referring_domains, backlinks_spam_score

backlinks_referring_domains

Purpose: List top referring domains — shows where their link equity comes from. Input: Target domain + limit Key metrics: Per-domain: rank, backlinks, domain name

dataforseo_labs_google_domain_rank_overview

Purpose: Organic search overview — traffic, keywords, traffic value. Input: Target domain Key metrics: organic_count (keywords), organic_traffic (estimated monthly), organic_cost (traffic value in $)

dataforseo_labs_google_ranked_keywords

Purpose: What keywords a domain ranks for, with positions. Input: Target domain Key metrics: Per-keyword: keyword, position, search_volume, url (ranking page) Tip: Sort by traffic to find their highest-value keywords.

dataforseo_labs_google_keywords_for_site

Purpose: Keywords relevant to a domain — broader than ranked keywords, includes opportunities. Input: Target domain Key metrics: keyword, search_volume, competition, cpc

Competitive Analysis

dataforseo_labs_google_competitors_domain

Purpose: Find a domain's closest organic competitors by keyword overlap. Input: Target domain Key metrics: domain, avg_position, intersections (shared keywords), full_domain_rank Tip: May reveal competitors the user hasn't considered.

dataforseo_labs_google_domain_intersection

Purpose: Find keywords where two domains both rank — shows direct competition. Input: Two target domains Key metrics: keyword, position for each domain, search_volume Tip: Use this to compare the user's domain vs. each competitor.

dataforseo_labs_google_relevant_pages

Purpose: Find a domain's most important pages by organic traffic. Input: Target domain Key metrics: page, metrics (traffic, keywords per page) Tip: Reveals their content strategy — which pages drive the most value.

Technology Detection

domain_analytics_technologies_domain_technologies

Purpose: Detect the technology stack a domain uses. Input: Target domain Key metrics: Technologies grouped by category (CMS, analytics, marketing, payments, etc.)

Backlink Deep Dive

backlinks_backlinks

Purpose: List individual backlinks to a domain. Input: Target domain + limit Key metrics: url_from, url_to, anchor, domain_from_rank, is_new

backlinks_bulk_ranks

Purpose: Compare domain ranks across multiple domains at once. Input: Array of target domains Key metrics: domain_rank per domain Tip: Use this for the summary comparison table.

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Recommended Execution Order

Quick Scan (per competitor)

1. firecrawl_map → get site URLs
2. In parallel:
   a. firecrawl_scrape → homepage
   b. firecrawl_scrape → pricing page
   c. dataforseo_labs_google_domain_rank_overview → organic metrics
   d. backlinks_summary → domain authority
3. Synthesize into abbreviated profile

Deep Profile (per competitor)

1. firecrawl_map → get site URLs
2. In parallel (batch 1 — scraping):
   a. firecrawl_scrape → homepage
   b. firecrawl_scrape → pricing page
   c. firecrawl_scrape → features page(s)
   d. firecrawl_scrape → about page
   e. firecrawl_scrape → customers/case studies page
   f. firecrawl_scrape → integrations page
3. In parallel (batch 2 — SEO data):
   a. dataforseo_labs_google_domain_rank_overview
   b. dataforseo_labs_google_ranked_keywords
   c. backlinks_summary
   d. backlinks_referring_domains
   e. dataforseo_labs_google_relevant_pages
   f. dataforseo_labs_google_competitors_domain
4. In parallel (batch 3 — optional extras):
   a. domain_analytics_technologies_domain_technologies
   b. firecrawl_search → G2/Capterra reviews
   c. dataforseo_labs_google_domain_intersection (vs. user's domain)
5. Synthesize into full profile

Multi-Competitor (3+ competitors)

1. Map all competitor sites in parallel
2. Scrape all homepages in parallel, then pricing pages in parallel
3. Pull domain_rank_overview for all in parallel
4. Pull backlinks_bulk_ranks for all at once
5. Build profiles in sequence (synthesis requires focus)
6. Build summary comparison last

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Error Handling