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1. Taylor
Pratt
Raven
Internet
Marketing
Tools
smx.raventools.com

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

3. Determining
W ho
Your
Competitors
A re

4.  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

5. On-­‐site
o ptimization
information
g athering

6. 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

7.  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?

8.  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?

9.  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?

10. Off-­‐site
o ptimization
tactics

11. 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

12.  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?

13.  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?

14.  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?

15. Competitive
a nalysis
s trategy

16.  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?

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