How to Do SEO Competitor Analysis – A Step By Step Guide!
If you’re all heated up for an online adventure, while keeping your readers engaged and proactive, then an SEO competitor analysis is the next great business move to make!
Tackling your competitors comes only after identifying, analyzing, and minimizing the potential advantage they have over you – and this should be your mantra.
It is no news that you can triumph in your line of business by conducting an SEO competitor analysis and using your competitors’ info to rank above them. You can easily do this by using one of the two most popular methods: on-page and off-page SEO competitor analysis.
Off Page SEO vs On Page SEO
On-page SEO competitor analysis happens when you navigate through your competitors’ websites intending to make a comparison between theirs and your website. This analysis will give you info on your competitors’ usage of keywords for page interlinking, the nature of their products and services, as well as the usage of meta tags like titles and descriptions.
On-page SEO competitor analysis can be done with tools such as Screaming Frog and SEMrush which help you measure the keywords in volume, difficulty, and ranking value.
Off-page SEO competitor analysis, on the other hand, is focused on understanding the ways your competitors are generating links and raising brand awareness. Furthermore, off-page SEO competitor analysis will give you clear insight into the marketing techniques which your competition uses and thus help you identify their keywords.
The most popular SEO competitor analysis tools for conducting an off-page analysis are MOZ’s Open Site Explorer, Google Trends, Google Adwords (PPC), and SpyFu.
Steps to Conducting Successful SEO Competitor Analysis
If you’re asking yourself ‘what is competitor analysis in SEO?’, it’s best explained in a process consisting of 7 different steps. Identifying your competition, finding the targeted keywords, rank tracking, and generating an SEO competitor analysis report are all part of the wider process.
1. Identify Competition
To successfully identify your current as well as potential competitors, you would have to perform keywords research and SEO comparison. You can do this by analyzing the SERP (The Search Engine Results Page) which are the top 10 links you’ll get on your browser after typing the keywords.
You’ll notice that according to SERP, you have competitors which aren’t in your niche.
For instance, a shoe company in Boston may use the keywords ‘the cheapest shoes in Boston area’ and will compete with other companies ranking with the same word but working in a different industry.
Moreover, you should know that the SERPs are always unique and may differ even when two users are searching the same query.
Understanding SERP is crucial for the successful identification of your competition.
The simplest way to understand SERP is to break it down into 3 simple categories:
- Sponsored Results: Adds that will pop out on your screen, either at the bottom or in your Google Search Graph. These results are paid for by advertisers.
- Decorative features: Features like snippets, doodles, carousels that enrich the visual experience of the SERP.
- Organic Results: These are the listings that are generated and you use for conducting your search query.
2. Targeted Keywords
Your SEO competitor analysis would be nothing without proper keywords research. Experienced SEO analysts know that the SEO tools aren’t standardized and they should carefully choose which one to use for which category of keywords.
However, the magic happens when you decide to use the Semrush Keyword Magic Tool which provides you with an international database of more than 20 billion keywords.
The tool has an extraordinary filtering system that will instantly classify your keywords into different categories. Furthermore, it also has groups of keywords according to their value, difficulty, and other specific parameters.
When using Semrush Keyword Magic Tool, you will start your research with a so-called ‘seed’ keyword which will serve you as a research basis. The seed keyword will practically be the topic you are researching.
Semrush Keyword Magic Tool’s Filtering System includes:
- Keywords Usage and Density
- Languages
- Search Intent
- CPC
- Questions
- Search Volume
- Broad, Exact, Phrase Match, and Related Keywords
You can choose one of these filters and customize your research according to your preferences. Moreover, the Semrush Keywords Magic Tool has a feature that enables you to narrow your research and target a specific set of keywords.
The wand is in your hand – all you have to do is cast the spell and do your research!
3. On-Page Optimization and On-Site Content
If you’ve been wondering how to optimize your website and place it among the top 5 results in someone’s search engine, then the on-page optimization technique is your only answer.
As we all know, keyword stuffing it’s not the way to acquire page-one visibility, and mutual understanding between the engine and the content creator is needed. That’s why on-page optimization techniques like improving your meta titles and descriptions, using real words, structuring your content, URL optimization, meta tags, structuring, and much more.
