SEO is one of the most competitive industries in the market. Since new businesses and websites are showing up every day, and everyone is trying hard to get the first five positions in organic search results, SEO has become inevitable. You must have heard that these few results receive almost 2/3 of the total clicks. So, getting the first five positions can be highly helpful for any new businesses and websites to improve their traffic and conversion.
A good SEO strategy with the best quality content and technical SEO would always guarantee the best results on the search engine ranking. However, the most unfortunate truth is that more than 90% of web pages do not get any search traffic from the search engine ranking pages like Google. The only reason is that in modern times, there is tough competition.
So what actually is going on? Who is getting this traffic when you are not and why? There is no doubt that the competitors are obviously getting the traffic, but you have to know what they are doing accurately. Irrespective of the industry you’re into, you will always have competition. The chances of doing the same thing are higher, but the only difference is that they are doing it better.
This is why competitive analysis plays a very crucial role in SEO. So, today we will try to learn in detail about competitor analysis and the best practice.
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What do you mean by SEO competitive analysis?
Competitive analysis is no rocket science, but it is a simple concept. When it is about Asea, you must have knowledge about the techniques that your competitors are following and the keywords that they are ranking for. You also have to be clear about their bank link profile along with the way they are working. In a nutshell, you have to know everything and every step they’re taking.
Using your competitor as a source of information can be highly beneficial as they are in the same vertical as you. It’s not compulsory that you have to learn from your mistakes, but you can also learn from them. You have to make an in-depth analysis which will save your resources and time. Apart from this, you can stay sure that this will definitely work as your competitors are doing the same thing as you do.
When do you need to do an SEO competitor analysis?
Checking SEO performance is also a part of the digital marketing agency. You must know that competitor behaviour, changes in search engine algorithms and different other factors play a huge role in creating a digital marketing strategy. This is why it is always recommended to analyze the competitors and check their performance on a regular basis. Doing this will help you to understand the areas where you can improve and how to stay ahead in the competition.
Following are some of the major events that might trigger SEO competitive analysis.
- Content planning: You will be able to check what the competitors are doing and how they are implementing it. It will help you figure out the effort you need to create topics and keywords and then plan accordingly.
- Content posting: When you check about the way your new content is doing, it will be helpful in figuring out if you’re on the right track or not.
- Changes in social engine results: When you find that another website is getting a better rank, you should meet a proper and thorough SEO competitive analysis. It will help you determine why and the methods they are opting for.
- When you find a sudden drop in the ranking: In case your website has suddenly dropped, there should be an apparent reason. So start making competitive analysis as it can help you understand the reasons or mistakes.
What are the different types of SEO competitive analysis?
For content Analysis
Your website content is the visible aspect of the website. So, you need to find out the web pages of your competitors and then use the ideas for yourself. As you already know the way pages can drive traffic and rank higher on websites, you know that they are definitely doing the right thing.
Making content analysis can save your effort and time by choosing the methods of your competition. However, make sure to fine-tune the content so that it can match the search intentions. It will help you provide an improved user experience and target the right audience.
It is one of the most popular ways of identifying your website’s weaknesses. You also need to find out the content gap between you and your competitor. In case they have not covered the popular topic, you can choose this opportunity and fill the gap by writing the popular topics in a very engaging and user-friendly manner.
If you want to outrun competitors, you have to pay attention to the following things. These are generally used for content optimization.
- Meta titles and meta descriptions
- Title
- Keyword placement
- Content format
- Page structure
- Contents readability
- Word count of the content
- Publishing frequency
- Availability of structure data
For competitor backlink analysis
It becomes a crucial part of any SEO strategy when you get credible and high-quality backlinks from any authoritative side. Inbound links or bank links that are coming from external web pages pointing to your website can offer the best results.
Bank link is one of the most crucial ranking factors that has existed since a very early day. Even when they were not considered important, they still played a significant role in the SERP. One of the best ways to understand it is by getting references from the leading names in the industry. When someone is willing to create a bank link or link your content with them, they definitely have found your piece of content worthwhile. This is when Google will also start thinking of your content as a valuable piece for the users.
