Competitor analysis in SEO is crucial for improving your competitiveness and the number of visitors to your website. How to go about preparing a thorough and comprehensive analysis of your competition and their performance regarding online visibility? Learn from the following points, which will help you do this on your own.
What is most important in SEO competitor analysis?
To precisely understand how your competition operates in SEO, you need to perform two main activities:
Keyword Analysis:
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- Start by identifying your competitors. Begin by determining the most important keywords in your industry. You can also use the free Google Search Console tool to see which keywords your website ranks highly for in Google’s search results. Once you have these primary keywords, check who else is using them. You can simply type them into Google or use various advanced tools such as Senuto, Ahrefs, Semstorm, Seostation, Webpozycja, or Surfer SEO.
- Select a few of the most important competitors and thoroughly analyze their actions. In theory, the more competitors you analyze, the better, but since it takes a lot of time, you should choose the best-performing ones. Using the tools mentioned earlier, find out which keywords they use and where they perform best. These insights will help you identify areas for improvement on your own website.
- Check specific keywords that your competitors use but you do not. This is an important step to increase your online visibility.
- Create a list of keywords where you clearly lag behind the competition and develop a plan to strengthen them. You can use the same methods that your competitors use, such as expanding your blog or creating more extensive category descriptions, among other strategies.
- Don’t forget to consider long-tail keywords in your analysis. These are longer phrases composed of several words. They are gaining importance, especially due to voice searches, where people ask questions in natural language rather than using individual keywords. For example, instead of typing 'pierogi recipe,’ they speak full sentences like 'How to make delicious pierogi at home?’
Backlink Analysis:
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- Backlinks are the links from other websites that improve your website’s ranking. However, it’s crucial to remember that link quality is now more important than quantity. The best links are those that are added voluntarily because the linking party finds your content valuable. Mass acquisition of low-quality links can be detected and penalized by search engines like Google and Bing.
- Similar to keyword analysis, begin by identifying your competitors in this field. You can do this using tools like the Semrush Backlink Competitors report.
- Examine the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors’ websites.
- Search for your own backlinks and compare them with your competitors.
- Based on the previous points, create an action plan to acquire links where you’ll gain the most benefit. Include addressing broken links if any exist. It might be a simple fix if something on your site has changed and the links no longer work.
How often should you perform SEO competitor analysis?
You should conduct competitor analysis in SEO continuously. The internet landscape and trends change rapidly, necessitating quick reactions. Thanks to the wide range of tools that can do most of the work for you, this is not a complicated process, and you can certainly manage it on your own. If you prefer, you can also delegate this to professional consulting firms specializing in audits or even have them take charge of your website’s SEO. This is a convenient solution that allows you to focus on your core business.
Especially for local businesses, ensure the accuracy of your company’s data on Google Maps and enhance your description by adding photos and videos.
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