Understanding your competitors’ strategies can provide invaluable insights that can help you improve your own website’s SEO performance. This guide looks at the various aspects of competitor analysis for SEO, ensuring you don’t just replicate their tactics but instead find unique ways to outperform them.
Why analyse competitors?
Understanding market trends
Analysing competitors allows you to stay ahead of the latest market trends. By observing what others in your industry are doing, you can identify emerging trends and shifts in consumer behaviour. This knowledge helps you to adapt your own strategies to remain competitive and relevant.
Identifying strengths and weaknesses
A thorough competitor analysis reveals the strengths and weaknesses of other players in your market. Understanding what your competitors do well can inspire you to improve your own strategies. Conversely, identifying their weaknesses provides opportunities for you to capitalise on areas where they fall short, giving you a competitive edge.
Finding gaps in content and strategy
Competitor analysis helps to uncover gaps in both content and strategy. By examining the content your competitors produce, you can identify topics and keywords they might be missing. This allows you to fill these gaps with high-quality content, improving your site’s relevance and authority. Additionally, analysing their overall strategy can reveal missed opportunities for optimisation and innovation.
Common pitfalls to avoid
Copying without innovation
One of the most significant mistakes in competitor analysis is copying what others do without adding your own expertise. Simply replicating your competitors’ strategies and content won’t set you apart. Search engines favour originality (think E-E-A-T) and value propositions that offer something new or improved. Therefore, it’s crucial to innovate and tailor your strategies to meet the specific needs of your audience.
Ignoring the unique aspects of your brand or business
While it’s important to learn from your competitors, it’s equally vital not to lose sight of what makes your brand and business unique. Your unique selling points and brand identity are what differentiate you from others in the market. Overlooking these aspects in favour of mimicking competitors can dilute your brand and confuse your audience. Always integrate your brand’s unique strengths into your SEO strategy to maintain authenticity and stand out in the market.
Tools for competitor analysis
Competitor analysis in SEO is greatly facilitated by various specialised tools that provide insights into what other websites are doing to rank well. Understanding how to use these tools effectively can significantly enhance your ability to outperform competitors.
SEO tools: an overview
SEMrush
SEMrush is a comprehensive SEO tool that offers a wide range of features designed to help you analyse competitors’ websites. Key functionalities include:
- Domain overview: Provides a snapshot of your competitor’s domain, including organic search traffic, paid search traffic, backlinks and display advertising.
- Organic research: Allows you to see the keywords your competitors rank for, the pages driving the most traffic and their position changes over time.
- Backlink analysis: Offers detailed insights into your competitors’ backlink profiles, showing the number of backlinks, referring domains and anchor texts.
- Keyword gap analysis: Compares your keyword profile with those of your competitors to identify gaps and opportunities.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is another powerful tool that excels in backlink analysis and keyword research. Its features include:
- Site explorer: Provides a detailed look at your competitor’s organic search traffic and backlink profile.
- Content explorer: Helps you find the most popular content in your industry based on backlinks, social shares and organic traffic.
- Rank tracker: Monitors your site’s ranking progress alongside your competitors.
- Keyword explorer: Delivers keyword difficulty scores, search volume and click-through rates, helping you find the best keywords to target.
Moz
Moz offers a range of tools aimed at improving your SEO strategy, including:
- Link explorer: Similar to Ahrefs, this tool provides in-depth analysis of your competitors’ backlink profiles.
- Keyword explorer: Allows you to discover and prioritise the best keywords for your site.
- On-page grader: Helps you compare your page’s on-page SEO elements with those of your competitors.
- Domain authority: Moz’s proprietary metric predicts how well a website will rank on search engines; this is useful for comparing the relative strength of different sites.
Using the tools effectively
When using these tools, certain features can provide particularly valuable insights:
- Keyword analysis: Identifying which keywords your competitors rank for can help you discover new opportunities and understand which terms are driving traffic in your industry.
- Backlink analysis: Understanding the sources of your competitors’ backlinks can reveal opportunities for you to build similar links. Look for patterns in the types of sites linking to them, such as industry blogs, news sites or directories.
- Content analysis: Analysing the content that performs best for your competitors can help you identify topics and formats that resonate with your audience. Pay attention to the structure, length and type of content that is most successful.
- Traffic analysis: Tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs provide estimates of competitors’ organic and paid traffic. This data can help you understand the effectiveness of their SEO strategies and identify potential areas to target.
