How To Do An SEO Competitive Analysis - Key Steps To Follow

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May 23, 2023

Keith Peterson - I'm an expert IT marketing professional with over 10 years of experience in various Digital Marketing channels such as SEO (search engine optimization), SEM (search engine marketing), SMO (social media optimization), ORM (online reputation management), PPC (Google Adwords, Bing Adwords), Lead Generation, Adwords campaign management, Blogging (Corporate and Personal), and so on. Web development and design are unquestionably another of my passions. In fast-paced, high-pressure environments, I excel as an SEO Executive, SEO Analyst, SR SEO Analyst, team leader, and digital marketing strategist, efficiently managing multiple projects, prioritizing and meeting tight deadlines, analyzing and solving problems.

With the increasing number of websites on the internet, it can be challenging to rank high in the search results. However, by conducting an SEO competitive analysis, you can gain valuable insights into what your competitors are doing to rank high in the search results.

In this article, we'll take you through the steps to perform on how to do an SEO competitive analysis. This can help you identify areas for improvement and make changes to your own website's SEO strategy.

What Is An SEO Competitive Analysis?

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An SEO competitive analysis is a process of analyzing the SEO strategies of your competitors to understand how they are ranking higher in search engine results than you. This involves analyzing various factors such as their website structure, content, backlinks, and technical SEO.

COPYRIGHT_MARX: Published on https://marxcommunications.com/how-to-do-an-seo-competitive-analysis/ by Keith Peterson on 2023-05-23T10:39:54.744Z

The goal of an SEO competitive analysis is to identify areas for improvement in your own SEO strategy and to stay ahead of the competition. By analyzing your competitors' strategies, you can learn what is working for them and adapt your own approach accordingly.

Why Is A Competitive Analysis Important For SEO?

Performing a competitive analysis is important for SEO because it helps you to understand your competitors' SEO strategies, strengths, and weaknesses. This information can be used to improve your own SEO strategy, identify new opportunities, and stay ahead of the competition.

By analyzing your competitors' websites, you can learn what keywords they are targeting, what type of content they are creating, and what backlinks they are earning. This can help you identify areas where you can improve your own SEO efforts and find new opportunities for growth.

In addition, a competitive analysis can help you identify potential threats to your SEO success and adjust your strategy accordingly to mitigate those risks. Ultimately, competitive analysis is a valuable tool for any business looking to improve its SEO performance and attract more organic traffic to its website.

Who Should Conduct An SEO Competitor Analysis?

An SEO competitive analysis should be conducted by anyone responsible for the SEO strategy of a website or business. This could include SEO specialists, digital marketing managers, content marketers, and website owners. Anyone involved in improving the organic search visibility of a website should be conducting regular competitive analyses to stay ahead of the competition and improve their SEO performance.

Additionally, businesses of all sizes and in all industries can benefit from conducting an SEO competitive analysis, regardless of whether they are just starting out or are well-established in their industry. By analyzing your competitor's SEO strategies, you can identify areas for improvement in your own strategy and find new opportunities for growth.

How To Do An SEO Competitive Analysis?

7 Easy Steps on How to Perform a Competitor Analysis

Identify Your Competitors

Start by identifying your competitors. These are the websites that are ranking for the same keywords as you and are targeting the same audience. You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and SEMrush to find your competitors. Look for websites that are ranking higher than you in the search results and those that are targeting similar keywords.

Search for Your Target Keywords - Start by searching for the keywords you are targeting in Google. Look at the websites that are ranking on the first page of Google for those keywords. These are your main competitors.
Use SEO Tools - There are several SEO tools available that can help you identify your competitors. Tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz can show you which websites are ranking for the keywords you are targeting, as well as other websites that are ranking for related keywords.
Analyze Your Industry - Look at other websites in your industry that are similar to yours. These websites may not be targeting the same keywords as you, but they may still be competing for the same audience.
Look at Your Referral Traffic - Use Google Analytics to analyze your referral traffic. Look at the websites that are sending traffic to your website. These websites may be your competitors, especially if they are in the same industry or niche.
Check Social Media - Look at the social media accounts of other businesses in your industry or niche. These businesses may be your competitors, even if they don't have a website or aren't targeting the same keywords as you.

Analyze Their On-Page Optimization

Once you've identified your competitors, it's time to analyze their on-page optimization. Look at their meta titles, descriptions, headings, and content. Pay attention to how they use keywords in their content and how they structure their pages. This will give you an idea of what's working for them and what you can improve on your own website.

Analyze their Title Tags and Meta Descriptions - Look at your competitors' title tags and meta descriptions to see how they are optimizing their content for specific keywords. Look for opportunities to improve your own title tags and meta descriptions to make them more appealing to searchers.
Examine Their Content - Look at the content on your competitor's website to see how they are using keywords and optimizing their content. Look for opportunities to create content that is more comprehensive, better structured, and more engaging than your competitors.
Evaluate Their Site Structure - Look at the structure of your competitor's website to see how they are organizing their content. Analyze their use of headers, subheaders, and internal linking to see how they are optimizing their site structure for both users and search engines.
Check Their URLs - Look at your competitors' URLs to see how they are optimizing them for specific keywords. Look for opportunities to improve your own URLs to make them more descriptive and keyword-rich.
Look for Schema Markup - Look for schema markup on your competitor's websites to see how they are using structured data to help search engines understand their content. Look for opportunities to add schema markup to your own website to make your content more visible in search results.

Check Their Backlinks

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Backlinks are an important factor in SEO. Analyze your competitor's backlinks to find out where they are getting their links from. You can use tools like Ahrefs and Majestic to check their backlink profile. Look for high-quality links from reputable websites. This will give you an idea of what types of websites you should be targeting for your own backlink strategy.

