STEP 2 to SEO: Competitor Research
Have I found usable insights from top organic competitors?
Why should you do competitor research?
Well, SEO strategizing is like storytelling.
One guy can tell a story so well that you feel like you’re actually there. A different guy can tell the exact same story, and you feel like you lost 10 minutes of your life you’ll never get back.
One had the power to bring the story to life. The other completely missed the boat.
Similarly, some people are really good at growing traffic, increasing their following, and converting potential customers into regular users or buyers. They’re smooth sailors. They seem to have all the answers.
Others can barely keep their heads above water.
Although it may come as a surprise, successful SEO is not about having all the answers.
It’s about asking the questions you don’t even know you should ask to get the answers you didn’t know existed.
Great storytellers and successful online marketers have tactics that don’t just help them toward success. Those tactics are the very reason they succeed.
We can tell a thousand stories or write a thousand pieces of content, but if we don’t have strategies in place for targeting or engaging our audience, we end up with a pile of literary or digital vomit. Stinky words without meaning because no one is there to receive them.
So, what questions do you need to ask to develop the right strategies?
Multiple factors are at play in search engine rank. And there are skippable steps in SEO–competitor analysis isn’t one of them.
No one should begin any SEO campaign without investigating not just who they’re up against, but why they’re up against them.
To become successful in your industry or niche, you need to find out three things:
- Who your competitors are,
- What makes them successful, and
- How to use those insights to develop your SEO strategy.
Let’s start with #1.
Who Are Your Competitors?
Looking to your competitors is crucial for identifying usable insights you can include in your SEO campaign.
But insight tells us more than just what we should do; it also tells us what we shouldn’t do, or what isn’t worth our time or effort.
Competitor analysis isn’t a passive step. It’s also not intuitive, meaning you can’t just think you know who your competitors are or what makes them successful (or not) without doing the research. Sure, top of the head can be a good place to start. Then you have to go digging.
Now luckily, sussing out the competition overlaps with keyword research so you can double up and make a day of it. You can use keyword research (see step one in SEO success) to identify your main competitors. Take the most important keywords you want to rank for (or all of them) and see who comes up in the SERPs. If you see one domain in most of your searches, this is one of your top competitors.
Or, you can use paid tools like SEMrush. I encourage you to use every tool available, but as I mentioned in a previous post, make your brain your #1 go-to tool.
Then, like the clever little investigative mouse you are, find out what keywords your competitors are ranking for that you aren’t and add them to your keyword list(s).
Armed with your top four or five competitors, you need to evaluate each one by determining their strengths and weaknesses through the lens of your brand.
This is where questions #2 (why are they successful) and #3 (what usable insights can you gain) come in, and while you can make this a systematic linear process, it doesn’t have to be. If you’re the creative, artsy type, your research may be more dynamic.
Competitor ≠ Enemy
Now, many SEOs audit their competitors with the idea that competitors=enemies.
I totally and completely, to the power of infinity, 100% disagree.
Enemies work in opposition to us. Our competitors want the same thing we do.
Competitors are essential for helping you grow and succeed in your industry because they provide a vital point of reference. They show you what’s working and what’s not.
Why Are They Successful?
Now that you know who your competitors are, you want to find out why they’re rocking your industry and then use their insights to guide your SEO campaign.
But remember–everyone has flaws, so pay close attention to where your competitors are failing. Those gaps will be your most usable insights.
UEO: The New SEO
In addition to some cut and dry strategies, one of the first things you want to note as you visit each competitors’ site is its usability. Note when you feel frustrated, confused, or impatient and why, and then compare those irritating features to your site. If your site shares any of those attributes, change them.
Even the best SEO won’t help if your site is a pain in the ass to navigate.
Keep this in mind: SEO is more about user experience optimization (UEO) than optimizing the search engine.
As you navigate through your competitors’ sites, ask yourself these questions:
- How quality are the images and videos used on their pages?
- Are there links to organic content/informative pages that naturally extend the user’s journey?
- Are their CTAs logically placed and do they lead the user to the place they said they would?
Now, let’s go digging.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of some of the more important aspects of your competitors’ sites that you’ll want to examine and analyze to determine what is worth extracting for your site – and what’s not.
Investigate link opportunities.
Link building is a major contributor to ranking. The more links that point to your site show Google that your site is trustworthy.
How many referring domains do your competitors have? This points to site popularity and strong SEO.
You can use the MOZ link explorer tool (free for 30 days) to generate a list of all the backlinks to your competitors’ sites. From there you can compare those links against yours (use a spreadsheet for this) to see where the gaps are, if any.
If you’re already ahead of your competition, this is not your current focus (but, don’t lose focus of this important aspect). If you are behind, time to step-up your link-building strategy.
What sites are linking to your competitors and not to you? Reach out to them.
Perform a keyword gap analysis.
Follow the same steps as you did to discover the gaps in competitors’ links but now focus on keywords using SEMrush or Ahrefs (both are paid tools). Although we can guess where the gaps are, this process helps us know with certainty.
Determining what keywords your competitors are ranking for that you aren’t is a starting point for creating unique content. Notice what works well for your competitors then take that a step further and make their best ideas even better.
One way to do this to type your main keywords into Quora or Answer the Public (both free) to discover what people are asking about it.
Content
Is their content well-written and does it provide valuable information that the user can’t find on a hundred other websites?
We live in a time of consumption. Anybody can claim to be an expert in anything by scouring the web for quick-digesting info and posting those regurgitated tidbits to their site. It’s the new-age style of digital research. But we end up with copycat versions of the very same thing, which ultimately, lowers the quality of the information.
Ask yourself: What content can you create that is going to set you apart from your competition?
H1s
Notice if your competitors have unique H1 tags that represent the content. H1s are a major ranking factor. While other features trend hard for a while in SEO, the significance of H1 hasn’t changed and it likely won’t.
H1s are the most obvious text on the page. Follow these quick tips for determining the quality of your competitors’ H1:
- Is there only one on each page?
- Is their H1 the title or does it accurately reflect what the page is about?
- Does it include a target long-tail keyword? (this helps Google index the page appropriately)
- Does it respond to the user’s intent?
- Is it 20-70 characters?
- Does it stand out on the page?
Social Media Presence
Buzzsumo is a good paid tool to find out how many people are talking about your competitors’ brand, your niche, or a specific topic identified by a target long-tail keyword. Type in your general topic and refine your search by adding or removing words. This tool will also help you determine your competitors’ social media presence, which is growing in importance in SEO.
And, spend a few minutes each day with a double-chai-matcha-ball-latte smoothie swiping through Insta to check up on your competitors from a user’s perspective.
How can I use those insights?
Hopefully you’ve gained some major insights by analyzing your competition. With these insights, you can develop tactics for improving or enhancing your SEO strategy.
Now, ask yourself:
What should I prioritize? (Where are you falling short of your competition? Or, where can you outshine your competition?)
And,
What is not worth focusing my efforts on?
Consider this last question carefully. We may think something is irrelevant (or important), but the metrics can surprise us. Unless you’re beating the pants off your competitors, you want to be as comprehensive and inclusive as possible in your SEO strategy, but you also don’t want to be barking up the wrong tree. It is an exhausting waste of energy and effort.
Keep in mind that no one recipe is going to work. The strategies offered here are dynamic, flexible, and relative to your brand and business approach. Read far and wide, talk to people in the industry, and follow your nose to broaden your SEO arsenal.
Last words of advice…
Don’t rush the process.
Use the available tools–anything of value is worth the investment.
Know that competitor analysis is an ongoing process so keep it up.
Logging out,
Logical Mix
