SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a vast, difficult, and competitive industry. So much so that you may believe you will never outrank your competitors.
But don’t give up: a little snooping on your rivals’ SEO strategies might go a long way.
The practice of studying and researching your rivals’ websites in order to get important insights into their search engine optimization tactics is known as SEO competition analysis.
It entails evaluating their keyword targeting, backlink profile, content strategy, and general optimization methods.
By the conclusion of this blog, you’ll be able to undertake a SEO competitive study on a regular basis.
What is SEO Competitor Analysis?
With two-thirds of all clicks on Google going to the top five organic search results, designing a SEO strategy, generating outstanding content, and doing technical SEO audits isn’t a guarantee that your material will receive the attention it deserves. In reality, 90% of web pages receive no Google search traffic! But who is receiving that traffic if you aren’t? Your SEO Competitors.
The truth is that if your rivals are doing these things – and doing them better than you – you will struggle to achieve exposure in search results. This is where a SEO competitor study may help.
Your competition may be seen in two ways: as a source of pain or as a rich source of knowledge. To access this wealth of information, your organic search strategy must incorporate SEO competitor analysis. If done effectively, it will assist you in developing better, more focused content and attracting more relevant visitors to your website.
Before you can start defeating the competition, you must first understand:
- Who your real search competition is; hint: it’s not always who you believe.
- What keywords are they ranking for and generating organic traffic for?
Why is SEO Competitor Analysis Important?
A competitive analysis allows you to examine the search environment for key terms. So you understand how difficult it will be to outperform your rivals. Furthermore, it can disclose previously unseen keywords, content ideas, and link-building chances.
A SEO competitor study can assist you in enhancing your site’s ranks and boosting search traffic.
Strategies on How to Run a SEO Competitor Analysis
We’ll explain how to locate your competitors and then show you how to execute individual competitor analysis activities like:
- Technical analysis
- Keyword analysis
- Content analysis
- Backlink analysis
- Identify your competitors
If your domain is already established and ranking, you are likely aware of your competition. If this is your first time conducting a competition analysis, now is the time to meet your competitors.
Websites that score high on page one (on Google or other search engines) for the same keywords you’re targeting will be your direct rivals. They provide similar products and services to you and compete for the same audience.
It is critical to understand:
- Your SEO competition may differ from your traditional competitors.
- If you sell a number of items or services on your website or cover a variety of themes in your blog.
- Your online competition will differ depending on the product or service you sell and the topic you write about.
- It’s a traditional warfare strategy: knowing your opponent is essential for defeating them.
- Concentrate on search intent rather than search volume
The fact that a phrase has a large search volume does not guarantee that ranking well for it will result in a big increase in search traffic. Instead, it is recommended to focus on fulfilling search intent, also known as user intent.
Google rewards websites that deliver a relevant and entertaining user experience, including improving search results. For websites that provide a fantastic user experience by matching their search requests. As a consequence, if you can better and more comprehensively answer the user’s search intent than your search competitors. Your content is more likely to be rewarded with a ranking rise. And there’s a good reason for it: roughly one out of every ten searches results in the user returning to the search results page to select a different result. These are the users whose search intent you want to better address by optimizing your content.
- Monitor your keyword rankings
These SEO competitor analysis procedures are only the beginning, and as we all know, SEO is a long game. Rankings fluctuate over time, so it’s critical to keep track of both your own and your competitors’ ranks for your desired keywords.
Manual monitoring, on the other hand, is a waste of time when there are hundreds or thousands of keywords to follow. Instead, use an automatic keyword monitoring tool like Google Rank Check to stay up to current on the newest search engine rankings. Regular, automated monitoring will enable you to discover and respond to changes in website rankings before your search traffic drops. At the same time, you’ll be able to track the effectiveness of your keyword optimization efforts and quickly demonstrate the success of your SEO strategy to management.
- In your keyword competitor research, look for chances for long-tail keywords
Identifying long-tail keyword variants might appear to be an unending task. Fortunately, using a SEO tool to do a SEO competitor study does a lot of the legwork for you. Make sure you’re evaluating your rivals’ keywords not only for the most popular, short ones but also for the longer, more specialty ones. While long-tail variants have a lower search volume, they often deliver more targeted, relevant visitors to your website and require less effort to rank for.
- Analyze the backlink profile of the competitor
Backlinks are still one of Google’s top three ranking factors. That is, if your competitors have more backlinks than you, it will be tough to outrank them. As a result, improving your backlink profile should be a key goal for your website. Researching your rivals’ existing backlinks will help you shorten this procedure and fine-tune your own backlink strategy. This is also known as SEO link gap analysis.
While content is still an important ranking criterion, obtaining high-quality, reputable backlink is an essential component of any successful SEO plan. Backlinks, also known as inbound links, are links on other websites that ‘point’ to yours. Search engines utilize backlinks to establish how trustworthy a site is; the more important and trustworthy your site is, the higher your ranking in search results, and the more organic traffic it will typically receive. Despite their value, 66% of online sites have no backlinks at all, according to research.
- Technical SEO competitor analysis
The three main components of any SEO competitor analysis procedure are keywords, content, and technical SEO. After you’ve gone over keywords and content, it’s time to move on to technical SEO audits. Essentially, this is comparing your site’s technical features to those of your rivals and filling any technical SEO holes that may cause your rankings to fall.
The following are key technical SEO characteristics to look for in your competitors:
- Website structure
- Internal linking
- Mobile-friendliness
- Page speed
- SSL certifications
How Frequently Should You Conduct a SEO Competitor Analysis?
I’d recommend doing all the analyses outlined in this post once a month. This helps you to construct a more complete picture of what’s going on in your industry.
However, the frequency with which you should conduct a SEO competitor study is determined by how much time you have available, as well as numerous other factors:
- The size of your market.
- The number of rivals you have.
- The frequency with which algorithm modifications are made.
Furthermore, after performing a competitive analysis for the first time, it gets much easier and faster to complete each subsequent time.