An SEO competitor analysis involves assessing competing websites to uncover their search engine optimization strategies and tactics.
The process allows you to benchmark your own SEO performance against your rivals. You can pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses to inform your own strategy.
The insights gleaned can help you:
- Replicate and adapt your competitors’ winning tactics
- Capitalize on their shortcomings to gain an edge
- Identify gaps and opportunities they’ve missed
Analyzing the competition can give you a roadmap to SEO success.
Identify Your Competitors
If your domain is already established and ranking, you probably already know who your competitors are. However, if this is your first time performing a competitor analysis, then now is the time to meet your rivals.
Your direct competitors will be websites that rank high on page one (on Google or other search engines) for the same keywords you’re targeting. They offer similar products and services as you and are competing for the same target audience.
It’s important to know that:
- Your SEO competitors may differ from your brick-and-mortar competitors.
- If you offer a variety of products or services on your site or cover various topics through your blog, your online competitors may vary for each product or service you offer and the topic you write about.
It’s a classic battle tactic: you need to know your enemy in order to defeat them.
Understand Your Niche Better
Before choosing a niche to get into, you will need to conduct thorough research on the niche.
One aspect of this research involves knowing who you’re going to be competing against.
Therefore, it’s essential to conduct a competitor analysis.
You will need to know what products or services these sites are providing and analyze the backlink profile, keyword targeting, content strategy, and authority level of each site.
This will allow you to better understand how competitive the landscape currently is.
If the competing sites are performing really well, it’s a good indication that there’s plenty of interest in the niche—which you, too, can take advantage of.
Plus, a competitor analysis allows you to identify content gaps, opportunities, and weaknesses in your competitors’ content.
This will help you shape your own content strategy in a way that will put you in line to directly compete with your competitors.
It can also help you improve your business model. Wh