Competitor intelligence agent: SERP monitoring + summary with Thordata + OpenAI

Who this is for?

This workflow is designed for:

• Marketing analysts, SEO specialists, and content strategists who want automated intelligence on their online competitors.
• Growth teams that need quick insights from SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) without manual data scraping.
• Agencies managing multiple clients’ SEO presence and tracking competitive positioning in real-time.

What problem is this workflow solving?

Manual competitor research is time-consuming, fragmented, and often lacks actionable insights. This workflow automates the entire process by:

• Fetching SERP results from multiple search engines (Google, Bing, Yandex, DuckDuckGo) using Thordata’s Scraper API.
• Using OpenAI GPT-4.1-mini to analyze, summarize, and extract keyword opportunities, topic clusters, and competitor weaknesses.
• Producing structured, JSON-based insights ready for dashboards or reports.

Essentially, it transforms raw SERP data into strategic marketing intelligence — saving hours of research time.

What this workflow does

Here’s a step-by-step overview of how the workflow operates:

Step 1: Manual Trigger

Initiates the process on demand when you click “Execute Workflow.”

Step 2: Set the Input Query

The “Set Input Fields” node defines your search query, such as:

> “Top SEO strategies for e-commerce in 2025”

Step 3: Multi-Engine SERP Fetching

Four HTTP request tools send the query to Thordata Scraper API to retrieve results from:

• Google
• Bing
• Yandex
• DuckDuckGo

Each uses Bearer Authentication configured via “Thordata SERP Bearer Auth Account.”

Step 4: AI Agent Processing

The LangChain AI Agent orchestrates the data flow, combining inputs and preparing them for structured analysis.

Step 5: SEO Analysis

• The SEO Analyst node (powered by GPT-4.1-mini) parses SERP results into a structured schema, extracting:

  • Competitor domains
  • Page titles & content types
  • Ranking positions
  • Keyword overlaps
  • Traffic share estimations
  • Strengths and weaknesses

Step 6: Summarization

The Summarize the content node distills complex data into a concise executive summary using GPT-4.1-mini.

Step 7: Keyword & Topic Extraction

The Keyword and Topic Analysis node extracts:

• Primary and secondary keywords
• Topic clusters and content gaps
• SEO strength scores
• Competitor insights

Step 8: Output Formatting

The Structured Output Parser ensures results are clean, validated JSON objects for further integration (e.g., Google Sheets, Notion, or dashboards).

4. Setup

Prerequisites

• n8n Cloud or Self-Hosted instance
• Thordata Scraper API Key (for SERP data retrieval)
• OpenAI API Key (for GPT-based reasoning)

Setup Steps

1. Add Credentials

   • Go to Credentials → Add New → HTTP Bearer Auth → Paste your Thordata API token.
   • Add OpenAI API Credentials for the GPT model.

2. Import the Workflow

   • Copy the provided JSON or upload it into your n8n instance.

3. Set Input

   • In the “Set the Input Fields” node, replace the example query with your desired topic, e.g.: “Google Search for Top SEO strategies for e-commerce in 2025”

4. Execute

   • Click “Execute Workflow” to run the analysis.

How to customize this workflow to your needs

Modify Search Query

Change the search_query variable in the Set Node to any target keyword or topic.

Change AI Model

In the OpenAI Chat Model nodes, you can switch from gpt-4.1-mini to another model for better quality or lower cost.

Extend Analysis

Edit the JSON schema in the “Information Extractor” nodes to include:

• Sentiment analysis of top pages
• SERP volatility metrics
• Content freshness indicators

Export Results

Connect the output to:

• Google Sheets / Airtable for analytics
• Notion / Slack for team reporting
• Webhook / Database for automated storage

Summary

This workflow creates an AI-powered Competitor Intelligence System inside n8n by blending:

• Real-time SERP scraping (Thordata)
• Automated AI reasoning (OpenAI GPT-4.1-mini)
• Structured data extraction (LangChain Information Extractors)