Why Should You Care About Performing An SEO Competitor Analysis?

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Imagine that your website has ranked #1 for an important keyword, then suddenly, your page is not found for search queries related to your topic. What happened? It could be for any number of reasons. You may think that Google has changed its algorithm. But the truth is it could be new competitors have emerged, or existing competitors have strategically improved their content and/or gained powerful backlinks.

An SEO competitor analysis can help you understand why your ranking dropped and what strategies you should use to outrank your competitors. Find out what an SEO competitor analysis is and why it’s important for your business.

Exclusive Insight into Industry Strategies and Trends

What Is An SEO Competitor Analysis?

An SEO competitor analysis identifies the keywords and content strategies that your competitors are using to get ahead in rankings. This involves researching their website, content, social media presence, backlinks, keyword strategy, and any other factors that may be affecting their rankings.

Analyzing these factors can give you insights into the following:

A competitor’s winning strategy so you can use it
The competitiveness of your niche
The performance of your SEO efforts compared to your competitors
Your competitors’ weaknesses so you can capitalize on them

Why Should You Perform An SEO Competitor Analysis?

Here are just a few reasons why you should perform an SEO competitor analysis.

Enhance Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Since the online marketplace is ever-evolving and very competitive, your business cannot afford to have a static digital marketing strategy. Creating a good digital marketing strategy is a complex process that requires lots of research, SEO, and planning.

Competitor analysis lets you stay ahead of the competition by helping you understand and anticipate current trends. You can use available data to gauge demand and create a campaign that’s more likely to be successful.

A thorough competitor analysis helps you identify potential gaps in the market that could yield unique opportunities for growth and success. It also allows you to gauge your brand mentions, learn what others think about your brand, and adjust your strategy accordingly.

To Check Page By Page Details

What your competitors are doing page by page can help you evaluate the performance of your own website. By looking at page-level data, you can understand the keywords they are targeting and how successful their strategies are for each page. This helps you spot gaps in your site’s functionality and content.

You can also use this analysis to identify opportunities for improvement in areas such as page titles, meta descriptions, internal links, headings, and keyword optimization. For instance, if your competitor is using videos to drive traffic to their site, then you can use a similar strategy.

To Know Your Competitors

Your largest competitor might not be who you assume it is. You may have a competitor who ranks very high for the money keywords, and naturally, you think that that’s your direct competitor. However, there are several other competitors who are dominating other portions you consider to be inconsequential, like long-tail keywords.

By performing a competitor analysis, you can discover competitors who have been flying under your radar. Then, you can adjust and develop strategies that will help increase your visibility in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Ensure you understand your buyer persona before beginning your competitor research. Knowing who your target audience is and what they are searching for will help you create a more effective SEO strategy.

Discover New Ways To Reach Your Audience

Are your competitors using new tactics to reach their audience? A competitor analysis lets you know which unique strategies they’ve implemented successfully.

For instance, you might learn that they’re utilizing targeted advertising campaigns or optimizing their content for voice search queries. You can then use this new information and apply it to your own website to get better results from your SEO efforts.

To Create Better Content

By researching the content pieces that have been successful for other websites, you can come up with ideas for materials to drive organic traffic to your own website. For instance, if one of your competitors has seen great success with blog posts, you can research their content topics and use the information to create better content for your own audience.

You can also gain insights into why certain pieces of content have been successful or unsuccessful. This way, you will be able to come up with a strategy that is more likely to generate positive results.

Stay Ahead Of The Curve

Finally, performing a competitor analysis will help you stay ahead of the curve in terms of SEO. You can quickly notice what strategies are working for your competitors and incorporate them into your own website. Doing so will give you an edge over other companies and help you improve your rankings on SERPs.

Final Thoughts

Performing a competitor analysis requires a multifaceted approach since there are lots of areas that need to be studied and analyzed. It might be difficult to determine which areas to focus on when performing this analysis.

Our experts at The Hoyt Organization understand what every industry needs and can help you develop strategies to power your website to the top. Get in touch with us today!

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Leeza Hoyt

Founder and President at The Hoyt Organization

With over 25 years of experience, Leeza’s campaigns have garnered over 150 awards from top public relations organizations nationwide. Additionally, THO serves as the Los Angeles area partner of the Public Relations Global Network, granting clients access to over 50 global markets. The agency was also named to one of the top 200 firms in the country by Forbes magazine in 2021, and she has been named by Globest.com as a Woman of Influence and a Woman to Watch, among other designations.