Checking out Your SEO Competition
Competition is very much welcome in any field, most importantly in SEO because it can possibly help you be on the top of your game especially if your competitor’s websites are giving you a run for your money. But you have to keep in mind that being in the know of how your competitor operates does not mean that you have to copy what they are doing because that will make you come across as someone who is lacking originality. If you have knowledge of what your competitor is doing you can readily pick up tips that you can do to YOUR own SEO campaign to make it better and find out ways on how to rise above your competitors through thorough analysis of their best practices and techniques. Read along and pick up several tips and ideas on how you can scope out your competitors so that you will be ahead of the pack in the SEO game.
Knowledge is really power
One of the best practices of scoping or sizing up your competition is to be knowledgeable of what they are doing. In the book Art of War, one of the three ways on how you can be a better fighter is to know your enemy. By doing this, you will know the strengths and weaknesses that your competitors have. Basically, if you are in the know of what you are competing against, this will lead you to develop techniques and strategies which are more effective and at the same time, you will be better in making more informed decisions. The key points in building your knowledge about your competitor would have to include the SEO practices that they are implementing and the results that are being developed through the implementation of such practices. Again, you have to keep in mind that you are getting to know your competitor not because you want to copy what they are doing but you are doing this so that you can develop better practices.
If you have lots of competitors, you can start with the basic three kinds that you can study so that your analysis will have a focal point. These three kinds that you can start with are those who are naturally ranked, websites who are on top of the paid ad game and websites which are offline but have the same target audience as you do.
The next question that you might have in mind is how to find out your specific competitors. For the naturally ranked websites, all you have to do is to search your keywords in a reliable search engine and watch out for the top results that are given to you. You can also do the same search technique in finding out the different websites who are delivering well when it comes to paid ads. Lastly, offline competitors do not have a website yet but they similarly offer the same products or services that you have.
Analyze your competitors’ keywords
Knowing what your competitors’ keywords are seem a little tricky at first but it is a very feasible and effective analysis tool that can help you in getting to know your competitor. The first thing that you should do to know the keywords that your competitors are using is to come up with a list of YOUR own keywords. Then run a search in Google, after the results have returned to you, you can visibly see the top ranking websites that are linked to these keywords. Take note of these websites as they are your competitors.
Other areas to look for
SEO likes both quality and quantity. Quality content which is updated on a regular basis will truly get you far as well as the quantity of quality pages that you have in your site. Another thing that you have to be on the lookout for is the navigation system of your competitor’s site. A well-structured navigation site will really help in increasing your rankings. Lastly, you should also study the quality of inbound and outbound links that your competitors have.
Now that you have collected the information needed, the next thing that you need to do is to compare your practices against what your competitors are doing. You should not only focus on the strengths but also focus on what they are doing wrong in their campaign. Having a grasp of how your competitors are doing will surely help you in improving your own SEO campaign in order to yield better results.
