competitor-analysis

HarborRank Competitor Analysis

Goal

Analyze one competitor deeply enough to decide what to learn from, avoid, counter-position against, or outrank.

Use this for a named competitor. For identifying the market leaders first, use competitive-landscape.

Step 0: Check connection

Before any other step, confirm the HarborRank MCP tools are loaded. Look for get_domain_overview or list_leads among your tools, including deferred tools you can load (the name may carry a prefix such as mcp__harborrank__). If they are there, call whoami: it uses no credits, confirms the user is signed in, and returns creditsRemaining for budgeting the run. Do not call a research tool to test the connection.

If neither tool is available, or whoami fails because the user is not signed in, tell the user plainly: "HarborRank isn't connected, so I can't pull live HarborRank data yet." Then tell them how to connect it:

• Claude Code with the HarborRank plugin: run /mcp, choose harborrank, and sign in.
• Claude Code without the plugin: run claude mcp add --transport http --scope user harborrank https://app.harborrank.com/mcp, then /mcp to sign in.
• Claude on the web, desktop or Cowork: open Customize, then Connectors, search for HarborRank, choose Connect, and sign in. New accounts start with a 7-day free trial.
• Cursor with the HarborRank plugin: open Cursor Settings, then MCP, and sign in to harborrank.
• Gemini CLI with the HarborRank extension: run /mcp auth harborrank.
• Other clients: add https://app.harborrank.com/mcp as a remote MCP server. Setup for each client is at https://harborrank.com/docs/mcp.

Do not stop there. Continue in fallback mode (below). If the user connects HarborRank mid-task, run Step 0 again and switch to the full workflow.

Plan limits

On hosted HarborRank, research tools spend credits. New accounts start with a 7-day free trial (1,000 research credits, one project); paid plans start at $29/month with 15,000 credits. Search Console, saved keywords, rank tracker reads, and site crawls use no credits. A keyword search costs about 50 credits and a domain overview about 80. Full backlinks, lead research (research_lead), and Lighthouse checks need a paid plan; on Free, the backlinks tools return a preview (totals and the top 3 referring domains, about 50 credits) with an upgrade link.

• If creditsRemaining will not cover the planned calls, give the user the estimate and ask before spending. Use the free tools first.
• If a tool replies that a feature "is included in paid plans", tell the user once which feature needs a paid plan and pass on the upgrade link from the reply, skip that tool for the rest of the run, and finish with the other evidence. Do not retry it.
• If a tool fails for insufficient credits, stop making paid calls, tell the user, and finish with free tools and the data you already have. If whoami warns that credits are low, say so before a large run.
• If the user asks to upgrade, change plan or buy credits, call get_upgrade_link (no credits) and give them the link. They pay on HarborRank with PayPal; never say the upgrade is done until whoami shows the new plan.
• When whoami returns mode: "self-hosted", there are no plan gates.

Fallback mode (no HarborRank connection)

Use this mode only when Step 0 finds no connection. It works from web search, page reading, and files the user provides.

Can still do

• Read the competitor's site: navigation, sitemap, blog, product, and comparison pages.
• Map their page types, content themes, and positioning.
• Check live search results for target terms to compare the two sites head to head.
• Use the user's Search Console CSV exports, if any, as their own baseline.
• Frame the analysis as qualitative.

Must not estimate

Traffic, search volume, keyword difficulty, CPC, keyword counts, rankings, backlink counts, Maps pack positions, and Q&A counts. Write unknown for each. A web search shows which pages appeared for a query when you searched, not their Google ranking: report it as "appeared in web search", never as a position.

Output

• Start with the label Web-evidence only: no HarborRank data.
• Name the source (URL or file) of every figure you report.
• End, after any recommended next workflow, with one sentence that names the numbers this report is missing: "Connect HarborRank (start with a 7-day free trial) to add this competitor's traffic, ranked keywords, and backlink profile." Do not add more sales copy than that.

