If you’re a SaaS founder waiting for your product blog to rank for generic keywords like “project management tips,” you’re going to be waiting a long time. Those terms are dominated by media sites, established brands, and content farms with years of domain authority behind them.
There’s a faster path, and it’s hiding in plain sight: write about your competitors and the adjacent tools your customers already use.Why This WorksPeople searching “[Competitor] alternatives,” “[Competitor] vs [Competitor],” or “[Competitor] pricing” are not casually browsing. They’re actively shopping. They already know they need a tool in your category — they just haven’t picked one yet. That’s about as high-intent as search traffic gets.
Compare that to someone searching “how to manage a remote team.” They might need your product, or they might just want a listicle. The competitor searcher is already three steps further down the funnel.There’s also a supply-and-demand angle. Your competitors are unlikely to write “Us vs. [Your Product]” comparison posts — nobody wants to give oxygen to a rival. That leaves a content gap that’s easy to fill and often has surprisingly low keyword competition, even for products with big marketing budgets.
The Content Types That Work
Comparison pages (“X vs Y”)
Direct, honest comparisons of your product against a named competitor. These convert well because the reader is actively deciding between the two.Alternative pages (“X alternatives”)
People searching this are often already unhappy with a competitor — maybe due to pricing, missing features, or poor support. Meet them with a clear case for switching.”
Best [category] tools” roundups
Broader roundups that include your competitors and your own product. Yes, mentioning competitors here feels counterintuitive, but it builds trust and captures searches your dedicated comparison pages might miss.
Adjacent tool content
Write about software your customers use alongside yours, not instead of yours. A project management tool might publish “Best Slack Integrations for Remote Teams” — capturing an audience with clear overlap but zero direct competition for the click.
How to Do This Without Sounding Biased
The biggest risk with this strategy is credibility. A comparison page that reads like a sales pitch gets dismissed instantly.Be genuinely fair. Acknowledge where the competitor is actually better — cheaper plan, better mobile app, whatever it is. This is what makes the rest of the page believable.Use specifics, not adjectives. “Loads in 1.2 seconds” beats “blazing fast.” Specifics read as researched; adjectives read as marketing.
Update regularly. Competitor pricing and features change. A stale comparison page erodes trust fast — and search engines notice abandoned content too.Don’t skip the downsides of your own product. Every tool has trade-offs. Naming yours makes the whole page more credible.
Pick your top three competitors and your top five adjacent tools. Write one comparison page and one alternatives page per competitor, plus a couple of adjacent-tool roundups. That’s roughly ten pieces of content — enough to start seeing traffic within a few months while your primary keyword content builds authority in the background.
This isn’t a replacement for a broader content strategy. It’s a shortcut to the highest-intent traffic available to you, using searches your competitors can’t easily compete for.