Use Backlink Analysis Tools - There are several backlink analysis tools available, including Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz. These tools can show you which websites are linking to your competitors and provide you with additional information about those links, such as the domain authority and anchor text.
Look for High-Quality Backlinks - Look for high-quality backlinks that your competitors have earned. These backlinks should be from reputable websites that have a high domain authority and are relevant to your industry or niche.
Analyze the Anchor Text - Look at the anchor text of your competitor's backlinks to see which keywords they are targeting. Look for opportunities to target those same keywords with your own backlinks.
Evaluate the Linking Pages - Look at the pages on your competitor's websites that are receiving the most backlinks. Analyze the content on those pages to see why they are attracting so many links. Look for opportunities to create similar content on your own website.
Check for Toxic Backlinks - Look for toxic backlinks that your competitors may have acquired. These are backlinks from low-quality or spammy websites that could hurt their search engine rankings. Make sure to avoid those toxic backlinks in your own link-building efforts.

Analyze Their Content Strategy

Take a look at your competitor's content strategy. Look at the type of content they are creating, how often they are publishing, and how they are promoting their content. This will give you an idea of what types of content are working for them and what you can do to improve your own content strategy.

Identify the Types of Content They Publish - Look at the types of content your competitors publish on their websites. Do they publish blog posts, videos, infographics, or other types of content? Analyze the topics they cover and how they present their content to their audience.
Determine Their Content Frequency - Look at how often your competitors publish new content on their websites. Do they publish daily, weekly, or monthly? Analyze the consistency of their content schedule.
Analyze Their Content Quality - Analyze the quality of your competitors' content. Is their content informative, engaging, and well-written? Look for opportunities to create better quality content than your competitors.
Look at Their Social Media Strategy - Look at your competitors' social media profiles and see how they promote their content on those platforms. Analyze their engagement rate, the type of content they share, and the frequency of their social media activity.
Identify Their Unique Selling Proposition - Identify what makes your competitors' content unique and how they differentiate themselves from others in your industry or niche.

Look For Technical SEO Issues

Technical SEO issues can prevent your website from ranking high in the search results. Analyze your competitor's website for any technical SEO issues. Look for things like broken links, duplicate content, and page load speed. You can use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and Screaming Frog to find technical SEO issues.

Analyze Their Website Speed - Use Google PageSpeed Insights or other website speed tools to analyze the loading speed of your competitors' websites. Identify opportunities to improve your own website speed.
Check Their Mobile Responsiveness - Use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test or other mobile responsiveness tools to check whether your competitors' website is optimized for mobile devices. Identify opportunities to improve your own mobile responsiveness.
Analyze Their Site Architecture - Look at the architecture of your competitor's website to see how they organize their content. Analyze their use of headers, subheaders, and internal linking to see how they optimize their site structure for both users and search engines.
Check Their URL Structure - Look at your competitors' URLs to see how they are optimized for specific keywords. Look for opportunities to improve your own URLs to make them more descriptive and keyword-rich.
Analyze Their Use of HTTPs - Look at whether your competitors' website is using HTTPs or not. If not, consider implementing HTTP on your own website to improve your website's security and search engine rankings.

Track Your Progress

Finally, track your progress. Once you've identified areas for improvement, make changes to your website and track your progress. Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track your website's performance in the search results. Keep an eye on your rankings and organic traffic to see how your changes are affecting your website's SEO.

Set Goals and KPIs - Define your goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) before you start your SEO competitive analysis. This will help you measure your progress and success.
Use an SEO Tool - Use an SEO tool like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz to track your progress. These tools can help you monitor your website's search engine rankings, backlinks, traffic, and other metrics.
Monitor Your Competitors - Monitor your competitors' website to see how they are performing in organic search. Use an SEO tool to track their search engine rankings, backlinks, and other metrics.
Analyze Your Data - Analyze your data regularly to identify trends and patterns. Look for opportunities to improve your SEO strategy and outrank your competitors.
Adjust Your Strategy - Based on your analysis, adjust your SEO strategy and tactics. Experiment with different tactics to see what works best for your website and target audience.

Common Mistakes To Avoid While Doing An SEO Competitive Analysis

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While performing an SEO competitive analysis, it's important to avoid certain common mistakes that can negatively impact the accuracy and effectiveness of your analysis. Here are some common mistakes to avoid:

Focusing too much on keyword rankings - While keyword rankings are an important metric to track, they are not the only factor to consider in an SEO competitive analysis. It's important to look at other factors such as website structure, content quality, and backlink profiles.
Ignoring long-tail keywords - Long-tail keywords can be easier to rank for and can drive highly targeted traffic to your website. Make sure to analyze your competitors' use of long-tail keywords and incorporate them into your own strategy.
Not considering the context - When analyzing your competitors' content strategy, it's important to consider the context in which they are using certain keywords. Just because a competitor is ranking well for a particular keyword, it doesn't necessarily mean that the keyword is relevant or effective for your own website.
Failing to analyze the entire funnel - While it's important to focus on attracting traffic through SEO, it's also important to consider the entire funnel, from lead generation to conversion. Make sure to analyze your competitors' conversion optimization strategies as well.
Copying your competitors - While it's important to learn from your competitors' SEO strategies, it's not a good idea to simply copy what they are doing. Your own website and audience are unique, and you need to develop a strategy that works for you.

Conclusion

Conducting an SEO competitive analysis can help you gain a competitive edge and improve your website's SEO. Remember to keep track of your progress and make adjustments as needed to continue improving your website's search engine rankings. With a well-executed SEO competitive analysis, you can stay ahead of the competition and attract more organic traffic to your website.

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