Integrating multiple tools for comprehensive insights
Using a combination of these tools can provide a more holistic view of your competitors’ SEO strategies. Here’s how to integrate them effectively:
- Cross-verification: Use multiple tools to verify data. This ensures greater accuracy and a more comprehensive view.
- Comparative analysis: Compare the keyword rankings and traffic estimates from SEMrush and Ahrefs to understand discrepancies and validate findings.
- Comprehensive backlink strategy: Combine the backlink insights from Moz and Ahrefs to build a robust backlink acquisition plan. Each tool might reveal unique links that others miss.
- Content strategy: Use content analysis features from both SEMrush and Ahrefs to identify the best-performing content across different metrics. Ahrefs’ Content Explorer and SEMrush’s Organic Research tool can complement each other by providing varied perspectives on content success.
- Holistic keyword strategy: Leverage the keyword research tools from SEMrush, Ahrefs and Moz to build a diverse keyword portfolio. Each tool has unique metrics and keyword suggestions that, when combined, offer a richer set of data.
By understanding and using the strengths of each tool, you can create a detailed and effective SEO strategy that not only emulates the successes of your competitors but also finds unique opportunities to surpass them.
Key elements to analyse
To effectively compete in SEO, it is essential to thoroughly analyse your competitors’ websites. This section covers the key elements you need to focus on, providing detailed insights into each aspect of SEO analysis.
1. Website structure and architecture
Site crawls: the importance of a well-structured site
A well-structured website is critical for both user experience and SEO. It ensures that search engines can easily crawl and index your site and that users can navigate your site effortlessly. A clear and logical structure also helps distribute link equity, improves page authority and can enhance your overall SEO performance.
Popular tools for site crawling
- Screaming Frog: This is a powerful tool for crawling websites. It provides detailed insights into various on-page SEO elements such as titles, meta descriptions, headers and more. Screaming Frog can identify broken links, analyse metadata and generate XML sitemaps.
- Sitebulb: Similar to Screaming Frog, Sitebulb offers comprehensive site crawling capabilities. It provides visual reports that help you understand your site’s structure, identify technical SEO issues and prioritise fixes.
2. Robots.txt and meta robots
Understanding competitors’ priorities
Examining a competitor’s robots.txt file and meta robots tags can reveal which sections of their site they consider important for SEO. These files control which parts of a site search engines can crawl and index.
Identifying hidden content and areas of focus
By analysing robots.txt and meta robots tags, you can identify content that competitors may be hiding from search engines or deemphasising. This insight can help you find areas where you might have an opportunity to gain an advantage.
3. Sitemaps and breadcrumbs
Analysing update frequency and priority settings
Sitemaps list all the URLs on a site and indicate how frequently each page is updated and its priority relative to other pages. By examining your competitors’ sitemaps, you can understand which pages they prioritise and how often they update their content.
Deriving keyword and topic focus
Breadcrumbs provide a hierarchical view of a site’s structure and can reveal how competitors organise their content and which keywords they are targeting. Analysing breadcrumbs can help you identify important topics and keywords your competitors focus on, enabling you to refine your own content strategy.
4. Content analysis
Identifying top-performing content
Use tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs to identify which pieces of content drive the most traffic to your competitors’ sites. Look at metrics such as page views, social shares and backlinks to determine what makes these pages successful.
Evaluating content gaps and opportunities
Analyse your competitors’ content to identify topics they have not covered or areas where their content is lacking. This can help you find opportunities to create high-quality content that fills these gaps, making your site a more comprehensive resource.
5. On-page SEO factors
Title tags, meta descriptions and headers
Examine the title tags, meta descriptions and headers used by your competitors. These elements are crucial for SEO as they influence click-through rates and provide context to search engines about the content on the page. Ensure your own tags and headers are optimised and more compelling than those of your competitors.
Keyword usage and density
Review the keywords your competitors use and their frequency. This can give you insights into which keywords are most effective in your industry. Avoid keyword stuffing and focus on natural, contextually relevant usage.
6. Content formatting and user experience
Readability and engagement
Content should be easy to read and engaging. Analyse how your competitors format their content – use of headings, bullet points, short paragraphs and other formatting techniques. Tools like Yoast SEO can help assess readability.
Use of multimedia and interactive elements
Look at the multimedia elements your competitors use, such as images, videos, infographics and interactive features. These elements can significantly enhance user engagement and dwell time. Consider how you can incorporate similar or improved multimedia into your content.
