5 Key Aspects to Analyze on your Competitors' Sites: SEO Competitive Analysis

While many people think SEO competitor analysis is simply copying their competitors, it's actually about learning from their progress and pitfalls to create better user experiences for your audience. Even if your SEO strategy is solid and your traffic is decent, you should aim for greatness. And that requires understanding how to analyze your competitors' SEO techniques and develop ways to improve your website's performance from the data gathered.

So, why perform a competitor SEO analysis?

SEO competitor analysis helps you build a better and more effective SEO strategy, driving growth and success. By analyzing your competitors' strengths and weaknesses, you can:

• Refine your SEO strategy, improving ranking and visibility
• Enhance content and user experience
• Stay ahead of the competition
• Drive more traffic and increase conversions
• Uncover quality backlink opportunities

What is competitor SEO?

It's an approach to analyzing what your competitors are doing in organic search results, examining their keywords, content, and backlinks, and discovering how and why they rank at the top.

What are the things I need to analyze in our competitor's site for SEO?

The most important thing to keep in mind when analyzing a competitor's SEO approaches is to never be a copycat. Instead, identify the specific information you need to improve your website. If you replicate your competitors, search engines will not display your site. Search engines don't need two versions of the same page. They prefer unique content that provides solutions more efficiently. If you're closely emulating your competitors site features, it means you're desperate and acknowledging their superior expertise.

Look for SEO gaps. Always focus on what your competitors are missing or doing irrelevantly to the search intent, and track their changes and your own. Ask yourself these questions while conducting competitor research:

• What topically relevant information is missing from their content that they haven't answered yet on that specific page?
• Have they included irrelevant headers and paragraphs that don't make sense for the user to read?
• Is everything on the page easy to find within a quick scan?
• Are answers buried in paragraphs at the bottom of the page?
• How is the text formatted, and can you improve it?
• Can you create a better user experience by being concise, direct, and formatting differently?
• If comparing two things, does it make sense to add a table or chart of features? What about separate sections for each?

You can create a spreadsheet or use a visualization tool that populates charts and graphs, allowing you to track your findings. This will help save you time when you need to reference the reasons why you're making specific changes.

5 Key Aspects to Analyze on your Competitors' Sites

There are key aspects to look at when analyzing your competitor's website for SEO. It is vital to consider the following:

1. Keywords

2. Content

3. Backlinks

4. Technical performance

5. Conversion optimization

Keywords

Conduct a comprehensive keyword analysis to decode your competitor's SEO strategy. Delve into:

• Keyword density and strategic placement
• Meta tags, including title tags and descriptions
• Header tags (H1, H2, H3) and their hierarchical structure
• Website structure and information architecture, including URL structures and internal linking
• Content themes and topic clusters, revealing their content strategy
• Long-tail keyword strategy, uncovering their approach to targeting specific search queries

Content

Evaluate your competitor's content strategy by assessing the quality, quantity, and type of content they produce. Including blog posts, product descriptions, landing pages, and more. Analyze the engagement and information value of their content, as well as its frequency and volume.

Identify the content formats they use, such as videos, infographics, podcasts, and e-books, to cater to diverse audience preferences. Using tools like Semrush, Moz, or Ahrefs, determine which competitors have featured snippets, and examine their strategies, including the rich results their ranking content has, such as review snippets, product cards, and FAQs.

Backlinks

Having an identical link profile or type of links as your competitors won't give you an edge; acquiring quality links, including unique and original ones, is key. Research the number and quality of backlinks, considering factors such as:

• Anchor text
• Relevance
• Authority

This will help you understand their link building strategy. To stand out, focus on securing links that your competitors don't have. Find websites, podcasts, and webinars that feature original, relevant content aligned with your company's expertise. Build relationships with them and work towards getting featured. Prioritize high-quality features and strive to acquire those links.

Technical Performance

A website's technical performance has a significant impact on user experience and search engine rankings. The key factors to consider are:

• Page speed and mobile responsiveness
• Website security and SSL encryption
• Browser compatibility and rendering
• Website architecture and crawl plans

A slow or unresponsive website can lead to high bounce rates and negatively impact search engine rankings. Website security and SSL encryption protect user data and ensure trust in the website.

Browser compatibility and rendering ensure that the website displays correctly across different browsers and devices. Also, analyze their website architecture and crawl plans to see which folders and pages they prioritize, their keyword and topic strategy they consider important or irrelevant.

Conversion Optimization

Conversion optimization is vital for maximizing website revenue. To boost conversions, analyze your competitor's strategies and learn from their approaches. Key areas to focus on include:

• Calls-to-action and button design
• Form design and length
• Landing page design and messaging

Analyze the placement of CTAs, evaluate the number of fields, labeling, and submission processes to understand how they balance data collection with user experience. Also Analyze the headlines, imagery, and value proposition presentation.

What Not to Analyze on a Competitor's Site

When analyzing a competitor's site for SEO, there are certain things that you can ignore to avoid wasting time and resources. Here are some things not to look for in a competitor's site:

1. Irrelevant keywords: Ignore keywords and content unrelated to your search intent or niche.

2. Outdated information: Disregard outdated content, old news, or archived material that's no longer relevant.

3. Unrelated features: Ignore features or functionalities that aren't relevant to your site or audience, such as chatbot assistant.

4. Technical details: Don't get bogged down in technical details like coding, hosting, or server configuration unless they directly impact your SEO practices.

5. Social media presence: Focus on their website and content, give less attention to their social media following or engagement.

6. Non-SEO elements: Disregard elements like advertising, affiliate marketing, or sponsored content that aren't relevant to SEO.

14 Top SEO Tools for competitor Site Analysis

1. Semrush - Keyword research, backlink analysis, technical performance monitoring.

1. Ahrefs - Organic search traffic analysis, backlink profiles, content analysis.

1. Moz Pro - Keyword research, backlink analysis, technical performance monitoring, domain authority tracking.
2. SpyFu - Search marketing strategies, keyword research, backlink analysis
3. Ubersuggest - Keyword research, content ideas, term competitiveness analysis, search volume analysis
4. BuzzSumo - Content analysis, topic ideas, influencer identification
5. SE Ranking - Organic and paid traffic analysis, keyword research, backlink analysis, technical performance monitoring.
6. Serpstat - Domain comparison, keyword research, backlink analysis
7. Similarweb - Market research, website traffic analysis, engagement analysis
8. Majestic - Backlink analysis, link building strategies
9. Unbounce - Conversion optimization, landing page analysis, campaign analysis
10. GTmetrix - Provides website speed and performance testing, including page load time and optimization recommendations.
11. Google pagespeed Insights - Analyzes website speed and performance, including mobile and desktop testing.
12. SSL Labs -Tests website security and SSL certificate configuration.

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