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How to Conduct Competitor SEO Analysis?

The SEO industry is fiercely competitive. Every day, new companies and websites are created; even with a strong SEO plan, you cannot be sure that your website will receive the attention it warrants. Here is where competitive analysis comes into play.

Through a thorough analysis of your competitors’ keyword targeting, content strategies, and SEO tactics, you can reverse engineer their accomplishments and uncover opportunities for improvement.

Analyzing competitors is a crucial ability for marketers as it offers valuable insights that can determine whether they lead their industry or fall behind. That is why, identifying and outdoing your rivals is not only advantageous but also essential in the quick-paced world of digital marketing.

In this guide, you will learn how to conduct competitor SEO analysis (step by step) which in the long run will help you rank higher. You can use these methods to identify the SEO tactics used by your competitors and leverage them to raise your search engine rankings.

What Is a Competitor SEO Analysis?

Let’s start by defining what an SEO competitor analysis actually is.

A competitor SEO analysis, also called a competitive analysis, is a methodical and strategic way to find rivals in your market and assess their advantages and disadvantages.

By conducting competitor analysis and examining their successful strategies, you can avoid speculating about the best keywords to target, content to write, or links to build. On top of the valuable information that you can get from the experience gained by your competitors, you can also learn about the mistakes that should be avoided.

The major goals here are to increase the relevancy of your content, raise the search engine rankings of your website, and increase organic traffic.

Discover 4 Benefits of a Competitor SEO Analysis

Discover 4 Benefits of a Competitor SEO Analysis

Because search engines’ algorithms search for the best content created by the best sites to respond to user queries, competitor SEO analysis is crucial.

You will have a better idea of what it takes to increase traffic in your niche if you know which websites are succeeding and the methods they employed to get there. With the help of this data, you can create a strategic road map for gradually increasing traffic share.

Down below, you can find some of the advantages that this strategy will have for your company:

  • Finding New Keywords: Analyzing your competitors’ websites gives you access to a wealth of keyword information. It is possible that you have missed a ton of keywords that your competitors are ranking for, and a competitor keyword analysis is the perfect method to learn about them.
  • Acquiring Detailed Information About SEO: It is easier to determine which elements of your SEO strategy are working well and which aren’t by conducting a competitor analysis. You may immediately apply what you’ve learned to your SEO marketing campaigns after you are aware of all the advantages, disadvantages, and shortcomings that both you and your business partners possess.
  • Recognizing Your Target Audience: Conducting competitor SEO analysis will show you what appeals to your target audience. You can focus your efforts on utilizing the content ideas that inspire you.
  • Identifying Opportunities for Link-building: You can also uncover possible link-building opportunities with the aid of competitor analysis. You can see who is linking to the websites of your competitors and find possible targets for your link-building campaigns.

How to Conduct Competitor SEO Analysis (Step by Step)

Now that you know why conducting a competitor SEO analysis is important for your business to thrive, the time has come for you to learn how.

A competitor analysis can be done in a variety of ways, but the following are some essential steps you must take:

Identifying Your SEO Competitors

You most likely already know who your competitors are if your website is well-known and ranked. However, even though you may believe you know who your competitors are, if this is your first time conducting a competitor analysis, you may find that there might not always be companies offering the same goods or services as you.

The websites vying for your targeted organic search keywords are your SEO competitors. These might not be identical to your direct competitors. It is necessary to categorize your competitors into three groups when identifying them:

  • Direct Competitors: Businesses in your sector or neighborhood that provide goods or services that are strikingly similar to yours are considered direct competitors. Their goods and services might just as easily be used in place of what you provide. Along with being comparable in size and scope to your company, they also share the same target market.
  • Indirect Competitors: Businesses that target the same target audience or provide different solutions for the same customer needs are considered indirect competitors. When it comes to satisfying a similar customer need or catering to the same general market, indirect competitors differ from direct competitors in that they do not offer identical goods or services.
  • Replacement Competitors: Instead of altering the goods or services themselves, replacement competitors alter how they are provided. It is difficult to stop customers from favoring those options when they can produce a newer, faster, and more efficient solution or product. Take, for example, the relationship between digital cameras and smartphones. Since consumer behavior and market dynamics can be significantly altered by replacement competitors, keeping an eye out for alternatives can help you maintain your edge.

