Topical Dominance measures how strongly your domain performs across specific topics compared to selected competitors. If competitors aren't configured correctly, your heatmaps, topic breakdowns, and dominance scores may appear incomplete or inaccurate.

This guide explains how to add competitors, edit or remove competitors, fix common issues, and follow best practices for accurate comparisons.

## **📍 Where to Find Competitor Settings**

Inside the dashboard, go to Left Sidebar → Site Metrics → Topical Dominance.

![Topical Dominance navigation path](https://downloads.intercomcdn.com/i/o/xx2wxnfz/2079709701/c37ce6234d0396f3f431565eb19f/image.png?expires=1786860000&signature=6d226bb0d7f0978935c3fdb7802b77e370908d74af97810adb5f73cdbd055770&req=diAgH85%2BlIZfWPMW3nq%2BgfBj9ysPw1T5aPpxkz3Q0ZhoMWhTTQzXNk%2FHbSjH%0AlULPuOtgJ4yuamTaId5W8uNBmNs%3D%0A)

Once inside, locate the Competitors panel, click Edit competitors, and the Add Competitors modal will open.

## **➕ How to Add Competitors**

![Adding a competitor domain](https://downloads.intercomcdn.com/i/o/xx2wxnfz/2079713945/8b9721ab86d6c76e2c732b3bfc63/image.png?expires=1786860000&signature=5ada80c14185ae3dffdbddd21fe6a1a654ad31de933e8018a6cf79318fdf1f21&req=diAgH85%2FnohbXPMW3nq%2BgVlTFlBRHCCEAIWQ8x2Jvici%2FfKs2qAfiCbXXNlg%0AF4%2F5i2UPzz%2BSvsRYC8aYE4HiBIs%3D%0A)

When the modal opens, enter a competitor's root domain (for example, domain.com), click Add competitors if adding multiple (up to 5 competitor domains), and click Analyze. You must add at least one competitor for analysis to run.

![Analyze button](https://downloads.intercomcdn.com/i/o/xx2wxnfz/2079715811/7ddd61c75cba5236a641ddc6d18c/image.png?expires=1786860000&signature=ed370f557bbfea96efabd8777d154420f5f3f99383a93af5888e06380aebc6ec&req=diAgH85%2FmIleWPMW3nq%2BgaaB%2F2wyki4HivxbWpRDhEJUoCrAG76xPU3%2FOxJe%0ADb1lZqvAzG0i2sdecqIfybDqvWY%3D%0A)

## **✏️ How to Remove or Replace Competitors**

Inside the competitor modal, click the trash icon next to any domain to remove it, add a new domain, and click Analyze again to refresh the data. You can update competitors at any time without losing your project.

## **🔎 Common Symptoms and What They Mean**

**Heatmap not loading** — usually happens when too many competitors are added at once, or a domain is invalid or malformed.

**Topic Breakdown shows empty rows** — often caused by no overlapping keyword universe, a country mismatch, or a recently added competitor still processing.

**Scores showing as 0** — may occur if the domain has low topical coverage, an incorrect region is selected, or the competitor is too unrelated.

**Data seems inconsistent** — often caused by mixing subdomains and root domains, different country markets, or different business models.

## **⚙️ Recommended Setup (Best Practices)**

Use 3–5 competitors maximum, since adding too many domains can slow processing and dilute clarity. Use root domains only (for example, example.com — avoid paths like example.com/service-page or subdomains like blog.example.com). Keep the same country selected for all domains, and compare similar business types (dealership vs. dealership, SaaS vs. SaaS, local service vs. local service) rather than mixing fundamentally different models.

## **🚨 Important: This Is Not a Data Loss Issue**

If results appear blank or incomplete, this does not mean data is lost. Topical Dominance recalculates comparative topic clusters every time competitors change, and large comparative runs may temporarily affect visualization until processing completes. If needed, remove all competitors, add them back incrementally one at a time, and re-run the analysis.

## **📊 Understanding What Competitors Impact**

Competitors directly affect heatmap visualization, specific topic coverage, topic gap analysis, comparative dominance scores, and keyword overlap modeling. The more strategically chosen your competitors are, the more meaningful your insights become.

## **🎯 Strategic Tip**

Topical Dominance is most powerful when used to identify semantic gaps, discover undercovered topic clusters, prioritize content expansion, and benchmark authority growth over time. Choosing the right competitors turns this from a visual tool into a strategic roadmap.

Your competitors define your comparison universe. If they're too broad, too different, or too many, your insights get diluted. If they're relevant, aligned, and strategically selected, Topical Dominance becomes one of the most powerful authority-mapping tools inside Search Atlas.

If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type **human teammate** to be connected with a member of our team.