Building a blog without looking at what already exists would be a little like opening a café without checking what’s on the street. We did our homework — here is what we found about our competitors, and where we stand.
As part of building our articles, we ran a keyword and competitor analysis using SemRush to understand who is already ranking in the skincare ingredient space, how they are positioning themselves, and which keywords are worth going after. We looked at five competitors, evaluated their editorial angle, and mapped our own keyword list against the landscape. This is what we found.
01 The competition – Five blogs, five different approaches
The skincare content space is not short of players. But once you look closely, they are not all doing the same thing — and that gap is exactly where we are trying to fit. Let’s try to find out who else is out there and how do we compare!
SkinTalks – visit here
Promotional and brand-oriented
SkinTalks is the blog arm of a French Korean skincare retailer. Its content is centred around Korean beauty products and trends — topics like eco-friendly packaging, specific brand launches, and K-beauty routines. The editorial tone sits firmly on the promotional side: the blog exists to drive product discovery and sales within its own catalogue, rather than to educate readers about ingredients or formulas independently of brand affiliation.
Its top-ranking keywords — “beauty and water”, “biodance france”, “skincare coréenne” — are mostly brand or niche terms, which limits its reach beyond existing K-beauty enthusiasts. Organic traffic is estimated at 132.9K monthly visits, which is significant, but built on a very specific audience.
| 132.9k Organic traffic/month | 834 Total keywords ranked | 828 Backlinks | 38 Domain authority | 232 Trust score |
Fresh UE Skincare Glossary – visit here
Promotional
This is the blog of Fresh, an established luxury skincare brand. Its ingredient glossary is beautifully produced but unambiguously tied to its own product line — every explanation of an ingredient leads back to a Fresh product that contains it. It ranks exceptionally well (top keyword “fresh” at 90.5K monthly searches, position 1), but that traffic is almost entirely brand-driven rather than informational.
With a domain authority of 51 and 141.9K backlinks, Fresh has the infrastructure of a major brand. Competing on its primary keywords is not realistic for us — but it confirms there is real search demand for ingredient-focused content. The key difference is that their content serves the brand; ours serves the reader.
| 279k Organic traffic/month | 23k Total keywords ranked | 141.9k Backlinks | 51 Domain authority | 7.5k Trust score |
Ever.com – visit here
Mixed
Ever takes a format similar to ours — an A–Z ingredient guide — but it is still a brand blog at heart. The content is more educational than SkinTalks or Fresh, but the ingredient entries consistently highlight Ever’s own formulations. It ranks for “ever skincare” and “everskincare” at position 1, which again points to a mostly brand-loyal audience rather than informational searchers.
Domain authority sits at 25 and organic traffic at 2K per month — more modest numbers that reflect a newer or smaller brand. This is a more realistic point of comparison for us in the short term, and its A–Z format shows the approach can work. The difference is that we are not tied to promoting any product.
| 2K Organic traffic / month | 630 Total keywords ranked | 9.6K Backlinks | 25 Domain Authority | 1.1K Trust Score |
Ingredient Secret – visit here
Informational and fear-driven angle
This is the most editorially independent blog in our competitor set — it is not attached to a brand and positions itself as a neutral information source. However, its chosen angle — “toxic ingredients to avoid” — leans into fear-based framing rather than neutral education. Content tends to be alarmist/urgent in tone, which drives clicks but can oversimplify complex ingredient science.
With a domain authority of 21 and 1.6K monthly organic visits, it is modest in reach. It ranks for terms like “skincare blog” and “skin care products blog” at position 6, which suggests it struggles to break through on competitive keywords. Its approach is the closest to ours in terms of independence, but we differ significantly in tone — we aim to inform, not alarm.
| 1.6K Organic traffic / month | 197 Total keywords ranked | 364 Backlinks | 21 Domain Authority | 182 Trust Score |
Dermapenworld – visit here
Scientific and professional/clinical
Dermapenworld is a professional dermatology device brand, and its blog reflects that clinical positioning. The actives cheat sheet is genuinely informative and scientifically grounded — the most rigorous content in our competitor set. However, it is written for skincare professionals and aesthetic practitioners, not for everyday readers building a home routine.
Its numbers are the strongest: 70.2K monthly organic visits, domain authority of 38, and 43.1K backlinks, with a SERP position of 21.3K for its top keyword “derma pen”. It occupies a different audience entirely from ours — which means we are not really competing, but we can learn from its content depth.
| 70.2k Organic traffic / month | 21.3k Total keywords ranked | 43.1k Backlinks | 38 Domain Authority | 2k Trust Score |
02 Our positioning in one sentence
Every competitor we analysed is either: tied to a brand, driven by a specific niche audience (K-beauty, clinical professionals), or leans on emotional framing (fear, trends) to generate traffic. None of them occupies the space we are aiming for, which is genuinely independent and science-grounded. We want to write for everyday people who want to understand what they are putting on their skin — without being sold to.
That gap is our opportunity. Our domain authority is currently very low as a new blog. It means high-volume and high-difficulty keywords like “morning routine”, “anti-aging”, or “dry skin” are not realistic short-term targets. But low-difficulty, high-relevance keywords like “active skincare” (difficulty 9), “toner” (difficulty 29), or “clean face” (difficulty 35 with 52.8K volume) are entirely within reach if our content is strong, consistent, and well-structured.
Our competitive edge in one line: we are the only blog in this analysis that is entirely independent, non-promotional, and written in plain language for curious everyday readers. That is a positioning most of our competitors cannot replicate — because they are brands first and publishers second.
03 The space is there, we just have to fill it
The competitor landscape confirmed something we already believed: there is a real gap for skincare content that is genuinely educational, brand-neutral, and accessible. The biggest players in the space are brands with large budgets and established audiences — and that means we cannot compete on volume. But we can compete on trust, clarity, and consistency. Our keyword strategy reflects that: focus on what we can realistically rank for now, build authority over time, and never compromise the editorial independence that makes us different.