You can learn a lot from a competitor's SEO without paid tools. The goal is to find gaps you can exploit, not to copy.
Start with their structure
Look at their navigation and sitemap. What topics do they cover deeply? Which pages do they link in the header? That is where they concentrate authority.
Read their SERP presence
Search your target keywords and note: do they rank? With which page? Do they win a featured snippet or FAQ? Note the format that wins.
Inspect their pages
For a top page, view source or paste the HTML into the free canonical checker to see their title, meta description and structured data. Paste it into the link extractor to see their internal linking and outbound references.
Findings that matter
- Topics they rank for that you do not cover
- Keywords with weak competition they have not targeted
- Structured-data types they use (or miss)
- Content depth and freshness
- Their internal linking hubs
Turn it into a plan
Pick two or three gaps where their coverage is weak, and build genuinely better pages. Do not clone — differentiate with data, examples or a clearer answer. Then monitor with Search Console.