Competitor Analysis ยท Competitor Timeline

Competitor content analysis with a visible source for every page

Competitor evidence is only useful if you can see where it came from and when. ContentGem discovers candidate pages through the search API you configure, preserves provider and capture metadata, and keeps the evidence attached to the decision it informed.

Your search account

Google Programmable Search or Brave Search API, configured with your own key and quota.

No scraping

Only the selected provider is contacted. Results are filtered for keyword relevance and page quality.

Verified changes over time

The Competitor Timeline reviews verified competitor changes and their relevance to your plan.

From comparison to decision

Overlap review, then one action type

A gap is not automatically a new article. After a multidimensional overlap review, each topic receives exactly one decision.

Source: multidimensional overlap review, ContentGem 23.9.0 readme.
DecisionWhen the evidence points thereTypical follow-up
CreateNo page covers the intent and the cluster supports a new asset.Brief, draft, editorial review, publish.
UpdateA page matches the intent but its evidence or coverage is behind.Content Health update plan with rollback.
ExpandCoverage is partial and the same URL should hold more.Section-level additions inside the existing page.
MergeTwo pages compete for the same job.Consolidation plus internal-link repair.
RedirectA page can no longer be made useful or coherent.Redirect and link cleanup.
RepositionThe page is useful but aimed at the wrong intent or audience.Reframe, retitle, relink.
SkipDemand or fit does not justify the work now.Skip with a stated reason, kept in the record.

Keyword scope you control

Analyse one saved keyword or every saved keyword in a complete cluster.

Provenance kept

Provider, capture metadata and evidence status stay attached to the analysis and to any draft it produced.

Six-hour cache

Repeated discovery reuses cached results so your provider quota is not spent twice on the same query.

What ContentGem will not claim

Competitor statements need current, attributable evidence

ContentGem does not maintain a proprietary backlink index, a rank-tracking database or a market-share model, and it does not compare feature lists from memory. Where a competitor claim cannot be attributed to current evidence, the claim is left out.

Provider constraint. Google limits its Custom Search JSON API to existing customers and has announced discontinuation on 1 January 2027. Plan for Brave Search API if you are configuring competitor discovery now.

Questions

Competitor discovery answers

Does competitor analysis require a search-provider account?
Yes. Configure your own Google Programmable Search or Brave Search API account in Settings. Without credentials, competitor discovery stays off and ContentGem shows a limited-analysis explanation instead of scraping public search pages.
Which provider should I choose?
Google limits its Custom Search JSON API to existing customers and has announced discontinuation on 1 January 2027. Brave Search API is the alternative ContentGem supports. Both are configured with your own key.
What data is sent to the provider?
For Google: your API key and Search Engine ID, the search term, requested result count, interface language and country code. For Brave: your API key in the subscription header, the search term, result count, search language, country code and Safe Search setting.
How often are results fetched?
Results are cached for up to six hours to avoid duplicate API requests against your quota.