Required inputs

• projectId
• Competitor domain
• User's domain when comparison is requested
• Optional topic/category/location/language

HarborRank MCP tools

• get_domain_overview: baseline organic traffic and keyword count.
• get_search_console_performance: when comparing to the user's own domain and Search Console is connected, use it as the first-party baseline (real clicks/impressions/CTR/position) instead of estimating the user's own performance from third-party data.
• get_ranked_keywords: exact keyword, URL, rank, intent, traffic, CPC, and SERP-type rows for the competitor domain or page.
• get_backlinks_overview: backlink/referring-domain profile.
• find_serp_competitors: validate whether the named competitor is a real search competitor across the target keyword set.
• search_local_businesses, get_local_serp_results, and get_google_business_questions: use for local SEO competitors when Maps/local-pack visibility, nearby businesses, categories, or Google Q&A matter.
• get_serp_results: validate direct head-to-head SERPs for important keywords.
• research_keywords: expand gaps or category terms when needed.
• create_share_report: publish the finished work as a read-only page at a shareable link (see "Shareable report" below). Only after the user agrees.

Workflow

1. Call get_domain_overview for the competitor, passing provided location/language when supported.
2. If comparing to the user, call get_domain_overview for the user's domain too — and if Search Console is connected, get_search_console_performance for the user's real baseline.
3. Call get_ranked_keywords for the competitor. Use filters like maxRank, minSearchVolume, excludeBrandTerms, and resultTypes to keep rows relevant.
4. If comparing to the user, call get_ranked_keywords for the user's domain/page too, or use get_serp_results for the shared terms when a lighter check is enough.
5. For local SEO, use search_local_businesses and get_local_serp_results around the relevant business location(s) before drawing local-pack conclusions. Add get_google_business_questions only when Q&A evidence matters.
6. Use find_serp_competitors when the competitor was supplied by the user but its search overlap is unclear.
7. Group competitor keywords into themes:

• Product/category terms
• Alternatives/comparisons
• Templates/tools/calculators
• Educational guides
• Branded demand
• Local/neighborhood terms when relevant

1. Call get_backlinks_overview for the competitor, especially if authority appears to explain rankings. On Free this returns a preview (totals and the top 3 referring domains); use it, note that the full profile needs a paid plan, and continue.
2. Use get_serp_results for important shared or target keywords to compare positioning, passing provided location/language when supported.
3. Produce an actionable plan:

• What they are doing well
• Where they are vulnerable
• Which pages/keywords to pursue
• What to avoid copying

Output format

Start with:

• Competitor snapshot
• Biggest lesson
• Best opportunity to beat them

Then include:

Include sections for:

• Top keyword themes
• Content/page types working for them
• Backlink/authority notes
• Head-to-head SERP observations
• Priority actions for the user

• Next workflow: end with one recommended next workflow, the reason for it, and the input it starts from. Default: link-prospecting against the competitor's strongest pages, the ones that rank for the keywords the user wants, to find the sites that link to them.
• Where the output goes: the report as competitors/<competitor-domain>-<YYYY-MM-DD>.md. Save it in the project's SEO folder (see seo-project-setup); if there is none, ask once whether to create one or where to save instead. If the user prefers a doc or a sheet and a docs or spreadsheet tool is available, put reports in a doc and tables in a sheet instead. Tell the user where it was saved.
• Shareable report: once the work is done, offer one time to publish it as a shareable report with create_share_report: a read-only page at a link the user can send to a client, a boss or a teammate, no sign-in needed. Write it from this output: findings first, then next steps, then the supporting table. Publish only after the user says yes, and leave out their Search Console and Google Analytics numbers unless they agree to share them. Give them the link; delete_share_report removes it.

Guardrails

• Do not treat all competitor keywords as desirable. Filter for business fit.
• Separate evidence from inference.
• Do not infer competitor page/content-type patterns from keyword rows alone; use SERP or web evidence for page-level claims.
• For local SEO, do not infer Maps/local-pack strength from national organic domain metrics alone; use local business and local SERP tools when the location is known or reasonably discoverable.
• Do not recommend copying content; recommend a stronger angle or better answer to the same intent.
• If the user's domain is unavailable, frame the analysis as competitor-only.