Your competitors are publishing content. Here's what they're writing.

Go Google the main thing your outdoor business does. “Whitewater rafting in West Virginia” or “guided fly fishing trips Montana” or whatever your version is. Look at who shows up on page one. Some of those are directories and tourism boards. But some are your direct competitors. Other outfitters, other guides, other lodges. And a lot of them are there because they’re publishing content you’re not.

A competitor content analysis for your outdoor recreation business doesn’t require expensive tools or an SEO background. It takes an afternoon, some focused Googling, and a willingness to look honestly at what your competitors are doing better. Here’s how to do it and what to do with what you find.

Start with a Google search, not a tool

Forget the paid SEO platforms for now. The simplest version of competitor research is typing your most important keywords into Google and seeing who shows up.

Make a list of five to ten searches your potential customers would run. Mix broad and specific: “rafting near Asheville,” “best time to kayak the Buffalo River,” “family fishing trips in Yellowstone,” “how much does a guided rafting trip cost.” Now search each one and write down which competitors appear.

You’ll start noticing the same two or three businesses showing up repeatedly. Those are your real content competitors, the ones Google already trusts for the topics that matter to your bookings.

Pay attention to what those pages actually are. Is it their homepage? A blog post? A dedicated trip page? If a competitor ranks for “best rafting trips in Colorado” with a detailed 1,200-word blog post and you don’t have anything targeting that phrase, you’ve found a gap.

Read their blogs like a strategist

Once you’ve identified your top three or four content competitors, go read their blogs. Not casually. With a purpose. You’re looking for patterns.

How often do they publish? Some outdoor businesses post weekly. Most post occasionally. If a competitor has published twelve posts in the last six months and you’ve published zero, that’s a volume gap worth understanding.

What topics do they cover? Make a rough list. You’ll probably see trip guides, gear advice, seasonal updates, local area content, and FAQ-style posts. Note which categories they lean into and which they ignore.

Which posts seem to perform? You can’t see their traffic numbers, but you can check indicators. Does the post show up when you Google its topic? Does it have comments or social shares? If a competitor’s blog post ranks on page one for a keyword you care about, it’s working for them.

Look at what’s missing, too. Maybe every rafting company on your river writes about the rapids but nobody’s written a solid “what to expect on your first rafting trip” page. Maybe the fishing guides in your area all write about fly selection but nobody covers “where to stay near the Green River.” Those blind spots are your opportunities.

Use free tools to dig deeper

You don’t need a $200/month SEO subscription to do this well. A few free tools will get you most of the way.

Google Search Console (your own) shows you which queries bring people to your site. Compare that list to the topics your competitors cover. If they’re ranking for searches you don’t even appear in, you know where to focus.

Ubersuggest’s free tier lets you plug in a competitor’s domain and see their top-ranking pages and keywords. The free version limits how many results you get, but even a partial list reveals what’s driving their organic traffic. Try it with your top two competitors and look for keywords where they rank and you don’t.

Google’s “People also ask” and autocomplete are underrated. Search a core keyword and look at the related questions Google suggests. These are real queries from real people. If your competitors haven’t answered one of those questions with a dedicated page, you can.

A manual blog audit is still the most useful exercise. Spend 30 minutes on a competitor’s site with a spreadsheet open. Log every blog post title, a rough topic category, and whether it ranks for anything obvious. You’ll see their content strategy laid out in front of you, including where it’s thin.

Find the gaps that matter

Not every gap is worth filling. You’re looking for topics that sit at the intersection of three things: your competitors haven’t covered it well, people are actually searching for it, and it’s relevant to booking your trips.

A competitor might not have a post about the history of fly tying. That’s a gap, but it’s not going to book trips. A competitor who hasn’t written “best time to fish the Madison River” when that phrase gets 300 searches a month? That’s a gap worth filling today.

The most valuable gaps in outdoor recreation tend to be:

Specific trip planning queries that competitors answer with thin, generic pages. If the top result for “what to wear whitewater rafting” is a 150-word blurb on someone’s FAQ page, you can beat it with a thorough, photo-rich post.

Local area content that nobody owns. “Things to do in Bryson City besides rafting” or “where to eat after fishing in West Yellowstone.” These pages pull in visitors who are already planning a trip to your area.

Comparison and decision-stage content. “Nantahala vs. Pigeon River for family rafting” or “guided vs. DIY fishing trips in Colorado.” If nobody’s written the comparison page, the person searching that query has nowhere to land. Until you publish one.

Turn research into a publishing plan

A list of gaps isn’t useful until it becomes a list of posts with dates next to them. Once you’ve identified ten or fifteen gaps worth targeting, prioritize them.

Put the high-intent, close-to-booking topics first. “Best guided rafting trip for families on the Ocoee” beats “history of whitewater rafting in Tennessee.” Both might be worth writing eventually, but one connects directly to bookings.

Then slot them into your calendar with enough lead time for Google to rank them before the relevant season. A post targeting summer searches needs to go live by January or February.

The off-season is when this work pays off most. You have the time to research, write, and publish without trips pulling you away. And your competitors who go dark after September? They’re creating new gaps for you to fill every year.

Do this analysis once a season, maybe twice. Things change. Competitors publish new content, old posts drop in rankings, new search trends emerge. An afternoon of research every six months keeps your content strategy pointed at real opportunities instead of guesses.