Following are some of the most popular on-page optimization techniques which you can use:
URL |
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Meta Tags and Descriptions |
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Structure |
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Headers |
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To do competitor analysis SEO, you can always choose one of the free tools such as SEOCrawler, Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, Copyscape, Moz-On-Page Grader, and so on.
Nonetheless, one SEO competitor analysis tool shines a little brighter than the others – and not to toot our own horn, but of course, it’s the 7Greatmedia’ Audit Tool.
This magnificent tool can help in many different ways, including:
- Enhancing the total score of your website based on numerous findings
- Fixing and preventing all technical issues
- On-site optimization features
- Tips, tricks, and recommendations for ranking improvement
There may be confusion so as to which is the best SEO tool for competitor site analysis if you don’t do a comparison between the different features and techniques they implore.
Local SEO Competitor Analysis
Socrates’ “Know thyself,” is valid in any situation, but especially when using an SEO competitor analysis tool. Your research should be optimized according to your field of activities and you will use different metrics and parameters as a local as opposed to an international enterprise.
Here, we must once again mention 7Greatmedia’s Audit Tool which provides a customized dashboard for local SEO optimization, where you will find different measurements linked directly to the ranking of your website.
Here are the key metrics of 7Greatmedia’s Local Success Dashboard:
Google My Business Listing Activities
The Dashboard will give you access to your whole google browsing history.
For instance, all your taps, clicks, views will be saved as your set of data from which you can extract any relevant info for your SEO analysis. This feature will enable total transparency as well as customizing your campaign. On top of that, you will be able to track the different trends occurring on your website and manage them to your own will.
Local Search Queries
This enhancement will make you clear how the customers are landing on your client’s website, how the customers interact with the client’s GMB, the number, and type of visits, requests, calls, etc. The Local Search Queries are a great way for you to monitor your client’s visibility on the search results and manage their visibility by using the GMB dashboard.
Customers’ Actions and Reviews
This is one of the key metrics provided by the 7Greatmedia’s Dashboard where you can measure the impact of your local SEO campaign. Furthermore, this feature has different optimization tools that can help your reputation management.
Search Results and Map Views
This feature is complementary with all the others, especially the Local Search Queries and it can do you miracles if used properly. For example, it will be much easier to assess the keywords rankings and identify their ideal positions. You will also get updates on the traffic movement and the sole impact of your SEO campaign.
The 7Greatmedia’s Dashboard provides you with many other incredible features like organic traffic, backlinks, on-page analysis, reliable and updated SEO tools, etc. All you need to do is open the official website, and learn all about it.
4. Analyze Backlink Profile
Simply put, backlinks, sometimes referred to as ‘inbound’ links are the links your website links you to another website. If website A can redirect you to website B, then website A would be a backlink to website B.
This is very important for Google because the backlinks give a signal to the browser that other sources are searching for your content while seeing you as a valuable source. The more backlinks your website acquires, the higher your SERP’s ranking.
Following are some of the most important factors when it comes to backlink competitor analysis:
Number of backlinks
If you are working as an SEO reseller of Ahrefs Site Explorer, the first thing you would logically have to do is estimate the number of your competitors’ backlinks. This is done with simple mathematical operations based on the number of inbounds they currently have against the number they had a year ago. On top of that, you will divide the difference by 12 and get the monthly rate of referring domains.
Let’s calculate the rate if your competitor – hypothetically – has 3,000 backlinks at the end of 2021, and 2,300 at the end of 2020.
(3000 – 2300)/12 = 58 new backlinks per month
To keep up with your competitors, you would have to tailor a unique strategy that will bring you more than 60 backlinks per month.
Domain authority from linked sites
When you’re analyzing the backlink profile, you must take into account the qualitative alongside the quantitive dimension of your inbounds. It’s very important to know that the engine considers the referring domains’ reputation and reliability.
Relevance of linked content
Not all backlinks are relevant for all types of websites. For example, if your client’s website is about dog food, you can’t interlink it with websites about rat poisons. This parameter helps Google’s algorithm in identifying the backing, accessing the quality, and building your ranking.
