Then it’s time to spy on your competitors. They could be your secret weapon.

More often than not, organizations don’t pay attention to competition analysis and get right into keyword mapping, optimizing content, or link building. But what they don’t know is that understanding who your competitors are will give you insight into the strategies that are working for others in your market so you can adopt them, improve them, and gain an edge.

In this article, you’ll learn the process to leverage SEO competitor analysis to improve your search result rankings.

 

The first step is to identify keywords that you can target.For example, if you own a Sports Shoe

Shop, you may want to rank for the seed keyword “sports shoes.” Just search for the seed keyword in Google to find your top-ranking competitors. However, unless your brand has the potential to compete with heavyweights like Nike or Adidas, the possibility of ranking for this keyword is next to none.

 

You now have identified your keywords. Next is to search for those keywords on Google and find out which sites rank in the top 10. Repeat the process for all of your major keywords. You might find that a few particular sites come up in almost all your searches. These are the sites you’ll need to add to your list of competitors.Your competitors are not just other businesses that offer the same type of products or services you provide. They can be any website that competes with you for your target keywords. For instance, if one of your target keywords is “sports shoe shop in Newark, New Jersey,” these top-ranking sites would be some of your competitors.

 

The next step is to see what keywords your competitors are targeting.The easiest way to find their target keywords is to use SEM Rush.

Here’s how to do it: Under Competitive Research, click on Domain Overview and type in your competitor’s URL. Then head over to the Organic Research tab and click on Positions. You’ll be able to see the list of keywords your competitor is ranking for.

 

Now you need to find the weaknesses and strengths of your competitors.

You can use the keyword density analyzer in SEMrush to find the density of your competitors’ keywords. It gives direction on how aggressive you need to be with keyword placement. All you need to do is enter the URL of the webpage you want to assess.

Examine how they have written their META data.Are they using LSI keywords? Is the copy strong? Is there a clear call-to-action?

 

Find out the number and names of sites that link back to your competitors. Analyzing your competitor’s site architecture is key to understanding how authoritative their website is.Are they using silos? Can you create a better model for flowing link equity through your site?

 

Mirroring is the process of replicating your competitor’s link profile. The idea behind this process is that, by acquiring links similar to your competitor, you should be able to get similar rankings as them.

Before mirroring your competitor, be sure to check the following:

Keep in mind that the best links are those that are hard to get. So, work on it, even though it takes time because nothing beats backlinks from relevant websites with real traffic.

Now you have a clear idea of who your competitors are, what keywords they rank for, their backlink profiles, keyword density, and meta data. The next thing you need to analyze is their content and social media marketing strategies.Evaluate the content quality according to Google’s EAT guidelines (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)

Here are a few other things to keep an eye out for while analyzing your competitors’ content:

To know more about the ways to improve your business on a web platform, contact us today!

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