Backlinking plays a major role in SEO, and you should know where the competitors are getting them from. Making use of the tools available online, you will be able to get the information. However, you also need to make sure that getting backlinks from poor websites will adversely affect your performance.
Technical SEO competitive analysis
As we have already mentioned, technical SEO analysis is one of the essential components of this marketing profile. As the name sounds, it considers all the technical aspects of the website in order to fulfil all the technical gaps that can negatively impact your website.
Following are the key SEO elements that you require analyzing:
- Internal linking: You also need to ensure that the website has internal links. It is something that improves the user-friendliness of any website. As it helps search engine crawlers to find and index the website, it becomes easier for you to watch visible results in the ranking. So make sure that you create a proper internal link structure both for your users and search engines.
- Website structure: The structure of the website is again a helpful thing for both search engines and users. It helps them to navigate the website in a proper manner. So, it is always recommended to keep a clean and simple site structure for better crawling and user experience.
- Page speed: Always remember that the speed of the website is an important ranking factor. Since your users are impatient and they would not wait for more than three seconds, you only have a few minutes to impress your users. So before you use elements on your website, make sure to compress them to ensure the page speed.
- Mobile-friendliness: You have to make sure that the website has been properly optimized for mobile. As there are several mobile users in the global market, you have to make sure about mobile-friendliness. If you aim to improve your online presence, you must ensure its mobile-friendly attributes.
- SSL certifications: The website with HTTPS means that the website is protected. In case your website does not have a secure label, it would not be able to get the ranking. SSL certification is a major thing that you must pay attention to for a better result.
How can you make a competitive analysis in five steps?
So it is time that we pay attention to every single detail that will help you to achieve better results. So without any further ado, let’s get started.
Find your competitors:
The very first step to competitive analysis is to find out the SEO competitors. While this may sound very easy, you must keep in mind that the competitor you’re thinking is the biggest might not be the biggest. Even the smaller companies have the best SEO, which can easily eradicate the biggest vertical in reality.
Don’t believe in guesswork or gut feeling. You need to pay attention and do a lot of research on Google. Find out the top 10 to 20 websites that you can find with every keyword shown in the result.
Pro Note: However, you need to make sure that you don’t choose all at the same time. Since you have to do a lot of hard work, simply choose one at a time.
Make page analysis:
The top-performing pages are the next most important thing you need to check in the competitive website. You need to find out the keywords and content they have shared and how they are working together to get the results.
This is also known as keyword gap analysis. If you find the keywords that your competitors are ranking but you are not, then you start formulating a plan that can help you to rank better by choosing keywords that are both competitive and rewarding.
After creating a list of relevant keywords, you must create pages focused on ranking. It is also necessary to update the old pages by including the new keywords but make sure that they are relevant to the content. Moreover, checking the backlinks of your competitor by making the analysis can also be helpful to find out the domain authority of the site linking to them and the number of bank links.
Choose keywords with higher ROI:
Your budget and competition are something that will decide the number of keywords. It is generally cost-effective when you focus on fewer keywords. It is primarily advisable to make efforts that will be beneficial in getting ranked for keywords with better ROI. Using low-cost services and products are not very rewarding, but focusing on better keywords will be rewarding.
You can choose high profile items as these efficiently bring better and quality leads. Apart from this, you can also choose to create relevant and high-quality content. It will help you to get more targeted audiences to your website.
Create a proper content plan and execute it:
Once all the data that you have collected and have made a list of it, it is time that you start using them in real-time. So making use of the data, develop a robust SEO content strategy. Make sure that you follow this for months to acquire the best results. You can also use a content calendar where you mention all the required things as per the date. This will help you never to miss anything crucial daily.
Initially, look for the keywords and content ideas and save them in the content calendar. Then according to the date and time, start implementing and keep progressing.
Track performance:
Once you have created a proper content plan and have executed it by publishing new content and also optimizing the old ones, it is time that you check your performance. It will help you to understand if the strategy you have created is actually beneficial for you or not. If you find better rewards, you will be able to know that you are following the right track. However, on the other hand, if you do not find better results, it is time that you alter the strategy and then use it.
