Chapters
What is Competitor Analysis in SEO?
Key Steps in Competitor Analysis
- Identify Your Top Competitors
- Analyse Their Key word Strategy
- Examine Their Content Strategy
- Study Their Backlink Profile
- Evaluate their Website Structure and User Experience
Uncovering the Power of Competitor Analysis for SEO Success
In today’s digital landscape, staying competitive in search engine rankings isn’t just about optimising your own website—it’s about understanding what your competitors are doing and doing it better. Competitor analysis is a powerful tool that reveals valuable insights into the strategies your competitors are using to dominate the search engine results pages (SERPs). By analysing their SEO tactics, content strategies, and backlink profiles, you can identify gaps in your approach and uncover new opportunities to boost your rankings.
In this blog, we’ll explore the importance of competitor analysis and how it can help you outrank your competition.
What is Competitor Analysis in SEO?
Competitor analysis in SEO is the process of researching and analysing your competitors’ online presence to understand how they are performing in terms of search visibility, keyword rankings, and other SEO factors. The goal is to identify their strengths and weaknesses and use that information to improve your own SEO strategy.
Why is it Important? Your competitors are likely targeting the same audience as you. By examining what’s working for them, you can fine-tune your own strategies to stay ahead. It’s not enough to focus solely on your own website—you need to know what others are doing and how you can do it better.
Key Steps in Competitor Analysis
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Identify Your Top Competitors
The first step is identifying who your competitors are. These are not always businesses in the same industry but those ranking for the same keywords you’re targeting. Use tools like SEMrush, SE Ranking, Ahrefs, or Google Search to identify who ranks for your targeted keywords.
For example, if you’re focusing on “SEO services in Reading,” search for that term in Google and note the websites that appear on the first page. These are your primary competitors.
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Analyse Their Keyword Strategy
Once you know who your competitors are, the next step is to analyse the keywords they’re ranking for. Tools like SE Ranking and Ahrefs offer keyword gap analysis, which shows the keywords your competitors are targeting but you aren’t. This is a great way to discover new keyword opportunities.
Questions to ask:
- What keywords are they ranking for that you aren’t?
- Are they targeting high-traffic, long-tail keywords that you’ve overlooked?
- Are they using variations of keywords that could apply to your business?
By identifying gaps in your keyword strategy, you can tailor your content to address those opportunities and improve your rankings.
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Examine Their Content Strategy
Content plays a crucial role in SEO and studying your competitors’ content can give you insights into what works for your target audience. Are they focusing on long-form blog posts, how-to guides, or case studies? Do they use multimedia like videos, infographics, or podcasts?
Take note of:
- Content length: Are they producing long-form, in-depth articles? These tend to perform better in search rankings.
- Content format: What types of content are they publishing? Blog posts, videos, or infographics?
- Engagement: Are they getting comments, social shares, or backlinks from their content?
Once you have this information, you can optimise your own content by producing more in-depth articles, creating multimedia-rich pages, or focusing on under-explored topics.
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Study Their Backlink Profile
Backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors in SEO. A strong backlink profile from authoritative websites signals to Google that your website is trustworthy and relevant. Use tools like Ahrefs or Majestic to analyse the backlinks your competitors have acquired.
Consider:
- Where are they getting their backlinks from?
- Can you target the same websites for your own backlinking efforts?
- Are there opportunities for guest posts or partnerships?
By analysing their backlink sources, you can create your own outreach strategy to build a strong backlink profile, which will improve your authority and help you climb the rankings.
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Evaluate Their Website Structure and User Experience
Google places a high emphasis on user experience, and your competitors’ website structure can give you clues on how to improve yours. Look at how their site is organised. Is it easy to navigate? Are their pages loading quickly? Do they have an intuitive mobile experience?
Google’s Core Web Vitals, which include metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), are also important. If your competitors have a fast, responsive website, and yours doesn’t, you’ll likely fall behind in rankings.
Key areas to check:
- Mobile-friendliness: Ensure your website is optimised for mobile.
- Page speed: Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to check your load times and improve them.
- Internal linking: See how your competitors link to important pages on their site and adopt a similar strategy.
