Master the Art of SEO Competitor Analysis and Dominate Your Market
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Finding your competitors
- Using SEO tools
- Identifying same level competitors
- Identifying high level competitors
- Competitor keyword analysis
- Performing keyword gap analysis
- Finding keyword opportunities
- Competitor backlink analysis
- Analyzing top pages for backlinks
- Finding link building opportunities
- Utilizing competitor backlink lists
- On-page and technical SEO analysis
- Assessing competitor website health
- Conducting on-page SEO analysis
- Creating high-quality SEO content
- Tips for writing SEO content
- Understanding user intent
- Balancing optimization and quality
🔍 Introduction
In this video, I'm going to show you how to perform SEO competitor analysis to enhance your organic traffic. We'll also discuss how to create your own template for this analysis. As a marketer, it's essential to understand your competition and uncover SEO gems hidden within their websites. By leveraging this knowledge, you can not only increase your website's organic traffic and rankings but also gain valuable insights into SEO strategies and opportunities for growth.
Hey there, I'm Edward Jack from b2bdigitalmarketers.com, a platform where you can learn how to level up your digital marketing without relying on expensive marketing agencies. In today's article, we will dive deep into the world of SEO competitor analysis. I'll guide you through a step-by-step process of identifying your competitors, analyzing their keywords, backlinks, and on-page optimization, and ultimately create compelling SEO content that ranks at the top of Google's search results.
So, without further ado, let's get started!
🕵️ Finding Your Competitors
To begin our SEO competitor analysis, we first need to identify who our competitors are in the online space. While you can manually search for common keywords in your niche on Google, this approach may limit your view and hinder a complete analysis. Instead, we'll leverage SEO tools to streamline the process and gain comprehensive insights.
There are numerous SEO tools available, but for simplicity, I'll be using my personal favorite, SE Ranking. If you don't have an SEO tool yet, I highly recommend trying SE Ranking for a free 14-day trial. It offers the best value for money and will allow you to follow along with this tutorial seamlessly.
Once you have your SEO tool ready, let's start by finding your competitors. In SE Ranking, you can use their competitive research tool to analyze the competition. Simply enter your domain, select your targeted location, and click "Analyze." This will generate a report showing your organic competitors.
Now that we have a list of competitors, let's divide them into two categories: same level competitors and high level competitors.
Identifying Same Level Competitors
Same level competitors refer to those websites with a similar domain authority score as yours. This score reflects the trustworthiness and authority of a domain, and sticking within the same range ensures a fair comparison. In SE Ranking, the domain trust score is used. If your domain trust score is between 10 and 30, we can search for same level competitors within this range.
Using SE Ranking's domain trust filter, sort the competitors by domain trust from lowest to highest. This will help you find competitors at a similar level as you. To narrow it down further, you can consider selecting competitors with the highest traffic within this range. This will give you a more targeted sample to analyze.
Once you have identified your same level competitors, record their information in a spreadsheet, including their domain trust and relevant metrics. Repeat this process to gather a list of 20 to 30 same level competitors. The more competitors you analyze, the better understanding you will have of the SEO opportunities within your niche.
Identifying High Level Competitors
High level competitors, on the other hand, are those websites that have a significantly higher domain authority score than yours. While it may seem counterintuitive to analyze competitors with a much higher authority, there are still valuable insights to be gained from studying their strategies.
To identify high level competitors, sort the competitors by domain trust in descending order. Select the top competitors with the highest domain authority scores. Remember to focus on competitors whose content aligns closely with your targeted topics. Avoid competitors that deviate too much or address different angles of your niche.
By analyzing high level competitors, you can uncover advanced SEO tactics, find inspiration for content creation, and understand how to bridge the gap between your current authority level and theirs. Again, record the information of these competitors in your spreadsheet, including their domain trust and relevant metrics.
📚 Competitor Keyword Analysis
Now that we have identified our competitors, it's time to dive into keyword analysis. Analyzing your competitors' keywords will help you uncover valuable insights on what keywords are driving organic traffic to their websites. By identifying these keywords, you can guide your own content creation and SEO strategy.
To perform keyword analysis, we need to conduct two types of analysis: keyword gap analysis for same level competitors and missing keyword analysis for high level competitors.
