Competitor analysis is a basic part of the first stages of search engine optimisation. Without some idea of what your competitors are doing, it is impossible to see exactly where your site is or where it is going. However, competitor analysis is not just about where your competitors are.
A good SEO company should conduct competitor analysis as part of your SEO plan, and you can talk to us at SEO Consult about this stage of search engine optimisation. Experiencing competitor analysis in this way is helpful when you first enter the world of competition for search engine rankings, but every business should be equipped with the power to examine their competitors at regular intervals. Any smart business will be aware of this. Knowing exactly what to scrutinise is entirely another matter, and not a straightforward one. There are some areas it’s easy to fall into error.
Don’t get distracted by rankings
Ranking status is just one piece of information you can access on your competitors. Like any information, it needs to be assessed in conjunction with other data. Just as your ranking has less meaning by itself, your competitors’ rankings only tell you whether they are currently ahead or behind you.
Finding the competition
Your competitors will usually be fairly obvious. There are times, however, when the competition on particular keywords gets muddied. Sometimes the most innocuous of words gets picked up through popular culture, leading to the top ten results being filled with those references. For example, the remake of the John Waters movie ‘Hairspray’ and its stage equivalent took over the first spots for that keyword in Google’s SERPs. Hair care companies needed to take this into account and react accordingly.
Respect for the elderly
Age is a factor in the way search engines index sites. If your competitor has been around for ten years longer than you, they have an edge that it’s hard for you to overcome. Some sites get around this problem by purchasing old domains, but if you do this it’s important to ensure the domain you buy has a good record.
More pages, more clout
Some websites with a large number of pages will be more able to rise through the rankings. When you’re looking at a specific competitor’s methods, look at the number of pages their site has and do a little research on how many of those pages are ranking well. A large website that ranks well for many pages is stronger than one that ranks only for a few. It will give you an idea on just how many pages you need to optimise for in order to compete.
This factor is similar to the links analysis you should perform on all major competitors. Good links are a part of a good ranking, and your competitors will probably have a thorough link network in place. In scrutinizing their links, you may find that some of these links are weaker than they seem, such as links coming from a site owned by the competitor. This knowledge can help you to strengthen your position.
