Every business has to analyse their competitors now and then, and it is no different with SEO. Not only will you need to undertake a serious competitor analysis at the beginning of your search engine optimisation, you will need to develop a habit of tracking your competitors’ sites regularly.

After your first major analysis of your competitors’ practices, your competitor analysis can be toned down slightly. After a while, competitor analysis should become a matter of habit, checking to see what changes they are making and keeping tabs on newcomers. When you get to these stages, it’s good to know exactly what to look for.

Your ongoing analysis of competitors should be done as a matter of course. The major factors you should be looking for are changes to their keywords, content management, and general SEO strategy.

1. Title tags. Just as you would check the windows of a competitor retailer on your street, check the title tags of your competitors in Google. Often the wording of the title tag will inform you about their major keywords.

2. Meta tags in the head section of source code. Your competitors’ source code is something you should check to see what they’re saying to the search engine spiders.

3. New content. Keep an eye on where your competitors’ thoughts are running by browsing their new content. New content also often presents structural issues on a site.

4. Check for spam. If a competitor is using spammy tactics on their site, it’s a sign that sooner or later they will topple from the rankings.

5. Check links. If you have access to the appropriate software, check the backlinks for your competitor sites. Checking competitor backlinks can provide you with information that is handy in a number of ways. It is another point in which it’s very easy to spot a competitor using frowned-upon tactics to boost their ranking. It’s also an opportunity for your business to develop new links, as an independent site that links to your competitors may link to you as well.

When looking at a newcomer in your field, do a walk-through of their site to see how your own site’s users would perceive it. Check their link structure and keep an eye out for the SEO techniques they have implemented. Pull down their source code to see whether they are stepping around the search engines in any way. If a new competitor is doing something better than you and you spot it swiftly, you still have time to maintain the upper hand. Discussing the situation with your regular SEO firm is a good idea, and you can talk to us at SEO Consult when your site needs some SEO uplift.

Analysing your competitors is not going to give you anything but information. This information, however, is valuable. By knowing what the rest of your industry is doing, you can adjust your site’s marketing plan as you go. Many companies stick to their guns until their site is swamped by competitors. A site that monitors the competition is always on top of the game.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, November 28th, 2009 at 10:56 am and is filed under Search Engine Optimisation Analysis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.