Competitor Espionage

Knowledge is Power

There's power in knowing what your competitors are doing. As business owners, we often have a sense of who our competitors are, but rarely do we get insight into how they are operating. On occasion, I've had a friendly client share a competitor's proposal. These moments are rare and valuable. We get to see how our competition is approaching customers, evaluate the things they are doing better than us. Maybe even steal an idea on how to better communicate something. It's fair to say competitor insights are valuable.

In this data crazy world, we live in, finding competitor data is easier than ever. Semrush does a great job of this. but there are other tools as well. They help cross-reference competitors, help identify traffic patterns / keyword opportunities / the most relevant social channels and so much more.

Competitor Landscape

Recently, I was putting together a pitch for a potential client.

Part of our process is to look at competitors to better understand where the client fits in the landscape. Are they the biggest? Smallest? Are they growing? Understanding if our client is an industry leader or a niche player / an established brand or growing fast is useful. It affects our marketing recommendations. Influences content decisions. It helps define the appropriate channels for us to market to.

• Are we focused on building brand awareness?
• Are we helping them disrupt the industry?
• Are we playing defence?

Identifying Keyword Gaps

Evaluating your competitors for keywords they rank for but you don't is important. We call these "Keyword Gaps". And they are a really really important part of getting specific in whom you target. Keyword gaps are keywords that your competitors rank for but you don't. Often - we see missed, high-volume keywords that present new opportunities for our clients. The important bit here is to identify the highest volume, most relevant keyword phrases.

Branded Vs Unbranded

Another critical aspect to understand is that only SOME keywords drive the right traffic. In our industry, we categorize keywords as Branded versus Unbranded.

Of course, you want brand recognition and SHOULD rank for your own brand - but if you think about it - that's just about reaching people who already know you.

More important is being found for industry keywords - these are likely NEW customers. Not only are they what people are actually searching for, but they are typically higher volume searches.

In the example list below - on the left, you can see branded keywords a company ranks for and the average monthly search volume. Presumably, these are already customers of the company looking for support. The right column has the more relevant searches that someone looking to buy this companies service might search for. Notice the higher volume of searches and poorer rank. This is an indication the company needs to focus more energy on their unbranded SEO efforts.

Competitor Data can help your business. If you haven't already looked for insights from your competitors, Get on it. It's money well spent.

Talk to your marketing partner. Talk to us. Explore the tools yourself. But leverage it.