Conducting a Competitor SEO Audit

Why an SEO Competitive Analysis is Essential

A competitor SEO audit is the secret sauce to outmaneuvering your rivals and skyrocketing your online visibility. By understanding your competitor's strengths, weaknesses, and strategies, you can identify opportunities to gain a competitive edge. It’s about knowing the battlefield and outsmarting your enemies.

Identify the Right Competitors

Don't waste time on irrelevant players. Focus on direct and indirect competitors who are vying for the same audience. Prioritize those who are ranking well for your target keywords and driving significant organic traffic.

Gather Your Competitor’s SEO Data

Arm yourself with the intel you need to crush the competition. Use a variety of tools to gather crucial data, including:

Domain Rating: A number SEO tools give websites based on their overall topical relevance, content strength, domain history, and backlink authority.

Number of Referring Domains: The number of other domains that point back to your competitor’s website.

Number of DoFollow Domains: The number of domains pointing to a website where the backlinks are considered “votes of quality” in the search engines’ eyes.

Estimated Organic Traffic: The estimated monthly amount of traffic your competitor’s site is receiving from search engines.

Referring Domains Trend: Indicates whether your competition is gaining or losing backlinks over a period of time.

Organic Keywords: The amount and nature of the keywords your competition is ranking for. Take notice of the keywords they have a corner on that you do not, which is also called a keyword gap analysis.

Competitor Backlinks: The number of links pointing back to your competitor’s site, including:

Backlink Quantity: Do they have a lot or a few? Backlinks’

Domain Authority: Is it high or low?

Backlinks’ Relevance: Are their backlinks coming from industry authorities?

Identify Strengths, Weaknesses, and Differences Between You and Your Competitors

Perform a SWOT analysis to uncover your competitor's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Use this information to identify your unique selling points and capitalize on your competitor's shortcomings.

Track Your Success

Don't just execute, measure and iterate. Set clear, measurable goals and track key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor your progress. Regularly revisit your competitor analysis to stay ahead of the curve and adjust your strategy as needed.

Following these steps, you can conduct a comprehensive competitor SEO audit and take the necessary actions to dominate your industry.