You must have wondered why your competitor’s website consistently ranks higher on the first page of search engines. Indeed, the world of SEO is significant and a highly competitive space that might seem overwhelming. But here’s a secret: peeking at your competitors’ SEO strategy can make a big difference!
A thorough SEO competitive research & analysis will give you an overview of their strengths and weaknesses so you can tweak your SEO strategy accordingly. SEO competitor analysis enables you to dive deep into what your competitors are doing with keywords, content, and backlinks in SEO and, second, use that (data-based) knowledge to improve your SEO campaign. In other words, the goal is to understand how your competitors are implementing SEO strategies, what keywords they are targeting, the quality of their content, and the effectiveness of their backlink strategies.
Further, this guide will take you through the nitty-gritty of an SEO competitor analysis. By the end, you’ll be able to do this and boost your SEO game.
Why is Competitor Analysis in SEO so vital?
Often, businesses consider their direct market rivals (in their niche industry) as their only SEO competitors. However, the fact is that anyone who is writing for the web, for the products & services you deal with, is your online competitor. For instance, a general informational website that doesn’t sell & might do affiliate marketing or an influencer’s website giving their reviews on products & services.
Hence, it becomes all the more important to analyze because you have more competition online than you thought earlier!
Identify your real online competitors!
SEO competitor analysis- How do you conduct it full-fledgedly?
- Spot Your Niche Competitors
Identifying your niche competitors involves locating the top 10 websites in organic search results for your target keywords. You can recognize these competitors by conducting individual searches on search engines like Google for your target keywords & gain insights into their strategies. Analyzing their ranking positions, keyword choices, and overall performance helps you adapt and enhance your SEO approach. Now that you are fully aware of who your online competitors are, this is where an SEO competitive analysis should begin. - Fill in Keyword Gaps
Source: SemrushThrough SEO competitor tools like Semrush, you can conduct keyword gaps. It means finding the keywords your website isn’t ranking for, but your competitors are. It’s like discovering the missing pieces in a puzzle. These words are opportunities to get more people to visit your site. So, by adding these keywords, you improve your website and attract more visitors. This way, you have all the right words to be found easily online. - Do a SWOT Analysis
Detect the strengths & weaknesses of your online competitors by considering these factors:
– Authority: Checking competitors’ authority scores is crucial when conducting competitor SEO analysis. In SEO, authority refers to the credibility and influence a website holds in the eyes of search engines. It is often quantified through an Authority Score, which assesses the overall strength and reliability of a website’s content. This score considers factors such as the quality and quantity of backlinks, domain age, and content relevance.
– Content: Analyzing content is essential in SEO competitor analysis because content attracts visitors to a website. By looking at your competitors’ most successful pages, you don’t have to guess what content will attract the most visitors. Scrutinize their web pages and look for patterns, such as whether the content is primarily long-form or short, if there are many videos or images, and whether they focus on product pages, blog posts, or something else. Use your answers to these questions to guide the creation of your content. This approach removes guesswork and allows you to replicate what’s already successful but in an improved manner.
– Technical SEO: When conducting competitor analysis, checking technical SEO metrics is crucial because it reveals how well a competitor’s website is structured and optimized for search engines. For example, examining page load times can help you understand if your competitor provides a faster and more user-friendly experience. Checking mobile-friendliness metrics is essential in a world where many users access websites on their phones. Additionally, assessing how well search engines index a competitor’s site gives insights into their overall search engine visibility. By understanding and comparing these technical SEO metrics, you can identify improvement areas in your website and gain a competitive advantage in online rankings.
– New Keyword Rankings: When conducting competitor analysis, you must check how well your SEO competitors rank for new keywords. This metric offers insights into their ability to adapt to changing trends and customer preferences. For instance, if a competitor consistently ranks well for fresh keywords related to industry trends or new products, it indicates a proactive approach to SEO. By monitoring new keyword rankings of competitors, you can identify emerging opportunities and trends in your industry. Evaluate each keyword separately, considering the need for new pages like blog posts or product pages based on the specified search intent.
– Lost Keyword Rankings: When a competitor loses rankings for specific words, it’s a chance for your website to gain from it. This can happen due to changes in Google’s rules or other reasons. However, these lost keywords create an opportunity. If you have pages on your site targeting these keywords but not ranking well, you can make them better. For instance, ensure the page aligns with what users are searching for, fix any issues with SEO on the page, like not having enough links, and update the content with newer information. This way, you can benefit from your competitor’s loss and improve your site. - Analyze Sites on a Page-by-Page Basis
Further, analyze competitor pages individually, especially those ranking for keywords you still need to target, and consider these crucial on-page SEO factors in your SEO competitor analysis.
– Title Tags: Title tags are important because they tell Google what your pages are about, and improving them is an easy way to enhance your rankings. It’s helpful to check your competitors’ title tags, especially those outranking you, and consider how they use keywords, where they place them in the title, and if they include catchy words like “easy” or “best.” Doing this lets you get ideas to improve your title tags and rankings.
– Meta Descriptions: A meta tag is a brief text that summarizes what a webpage is about and appears in the search results. Even though meta descriptions don’t directly affect how high a page ranks, they can influence how many people click on it. People often need to remember meta descriptions, especially on big websites. So, it’s essential to remember them. Check how your SEO competitors use meta descriptions, see what works, and make changes to yours based on that. For example, you can include essential information about your page and make it attractive to encourage more clicks.
– URL Structure: How your website’s addresses (URLs) are set up can make it easier or harder for people to move around and find what they’re looking for. A URL structure should be easy to understand and well-organized. Look at how your competitors arrange their URLs, especially on pages that rank higher than yours. Ask yourself: Do they include keywords in their web addresses? If yes, how? Are their web addresses short and simple? Do their web addresses tell you what the page is about? If you find ways to make your web addresses better, you can make changes so they are just as good as, or even better than, your competitors’ URLs. For example, add relevant keywords to your web addresses to make them more descriptive.
– Content & Keywords: In your SEO competitor research, analyze the pages ranking higher than yours by reviewing their content. Consider: How are they incorporating keywords throughout the page? Are there additional related words you could include in your content? Is the writing of high quality? Do they cover topics with a similar level of detail as you do? By addressing these questions, you can enhance your content and strive to match or surpass your competitors’ pages. - Analyzing User Interface & Design
Checking how a website looks and how easy it is to use is a crucial part of competitor analysis. This is known as analyzing the user interface and design. It’s like evaluating if a store is neat and if it’s simple to find what you’re looking for. For example, you can look at your competitors’ websites and notice the colors they use, where the buttons are placed, and how easy it is to navigate. By understanding what works well on their sites, you can improve your website to make it more attractive and user-friendly for…
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