Performing Keyword Gap Analysis
Keyword gap analysis allows us to identify keywords that our same level competitors are ranking for, but we aren't. This information helps us uncover potential keyword opportunities that can boost our organic traffic and rankings.
Using your chosen SEO tool, such as SE Ranking, access the competitor comparison or keyword gap analysis feature. Add two same level competitors into the tool and click "Show Results." This will generate a list of keywords that the competitors are ranking for, along with their current ranking positions.
Scan this list to identify keywords where your competitors are consistently ranking in the top 10 positions. These keywords indicate opportunities for your own website to rank alongside them. Select relevant keywords with adequate search volume and add them to your SEO competitor analysis spreadsheet under the keyword gap analysis section.
Remember, you're not just targeting these keywords blindly. Your content should provide unique value and be relevant to the keyword's intent. By analyzing same level competitors, you can uncover keywords that are attainable for your website's authority level.
Finding Keyword Opportunities from High Level Competitors
In addition to analyzing same level competitors, it's crucial to also analyze high level competitors. High level competitors typically have a broader range of keywords they rank for, opening up potential keyword opportunities for your website.
Using the same keyword gap analysis process, gather the list of keywords that high level competitors are ranking for. Again, focus on keywords where your website is missing from the top 10 positions. These keywords represent untapped potential and require further investigation.
To narrow down the list, filter the keywords based on relevance, search volume, and competition. Look for keywords that align closely with your target audience and content strategy. Add these keywords to your SEO competitor analysis spreadsheet under the missing keyword section.
By conducting keyword analysis across both same level and high level competitors, you'll have a comprehensive list of keyword opportunities to optimize your content and increase your organic traffic.
🌐 Competitor Backlink Analysis
Backlinks play a crucial role in SEO and are powerful signals of credibility for search engines. Analyzing your competitors' backlinks can provide invaluable insights into their link building strategies and help you identify potential link building opportunities for your own website.
There are a few ways to conduct competitor backlink analysis, including analyzing top pages for backlinks, finding link building opportunities, and leveraging competitor backlink lists. Let's explore these methods in more detail.
Analyzing Top Pages for Backlinks
To identify pages on your competitors' websites that have generated a significant number of backlinks, you can use the "Top Pages" feature in your SEO tool. This feature reveals which pages attract the highest number of high-quality backlinks.
By analyzing these top pages, you can understand what makes them linkable and create even better content that attracts backlinks. SE Ranking provides a backlink checker tool for this purpose. Simply enter your competitor's domain, and it will display the backlinks for their top-ranking pages.
As you review these pages, pay attention to the types of content that have generated the most backlinks. Look for patterns and themes that make them attractive to others. For example, you might find that visual content, such as infographics or custom images, tend to attract more backlinks.
By identifying the strategies employed by your competitors, you can replicate their success and adapt it to your own content marketing efforts.
Finding Link Building Opportunities
Competitor backlink analysis also enables you to uncover link building opportunities within your niche. One effective strategy is to identify resource pages that link to your competitors' websites and offer similar or even superior resources.
To discover these opportunities, you can utilize URL filters to search for common words found in the URLs of resource pages. Keywords like "links," "resources," or "examples" often appear in URLs of resource pages. By filtering and investigating these URLs, you can find websites that link to your competitors' resources.
For instance, if Backlinko has a resource page on "B2B email marketing examples," you can search for URLs containing the term "examples" and explore the websites linked to similar pages. Reach out to these websites and offer your own relevant resource as a replacement or addition to their page.
Link building opportunities can also be found through broken link building, guest blogging, or utilizing the skyscraper technique. These strategies involve finding broken links on other websites, offering to write guest posts, or creating superior content that outperforms existing articles, respectively.
Remember to save the link building opportunities you discover in your SEO competitor analysis spreadsheet. This way, you can efficiently organize and prioritize your link building efforts.
Leveraging Competitor Backlink Lists
Another option for competitor backlink analysis is to access your competitors' backlink lists. Most SEO tools provide a backlink checker feature that allows you to view backlinks pointing to your competitors' websites.
By leveraging this feature, you can gain insights into the specific websites linking to your competitors and assess their backlink quality. These backlinks represent potential opportunities for your own link building outreach.
