How to perform SEO competition analysis and why it is important
Your website might rank first for a particular search term today, but that status won’t last. Over time, other websites – mostly competitors – will learn how to optimize their content and outrank your website. For this reason, SEO competitor analysis must be an ongoing initiative for any business.
Many companies take competitor analysis for granted and think they’ve done their best in their SEO efforts. However, that is not the case. There is always something that can improve to improve outcomes and remain ahead of the competitors. Data-driven marketing techniques like SEO keyword competitors evaluation can help you discover methods that help your competitors and utilize that understanding for your SEO campaigns.
In this article, you’ll learn:
- What is data-driven marketing?
- What is an SEO competitor analysis?
- How to perform an SEO competitor analysis
- What is an SEO competitor analysis tool?
Let’s get started.
What is data-driven marketing?
Data-driven advertising means that every choice in an electronic marketing campaign is based on information accumulated via research study. This data mainly relates to a company’s target audience or existing customers.
Search engine optimization falls under data-driven marketing. Specific SEO practices such as keyword competition analysis (SEO) and competitor analysis (SEO) are also examples of data-driven marketing.
The main objective of data-driven marketing is to ensure that each marketing campaign matches a customer’s needs or behaviors. Data such as online reviews, website traffic, and conversion rates are collected to understand what people need or want from a business.
What is an SEO competitor analysis?
An SEO competitor analysis or SEO competitive includes involves examining the content and other elements of the content, such as the links and keywords that a competitor has used. Simply put, it is an SEO comparison between two competing websites in a similar industry or business.
Competitor analysis SEO can include:
- SEO keyword competition analysis
- Competitor backlink analysis
- Keyword gap analysis
- Key content analysis
SEO competitors analysis works and is efficient since you do not have to start your research from the ground up. You can see what other competitors are doing and apply that to your search engine optimization efforts.
Many marketers use an SEO competitor analysis tool to streamline the process and gather extensive data without too much work. These tools are also helpful in creating SEO competitor analysis reports. Some examples of SEO competitor analysis tools are Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz.
Marketers learn how to analyze SEO competition to maintain their rankings and remain competitive in their industry.
How to perform a competitor analysis
Now that we’ve clarified what an SEO competitor analysis is, it’s time to take a look at how to perform a competitor evaluation in a few basic steps. Remember that these are one of the most typical steps you can carry out promptly.
For an extra thorough approach to performing a rival analysis, you can look at Ahrefs‘ search engine optimization rival evaluation design template.
Step 1: Identify your actual competitors
The first step to learning how to perform an SEO competitor analysis is to identify your competition.
Most recommends finding out who your competitors are when it comes to your keywords because not all websites that rank better than you are your competitors.
It would be best if you were thorough and accurate in discovering your actual SEO competition in your SEO analysis. That includes SEO comparisons, research on multiple keywords, and noting the 10 or 20 websites that appear most often for all keywords.
One method is to use a free SEO analysis tool like Ubersuggest and type in a keyword. In this instance, we used “pet grooming” as a keyword. In the “Content Ideas” section, you will get a list of links and domains that rank for the keyword.
As you can see, one of the top-ranked domains for this keyword is Today.com, which is not necessarily in the business of pet grooming but is a news organization.
Considering that Ubersuggest is a complementary tool, the variety of keywords and top-level domain names for competitor SEO evaluation may be limited. May need a paid SEO tool like Ahrefs to dive deeper into search engine optimization contrast information and get accurate results. The Ahrefs rival analysis device is advanced and has numerous attributes that make every part of competitor evaluation a lot more straightforward and quicker.
Step 2: Perform a site analysis
The next step in performing a competitor analysis is to examine a competing website and its best-performing pages. What keywords are used on these web pages, and how were they used in their material?