7. Backlink profile
Identifying high-authority backlinks: quality over quantity
Use tools like Ahrefs, Moz and Majestic to examine the backlinks pointing to your competitors’ sites. Focus on high-authority links from reputable sources as these have a greater impact on SEO performance.
Analysing anchor text distribution
Review the anchor text used in your competitors’ backlinks. A diverse and relevant anchor text profile indicates a natural and effective link-building strategy. Avoid over-optimised or spammy anchor text.
8. Unique link opportunities
Finding niche-specific backlinks
Identify backlinks from niche-specific sites and industry publications. These links are often more valuable due to their relevance. Consider reaching out to these sites for guest posts or collaborations.
Building relationships for guest posts and mentions
Establish relationships with websites and influencers in your industry. Guest posting and getting mentions on these platforms can significantly enhance your backlink profile.
9. Competitive gap analysis
Links your competitors have, but you don’t
Use tools to compare your backlink profile with those of your competitors. Identify high-quality links they have that you are missing and develop a strategy to acquire similar links.
New potential link sources not yet tapped by competitors
Look for potential link sources that your competitors have not yet discovered. These could be emerging sites, new blogs or innovative platforms where you can establish a presence first.
10. Technical SEO
Site speed and performance
- PageSpeed Insights: Provides detailed insights into your site’s performance on both desktop and mobile devices, offering specific recommendations for improvement.
- GTmetrix: Offers a comprehensive analysis of your site’s speed and performance, including detailed reports on various performance metrics.
Common issues and fixes
Identify common performance issues such as large image sizes, excessive JavaScript and server response times. Implement recommended fixes to enhance site speed and user experience.
11. Schema markup
Types of schema used by competitors
Examine the types of schema markup your competitors use to create rich results. Common types include product, review, FAQ and breadcrumb schema.
Errors and warnings in schema implementation
Use tools like Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to identify errors and warnings in your competitors’ schema markup. Ensure your own schema is correctly implemented and error-free.
12. Security (HTTPS)
Importance of SSL certificates
Having an SSL certificate is crucial for security and SEO. Search engines favour secure sites, and users are more likely to trust and engage with them.
Checking competitors’ security practices
Ensure your site uses HTTPS and compare your security practices with those of your competitors. Address any vulnerabilities and maintain robust security measures.
13. User engagement and behaviour
Traffic analysis
Use tools like SimilarWeb to estimate your competitors’ traffic. These tools provide insights into traffic volume, sources and geographic distribution.
Identifying top traffic sources
Determine the primary traffic sources for your competitors, such as organic search, paid search, social media and referrals. Use this information to refine your own traffic acquisition strategies.
Bounce rate and dwell time
Tools for behaviour analysis:
- Google Analytics: Offers detailed insights into user behaviour, including bounce rate, session duration and pages per session.
- Hotjar: Provides heatmaps, session recordings and other behavioural analytics to understand how users interact with your site.
Improving user engagement metrics
Identify areas where users drop off or spend less time. Enhance user engagement by improving content relevance, site speed and user experience design.
14. Social media and external channels
Social media presence
Examine your competitors’ social media profiles to understand their engagement levels and content strategies. Look at metrics like likes, shares, comments and follower growth.
Identifying popular platforms and content types
Identify which social media platforms and content types (videos, infographics, stories) resonate most with your competitors’ audience. Use these insights to inform your own social media strategy.
Integration with SEO strategy
Social signals and their impact on SEO
Social signals, such as shares and likes, can indirectly impact SEO by driving traffic and increasing brand visibility. Integrate your social media efforts with your SEO strategy to maximise these benefits.
Using social media for backlink opportunities
Use social media to build relationships with influencers and other websites in your niche. These connections can lead to backlink opportunities through collaborations, guest posts and mentions.
By thoroughly analysing these key elements, you can develop a comprehensive understanding of your competitors’ SEO strategies and identify opportunities to improve your own website’s performance.
Putting it all together: creating a competitive strategy
To effectively leverage the insights gained from competitor analysis, you need a comprehensive SEO strategy that integrates tracking, reporting and actionable implementation.
Tracking and reporting
Setting up dashboards
Looker Studio
Looker Studio (previously Google Data Studio) is a powerful tool for creating dynamic and interactive dashboards that aggregate data from various sources. It allows you to visualise your SEO metrics in real-time and make data-driven decisions.
