In the world of digital everything, competitor website analysis is more necessary than ever. Companies, regardless of size, are battling not only for the top spots on the street or a retailer’s shelf but also for the attention of virtual communities.

Sun Tzu(1) once said, know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be in peril. When it comes to your competitors, taking a peek behind the scenes of their websites is a sly way to ensure you are on the right track.

Don’t know how to keep tabs on your competition? Continue reading as papmall® shows you the importance of competitor website analysis and what you can do to get ahead of the rest!

(1) Sun Tzu was a Chinese military general, strategist, philosopher, and writer who lived during the Eastern Zhou period. Sun Tzu is traditionally credited as the author of The Art of War, an influential work of military strategy that has affected both Western and East Asian philosophy and military thinking (Wikipedia).

Win page visibility with keyword competition research

What is competitor analysis in SEO and why is it critical?

Have you ever panicked because your web page has been up for a while but it is not ranking at all? Well, the truth is that 90% of websites on Google are experiencing the same thing.

So who are the 10%? Your competitors, obviously.

Why is that? Chances are, they have found a better way to do what you’re doing, or they’ve been at it longer or come up with something unprecedented.

Here is when competitor website analysis proves inevitable. Examining similar brands in your industry is crucial to gain insight into the properties your business lacks, the snags you need to avoid, and, in general, why some websites thrive and others falter.

Competitive research provides a razor-sharp understanding of other companies’ performance and details about products, pricing, branding, etc., which will help you refine your marketing strategy to outperform your online competition.

Learning from the best and emulating them also help you understand your business and the market and, after all, figure out how to map the path to win search visibility.

Do you know competitor analysis starts with a good keyword competition analysis? Let’s have a look at three critical concepts of competitive keyword research.

Three components of keyword competition research

How to do a SEO competitive analysis?

1. Keyword difficulty

The term keyword difficulty refers to the metric used in SEO competitive analysis that ranks the difficulty of each keyword on a scale of 0 to 100.

Because many older and more reliable websites have ranked in the top 10, the higher this index, the more difficult it is to appear on the first page.

Many internal and external factors influence this metric, including the site health of your competitors and your own.

A lot of content writers out there are creating excellent content and optimizing their pages just to get nothing back. There is only one reason for this: they have picked the wrong competition.

That is why your keyword competition research should always account for keyword difficulty - it enables you to identify keywords you have a chance to rank for.

2. Site and topic relevance

At Roger Montti’s workshop, there was an owner of a manufacturer that served university science labs and the U.S Army.

He organized a novelty event for a video game that had generated buzz for weeks. As a result, his website crashed due to high traffic from digital newspapers, social media, and other websites.

But, when asked if he saw exponential revenue growth, he responded no.

There was no increase in sales, indicating that the massive traffic had little to no effect on brand awareness. How is this possible?

The answer is simple: People went to the site for the wrong reasons.

Not to mention that his company had nothing to do with video games, even though most visitors were likely gamers.

So, while he succeeded in capturing their attention, his company did not have the facilities to convert them into customers.

3. Content authority

Content authority means offering your target audience helpful, relevant information instead of nonsensical keyword-stuffed content.

It shows that you have spent time doing SEO competitive analysis, curating high-quality content, and possibly referencing reputable online resources.

The more people visit your website (and actually stay), the more trustworthy and valuable your content appears to Google.

As a result, your content will be more visible on search engines, third-party websites, and social media platforms.

How to do competitor analysis in SEO? A step-by-step guide

Now that papmall® believes you have grasped the concept of researching your competitors, it’s time to talk about how you can use this kind of analysis to your advantage.

It is always risky to execute business initiatives despite our best efforts - particularly when you’re a novice. Competitor analysis helps you avoid making too many cringe-worthy mistakes.

Here are six pointers that will help you make the right decisions for your SEO competitive analysis:

1. Check competitors and make a list of them

Of course, you need to know who is joining the race. There are various ways to do this based on how detailed you want your plan to be. Overall, you can get to know your competitors by:

• Knowing them directly

• Finding them on Google through relevant keywords

• Using specialized tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, and SimilarWeb

Gather all important information, such as website URLs, when each company was founded, the names of their chairmen, etc., and learn as much about them as possible to craft the most accurate profile for each company.

2. Analyze site performance and user experience

After enumerating your competitors, it is time to assess each competing website to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Let’s check competitor website traffic and the overall user experience.

Below are a few examples of what to look for when gauging a website:

• What is its load speed?

• Is the layout user-friendly?

• Is it easy to read the fonts?

• What goals does the site meet?

• How detailed is the information?

• How did they devise content marketing plans?

papmall® recommends creating a scoring system (a scale of 1 to 5, for example) for each aspect of site performance to make your evaluation more objective. This practice will make it easier to compare different websites, including yours, side by side.

SEO keyword competition analysis

3. Find out what stack the website is built with

There are dozens of website builders, and some are better than others. While WordPress powers approximately 43.0% of all websites on the internet, there may be lesser-known CMS your competitors use to build and monitor their websites.

To analyze competitor website traffic, you need to know how they keep their sites up and running. If you discover a new platform that works for your contemporaries, jot it down as you may want to switch platforms in the future.

Lucky for you, some free services will provide a sneak peek of what software your competitors are using, their IP and website location, what payment solutions and integrations they have, and much more.

4. Analyze content quality

Regardless of their writing styles, all your competitors have one thing in common: they publish regularly. Consistency is critical to the success of a website.

They know that if they want to drive traffic, convert leads, and grow their customer base, they need to consistently produce appealing blog posts, videos, podcasts, a cross of the three, etc.

The best way to crack the puzzle is by looking at it through a user’s lens - browse each website to see what type of content they produce, the topics they cover, their content formats, and how frequently they put out new articles.

You will have a lot of inspiration as you progress. That is not to mention competitor website analysis will bring their website’s target audience to light, in case you find it ambiguous.

5. Analyze their SEO strategies

You can tell a lot about your competitors from their websites, but it will not be worth your while if they rank higher than you on SERPs.

By understanding what SEO strategies they are adopting, you can apply the same techniques to your SEO competitor research and see it climb to higher positions. For example, learn how to execute SEO on Amazon and apply it to your e-commerce site.

In terms of this, tools like Ahrefs, Moz, and SemRush will reveal valuable insights, such as what keywords your competitors are ranking for, from which you devise your editorial calendar for weeks and months ahead.

They'll also provide helpful off-page SEO information, such as link-building strategies. It includes the number of links they receive from other websites, the types of websites that link to them or vice versa, and all that jazz.

Competitor SEO tracking

6. Take note of flaws and highlights

The last step of competitor website analysis is to incorporate all the information you gathered into a spreadsheet, which should paint a clear picture of your competitive landscape.

From it, you should be able to know where to go and where a detour is much needed. This summary is the final output of the whole competitor research process.

SEO competitive analysis services at papmall®

So that is what you need to know about how to do competitor analysis in SEO. You will have a lot to do, especially at the early stages of your business.

There is a risk in any strategy, and you stand a higher chance of botching it without sufficient knowledge or experience, that is why papmall® is here to help.

Founded in 2019, it is an e-commerce marketplace platform to connect and exchange values between online sellers and buyer communities around the world. The platform is one of the most technologically advanced online business partners available.

As a freelancer platform, SMEs, and Startups, papmall® offers free and paid Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for sellers with no previous knowledge to take their business up a notch.

Our experts around the world will know exactly how to make your brand more recognizable, drive more sales with a bespoke SEO keyword competition analysis. Contact us, and we can not wait to grow with you!