Whichever the case may be, it’s always useful to type a keyword into Google, examine the results, and take note of the brands that appear frequently.

Conducting a Keyword Gap Analysis

The next step is to perform a keyword gap analysis once you have identified your primary competitors. This entails figuring out which keywords they rank for and which ones they may be aiming for but haven’t yet seen significant success with.

Reaching out to areas where your competitors are more active online will help you draw in more visitors and reach a larger audience.

Finding every single one of these keywords that applies to your company is the goal of a keyword gap analysis. The main objectives for doing this are:

  • Using these keywords to improve the content you currently have.
  • Establishing fresh pages for the keywords that are absent from your website.

As always, the objective is to produce content that is more valuable to readers than that of your competitors. You will see that your own content and SEO strategy will benefit from these opportunities.

Conducting a Content Analysis

Conducting a Content Analysis

The next step is to examine the content strategies of your competitors. Content plays a big part in SEO. You can examine the content produced by your competitors in terms of its caliber, variety, updating schedule, and audience suitability.

The objective is to determine which elements of their strategy are working and which are not. By doing this, you can duplicate the components that worked and seize the chances brought about by the weaknesses in the less effective parts of their plan.

You can begin by examining the various kinds of content that your competitors may be publishing, including reviews, how-to articles, and listicles.

You can find out whether your competitors are successful with these kinds of articles, and if they are, use that information as motivation to begin writing these various kinds of articles for your website.

The most important elements to examine are:

  • Formats and Types of Content: Determine the different types of content that your competitors produce, such as podcasts, infographics, videos, and blog posts. Furthermore, examine the formats they use to display the information in these kinds of content. Your content strategy can be customized to cater to the distinct or comparable preferences of your audience by using this analysis, which will aid in comprehending the variety of their approach.
  • Relevance and Quality of Content: Assess the degree to which their content satisfies users’ search intent and speaks to the needs and preferences of their intended audience. You can adapt similar tactics into your content by figuring out what makes theirs work so well. Comparably, realizing the areas in which their content is lacking gives you the chance to steer clear of the same mistakes and modify your strategy for improved outcomes.
  • Frequency of Content: Examine how frequently they release new content and how regular their posting schedule is. This can reveal information about their methods for engaging audiences and producing content. You can improve your content planning by analyzing the frequency of content posted by your competitors and taking note of how well they manage a regular posting schedule.
  • Channels for Content Distribution: This entails identifying the channels—such as social media, email newsletters, or third-party platforms—that your competitors employ to market and disseminate their content. This analysis will assist you in understanding how they were able to successfully reach audiences on particular platforms. It also offers perceptions of possible holes or overlooked chances. This presents an opportunity to leverage alternate channels to increase the reach and engagement of your content.
  • Keywords that are Prioritized in Content: Finding the keywords that your competitors are focusing on will assist you in recognizing themes and trends in the industry that appeal to the people in your target audience. It can also be insightful to examine how your competitors use keywords in their page headings, meta titles, and body content.

Evaluating the Backlink Profile of Your Competitors

A domain’s ranking power comes from its backlink profile. These are inbound links pointing to your website from other websites. Backlinks are regarded by Google and other search engines as endorsements from other websites.

Understanding the backlink profiles of your competitors is crucial because search engine optimization (SERP) is likely to favor websites with strong and varied link profiles. You can improve the traffic and rankings of your website by identifying backlink opportunities by examining their strategies.

FAQ

How do I check my SEO competition?

Remembering the aforementioned details, the simplest and most obvious method to check your SEO competition would be to conduct a Google search, etc. using your primary keywords, then make a note of all the top results.

What is the best SEO tool for competitor site analysis?

Depending on your needs and budget, there are a few different SEO tools available for analyzing competitor websites. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as Ahrefs, Moz, and SEMrush can greatly expedite the competitive analysis process and provide thorough insights.

What is the SEO competitor analysis framework?

The framework for SEO competitive analysis consists of five essential steps that you must take after defining your priorities:
Identify SEO competitors
1. Conduct a keyword gap analysis
2. Conduct a content analysis
3. Evaluate the backlink profile of competitors
4. And make a plan of action based on your insights.