Free Digital Marketing Audit Tool for UK SMEs

Standard SEO competitor analysis focuses on keyword rankings, backlink profiles, page authority, and on-page optimisation factors - the signals that determine where a page appears in traditional organic search results.

AISO Competitor Analysis (AI Search Optimisation competitive analysis) extends this to cover AI-specific visibility: which competitors appear in Google AI Overviews, which are cited by ChatGPT or Perplexity, what content structures and entity relationships trigger those citations, and what topical depth signals AI systems use to determine which businesses they trust and recommend. In short, standard SEO analysis tells you how to rank on page one. AISO competitor analysis tells you how to appear in the AI answer instead of the page at all..

For an SME, competitor analysis removes the need to guess where to invest limited marketing budget. Instead of creating content or building links based on assumption, you build based on evidence: you know which keywords are driving your competitors' traffic, which content formats are earning their AI visibility, and where your biggest ranking gaps are.

This focus means every pound spent on content, links, or technical SEO work is directed at the highest-ROI opportunities. web-aviso's AISO analysis is specifically designed for SMEs — providing the depth of intelligence typically reserved for large agency clients, without the associated cost structure.

web-aviso works with businesses across the UK and serves clients with national and international reach.

While the agency is based in Formby, Liverpool, and has deep expertise in the North West - covering Liverpool, Merseyside, Manchester, Cheshire, and Lancashire - the AISO competitor analysis methodology applies equally to national keyword sets and global market landscapes. The analytical framework, tools, and AI search auditing process are geographic-agnostic. Local businesses benefit from hyper-local competitor mapping; national and international clients benefit from the same structured intelligence applied at scale.

For a business that relies on its website as the primary sales channel, a combined approach of organic SEO and AISO (AI Search Optimisation) is most effective. Organic SEO ensures visibility in traditional search results and drives sustained inbound traffic.

AISO ensures the business is represented accurately and favourably in AI-generated answers - which are
increasingly the first response users receive to commercial queries. A competitor analysis that maps rivals' performance across both channels is essential: it identifies which traffic sources your competitors are capturing, where their content is most persuasive, and which AI-cited pages are converting the most valuable inbound visitors.

For most businesses, a comprehensive AISO competitor analysis every quarter is the minimum recommended frequency. AI search features - including Google AI Overviews, featured snippets, and LLM training updates - evolve continuously, and the competitive landscape shifts accordingly.

Businesses in fast-moving sectors, those actively running content campaigns, or those in highly competitive local markets benefit from monthly monitoring. web-aviso can set-up ongoing competitive intelligence dashboards that surface significant changes in competitor visibility- both in traditional search and across AI platforms - without requiring a full audit each month.

web-aviso provides both the intelligence and the strategy. The competitor analysis itself - the audit of rivals' AI visibility, content architecture, backlinks, reviews, and entity relationships - is the diagnostic phase. What follows is a prioritised action plan: specific content to create or restructure, schema markup to implement, links to pursue, review strategies to execute, and Google Business Profile improvements to make.

Clients who want full implementation can engage web-aviso for ongoing SEO, content, and GEO services. Those who have in-house teams receive a clear, sequenced brief their team can execute independently.

Yes, and for most businesses, content strategy is where AISO competitor analysis delivers the most immediate value. The analysis identifies the exact topic clusters your competitors have built authority around (and that AI systems recognise and cite), the content formats that perform best in your niche (long-form guides, structured FAQs, comparison pages, local landing pages), the intent gaps where competitor content is weak and your business can establish authority quickly, and the specific questions your target audience is asking that no competitor is answering well.

This transforms content planning from guesswork into precision - -every piece of content is created with a clear competitive rationale and a defined role in your AI search visibility strategy.

web-aviso has operated since 2004, and now from its base in Formby, Liverpool from a solar-powered office - which means significantly lower overheads than city-centre agencies.

This cost structure is passed directly to clients: you receive senior-level strategic intelligence and implementation expertise without paying for the premises, layers of account management, or the brand premium that large agencies charge. For SMEs and growth-stage businesses, this makes a material difference - competitor analysis
and AISO strategy that would command four-figure monthly retainers at a large agency is delivered at a cost structure appropriate for businesses that need to be disciplined with their marketing investment.

Directly, yes. One of the five pillars of web-aviso's AISO competitor analysis is a detailed audit of competitor backlink profiles - identifying their most authoritative link sources, the types of sites that link to them, the content assets that attracted those links, and the local citation sources (directories, industry bodies, local press, community organisations) contributing to their entity authority. This gives you a prioritised link acquisition roadmap rather than a generic outreach list.

For businesses in Liverpool and the North West, we identify local citation and link opportunities specifically - including regional press, business directories, chamber of commerce listings, and industry-specific North West sources - that directly support both local SEO and AI search entity recognition.

The analysis covers all major AI-influenced search surfaces, and will adapt as this changes. Currently: Google AI Overviews (the AI-generated summaries appearing above organic results), Google's featured snippets and People Also Ask boxes, ChatGPT and ChatGPT's web browsing results, Perplexity AI, Microsoft Copilot (Bing AI), and voice search results driven by AI assistants. Where relevant, we also assess which competitors have structured their content to appear in vertical AI search tools used within specific industries.

The relative importance of each platform is weighted to your specific market and audience - for most UK SMEs,
Google AI Overviews and traditional Google search remain the highest-priority surfaces, with Perplexity and ChatGPT growing in relevance for B2B and research-oriented queries.

Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is the practice of structuring your own content and digital presence to be cited, quoted, or recommended by AI-powered search engines. AISO competitor analysis is the prerequisite to effective GEO: it tells you what your rivals have done to earn AI citations, what content architecture and entity signals AI systems favour in your specific niche, and which gaps in the competitive landscape represent the
fastest route to generative engine visibility.

Without competitor intelligence, GEO strategy is based on generic best practice. With it, every content decision
and structural choice is informed by what is already working in your market.

Entity recognition refers to an AI or search engine's ability to identify and understand a named entity - a business, person, location, product, or concept - as a distinct, knowable thing rather than a collection of keywords.

Google's Knowledge Graph and the training data behind major LLMs assign varying levels of trust and completeness to different entities. Businesses with richer entity profiles - consistent NAP (name, address, phone) data across directories, structured schema markup, Wikipedia or Wikidata presence, review volume, brand mentions in credible publications, and strong Google Business Profile data - are more likely to be recognised,
understood, and cited by AI systems.

AISO competitor analysis maps your rivals' entity strength and identifies the specific signals you need to build to match or exceed it.