The Ahrefs competitor analysis tool has a unique content gap feature that allows you to identify keywords that rank for particular domains you specify. That is called a keyword gap analysis. That is the phase of your competitor SEO analysis where you find keywords on a competitor’s site that they rank for and your site does not. Here’s how it looks:
if you discover relevant keywords that also apply to your business, you can create a page dedicated to ranking for those keywords. This way, you’ll have the opportunity to direct customers to your website rather than your competitors.
Step 2a: Perform a competitor backlink analysis
Another aspect of competitor analysis is checking a website’s backlink statistics. A competitor backlink analysis examines which websites link to their content and how this affects their domain rank and authority. With this data-driven technique, you can gain valuable insights and execute a similar link-building strategy to replicate their results.
You can examine these characteristics of a competitor’s backlinks:
- Number of backlinks
- Domain authority of the linked pages
- Relevance of the linked content
Once you understand what your competitors are doing in acquiring backlinks, it will be easier for you to develop a similar strategy and implement it for your website.
Step 3: Concentrate on keywords with high ROI
A well-known company can rank in the top spots for dozens of keywords. Does that mean you have to compete as well? Not necessarily. Plus, big companies have the budget to make sure they consistently rank for the top keywords.
SEO expert Neil Patel recommends that when analyzing your competitors’ SEO, you focus on the keywords that can generate more profit or revenue. Take the pet store example: there’s no point in ranking for “best dog keychains” if they only sell for $2 each.
Think of your high-profile product or service and focus on ranking keywords that will bring you more leads for that specific product or product line. Or create content that is particularly unique and relevant to your customer base that your competitors haven’t thought of.
Success in a solid SEO campaign with competitor analysis depends mostly on finding a gap or difference between the competition and the target audience and filling that gap. That may be a keyword with low competition or a simple, helpful article that is searched for a lot and that your competition has not yet created.
Step 4: Create a content plan and execute it
Now that you have collected data, the next step is to use that data to create an SEO competition analysis report. Based on this report, you can create your SEO content strategy. To start creating your content plan, create a keyword list or a list of content ideas and save them in a straightforward spreadsheet or utilize a tool like Ahrefs.
The Ahrefs competitor analysis device has a built-in attribute to add chosen keywords or content suggestions to a specific listing. You can export them to a spreadsheet and create a fast search engine optimization competitor evaluation record.
Step 5: Track your progress
Once you’ve published new content or old optimized content, you need to track its performance. Should generate regular keyword audits and competitor analysis SEO reports to check if your competitor analysis strategy has worked.
You can utilize any free SEO tool for this, but in Ahrefs, you must go to Keywords Explorer and enter the target keyword. Then click on Traffic Share by Pages on the left side of the page. That should show you the top pages and their position. In the example below, Ahrefs has determined the top pages for the keyword “dog groomer.”
Step 6: Cover all areas with an SEO competition analysis template
There is more than one way to perform a practical SEO competition analysis. You can use a free SEO competition analysis template to guide you. Having a ready-made document at hand will help you save time and be organized with your SEO competition analysis project. A template also allows you to create an SEO competition analysis report more accurately and quickly.
Grow is a reliable company with years of experience in search engine optimization and competition analysis. Indeed, a complete rival analysis is a task that requires time and also resources, yet the results are worth it.
If you favor contracting out the job, you can employ a digital advertising company focusing on particular search engine optimization solutions such as competition evaluation, franchise search engine optimization, and local SEO.
Conclusion
What is data-driven marketing without incorporating competitor data right into the equation? Not all entrepreneurs can devote themselves to learning SEO competitor analysis because they are overwhelmed with unfamiliar concepts, which can feel like a daunting and complicated process.
Others may lack time to familiarize themselves with creating SEO competitor analysis reports using the software. Yet it can be so simple to look at what your competitors are doing and then do it better.
Still, many business owners shy away from doing SEO competitor analysis because they don’t have the staff or resources to do it.
You know what you need, but you don’t know how to get it. Our SEO specialists hear that repeatedly from SEO clients who contact SEO Bea
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