Competition can be a good thing. When it comes to SEO, studying your competitors can give you an edge over the competition. By looking at what strategies they are using, you can determine what is working for them and adapt those strategies for your website. Of course, copying the competition is only going to end poorly. But this doesn’t mean that you can’t learn from them just as much as from an SEO expert.
Keywords
Firstly, keywords are one area where you can learn from your competition. By doing a little research, you can find out what keywords they are targeting and how they are using them. This will give you a good idea of what keywords you should be targeting for your website.
Is their keyword strategy working? If so, how can you adapt it to your website? Don’t just blindly adopt their keywords – consider whether they are going to be effective for your website. Will they help to attract your audience?
Content
Another area where you can learn from your competition is content; take a look at the content that they are producing and consider whether it is effective. Is it engaging? Is it informative? Does it cover all of the key points that you would want your content to cover?
If you think that their content strategy is effective, then consider how you can adapt it for your own website. Again, don’t just blindly copy what they are doing – put your spin on it and make it unique to your brand. What sort of content do they produce? Which gets the most engagement? What would work in your strategy?
Layout and Design
The layout and design of a website are also important to consider when it comes to SEO. When reviewing the website of other brands, consider the following:
- Is it easy to navigate?
- Is it easy to find what you are looking for?
- Do the pages load quickly?
- Is the design engaging and visually appealing?
Do they use a certain layout that accommodates visitors better than your own?
Backlinks
Furthermore, it is important to check the number and quality of backlinks that your competitors have. More backlinks usually mean a higher ranking in search engine results pages; you can use a tool like MozBar to check the number of backlinks a website has.
When checking the quality of backlinks, ask whether the websites linking to your competitors are reputable and high-quality. Do they have a lot of backlinks from low-quality sites? If so, their ranking may be more susceptible to Google algorithm updates (such as Penguin) that target low-quality links. Where do they generate their links? You might just glean some insights that help with your strategy.
Internal Links
Finally, businesses often forget about the value of internal linking. By looking at how your competitor’s website is set up, you can learn a lot about their priorities and the way they want their visitors to navigate the site. This can give you some ideas of how you can optimize your website for both users and search engines.
Do they have a lot of deep links (links to pages other than the home page)? Do their internal links use keyword-rich anchor text? These are all things you can take into account when working on your own website’s SEO.
By taking the time to analyze your competitor’s website, you can learn a lot about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to SEO. This knowledge can help you fine-tune your strategy – why make lots of mistakes when competitors have already made them for you?