You can do all of this by using some of the aforementioned SEO competitor analysis tools, but first, make sure which one provides a backlink profile analysis.
5. Rank Tracking
Rank tracking is one of the most important features of any SEO competitor analysis tool. It’s becoming ever more attractive because the importance of keywords and their impact on the organic traffic of your website constantly changes.
In simple words, rank tracking is determining the positions of different keywords by which your website is ranked in a specific period of time.
There are certain metrics each SEO competitor analysis tool has when providing rank tracking services:
- Determining the accuracy of your keywords;
- Organic traffic as a way to improve the site;
- Daily updates and historical data;
- Parameters that can estimate the changes in keywords’ values and their impact on the organic flow;
- The tools that provide indexes for rank tracking of different keywords.
However, the objective of each competitor analysis tools in SEO is determining how the different keywords in different periods impact the overall organic traffic of your website.
Some of the most popular tools which you can use for rank tracking are SERP Watcher, Google Search Console, Yoast SEO 17.8, and, of course, 7Greatmedia Rank Tracking Tool.
If you’re wondering what is the best SEO tool for competitor site analysis that has a great rank tracking feature, realize that they’re all based on providing daily and monthly keyword metrics.
In particular, tools similar to 7Greatmedia’s Rank Tracker will offer you a comprehensive set of features consisting of keywords’ positions, searching volumes, monthly and yearly trends, Google SERP features, etc.
These tools will enable you to choose the keywords you would want to track, specify the targeted locations to track your keywords, and tag them and classify for further SEO improvements.
As you can see, rank tracking is very important because it supports your SEO strategy and improves the organic positions of your keywords.
6. Track Your Overall Progress
In the end, you would want to zoom out of the whole picture and see the overall progress of your or your customer’s website. You can do these comparisons on a daily, monthly basis, and more. You can do this once you’ve finished with competition benchmarking and made changes to your website following the principles of the competitor analysis report SEO.
A tool like 7Greatmedia’s Dashboard can provide you with this by preparing an SEO competitor analysis report and showing you the changes in the performance of your campaign. Dashboards like these help you monitor the progress by analyzing all of the aforementioned metrics such as keyword rankings, backlink profile analysis, on-page analysis, organic traffic, monthly and yearly trends, domain authority, etc. All of this info will give you clues on how to adjust your SEO strategy and improve your ranking.
Tools like the 7Greatmedia Dashboard are easy to use and can be accessed at any time and anywhere while providing updates on your traffic, generating SEO competitor analysis reports and data about your campaign performance. Furthermore, the 7Greatmedia Dashboard doesn’t require you to create spreadsheets or combine two or three different tools. You can generate the SEO competitor analysis reports for every client within minutes after logging in.
The overall progress will be displayed on your dashboard and you will be able to download the report and instantly send it to your client. If you want to know more about 7Greatmedia ’s dashboard and its tracking of the overall progress, you can always consult the official website for detailed info.
7. 7Greatmedia SEO Competitor Analysis Report
In this process, the SEO competitor analysis reports will serve you as the last and most important product of your overall efforts. The SEO competitor analysis reports that you will generate with 7Greatmedia will be your magnet lead and help you gather personal info about the content which isn’t otherwise available.
With tools like 7Greatmedia , you can generate these reports for free at any time and anywhere. This will save you effort, money, and time while providing you with real-time data about your customer’s campaign.
Once you’ve generated the 7Greatmedia SEO competitor analysis report, everything will be there from organic traffic, links, and ranking trends to the next plan of action.
As an agency offering a huge choice of SEO and Whitelabel services, 7Greatmedia can also give you a chance for a trial period or provide you with some of the features for free.
Don’t hesitate – you’re a click away from submitting your e-mail ID and downloading the best SEO competitor analysis report you have ever seen!
Final Thoughts
We hope this guide on how to do SEO competitor analysis helped you understand the importance of this process in enhancing the quality of your content as well as improving the ranking of your website.
By following these simple steps, you’ll be able to constantly adjust your SEO strategy and boost your organic traffic, raise your sales, and develop a more meaningful and transparent customer relationship.