{"id":143585,"date":"2021-11-04T11:08:34","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T11:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/?p=143585"},"modified":"2021-11-04T11:10:36","modified_gmt":"2021-11-04T11:10:36","slug":"six-things-missing-from-your-competitor-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2021\/11\/04\/six-things-missing-from-your-competitor-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Six things missing from your competitor research"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"well\">\n<h3>30-second summary:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">There are ways to save and optimize your SEO budget, here&#8217;s how<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Start with creating an \u201cat a glance\u201d report comparing your competitors\u2019 key metrics. Find interesting trends to look further into!<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Analyze and monitor your competitors\u2019 online sentiment and customer satisfaction. How can you become better than your competitors?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Identify your competitors\u2019 marketing priorities by looking at their competitors\u2019 PPC tactics. Note their branded keywords they are bidding on: what do they consider their competitors?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Research your competitors\u2019 branded questions by analyzing \u201cPeople Also Ask\u201d and monitoring tweeted questions from their customers and brand ambassadors<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Analyze your competitors\u2019 social media marketing tactics: what can you learn from these and which should you avoid?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h2>1. Competitors at a glance for domain analysis<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can never have just one competitor in the real world. In some niches, you\u2019ll end up with ten or more competitors that need your attention. Where to start?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is the section I usually start my competitive report with: competitors at a glance which is a chart letting me easily compare my competitors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What should be included in this section?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This section includes any metrics that would allow you to spot some key trends:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How new or old is this competitor?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How many backlinks has your competitor managed to acquire?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What\u2019s their website traffic?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How large is the website?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seeing all these numbers side by side often allows you to see important niche patterns or spot some interesting cases to explore further. For example, you can identify a new competitor that nonetheless gets a lot of organic traffic. Or you can find a competitor with fewer backlinks that managed to build solid web visibility. These are both good cases to learn from.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here&#8217;s an example of how I use an \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.webceo.com\/blog\/the-new-webceo-quick-domain-analysis-tool\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">at a glance<\/a>\u201d method for my competitive research that is also color-coded based on how successful each competitor is (green showing very good numbers).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-143596\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/quick-domain-analysis-1024x642.png\" alt=\"Competitor research and domain alaysis\" width=\"640\" height=\"401\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/quick-domain-analysis-1024x642.png 1024w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/quick-domain-analysis-300x188.png 300w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/quick-domain-analysis-768x481.png 768w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/quick-domain-analysis-1536x962.png 1536w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/quick-domain-analysis.png 728w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Source: Screenshot made by the author<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<h2>2. Online sentiment and customer satisfaction<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How happy are your competitors\u2019 customers? Is there an opportunity for your product here? Is there a particular feature or aspect that makes your competitors\u2019 customers unhappy?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Knowing why your competitors\u2019 customers are unhappy helps on many levels, from learning the mistakes you need to avoid, to developing a better product that covers a niche gap.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So why do so many competitive reports fail to include this section?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And that report is pretty easy to generate. <a href=\"https:\/\/awario.com\/sentiment-analysis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sentiment analysis<\/a> and monitoring are doable with some advanced social listening that dives into the segmentation of consumer sentiment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-143589\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/awario-sentiment.png\" alt=\"Sentiment analysis\" width=\"981\" height=\"608\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/awario-sentiment.png 981w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/awario-sentiment-300x186.png 300w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/awario-sentiment-768x476.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 981px) 100vw, 981px\" \/><\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Source: <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Awario<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<h2>3. PPC keywords<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most competitive reports include organic keywords and positions but how about PPC keywords?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whether you are planning to invest in paid ads or not, knowing your competitor\u2019s PPC keywords will help you understand what they are focusing on. It&#8217;s a smart way to understand high and low competition keywords without having to spend your own dollars.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When looking through my competitors\u2019 PPC keywords, I always pay attention to their branded keywords. Firstly, it shows the competitors they as a business take seriously. And second, this may inform my own PPC decisions as there\u2019s a solid case for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/sixgun.com.au\/google-ads-bidding-on-branded-keywords\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">bidding on branded keywords<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> because they tend to have high intent and are often cheaper.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s an example of a branded keyword report from Ahrefs. Notice the &#8216;Traffic&#8217; column estimating the number of clicks a particular PPC keyword is bringing to the target site:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-143595\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/ppc-keywords-1024x698.png\" alt=\"Analysis PPC keywords to inform your keyword strategy\" width=\"640\" height=\"436\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/ppc-keywords-1024x698.png 1024w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/ppc-keywords-300x204.png 300w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/ppc-keywords-768x523.png 768w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/ppc-keywords-1536x1047.png 1536w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/ppc-keywords.png 728w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Source: Screenshot made by the author<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<h2>4. Branded questions<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Niche question research is useful on many levels but have you ever given a thought on how useful it is for your competitive research? Questions people ask about your competitors will give you valuable insight into:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Your competitors&#8217; drawbacks (and how you can practically fill that need gap in the market)<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your customers\u2019 failures (and how to avoid them)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your target customers\u2019 journeys (and how to best approach them)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When it comes to understanding your niche buying journeys, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.reputationx.com\/guest\/googles-also-ask\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google\u2019s People Also Ask <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">results, also known as &#8216;intent questions&#8217; help you understand and visualize all the different paths consumers are taking when making their buying decisions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-143591\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/branded-people-also-ask-1024x813.png\" alt=\"Branded questions\" width=\"640\" height=\"508\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/branded-people-also-ask-1024x813.png 1024w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/branded-people-also-ask-300x238.png 300w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/branded-people-also-ask-768x610.png 768w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/branded-people-also-ask.png 728w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Source: Screenshot made by the author<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Always take note of the &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/10\/14\/people-also-ask-paa-feature-uncovering-googles-hidden-gem\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">People Also Ask<\/a>&#8221; results when searching for your competitors or their products. These help you better understand your target customers&#8217; interests and research styles throughout their buying journeys.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-143588\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/alsoasked-1024x917.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"573\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/alsoasked-1024x917.png 1024w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/alsoasked-300x269.png 300w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/alsoasked-768x688.png 768w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/alsoasked.png 728w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Source: AlsoAsked<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You could also use some freemium-based tools to keep track of questions your competitors\u2019 customers are asking in real-time, use Twitter question search which can also be monitored through a free app called Tweetdeck. Create a new column in your Tweetdeck to monitor this search term:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[competitor ?]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Make sure there\u2019s a space in between your competitor\u2019s brand name and the question mark.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-143597\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/branded-questions-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"638\" height=\"842\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/branded-questions-1.png 638w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/branded-questions-1-227x300.png 227w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 638px) 100vw, 638px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Source: Screenshot made by the author<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<h2>5. Your competitors\u2019 promoters<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who are your competitors\u2019 most vocal promoters? Can you get them on board to promote your brand instead? Or how did your competitors manage to win their love?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your competitors\u2019 friends are not your enemies. These are people who may fall in love with your product or agree to collaborate on similar or better terms.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2013\/10\/04\/link-building-101-competitor-analysis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Checking your competitors\u2019 backlinks<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is the most popular way to find their promoters but it seldom includes <\/span>people behind those links<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Social media is another great place to look for your competitors\u2019 promoters.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>6. Social media content<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are your competitors using social media to find and engage your customers? There are some lessons to learn there as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can run a solid <a href=\"https:\/\/colorlib.com\/wp\/free-productivity-tools\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">analysis<\/a> of any Facebook page engagement metrics which you can use for your competitive report:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-143593\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/buzzsumo-1024x798.png\" alt=\"Social media analysis\" width=\"640\" height=\"499\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/buzzsumo-1024x798.png 1024w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/buzzsumo-300x234.png 300w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/buzzsumo-768x598.png 768w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/buzzsumo.png 728w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Source: Screenshot made by the author<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Competitive research is much more than tracking your competitors\u2019 organic positions and checking their backlinks from time to time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It can give you a lot of insight into your target customers, their struggles, and buying journeys, it can teach you to build a better project and identify niche gaps. Finally, it can help you identify mistakes to avoid and build a stronger business. Good luck!<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Ann Smarty is the Founder of Viral Content Bee, Brand and Community manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas. She can be found on Twitter\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/seosmarty\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@seosmarty<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Subscribe to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/#newsletter-modal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Search Engine Watch newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for insights on SEO, the search landscape, search marketing, digital marketing, leadership, podcasts, and more.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Join the conversation with us on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/groups\/61126\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sewatch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just about any SEO strategy includes competitive research but more often than not you miss out on important aspects and opportunities<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1092,"featured_media":143598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28129,5],"tags":[27402,28131,37,28065,291,271,28132,489,33,103,22,536,32],"content_type":[],"class_list":["post-143585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-market-research","category-seo","tag-competitor-research","tag-domain-analysis","tag-google","tag-influencer-commentary","tag-keyword-research","tag-keyword-strategy","tag-people-also-ask-paa","tag-ppc-keywords","tag-search","tag-search-rankings","tag-seo","tag-seo-strategy","tag-serps"],"acf":{"tad_independentcommercial":false,"tad_content_format":false},"post_info":{"name":"idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com","title":"","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Six-things-missing-from-your-competitor-research.png","category":"Market Research","timeago":"4y"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1092"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143585"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=143585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}