The website you have created might rank number one for specific keywords today. However, you have many competitors, and you will learn to optimize their content and outrank your site. This is why the SEO competitive analysis needs to be an ongoing initiative for any business.
There are many businesses out there that take competitor analysis for granted. However, there is always something that can be improved to get better results and stay ahead of the competition. Several data-driven marketing strategies like the SEO keyword competition analysis can help you learn several tactics that are working for the competitors. You can use this knowledge in the SEO campaigns that you conduct.
What is data-driven marketing?
Several decisions are made in a digital marketing campaign, and data-driven marketing is based on the data collected from research. Most of this data is about a particular business’s target audience. SEO falls under the data-driven means of marketing. The two prime examples of data-driven marketing are keyword competition analysis and competitor analysis SEO.
The primary goal of data-driven marketing is to ensure that any marketing campaign answers the customers’ needs. There are various elements such as website traffic, conversion rates and online reviews that will help you understand what people want from your business.
What is SEO Competitor analysis?
An SEO competitor analysis is the type of analysis that involves researching the content and several other elements of the content like the several links and the keywords a competitor has used. It is an SEO comparison between two websites that are competing with each other.
The competitor analysis SEO can also include the following-
- SEO Keyword competition analysis.
- Top content analysis.
- Keyword gap analysis.
- Competitor backlink analysis.
The SEO competitive analysis is very effective, and you can also see what the other competitors are doing and also apply it to your SEO.
Most SEO marketers use an SEO competitor analysis tool to make the process streamlined. Thus, you can collect massive data without too much work. These tools are also helpful in generating competitor analysis SEO efforts.
How to do Competitor analysis?
You can do competitive analysis in a few steps. Below are some of the steps-
1. Identify your true competitors
The very first step of learning how to do a competitor analysis SEO is to recognize the competition. Many tools recommend learning who your actual competitors are when it comes to your keywords as not each and every website that ranks higher than yours for a keyword are your contemporaries.
You also need to be thorough and accurate in the process of discovering who the true SEO competition is in your SEO analysis.
2. Conduct page analysis
A wise step towards conducting a competitive analysis is by taking a look at a competing website and its top-performing pages. You should take a look at what keywords these pages are using and how they are inculcated in their content.
This process is called gap analysis. This is the stage of the competitor SEO analysis where you are likely to find the keywords on a competitor’s site that they are ranking for and your website is not.
One aspect of how to do competitor analysis is to look out for a site’s backlink statistics. This analysis involves looking at which sites are linking back to their original content. It could also affect their domain rank and authority. You can gain valuable insight with this technique. You can also conduct a similar link-building strategy.
You can also take a keen look at these qualities from a competitor’s backlinks-
- Number of backlinks.
- Relevancy of the linked content.
- The domain authority of the linked
3. Focus on the keywords with high ROI
It is an obvious fact that popular businesses can rank for dozens of top competitive keywords. Large companies also have the budget to ensure that they will always rank for the top keywords.
You should think about your high-profile product or service and focus on the efforts on ranking for the keywords that will help one generate more leads for the products. It also helps you create content that is unique and relevant to your customer base.
4. Create and execute a content plan
After collecting the data, the very next step is using this data to create an SEO competitor analysis report. You can build your SEO content strategy based on this report. For making a content plan, you should create a keyword list and save it in a simple spreadsheet.
There are several tools that have a built in feature of adding the selected keywords or the content ideas into a specific list. You can export all of this in a spreadsheet and create a quick SEO analysis report.
Many people make use of the On-page SEO services. These are the optimization services that optimize your website to improve its visibility in the search results on various types of search engines.
5. Track your progress
Once you are done publishing the new content and re-optimizing the old ones, all you need to do is track their performance. One should carry out regular keyword audits and the competitor analysis SEO reports should also be generated for checking whether the competitive analysis strategy worked.
Any kind of competitive analysis can help you-
- Benchmark and amplify your current SEO performance.
- Identify all the areas of improvement in the SEO strategy that you have adopted.
- Reveal the weakness of your competitors.
- Discover the winning strategies of your competitors.
Why is SEO competitive analysis important?
You should run a competitive analysis as running a competitive analysis allows you and gives you the opportunities to review your overall competitors and search how the landscape works for important keywords. You should constantly need to monitor your SEO performance to ensure that you do not lose your rank to your competitors.
Finding your competitors
The first step to this is by making a list of all the people you consider as your competitors. You should focus on the websites that rank highly, and if you’re working on a new website, you may not know who your competitors are.
Your competitors are divided into four types of categories such as-
- Niche players
These are the new or small companies with smaller audience size and a low growth rate.
- Game changers
The game changers are the emerging companies with a smaller audience size but the ones who are growing quickly.
- Leaders
The leaders are the ones with a larger audience size and a rapid growth rate.
- Established players
The established players are the companies with a large audience.
Deciding who not to compete with
It is not compulsory to outrank all the websites. For identifying which sites aren’t your competitors, you should consider the factors such as current ranking, time investment and the resources. It is an obvious fact that you need more effort to outrank the sites that are much bigger and established than you. It can also affect your overall strategy.
You should also focus on the competitors that can impact your traffic the most.
Analyze your competitor’s top pages
You should analyze and identify the most popular pages of the competitors. Following are the things you should take note of-
- Which pages rank for the most keywords?
- What all pages have the most traffic?
There are competitors that can drive considerable traffic to a particular page or set of pages.
Identify the strengths and the weaknesses
You should identify the differences in the strengths and the weaknesses between you and your competitors.
Technical SEO
If you are suffering from the same technical SEO issues or you are having coding issues that makes it hard for the search engine to crawl the pages effectively, you should make those improvements to your site resulting in more visibility.
You should also check the page speed. As the sites get larger, the large scripts can slow the website down.
Ensure that you employ the following:
1. Use SSL
SSL or the security socket layer is the security technology that creates an encrypted link between a web server and a browser.
2. Ensure that your site is mobile-friendly
A responsive website design is the one that adjusts automatically so that it can be navigated flawlessly and read easily on any device.
3. Speed your site up
Search engines are the engines that prefer sites that load quickly. The most important ranking signal is page speed. You should use fast hosting and a fast DNS provider.
Wrapping up
Every six months to a year, depending on the size of your website and the number of opponents, you should conduct another competitor study. You should perform some of it each month to stay competitive. Keep an eye on the adjustments your rivals are making so you can rapidly respond to their tactics.
Technically, a competitive study can never be finished, whether it is keeping an eye out for new pages, new keywords, or an increase in search features like highlighted snippets. By keeping an eye on your competition, you may perhaps stay one step ahead of them as websites and search results change.