- Integrate data sources: Connect Google Analytics, Google Search Console, SEMrush, Ahrefs and other tools to your Looker Studio dashboard. This centralises all your data, providing a comprehensive view of your SEO performance.
- Customise reports: Tailor your reports to highlight key metrics such as organic traffic, bounce rate, keyword rankings and backlink profiles. Use charts, graphs and tables to make the data easily digestible.
- Automate updates: Set up automated data refreshes to keep your dashboard up-to-date. This ensures that you always have the latest information at your fingertips.
Excel
Excel remains a versatile tool for tracking and reporting, especially when custom calculations and data manipulation are needed.
- Data import: Import data from your SEO tools and analytics platforms. Use Excel’s import functions to pull data directly from online sources or upload CSV files.
- Custom templates: Create templates for regular reporting. These templates should include sections for key metrics, trends and insights.
- Visualisation tools: Make full use of Excel’s charting and graphing tools to create visual representations of your data. Pivot tables can also help in summarising large datasets.
Regular updates and monitoring
Scheduled reports
Set a schedule for generating and reviewing your reports. Regular updates ensure that you can track progress over time and make timely adjustments.
- Weekly reports: Focus on short-term trends and immediate performance metrics. These reports can help in identifying quick wins and urgent issues.
- Monthly reports: Provide a broader overview of your SEO performance. Highlight significant changes, long-term trends and progress towards your goals.
- Quarterly reports: Conduct in-depth analysis of your overall strategy. Assess the effectiveness of major initiatives and refine your approach for the next quarter.
Monitoring tools
Use monitoring tools to keep an eye on critical metrics and receive alerts for significant changes.
- Google Alerts: Set up alerts for mentions of your brand, competitors and industry keywords. This helps you stay informed about new content, backlinks and competitive movements.
- SEMrush and Ahrefs Alerts: Configure alerts for changes in keyword rankings, backlinks and domain health. These tools provide notifications when significant SEO events occur.
Actionable insights and implementation
Prioritising tasks based on impact
Use an impact vs. effort matrix to prioritise tasks. This helps you focus on high-impact actions that require minimal effort, ensuring efficient use of resources.
- High impact, low effort: Prioritise these tasks first. They offer significant benefits with minimal investment. Examples include optimising meta tags, fixing broken links and updating outdated content.
- High impact, high effort: Plan and allocate resources for these tasks. They are crucial for long-term success but may require substantial effort. Examples include comprehensive content overhauls, technical SEO fixes and large-scale link-building campaigns.
- Low impact, low effort: Address these tasks as time permits. They can provide marginal gains without consuming significant resources. Examples include minor design tweaks and small content updates.
- Low impact, high effort: Re-evaluate the necessity of these tasks. They may not be worth pursuing unless they support broader strategic goals. Examples include overhauling low-traffic pages or implementing minor technical changes with limited SEO benefit.
Continuous improvement and iteration
Schedule regular meetings to review progress, discuss challenges and adjust strategies.
- Weekly check-ins: Brief meetings to discuss immediate tasks and any issues encountered. These sessions help maintain momentum and ensure alignment.
- Monthly strategy reviews: In-depth discussions on the progress of major initiatives, changes in the competitive landscape and adjustments to the strategy.
- Quarterly performance reviews: Comprehensive evaluations of your overall SEO performance. Use these reviews to refine your long-term strategy and set new goals.
Testing and experimentation
Embrace a culture of continuous testing and experimentation to identify the most effective SEO tactics.
- A/B testing: Regularly conduct A/B tests on key elements such as title tags, meta descriptions and content formats. Analyse the results to determine the best-performing variations.
- Pilot projects: Launch small-scale pilot projects to test new strategies or tools before full implementation. This mitigates risk and allows for fine-tuning.
- Feedback loops: Establish feedback loops with your team to gather insights on what’s working and what’s not. Encourage open communication and collaborative problem-solving.
By systematically tracking, reporting and implementing actionable insights, you can create a robust competitive SEO strategy. Regular monitoring and continuous improvement ensure that your strategy remains dynamic and responsive to changes in the competitive landscape.
Competitor analysis is a cornerstone of a successful SEO strategy. By understanding and analysing what your competitors are doing, you can uncover opportunities to surpass them with unique and optimised tactics. Remember: the goal is not to imitate but to innovate and provide better solutions to your target audience.
Graeme Winchester is a leading SEO Consultant. If you are looking to improve your websites visibility in the major search engines please do get in touch to discuss how I can help.