Consider analyzing the characteristics of these websites and determine their relevance and authority. Look for websites within your niche or related industries that might be interested in your content. By forging relationships with these websites, you can secure valuable backlinks to boost your own SEO efforts.
🔍 On-page and Technical SEO Analysis
Beyond keyword and backlink analysis, it's crucial to evaluate your competitors' on-page and technical SEO efforts. Successful SEO requires a combination of high-quality content, proper optimization, and technical optimization to ensure your website meets the standards of search engines.
Start by assessing your competitors' overall website health. Use your SEO tool's website audit feature to generate a health score for their websites. This score takes into account various factors like domain age, backlinks, content analysis, and uniqueness rate.
By reviewing the health score, you can identify areas where your competitors excel and areas where they lag behind. Take note of any errors, warnings, or recommendations provided by the audit tool. This information will help you prioritize your improvements and identify opportunities for optimization.
Remember that maintaining a healthy website involves ongoing efforts, especially as your website grows. As your website expands, keeping up with optimization practices becomes even more crucial. Regularly monitoring your website's health and resolving any issues promptly is essential for maintaining and improving your search engine rankings.
Additionally, perform on-page SEO analysis on your competitors' top-ranking pages. This analysis will help you understand how these pages are optimized and provide insights into successful optimization strategies.
Use on-page SEO auditing tools, such as SE Ranking's on-page SEO checker or Google Chrome extensions like Detailed.com, to assess your competitors' optimization efforts. These tools provide comprehensive reports on the pages, highlighting areas for improvement and offering suggestions for enhanced optimization.
Optimizing your own web pages involves considering various factors, including keyword placement, meta tags, headers, content structure, and mobile-friendliness. Take inspiration from your competitors' successful optimization techniques, but be sure to tailor your tactics to match your unique goals and target audience.
By continually monitoring and fine-tuning your on-page and technical SEO, you'll not only stay ahead of your competitors but also ensure your website aligns with search engine algorithms and delivers an optimal user experience.
📝 Creating High-Quality SEO Content
The final step in SEO competitor analysis is to leverage everything we've learned and create high-quality SEO content. Content creation plays a vital role in ranking well on search engines and capturing the attention of your target audience.
When creating SEO content, it's essential to focus on user experience and relevance. Keywords are important, but avoid over-optimizing your content. Google's algorithms are sophisticated and can understand related words and content context, so aim for natural language and engaging writing.
To create exceptional SEO content, keep the following tips in mind:
🖋️ Tip 1: Write Content First, Optimize Later
Start by writing your content, focusing on providing value to your readers. Once you have a draft, go back and optimize it for SEO. Remember that quality content is the foundation for successful SEO.
🎯 Tip 2: Understand User Intent
Consider the intent behind the keywords you're targeting. What are users looking for when they search for these keywords? Cater your content to meet those needs and provide comprehensive answers and insights.
⚖️ Tip 3: Balance Optimization and Quality
Find the right balance between optimization and quality. Avoid keyword stuffing and prioritize readability and clarity. Engaging content that adds value to your readers is more likely to resonate with both users and search engines.
Remember, your content should always provide value to your audience. It's not just about satisfying search engine algorithms, but about genuinely helping and engaging your target audience. Focus on creating informative, well-structured, and easy-to-read content that resonates with your readers.
Don't forget to keep an eye on the content and strategies implemented by your competitors. Take inspiration from their successful SEO practices while incorporating your own unique insights and approach.
In conclusion, SEO competitor analysis is a valuable process that allows you to uncover insights, identify opportunities, and refine your SEO strategies. By understanding your competitors' keywords, backlinks, on-page optimization, and content approaches, you can enhance your own SEO efforts and achieve higher organic rankings.
So, let's roll up our sleeves, dive into the data, and start creating exceptional SEO content that outranks the competition!
✨ Highlights
- Understand your competitors to enhance your organic traffic
- Identify same level and high level competitors for comprehensive analysis
- Conduct keyword gap analysis to uncover keyword opportunities
- Analyze competitor backlinks for link building opportunities
- Evaluate your competitors' on-page and technical SEO efforts
- Create high-quality SEO content that resonates with users and search engines
