Competitor Pages
Content Metrics
Strategic Insights
SERP Features
SERP Intelligence runs automatically during Keyword Brief creation. The process:
1. Live SERP Fetch ILLIXIS retrieves the top 100 Google search results for your keyword. Real-time data, not cached.
2. Competitor Analysis ILLIXIS analyzes the top 10-20 editorial pages. E-commerce pages and low-quality content are filtered out.
3. Quality Filtering Pages must meet minimum thresholds:
4. AI Classification Remaining pages are analyzed by AI to confirm topical relevance and editorial quality. Pages selling products or off-topic content are excluded.
5. Statistical Calculation Word counts are aggregated. Median and average calculated. Target word count set at 110% of competitive average.
6. Strategic Analysis ILLIXIS identifies content gaps, semantic keywords, and competitive weaknesses. These insights inform your content strategy.
The competition density score (0-10) measures how crowded the SERP is with strong editorial content.
Interpreting scores:
Score is calculated as: (Number of quality editorial pages) / 2
A score of 8 means 16+ strong editorial results are competing. A score of 2 means 4 quality results. The rest are forums, thin content, or e-commerce pages.
ILLIXIS calculates target word count using this formula:
Base calculation: Target = Average Competitor Word Count × 1.1
Intent adjustments:
Competition adjustments:
Final recommendation: The higher value between adjusted base and 110% of SERP average.
Example: Keyword: "best running shoes for flat feet"
SERP data is cached for 24 hours to avoid redundant lookups. If you create multiple briefs for the same keyword within 24 hours, ILLIXIS reuses the cached SERP snapshot.
Cache key: keyword + location + language
Default settings:
If multiple users create briefs for the same keyword on the same day, ILLIXIS fetches SERP data once, not multiple times.
Content gaps are topics competitors don't cover comprehensively. ILLIXIS identifies gaps by analyzing:
Competitor headings: What H2 and H3 sections exist across top-ranking pages?
Semantic keyword coverage: What related terms are competitors missing?
People Also Ask questions: Which PAA questions aren't answered in top results?
Strategic angles: Are competitors overly commercial? Too generic? Missing depth on sub-topics?
Output: Up to 7 content gaps ranked by importance. These gaps become differentiation opportunities in your brief.
Example: Keyword: "how to train a puppy"
Your content includes these sections. Competitors don't. You differentiate.
Semantic keywords are terms competitors rank for that aren't in your primary keyword. ILLIXIS extracts these from competitor content and SERP data.
Filtering: ILLIXIS filters low-quality keywords:
Purpose: These keywords inform content strategy. Sprinkle semantic terms naturally throughout your article to capture related search queries.
Example: Primary keyword: "leather jacket" Semantic keywords: "genuine leather," "bomber style," "jacket care," "leather conditioning," "jacket fit guide"
Up to 30 semantic keywords are extracted per brief.
People Also Ask (PAA) questions are scraped from Google SERP. Up to 8 questions are stored per brief.
Usage: PAA questions become FAQ sections, H2 headings, or subheadings in your content. Answering PAA questions increases chances of appearing in Google's featured snippet.
Example: Keyword: "running shoes for flat feet" PAA questions:
Your article answers all 4. Competitors answer 1-2. You capture more SERP features.
ILLIXIS detects whether Google AI Overview appears for your keyword.
Why it matters: If AI Overview exists, Google is serving answers directly in SERP. Your content may get fewer clicks. Consider:
If the search data fetch times out or returns no results, ILLIXIS uses fallback defaults:
Fallback values:
What happens: Brief creation continues using fallback data. The opportunity score and content strategy adapt. SERP-driven insights are unavailable, but the brief is still usable.
Retry: ILLIXIS automatically retries SERP fetch for failed briefs. A scheduled task runs hourly and re-attempts SERP analysis for briefs that need it.
SERP intelligence is displayed in the Keyword Brief detail page:
Strategic Intelligence Section:
Competitor Analysis Section:
People Also Ask Section:
AI Overview Section:
1. Trust the Recommended Word Count ILLIXIS analyzes real competitor data and calculates optimal length. Manual overrides often undershoot or overshoot competitive benchmarks.
2. Review Content Gaps Before Writing Content gaps are your differentiation strategy. Include these sections in your article to outperform competitors.
3. Use Semantic Keywords Naturally Don't keyword-stuff. Sprinkle semantic terms throughout the article where contextually relevant.
4. Answer PAA Questions People Also Ask questions are proven user intent signals. Answering them increases featured snippet chances.
5. Check AI Overview Status If AI Overview exists, consider whether this keyword is still worth targeting or if you should pivot to a long-tail variation.
6. Understand Competition Density Low density = fast ranking opportunity. High density = longer timeline and stronger differentiation required.
7. Review Competitor URLs Click through to top-ranking pages. Study their structure, tone, and approach. Identify weaknesses ILLIXIS missed.
Q: My brief shows competition density 0.0. Why? No editorial results were returned. Either the keyword is very niche (no quality content exists) or SERP fetch failed. Check the top competitors list. If empty, retry SERP analysis.
Q: Why are there only 5 competitors analyzed instead of 10? Quality filtering excluded low-content pages, e-commerce pages, or off-topic results. AI classification filtered aggressively. This is expected for commercial keywords where product pages dominate.
Q: Target word count is 800 but competitors have 2,000+ words. What happened? The keyword has transactional intent (base count 800). ILLIXIS detected purchase-focused search behavior. If you believe the intent is wrong, manually edit the brief and change search intent to "informational." Target word count will recalculate.
Q: SERP data is missing. How do I retry? Briefs with failed SERP fetches are automatically retried hourly. You can also manually trigger a retry by re-saving the brief.
Q: Can I refresh SERP data for an old brief? Not directly through UI. SERP snapshots expire after 24 hours. Create a new brief for the same keyword to fetch fresh SERP data, or contact support to manually refresh.
Q: Why is median word count different from average? Median is the middle value (50th percentile). Average is the arithmetic mean. Median is more reliable when outliers exist. Example: Competitors have word counts [800, 1200, 1500, 1600, 5000]. Average = 2,020. Median = 1,500. ILLIXIS uses median for target calculation.
Q: Do SERP results differ by location or language? Yes. ILLIXIS defaults to United States + English. If your target audience is in another country, SERP data may not reflect local competition. Contact support to adjust location settings.
Q: What if I disagree with the content gap analysis? Content gaps are AI-generated suggestions, not mandates. Review and decide which gaps are strategically valuable. Ignore gaps that don't align with your brand or audience.
Monitor your keyword positions over time, spot trends before they become problems, and get alerted when rankings shift.
Google Search Console GSC provides search performance data that powers ILLIXIS features like content decay detection, competitive gap discovery, and Maya's search opportunity recommendations.
A Keyword Brief is your strategic foundation for content creation. Enter a keyword and ILLIXIS analyzes the search landscape, identifies what's ranking, spots competitive gaps, and generates a comprehensive creative strategy.
ILLIXIS automatically identifies opportunities to link related content within your site. Every article gets analyzed for semantic relevance to your existing content library, with AI-generated anchor text and contextual placement recommendations.
Keyword Discovery expands your SEO keyword universe by finding related terms, questions, and long-tail variations from seed keywords. AI filtering removes irrelevant results, leaving actionable keyword opportunities.
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