How to Run Hubspot-Style Competitive Content Analysis

Learning how Hubspot approaches competitive content analysis can transform the way you plan, create, and optimize your own content strategy. By borrowing this structured, data-driven process, you can uncover what works in your niche, find content gaps, and build articles that consistently outperform your competitors.

Why a Hubspot Competitive Framework Matters

A structured competitive analysis framework inspired by Hubspot helps you move away from guesswork and toward measurable content decisions. Instead of writing what you hope will rank, you investigate what already performs for others, then improve on it.

This approach matters because it lets you:

• Discover topics and formats that consistently attract traffic.
• Identify where competitors are weak or outdated.
• Align content with real audience questions, not assumptions.
• Prioritize content that supports leads and conversions, not just pageviews.

Step 1: Identify Your Core Competitors the Hubspot Way

Before you can analyze anything, you need a clear set of competitors. A Hubspot-style analysis starts by mapping both direct and indirect rivals in search.

Build a Short Competitor List

Use these questions to narrow your list:

• Who sells similar products or services to the same audience?
• Who consistently appears on page one for your target keywords?
• Which industry blogs or media sites influence your ideal buyers?

Then, build a list of 5–10 competitors across categories:

• Direct business competitors: Companies with a similar offer.
• Content competitors: Sites that dominate educational content in your niche.
• Search competitors: Domains that rank for your priority keywords, even if they do not sell what you sell.

Use search engines, industry reports, and SEO tools to finalize your list, similar to how a Hubspot team would begin mapping a landscape.

Step 2: Collect Key Data From Competitor Sites

Once you know who you are competing with, dig into the pages that drive their visibility. A Hubspot-style approach relies on consistent data points across each domain.

Core Metrics to Capture

For each competitor, document:

• Top-ranking blog posts or resources.
• Estimated organic traffic to those pages.
• Primary keywords each page targets.
• Content format (how-to guides, templates, case studies, checklists, videos).
• Publishing frequency and recency of updates.
• Content depth (word count, level of detail, supporting assets).

Use SEO software or your analytics stack to capture this information in a spreadsheet. This mirrors the way a Hubspot content team would centralize data before making strategic decisions.

Review On-Page Experience

Beyond numbers, compare on-page elements:

• Headlines and subheadings structure.
• Use of images, charts, or templates.
• Internal linking patterns and calls to action.
• Readability and clarity of explanations.

This qualitative review helps you understand why certain pages might be ranking or converting better than others.

Step 3: Analyze Topics Using a Hubspot-Themed Lens

Instead of only tracking keywords, group competitor content into broader topic clusters. This reflects a Hubspot-inspired pillar-and-cluster model that supports long-term search growth.

Map Topic Clusters

Create clusters for each main theme in your industry. For each cluster:

1. Identify the main pillar topic (for example, “email marketing”, “sales enablement”, or “customer onboarding”).
2. List all supporting articles competitors publish under that topic.
3. Note whether they have a central, comprehensive guide that anchors the cluster.

Ask yourself:

• Which topics are heavily covered by multiple competitors?
• Which important topics appear under-served or missing?
• Where do competitors lack in-depth guides or updated resources?

This analysis exposes opportunities where you can apply a Hubspot-like pillar strategy to build stronger, more connected content.

Step 4: Evaluate Content Quality and Depth

Traffic alone does not guarantee good content. A Hubspot-style analysis weighs quality, usability, and completeness against pure visibility.

Assess Content Against User Intent

For high-performing competitor pages, ask:

• Does the content fully answer the searcher’s question?
• Is the information current, with updated statistics and tools?
• Are there clear next steps or action items for readers?
• Does the page help a visitor move closer to a decision or purchase?

Rate each page on a simple scale (for example 1–5) for accuracy, depth, and usefulness. This helps you see where your content can clearly beat what is already available.

Spot Gaps and Weaknesses

Look for:

• Important subtopics barely mentioned or missing entirely.
• Shallow list posts without examples or detailed tutorials.
• Old screenshots, broken links, or outdated references.
• Thin FAQs that do not match current user questions.

These weaknesses become the blueprint for your stronger, more comprehensive content pieces.

Step 5: Turn Findings Into a Hubspot-Inspired Content Plan

With your analysis complete, it is time to convert insights into a prioritized roadmap. This is where a Hubspot-style mindset emphasizes both quick wins and long-term assets.

Prioritize by Business Impact

Rank potential topics using three dimensions:

1. Search opportunity: Volume, difficulty, and room to outperform current results.
2. Business relevance: Alignment with your product, service, or sales process.
3. Conversion potential: Ability to attract qualified leads, not just visitors.

Focus first on topics where competitors rank with average or weak content but that matter directly to your offers.

Design Pillar Pages and Supporting Content

For each high-impact cluster:

• Plan a comprehensive pillar page that acts as the central guide.
• Outline supporting posts that go deep on subtopics.
• Define internal links to connect every subtopic back to the pillar.
• Map relevant calls to action for each page stage in the buyer’s journey.

This structure mirrors successful Hubspot-style content ecosystems that build authority over time.

Step 6: Monitor, Iterate, and Refine

Competitive content analysis is not a one-time project. A Hubspot-informed strategy treats it as a recurring process that feeds ongoing optimization.

Set a Regular Review Cadence

Schedule time every quarter to:

• Recheck rankings for your priority topics.
• Review new competitor content in your clusters.
• Update your own guides with fresh data and examples.
• Add new internal links from recently published posts.

Over time, your library becomes more robust than anything competitors offer, which is a principle you can see in the evolution of large, successful marketing blogs.

Apply Hubspot Principles With Expert Support

If you want help applying this competitive analysis framework to your own site, you can work with specialist teams who focus on data-driven content and SEO. Agencies like Consultevo can translate a Hubspot-inspired methodology into a tailored roadmap that matches your goals, tools, and resources.

For deeper context on the original methodology that inspired this article, review the source overview on Hubspot’s competitive analysis guide. Adapting that structured approach to your own brand will help you consistently out-research, out-plan, and outpublish your competitors.

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