How do I conduct an effective competitive analysis?
SEO is one of the most important marketing strategies, which are used by most companies, to ensure constant progress. This not only improves a website's search engine ranking, but also increases the organic volume of traffic. Before you start planning your SEO strategies though, you should conduct an absolute competitive study. With the help of perceptions, which you compile from the analysis, you can identify the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. Here's what you can do:
1. Identifying efficient keywords should be the first step in analyzing your competitors. Keyword research can help you find out from an SEO perspective, what your competitors are capable of.
2. You now have a list of relevant keywords with you and it's time, look for your top earning competitors, find them and make a list. Enter the keywords in search engines like Yahoo or Google. List the websites relevant to your industry and feature them in the top 10 results. There are many tools out there for analyzing your competitors
3. When you've identified your top competitors, analyze their profiles. Start by analyzing competitors on metrics like domain authority, incoming links, social shares etc..
• The quality of the backlinks is a must. Incoming links to your website instill trust in your target audience. When your website is pointing to websites of high authority and quality, this means, that your website is appropriate and contains appropriate content. This gives you a greater chance, to rank in SERPs.
• The impact of social media on SEO cannot be ignored. A well-executed social media campaign helps brands, Build relationships and connect with customers.
• A website achieves top positions in search engines, if you are informative, Contains relevant and high quality content. When analyzing the content, consider parameters such as word count, Media and outbound links.
• Determining the domain authority of the competitor's website is one of the most important facets of analyzing competitors. This is a great way to set practical and functional goals for your website.
4. When you are completely familiar with your competitors, compare yourself with competitors. you need to understand, what works for them and what doesn't. That way you know, what strategies you need to implement.
