SEO Competitor Analysis

Taylor Pratt Raven Internet Marketing Tools smx.raventools.com

  Identifying targets   Operation: Search   On-‐site optimization information gathering   Operation: Anchor   Oﬀ-‐site optimization tactics   Enemy surveillance program   Competitive analysis strategy

Determining W ho Your Competitors A re

  Identify broad and niche competitors   Broad competitor: competitor in your market   Niche competitor: competitor for a segment of your market   How to identify:   Take note of competitors routinely showing up for related searches   Ask client to compile a top 10-‐20 list of online and oﬄine competitors   Survey customers   Research industry associations, forums and networks

On-‐site o ptimization information g athering

Goal: Determine w hat t heir s trategy is, how s uccessful they a re a t implementing it a nd to learn f rom it

  What keywords do they believe are a priority?   What keywords they are targeting that you should?   How well are they ranking for their targeted keywords?   How are they optimizing their title tag structure?

  What keywords are they focusing their headlines on?   Are they focusing heavily on branding or optimization?   Are they optimizing their internal link structure?   Which keywords are they using the most as anchor text?   How often are they creating new content?   What types of content are they creating?   Is it link-‐bait like content or just branded content?

  How well is their site rendering in the search engines?   How are they optimizing their navigation?   What are their calls to action?   Are they obvious?   How well is their site being indexed in the SERPs?   How clean is their HTML?   Does it look they are actively optimizing their code?   How quickly is their site rendering?   How does it compare to yours?

Oﬀ-‐site o ptimization tactics

Goal: Determine w hat t heir e xternal s ite o ptimization strategy is a nd to learn how to c apitalize o n it

  Total number of backlinks   Date backlinks were created   Pay close attention to growth patterns   The pages receiving the most backlinks   Outside of the homepage   Anchor text being used   Pay special attention to which pages are being linked to   What percentage are images/no-‐follow?

  What forums are they participating in?   What associations/organizations are they members of?   What conferences are they sponsoring?   What blogs are they guest posting on?   At what frequency   On what topics   Can you tell if they are buying links?

  What are they doing to acquire these links?   What is their content creation strategy?   Are they inviting guest bloggers?   Are they creating viral content?   Are they creating free tools and widgets?   Are they conducting interviews?   Are they holding contests?   Are people reviewing their products on their own sites?   Where are they getting mentioned and what is the sentiment of those mentions?

Competitive a nalysis s trategy

  After initial competitor review, revisit every quarter   Determine how their strategy is evolving:   How have their rankings increased/decreased?   How many inbound links have they built?   How much has their site grown?   Did they launch any major link bait programs?   What were their successes and failures?   How does this compare to your site?   Are there any new links, communities, keywords for you to target?

Taylor Pratt -‐ @RavenPratt smx.raventools.com For a complete competitor c hecklist, e mail: taylor@raventools.com

http://tomharari.com	3792
http://www.searchmarketingweekly.com	48
http://abtasty.com	19
http://shailajaseo.blogspot.com	14
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com	6
http://flavors.me	5
http://feeds.feedburner.com	3
http://pinterest.com	3
http://prlog.ru	1
http://email.tomharari.com	1
http://shailajaseo.blogspot.in	1

SEO Competitor Analysis

by Taylor Pratt

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