In the competitive world of Australian digital marketing, staying ahead doesn't just mean watching what your competitors say—it means watching what they do under the hood. Technical SEO changes, such as shifts in site structure, schema markups, or page speed optimisations, can signal a shift in their strategy or an attempt to leapfrog you in the Google rankings.
Monitoring these technical nuances allows you to react quickly to their successes and avoid their mistakes. This guide will show you how to set up a robust monitoring system to keep a close eye on your rivals without spending all day refreshing their source code.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, ensure you have the following:- A list of 3-5 primary competitors (preferably those outranking you for key terms).
- A free or paid account with a crawling tool (e.g., Screaming Frog or Sitebulb).
- Access to a monitoring tool like VisualPing, Little Warden, or ContentKing.
- A basic understanding of HTML and SEO terminology (canonicals, robots.txt, etc.).
---
Step 1: Identify Your "Technical" Competitors
Not every business in your industry is a technical threat. Use a tool like SEMrush or Ahrefs to see which competitors have recently seen a surge in organic traffic. These are the ones likely making technical improvements. Focus on those who are consistently appearing in the 'Map Pack' for local Brisbane or Australian searches, as their local SEO technicals are likely top-tier.Step 2: Establish a Baseline Crawl
Before you can track changes, you need to know where they are starting. Open Screaming Frog SEO Spider and enter your competitor’s URL. Screenshot Description: You should see a progress bar at the top right reaching 100%, with a list of URLs filling the main window and a ‘Summary’ tab on the right-hand sidebar showing total counts for H1s, Meta Descriptions, and Response Codes.Export this data as a CSV and save it as "[Competitor Name] - Baseline - [Date]". This is your reference point for future comparisons.
Step 3: Monitor the Robots.txt File
Therobots.txt file is the gatekeeper of a website. If a competitor suddenly blocks a folder, they might be hiding a new staging area. If they unblock one, they are likely launching a new service or product line.
Use a tool like VisualPing to monitor competitor.com.au/robots.txt. Set it to alert you whenever the text on this page changes.
Pro Tip: In Australia, many businesses use their robots.txt to hide seasonal promotional pages (like EOFY sales). Tracking this can give you a head start on their marketing calendar.
Step 4: Track Schema Markup Changes
Schema helps Google understand the context of a page (e.g., LocalBusiness, FAQ, or Product). If a competitor adds 'Review' schema, their search results might suddenly gain star ratings, stealing your clicks.Use the Schema.org Validator or Google’s Rich Results Test on their top-performing pages. Note down what they currently use. If you see them adding FAQ schema, it’s a sign they are trying to take up more 'real estate' on the search results page.
Step 5: Set Up Automated Header Monitoring
Technical SEO often involves changes to HTTP headers, such as 'X-Robots-Tag' or 'Canonical' tags. Use a tool like Little Warden. It can automatically check your competitors' sites daily for changes in:- SSL certificate expiry (a lapse here is an opportunity for you!)
- Canonical tag changes
- Redirects (301/302)
- Title tag updates
Step 6: Monitor Page Speed and Core Web Vitals
Google’s ranking algorithm heavily weighs Core Web Vitals (CWV). If a competitor’s site suddenly gets much faster, they’ve likely undergone a technical overhaul.Go to PageSpeed Insights, enter their URL, and look at the 'Origin Summary'. Check this once a month. If their 'Largest Contentful Paint' (LCP) improves significantly, they’ve likely optimised their hosting or image delivery—something you may need to match to stay competitive.
Step 7: Watch for Sitemap Updates
Most Australian CMS platforms (like Shopify or WordPress) auto-generate an XML sitemap atcompetitor.com.au/sitemap.xml. By monitoring this URL, you can see exactly when they add new pages, blog posts, or service categories.
Screenshot Description: In your browser, the sitemap will look like a list of blue links with 'Last Modified' dates next to them. If the dates are all recent, they are actively updating their site.
Step 8: Analyse Internal Link Structure Shifts
Once a quarter, re-run the crawl from Step 2. Compare the 'Inlinks' count for their main service pages. If a page suddenly goes from 10 internal links to 100, they are signalling to Google that this page is now a high priority. This is a classic move for businesses pivoting into a new niche.Step 9: Monitor Subdomain Activity
Sometimes the biggest technical changes happen off the main site. Use a tool like Pentest-Tools Subdomain Finder or DNSTrails to see if they’ve launchedshop.competitor.com.au or app.competitor.com.au. New subdomains often indicate a significant change in business infrastructure or a new technical SEO strategy to isolate different types of content.
Step 10: Review Mobile-Friendliness Adjustments
With Google’s mobile-first indexing, technical changes often focus on the mobile experience. Use the Google Search Console Mobile-Friendly Test on their site. If they change their menu structure or button sizes, they are likely responding to user experience (UX) data.Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Monitoring Everything: Don't track every single page. Focus on their top 10 'money pages' and their homepage. Otherwise, you’ll be buried in notifications.
- Ignoring the 'Why': Just because a competitor makes a change doesn't mean it was a good one. Always cross-reference their technical changes with their rankings. If they changed their H1s and their rankings dropped, don't copy them!
- Illegal Scraping: Ensure your monitoring tools respect
robots.txtand don't overwhelm their server. High-frequency 'aggressive' crawling can be seen as a cyber-attack.
Troubleshooting
- "I'm getting too many alerts": Increase the 'sensitivity' threshold in your monitoring software. Set it to only alert you if more than 10% of the page content changes.
- "The tool can't crawl the site": Some Australian sites use heavy firewalls or Wordfence (for WordPress). You may need to use a tool that offers 'Residential Proxies' to bypass these blocks.
- "The data looks the same": If no changes are occurring, your competitor might be stagnant. This is your cue to push harder on your own technical SEO to widen the gap.
Next Steps
Tracking is only half the battle. Once you identify a technical change:- Assess the Impact: Did their ranking for the target keyword improve after the change?
- Audit Your Own Site: If their change was successful, perform a gap analysis on your own site. Do you have the same Schema? Is your page speed comparable?
- Implement and Test: Make the necessary adjustments to your own technical setup.
Need a professional hand to conduct a deep-dive competitor audit? The team at Local Marketing Group can help you deconstruct your rivals' strategies. Contact us today to get started.