{ "name": "Compare competitors' organic traffic and top keywords in Google Sheets", "nodes": [ { "parameters": { "content": "## Compare competitors' organic traffic and top keywords in Google Sheets\n\n### Who's it for\nMarketers, SEO consultants and founders who want to know which competitors win on Google, and with which keywords, without a Semrush or Ahrefs seat.\n\n### How it works\n1. Reads competitor domains from the `Competitors` tab (column `domain`).\n2. The **Domain SEO Overview** Actor on Apify (`plainrows/domain-seo-overview`) returns, for each site, estimated monthly Google organic traffic, number of ranking keywords, traffic value, positions and its top traffic keywords.\n3. A Code node turns the top keywords into a readable cell.\n4. One dated row per domain is appended to the `Traffic` tab, so each run adds a snapshot you can chart over time.\n\n### Requirements\n- An Apify account (free plan available) and its API token.\n- A Google Sheets account and a spreadsheet with `Competitors` and `Traffic` tabs.\n- The Apify node is the verified community node `@apify/n8n-nodes-apify` (available on n8n Cloud; on self-hosted n8n install it from Settings > Community nodes).\n\n### How to customize\n- Set `country` (US, GB, DE, FR...) and `topKeywords` (0 = traffic only, the cheapest; 10 to 1,000) in the **Settings** node.\n- Replace the Manual Trigger with a Schedule Trigger for weekly or monthly tracking.\n- Add a Slack or email node to share the snapshot.", "height": 760, "width": 520 }, "id": "4c0a5ebc-7678-51a3-8532-65aa1b2f3753", "name": "Description", "type": "n8n-nodes-base.stickyNote", "typeVersion": 1, "position": [ -660, -340 ] }, { "parameters": { "content": "### Setup\n1. Spreadsheet with tabs `Competitors` (header `domain`) and `Traffic` (empty).\n2. Connect Google Sheets in both Sheets nodes, paste the spreadsheet URL.\n3. Add your Apify credential to *Get organic traffic*.\n4. In **Settings**, set `country` (US, GB, DE, FR...) and `topKeywords` (0 for traffic only, the cheapest; 10 to 1000 for keywords).\n\nSwap the Manual Trigger for a Schedule Trigger to track competitors every week or month.", "height": 320, "width": 420, "color": 7 }, "id": "0eeaaecf-9287-5430-94e9-1a22d26c67de", "name": "Setup", "type": "n8n-nodes-base.stickyNote", "typeVersion": 1, "position": [ 440, -340 ] }, { "parameters": {}, "id": "04779c14-72ac-5c1d-a3a9-fffb276f9638", "name": "Start", "type": "n8n-nodes-base.manualTrigger", "typeVersion": 1, "position": [ -220, 120 ] }, { "parameters": { "assignments": { "assignments": [ { "id": "39d4aaba-f13b-5744-9fab-2fff62c5a4b7", "name": "country", "value": "US", "type": "string" }, { "id": "92c34d31-af67-525d-9c81-cf4810024303", "name": "topKeywords", "value": 10, "type": "number" } ] }, "options": {} }, "id": "e5c21fc4-0535-504a-a8cc-bbfd07170ee6", "name": "Settings", "type": "n8n-nodes-base.set", "typeVersion": 3.4, "position": [ 0, 120 ] }, { "parameters": { "documentId": { "__rl": true, "value": "", "mode": "url" }, "sheetName": { "__rl": true, "value": "Competitors", "mode": "name" }, "options": {} }, "id": "5e0174d5-7294-5179-9313-271be64fe077", "name": "Read competitors", "type": "n8n-nodes-base.googleSheets", "typeVersion": 4.5, "position": [ 220, 120 ], "credentials": { "googleSheetsOAuth2Api": { "id": "", "name": "Google Sheets account" } } }, { "parameters": { "jsCode": "// Collect the domains of column \"domain\" into one list.\nconst domains = $input.all()\n .map((item) => String(item.json.domain ?? '').trim())\n .filter(Boolean);\nif (domains.length === 0) throw new Error('No domain found: add a column named \"domain\" to the Competitors tab.');\nreturn [{ json: { domains } }];" }, "id": "52ec216a-5ff3-5142-8cdc-fb12aa58feb2", "name": "Collect domains", "type": "n8n-nodes-base.code", "typeVersion": 2, "position": [ 440, 120 ] }, { "parameters": { "resource": "Actors", "operation": "Run actor and get dataset", "actorId": "plainrows~domain-seo-overview", "customBody": "={{ JSON.stringify({ domains: $json.domains, country: $('Settings').first().json.country, topKeywords: $('Settings').first().json.topKeywords }) }}", "maxTotalChargeUsd": 5 }, "id": "d064042c-e568-5470-b594-412aa8344b06", "name": "Get organic traffic", "type": "@apify/n8n-nodes-apify.apify", "typeVersion": 1, "position": [ 660, 120 ], "credentials": { "apifyApi": { "id": "", "name": "Apify account" } } }, { "parameters": { "jsCode": "// One row per domain; the top keywords become a readable text cell.\nreturn $input.all().map(({ json: d }) => ({\n json: {\n date: new Date().toISOString().slice(0, 10),\n domain: d.domain,\n dataFound: d.found,\n organicTraffic: d.organicTraffic ?? null,\n organicKeywords: d.organicKeywords ?? null,\n organicTrafficValueUsd: d.organicTrafficValueUsd ?? null,\n paidTraffic: d.paidTraffic ?? null,\n top3Positions: d.organicPositions ? (d.organicPositions.pos1 ?? 0) + (d.organicPositions.pos2to3 ?? 0) : null,\n topKeywords: (d.topKeywords || [])\n .map((k) => `${k.keyword} (#${k.position}, ${Math.round(k.estimatedTraffic)} visits)`)\n .join(' | '),\n country: d.country,\n },\n}));" }, "id": "8082e086-4133-529e-83e7-0e3963e8eff6", "name": "Format rows", "type": "n8n-nodes-base.code", "typeVersion": 2, "position": [ 880, 120 ] }, { "parameters": { "operation": "append", "documentId": { "__rl": true, "value": "", "mode": "url" }, "sheetName": { "__rl": true, "value": "Traffic", "mode": "name" }, "columns": { "mappingMode": "autoMapInputData", "value": {}, "matchingColumns": [], "schema": [] }, "options": {} }, "id": "48ffe987-35e4-5c8b-9e97-95d598561eda", "name": "Append snapshot", "type": "n8n-nodes-base.googleSheets", "typeVersion": 4.5, "position": [ 1100, 120 ], "credentials": { "googleSheetsOAuth2Api": { "id": "", "name": "Google Sheets account" } } } ], "connections": { "Start": { "main": [ [ { "node": "Settings", "type": "main", "index": 0 } ] ] }, "Settings": { "main": [ [ { "node": "Read competitors", "type": "main", "index": 0 } ] ] }, "Read competitors": { "main": [ [ { "node": "Collect domains", "type": "main", "index": 0 } ] ] }, "Collect domains": { "main": [ [ { "node": "Get organic traffic", "type": "main", "index": 0 } ] ] }, "Get organic traffic": { "main": [ [ { "node": "Format rows", "type": "main", "index": 0 } ] ] }, "Format rows": { "main": [ [ { "node": "Append snapshot", "type": "main", "index": 0 } ] ] } }, "pinData": {}, "settings": { "executionOrder": "v1" }, "meta": { "templateCredsSetupCompleted": false } }