Even if your business or company serves a niche market, there is a high chance that others are too. This is even more of a well-known problem once you move your business to be online. While there are many ways that you can try to outshine your competition plenty of them are still going to leave you in the dark as to what exactly your competitors are doing. This is where the benefits of doing a competitor analysis can come in.
While there are many different types of competitor analysis we are going to focus an analysis from an SEO perspective. Because to us, what better way to outdo others than doing what they do but better?
What is an SEO Competitor Analysis?
SEO Competitor Analysis is research that focuses on what others in your shared industry are doing to increase their visibility within search engines. Typically, this focuses on what sort of keywords that they are ranking for, where they are falling in search engine positions, and how much traffic they get from their keywords. Further research can involve how healthy their site is compared to yours, their backlinks, what keywords they have paid for, and more. The purpose of competitor analysis in terms of SEO is to find out what you are missing out on and what you could gain over your competition.
How to Put It Into Practice
While knowing what others are up to maybe really interesting it’s really what you do with it that matters the most. So, here are our three favorite things to do once we run a competitor analysis.
Re-Evaluate and Retarget Keywords
If a completed analysis reveals that your content is lacking direction or that your current targeted keywords are causing you to miss out on traffic we can use the results to rewrite and refocus content to help gain back lost opportunities. Editing your current website’s copy to be closer to the standards that others have set along with technical SEO practices is a great way to start climbing higher and beyond in search results. Read our previous blog to understand why keyword research is important.
Keep Ad Costs Low
We all know that running and maintaining ads come at a price. With an analysis, you might be able to see a competitor spending a lot of money on a keyword that either isn’t performing well for them or a keyword that you could obtain organically. Knowing how others are spending ad money will help you avoid making the same mistakes they could be making. Personally, we like to help guide you when it comes to paying for ads so that you are spending your money wisely and not just throwing dollars at google and hoping for the best.
Help Plan Future Content
Let’s say after researching you find out that you are ranking higher than your competitors but are ranking for a lot fewer keywords than they are. While ranking high is one of the main goals in SEO so is ranking for as many keywords you can. You know, the bigger the net the more fish you can catch. In the case you find out that you have fewer keywords overall than have no fear, you can create a whole content strategy to get those additional keywords without having to completely overhaul content.
Want To Improve Your SEO With A Competitor Analysis?
It doesn’t take a full report to find out that your competition is performing better than you are. Google is right there, we know you like to google other businesses. Because we do too. If you have been struggling with trying to one-up others or even matching what others are doing, we will be happy to help. Just schedule a consultation with us so we can get to know you better.