Best practises of competitive analysis for SEO
- Backlink growth: You have to create a bank link strategy or link-building strategy. Make sure that you keep analyzing the numbers correctly. Try to examine in detail and figure out what is going wrong and why. Using a detailed report can be highly beneficial in your link building strategy and checking its performance.
- Analyze your competitor’s organic keywords: It is a brilliant idea to find out the keywords helping your competitors get organic traffic. So, try to identify the high traffic keywords that they are choosing. Some of them might be a good choice for the homepage or landing page, while others can help you create blog posts. Apart from this, also pay attention to the keyboard difficulty.
- Check your competitor’s featured snippets: Getting the position zero or features snippet is one of the best ways to improve your ranking. If you find that your competitors are ranking for their featured snippets, you will also be able to do it. However, it depends on how you use the keywords and create content that can be informative.
- Make a nationwide study of traffic: This will be highly beneficial to find out the nations or countries from where you are getting the most traffic. When you can gain knowledge about the nations and the type of content that they prefer, you will be able to start creating such content properly. Moreover, if you want to make for a specific place, you need to pay attention to what customers are looking for. Depending on the needs of the particular customers, you can create content and get more traffic.
- Analyze if there are broken pages: If you have a website with a broken page, it is definitely a big red flag for search engines. Even if you’re getting backlinks from a website with broken pages, it will also be a dead end. So, all you need is to simply look for the broken pages and start working on them.
- Look for content gaps: Content gaps mean the keywords that your competitors are ranking for what you are not. Generally, this is a narrow gap. It is up to you about the number of competitors you want to pick for this. Ideally, you would like to get the keywords which rank in the top few spots. However, if there is nothing as such, you should widen your search.
What are the best SEO competitive analysis tools?
There is no doubt that he will not be able to make SEO competitive analysis unless you have the best SEO tools. However, if you don’t know about them, the following are some of the most used tools for SEO competitive analysis.
- Ahrefs: It is an excellent tool for SEO competitive analysis as it helps you get the ability to do thorough competitive research. You can check their organic traffic, backlinks, top pages for which they are linking, and engaging content.
- Google: Google itself is an excellent tool. When you search with a term, you get the number 1 coming up. You can analyze that page and find out the elements they are using and compare it with yours.
- SEMrush: SEMrush is again a great way to check the competitor keywords are using. You will be able to find out the competitor’s website’s audience, traffic, advertising strategies, lead generation sources and a lot more.
- Alexa Optimizer Pro: This is another tool that offers you plentiful information. This detailed analyzing tool is available in a monthly subscription where you can find every detail.
Final Verdict
Now that you have got complete knowledge about the best competitor analysis tools and the competitor analysis components, it is time that you start doing it on your own. There is no doubt that competition is vast, and you will require the best competitor traffic analysis tool. Following this blog will help you find out the tools that can be helpful in your SEO competitor analysis.
However, since this is a tedious process and would require your time and concentration, you might be looking for the best SEO expert. If yes, you can choose Digital Habibi. The SEO competitor analysis checklist created is based on the knowledge that I have gained and the success that I have been offering. So, following the SEO competitor analysis checklist and the components and tools can be a beneficial choice for any company, irrespective of the vertical and offers.
Choosing a reliable agency or expert can be valuable as this is a continuous process. Besides being tedious, you will not be able to pay attention to the core business. So get in touch with me today and make the best competitive analysis that can yield the best results.
SEO competitive analysis FAQs
Why is competitor analysis so critical?
Competitor analysis is a smart move for every company willing to get a competitive edge in the recent market. Since the market is already crowded with many other businesses offering the same products and services, with competitor analysis, you will be able to create strategies properly. When you make a proper competitive traffic analysis tool, you will understand how and why the competitors or ranking. Upon analyzing, you can implement and get the best results.
Is the competitor traffic analysis tool helpful?
Yes, it is. When you choose the best competitor traffic analysis tool, you will be able to get the complete details of the competitors. When you find out every detail about them, you will be able to create a differentiating strategy that will be different yet rewarding.
How much is the charge to choose an expert?
While different agencies will charge differently, you have to choose accordingly. However, if you’re looking for an experienced expert, you can select digital Habibi. Since I have been performing the same job for seven years with the use of some of the best tools available in the market, I can make sure to give you a reasonable price while better rewards.