How to Use This Information to Outrank Your Competitors
Once you’ve gathered comprehensive data on your competitors, the real challenge lies in using it to your advantage. It’s not enough to merely copy what they’re doing—you need to optimise your approach to surpass them. Here’s how you can take actionable steps that position you as the leader in your niche:
Update Your Keyword Strategy:
Begin by targeting the high-performing keywords your competitors are ranking for, but go beyond that. Look for long-tail keywords with less competition but high search intent. For example, if your competitor ranks for “SEO services in Reading,” you might focus on more specific variations like “affordable SEO services in Reading” or “SEO services for small businesses in Reading.” This helps you capture a more targeted audience while building authority on niche terms. Regularly audit and refine your keyword strategy, keeping an eye on both new trends and evergreen keywords that continue to drive traffic.
Create Superior Content:
Now that you know what types of content your competitors are producing, aim to outshine them by offering more value. This isn’t just about word count but about creating in-depth, actionable, and engaging content. If they’re publishing 1,000-word blog posts, consider producing comprehensive 2,000-word guides that cover the topic more thoroughly. Add value by including expert opinions, case studies, multimedia elements like infographics or videos, and downloadable resources. Use internal linking effectively to strengthen your content’s SEO value and keep readers on your site longer.
Search engines increasingly value user engagement signals like time-on-page and bounce rate. By offering more valuable and detailed content, you’re not only satisfying user intent but signalling to Google that your page is more relevant, which can improve your rankings.
Build a Robust Backlink Profile:
It’s well known that backlinks remain one of Google’s top ranking factors. Simply observing your competitors’ backlinks won’t suffice—you need to actively pursue quality links from reputable websites. Focus on earning backlinks from domains that have higher authority than the ones linking to your competitors. Look for opportunities to contribute guest posts, get cited in industry publications, or collaborate with influencers.
Leverage tools like SE Ranking’s backlink checker or Ahrefs to perform a competitor backlink gap analysis. This will highlight domains linking to your competitors but not to you, allowing you to systematically reach out and offer valuable content in exchange for a link. Always prioritise quality over quantity when building backlinks, as Google’s algorithm heavily favours relevance and authority.
Enhance User Experience (UX):
User experience is not just about how a site looks—Google’s algorithm considers UX factors like mobile responsiveness, site speed, and intuitive navigation. If your competitors have a faster website or a more optimised mobile version, these are areas where you can quickly gain an advantage.
Start by running Google’s Core Web Vitals report and PageSpeed Insights to identify areas of improvement. Focus on improving your site’s Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) metrics to ensure your pages load quickly, are easy to interact with and provide a stable experience. A faster, more user-friendly website doesn’t just benefit your SEO—it improves conversions, too. When your site delivers a seamless experience, users are more likely to stay, engage, and convert into paying customers.
Leverage Technical SEO:
While content and backlinks are crucial, many overlook the technical aspects of SEO that can give you a significant edge. Perform regular site audits to identify any technical issues holding your site back. These can include broken links, 404 errors, or poor site architecture that prevents search engines from crawling and indexing your pages efficiently.
Use tools like Screaming Frog or SE Ranking to crawl your website and ensure that it’s fully optimised. This should include checking for missing or duplicate meta tags, optimising image alt texts, and ensuring you have a proper XML sitemap submitted to Google Search Console. Fixing technical issues gives you a solid foundation that, when combined with effective content and backlink strategies, can rapidly increase your rankings.
Monitor and Adjust:
SEO isn’t a one-time task—it’s an ongoing process. The landscape is always evolving, so continuous monitoring of your competitors’ activities is critical. Set up alerts for significant changes in their rankings or backlink profiles and adapt your strategy accordingly.
Tools like SE Ranking’s Competitor Tracker allow you to keep tabs on the shifts in your competitors’ SEO performance, providing real-time insights. If a competitor suddenly ranks higher for a keyword you were dominating, analyse what they did differently and how you can counteract it. Continuous learning and adaptation are essential for maintaining your competitive edge.
By following these steps, you won’t just replicate what your competitors are doing—you’ll exceed their efforts by being more thorough, proactive, and strategic. Remember, the businesses that win in SEO are the ones who are constantly improving and staying ahead of the curve.
Conclusion
Competitor analysis provides you with invaluable insights, allowing you to refine your strategy, improve your rankings, and ultimately, outrank your competition. From identifying untapped keywords to producing superior content and building a stronger backlink profile, every facet of your SEO can be improved by studying your competitors.
By staying vigilant and constantly optimising your SEO approach, you’ll not only keep pace with your competitors but leave them behind. Let Carisbrook Digital help you take your SEO strategy to the next level—contact us today for expert guidance on how to implement competitor analysis into your marketing plan.