When it comes to your SEO strategy, you can’t just rely on your gut instinct. You need to do some competitive research and analysis in order to figure out who your real competitors are. These are the businesses that target the same keywords, speak to the same audience, and solve for the same consumer needs as you. Luckily, there is a process that you can follow in order to identify these competitors and create a successful SEO strategy. In this blog post, we will discuss how to find your real SEO competitors and use that information to make your own website more successful!
What is SEO Competitor Analysis, and How Does it Differ From Conventional SEO Analysis?
If you want your SEO strategy to be successful, then studying and understanding what has worked for your competitors in the past is a great place to start. SEO Competitor Analysis is the process of researching your competitor’s search engine rankings. This analysis allows you to identify the backlinks, keywords, and type of content that is helping your competitors achieve high ranks. Once you know what has worked for them, you can replicate and improve upon their strategies!
Conventional SEO Analysis, on the other hand, is the process of studying and understanding your own website’s analytics. This type of analysis helps you to identify which keywords and content are bringing people to your site and how well those visitors convert into customers. While both types of analysis are important, this type of Analysis can be especially helpful if you are just starting out or if you are trying to break into a new market.
Why is Identifying Your Real SEO Competitors Important?
There are two main reasons why it is important to identify your real SEO competitors.
- First, if you want to rank for a certain keyword, you need to know who you’re up against.
- Second, understanding what has worked for your competitors in the past can give you some great ideas for how to improve your own SEO strategy.
For example, if you see that one of your SEO competitors is ranking for a certain keyword because they have a lot of high-quality backlinks, then you can focus on building more backlinks to your own website. This will help you improve your rankings and get closer to the top spot!
How to Find Your SEO Competitors
There are a few different ways that you can go about finding your SEO competitors. First, you may want to do your own prep work by identifying the keywords you strive to rank for on your site. To do this, you can use a keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner.
Google Search (Free Method)
Once you have your list of keywords, the next step is to head over to Google and start searching for your SEO competitors. If you’re not sure who your competitors are, this is a great way to find out!
Simply type in each of your keywords and see who comes up in the results.
For example, if you sell women’s clothing and you want to rank for the keyword “100 percent cotton dresses,” you would type that keyword into Google and see who comes up.
Some of the results might be retailers like Nordstrom, Macy’s, or Bloomingdale’s. These are all businesses that sell dresses, so they would be considered your competitors.
Another way to find your competitors is to look at the ads that come up on the results page. The businesses that are paying for ads are usually trying to rank for those keywords, so they would be considered your competitors as well!
Google Trends (Free Method)
If you want to get a little more specific with your competitor research, Google Trends is a great tool to use. This tool lets you see how popular certain keywords are over time. In simple terms, it lets us know what users are searching for!
The popularity of terms is shown on a scale from 0 to 1000, and it lists their search volumes since the year 2004. It also offers keywords related to each search term and their popularity over time.
To use this tool, simply head to Google Trends and type in your keyword.
This will show you a graph of how popular that keyword is, as well as a list of related keywords.
You can also use the “Top Charts” feature to see which websites are ranking for that keyword.
For example, if you type in the keyword “100 percent cotton dresses,” you will see a list of websites that are ranking for that keyword.
You can use this information to help you narrow down your list of competitors!
SEMrush (Paid Method)
If you want to get really serious about your SEO competitors research, you can sign up for a paid tool like SEMrush.
SEMrush is a powerful competitor research tool that lets you see detailed information about your competitors’ SEO and PPC strategies. It can help you find out:
- Which companies in your industry are targeting the same customers, providing similar services, or are market leaders in your niche?
- In organic search, which companies target similar keywords, create successful content, and get the most traffic?
- In paid search and advertising, which companies are placing ads on your target search keywords or organic keywords? Which companies are generating the most traffic through ads?
- In your community, which companies are dominating the SERPs or overwhelming the local conversation?
To use this tool, simply type in your competitor’s website into the search bar.
This will give you a ton of information about their website, including the keywords they’re ranking for, their organic traffic, and more.
You can use this information to help you fine-tune your own SEO and PPC strategies!
How to Analyze Your Competitors
Once you have a list of your competitors, it’s time to start analyzing them!
Here are a few things you’ll want to look at:
- Their website design
- Their keyword strategy
- The type of content they’re creating
- Their link-building strategy
- Their social media presence
All of this information can be extremely helpful as you create your own SEO strategy.
If you take the time to do a thorough analyzing your competitor, you’ll be well on your way to ranking higher in the search results!
Start by taking a look at their website design.
Is it user-friendly?
Do they have a lot of ads?
What is the overall tone of their website?
Next, take a look at their keyword strategy.
What keywords are they targeting?
Are they using any key phrases?
What do their title tags and meta descriptions look like?
Finally, take a look at the type of content they’re creating.
Do they have a blog?
What topics do their blog posts cover?
Do they have any infographics or other types of visual content?
By taking the time to analyze your competitors, you’ll be able to get a better idea of what’s working for them and what isn’t. This information will be invaluable as you create your own SEO strategy!
Related Reading: Top Off-Page SEO Techniques 2022: How to Get Ahead of the Competition
Hire an SEO Expert
At D-Kode, we have an insider view of what it takes to make a website successful – one that drives more visitors to your business, converts leads into customers, and provides the ideal user experience. Want to know how to kick your SEO competitors to the curb? Let’s talk. Give us a call at (925) 477-5012 to schedule your free marketing consultation.
