{"id":139623,"date":"2020-01-17T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/?p=139623"},"modified":"2020-02-18T06:52:26","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T06:52:26","slug":"seo-competition-research-the-complete-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/01\/17\/seo-competition-research-the-complete-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"SEO competition research: The complete guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

How to learn SEO competition research or in fact anything at all? Well, there\u2019s actually doing it, of course. But doing it without knowing what to aim for and what\u2019s actually working doesn\u2019t do you much good.\u00a0<\/span>There\u2019s, of course, reading about it. But as far as I\u2019m concerned, the most effective way to learn to do something is to\u00a0<\/span>watch somebody do it well<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

A large part of SEO<\/a> efforts is about monitoring what actually works for other people in your particular niche.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So you need to keep an eye on the people that rank higher than you. Then, using specialized tools you\u2019ll be able to reverse engineer the strategies they used. From then on, you\u2019ll be able to implement those same things in your own campaigns.<\/span><\/p>\n

What do we talk about when it’s about competition research?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Doing\u00a0<\/span>SEO<\/a> competition research means analyzing your competitors\u2019 SEO<\/a> efforts in order to augment your own.\u00a0<\/span>So how to actually\u00a0<\/span>research your competition<\/span><\/a>? Generally, it all boils down to the following steps:<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. Picking the right competitors<\/span>\u00a0— people from your own niche, that consistently rank higher than you.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Figuring out\u00a0<\/span>what you\u2019re looking for<\/span>\u00a0— from researching their ranking keywords to backlinks, there\u2019s a bunch to discover, and you have to know what it is that you want to find out.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Using a tool to\u00a0<\/span>extract the data<\/span>\u00a0you\u2019re interested in.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Applying those insights<\/span>\u00a0to your own website.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Where in the world are your SEO competitors?<\/span><\/h2>\n

    So this might seem like a trivial point. Anybody can name six to eight competitors off the top of their head, right? But, as usual, it\u2019s not quite as easy as it appears.<\/span><\/p>\n

    For any SEO<\/a> campaign, what you need first (if not foremost) is a list of\u00a0<\/span>main keywords you want to rank for.\u00a0<\/span>That\u2019s the most basic function of\u00a0<\/span>conducting keyword research<\/span><\/a>. Create a so-called \u201csemantic core\u201d for your website and its pages.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Your overall business competitors might not necessarily be the same as your SEO competition.\u00a0<\/span>SEO competition\u00a0<\/span>research is a part of\u00a0<\/span>competition research in general<\/span><\/a>, sure. But SEO competitors are specifically those websites and pages that receive traffic\u00a0<\/span>targeting the same keywords as you<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Once you\u2019ve settled on a list of keywords, you can research who in the world is already ranking for them. Those will be your main competitors. Now, you can, of course,\u00a0<\/span>use Google<\/span>\u00a0and type in all of the different keywords<\/a> you want. Then you can monitor who\u2019s ranking on Google yourself, no tool involved.<\/span><\/p>\n

    For some this “<\/span>sans tool”<\/span>\u00a0approach works, sure. But for those of us monitoring dozens, if not hundreds of keywords? And those of us who don’t actually relish an opportunity to spend ten hours doing research one keyword at a time? This sounds exceedingly inconvenient.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Of course, the\u00a0<\/span>easy way is to use an SEO tool<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    So there are\u00a0<\/span>two overall types of competitors<\/span><\/a>\u00a0you want to find<\/span><\/p>\n