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How to Perform an SEO Competitor Analysis and Why It’s Important?

Jim Falotico
Jim Falotico
Digital Marketing Consultant
April 6, 2022

An SEO competitor analysis involves researching the content, keywords, and backlinks that a competitor has used. In simple words, it refers to an SEO comparison between two competing websites in a similar niche. Competitor analysis involves the following activities:

• SEO keyword competitor analysis
• Competitor backlinks analysis
• Keyword gap assessment
• Content analysis

Ahrefs, SEMRush, and Moz are some of the best tools you can use to conduct a competitor analysis. Using these tools makes the process more efficient because you won’t have to start the research from scratch. They streamline the process and collect massive data. You can conduct an on-page SEO audit of the page, find out their referring domains, and do keyword research with these tools. By analyzing your competitors, you can determine a target starting point. Digital Marketers perform competitor analysis to rank their sites at the top in a specific niche. Hence, competitor analysis must be an integral part of your SEO strategy.

Six Steps to Follow for Conducting Competitor Analysis

You should understand a few basic steps if you are new to competitor analysis. By following these steps, you will have a clear picture of the competitor analysis process.

Identify Your Competitors: You cannot solve a problem without identifying and examining it, so the first step is to recognize the competition. According to Moz, you should determine your competitors through keywords. You will have to be accurate in discovering your actual match in this SEO analysis. To identify competitors, research multiple keywords and take note of the most frequently occurring ones. If you do not want to spend money initially, you can try Ubersuggest. It gives a list of links and domains ranked for a keyword. The best purchased tool for keyword analysis is Ahrefs. It’s simple to use. Create a long-tail keyword and analyze its types through the keyword research function of Ahrefs. Using one of the SEO tools provides a list of low competition keywords as well, which can also enhance your ranking.

Analyze the Page: The next step in the competitor analysis is analyzing the top-performing pages of the competitor’s website. Assessment of the best-performing pages will give you a clear idea about the keywords that such pages are using. It will provide you with an idea of how to include the keyword in your content. This process is called keyword gap analysis. The paid tool, Ahrefs, provides a content gap option to identify keywords that rank for specific domains. By uncovering the appropriate keywords relevant to your business, you will have a great chance of ranking your site higher on the search engine results pages.

Conduct a Backlinks Analysis: You can initiate the link-building process through competitor backlink analysis. It involves looking at the websites linking back to the competitor’s website. It impacts the domain authority and the spam score of the website. You can get valuable insight with a data-driven technique. Adopting a similar backlinks strategy will help you achieve results. A backlink analysis shows the number of backlinks, domain authority of linked sites, and relevancy of the linked website. The website’s backlink profile signals the search engine about the importance of the website for a keyword. Now create a keyword list and save it in a spreadsheet to use in tools later. Once the data collection process is done, you will be using this list as part of your SEO competitor analysis report.

Focus on Keywords with High Returns: Many businesses assume they should rank for multiple keywords. Instead of that, focus on keywords that can drive your business. SEO experts focus on keywords that generate profits and revenues. You should focus your efforts on ranking for keywords that will bring you a high number of leads for a specific product/service.

Create and Implement a Content Plan: Your first step is to create an SEO competitor analysis report. Export your competitive analysis spreadsheet to the Ahrefs tool which will deliver a keywords list that you can work with to create your content. With this information, create a content plan. Creating exciting and engaging content to attract customers will optimize your website. The success of the SEO campaign depends upon fulfilling the gap between the competition and the audience. Focusing on your target audience with pertinent content will help you establish a strong customer base. Focusing your content on your targeted audience will allow you to outperform your competition.

Track Your Progress: You should track the performance of your website after publishing the new content and optimizing the old content. Regular SEO audits should be conducted to check whether your SEO strategy is working. The SEO tools can find out your website’s top traffic generating pages. Google provides tools like Google Search Console to give a clear picture of how the crawler interacts with your website. Google Analytics will provide you with a deep insight into the customer behavior on your website and highlight which pages are generating the most hits.

Conclusion

A data-driven marketing strategy is incomplete without analyzing your competitors. As you see, it is quite effortless to generate SEO competitor reports using software. Understanding the approach of your competitors or rivals is vital in every business. It gives you a starting point. Despite the ease of implementing competitor analysis, many business owners shy away from it. Therefore, you should look for digital marketing companies who can help. When it comes to executing the right SEO strategy, no one comes close to WSI Digital Marketing services. It is the best Madison digital marketing company. WSI Digital Marketing offers the following digital marketing services:

• Building Brand Awareness
• Optimizing Websites
• Effective SEO Strategy
• Delivering Global Experience
• Social Media Optimization
• Growing Online Reputation

If you want to execute the best Madison digital marketing strategy for your business, then contact 1-262-607-4323 or send an email to jimfalotico@wsiworld.com.

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