Checking Out Your SEO Competitor Will Provide You With Valuable Info
When you begin developing an online marketing plan, there are many angles you can come from when creating your strategy. One of the best things you can do for your marketing plan is to check out your competition and see what they are doing. Knowing where they are coming from SEO-wise can help you to create your own SEO strategy. Why does this matter?
When users search for a service or product online, they type in certain keywords. If your competition has done their research and implemented these keywords into their website, blog, and social media, they will rank in search engines. If you haven’t done this work, you won’t.
You must also know who your competition is. As a business owner, you should be able to list your competition, but if you’re not sure yet who your competition is, now is the time to find out. Sometimes this is easier said than done. For example, if you are a small business owner that provides products similar to those of a big box store, they aren’t really your competition as they are much larger. You can use your keywords to help you figure out who your competition is.
Now that you have a list of your competitors, you can check out these sources to find valuable information that will help you:
- Their Social Media Pages: Since SEO and social media activity are directly tied, social media is a good place to start. Check out your competitors’ social media accounts to get an idea of what links and content they are posting. Which ones are being shared the most? Which ones are getting the most comments? If there are certain topics that do better than others, make note of them. Are your competitors interacting with their followers? This is a good idea whether they are or not. If they aren’t, you will be seen as a more approachable brand. By keeping your eye on what your competition is doing or not doing on social media, you can get ideas for your own social media accounts.
- Their Website: Your competitor’s website is another good place to look for valuable information that could help you with your own SEO. While visiting your competition’s websites, you can get an idea of how they are using their site to benefit their brand and business. For example, do they have calls to action? What kind of lead forms are they implementing? Do they have a blog and if they do, how often so they add new content? You can use your time on their websites to analyze keywords and meta information as well.
- Their Inbound Links: An SEO campaign thrives on links. Inbound links show the search engine that your content is being shared, not just by you but by your followers and customers. Building your link portfolio is important, but you might not know where to begin. Looking at the link portfolios of your competitors can give you ideas for places to build your own links. Be sure to choose only high-quality sites building your links. Just because a competitor has many links, doesn’t mean they are all posted on quality sites.
Categorized in: SEO
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