Smart Competitor Research

Websites which outrank you on your keywords are your online competitors. You need a list of few websites which appear on your multiple keywords and follow the following 5 steps:

1) Backlink Analysis

For this task, you will need link analysis tool’s (you have available). I use Open Site Explorer and Raven Tools. List all the links of your competitors (which are relevant and taken from authority websites) where you can also get link through an email/call outreach.

Record every link status in a file so you won’t overdo and save some time to work on other websites for link building.

2) Content Strategy

Here you require analyzing both onsite and offsite content strategy.

i. Onsite: Analyze what kind of content they produce on the website (blog, info-graphics, news, events, resources, eBooks, targeted keywords page etc.), what is the frequency of uploading fresh content, which kind of posts get good amount of shares and comments, what kind of topics they cover (keywords selection with their searches). In-short you have to list every action your competitors take for producing content on the website.

ii. Offsite: List all the websites where the competitors published the content (guest posts), what kind of content they produced, what is their linking strategy (for keywords and other blogs), what is the frequency of adding new content etc.

You can extend the list upon your requirements, business goals, competition, industry and activity of your competitors. To find all the guest posts created by your competitors:

3) Paid Strategy

List your competitor’s strategies of paid marketing i.e. sponsor links, PPC (Adwords), Google Shopping, Paid business profiles, Facebook Ads etc.

These are expensive but highly effective which require less effort and turn-out more. It also depends on your business goals and competition of the industry (if you are going to invest).

4) Social Media Strategy

Analyze how your competitors engaging the audience on social media channels i.e. how they grow their network, what is the frequency of their per day postings, how many mentions they receive, what kind of postings they usually get more interaction (shares, comments, likes, RTs, +1s).

5) Build Your Own Strategy

Research your competitors not to follow them but to analyze and to come-up with a new better strategy. Look what they are missing, where they lose opportunities, also research where they are good at so that you can present your business in a new and better way.

I hope you will like this post. A business competitor must follow the above strategies to analyse the pros and cons of its competitors and should lead accordingly.