If you’ve been quietly observing the SEO space over the past five years, you’ve seen the power shift from being in the hands of the search engines to primarily in the hands of the search marketers.

In the past, search engine optimization was all about getting links, with perhaps some on‐page optimization and keyword research to help things along. Now, with Google’s emphasis on quality search results, content has become king. Those who write the best content, optimize it well, and then promote the hell out of it are getting the most organic clicks.

As the focus on content quality has increased, so has the importance of the content on other websites. That’s because, if your content is relevant and good, people will link to it and share it. In short, your competitors are a crucial piece of your SEO puzzle. With that in mind, an seo competitor analysis can be the key to your success in more ways than one.

What is SEO Competitor Analysis?

SEO competitor analysis is nothing more than an analysis of your competitor's search engine optimization strategy. More specifically, it illustrates the areas in which your competitors are succeeding and those in which they are doing poorly.

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Of course, it’s not about copying your competitors, but about learning from them. Even if you don’t plan to learn from your competitors’ techniques, setting up a competitor analysis page can help you to achieve the following:

1: Highlight and Utilize Your Strengths

By looking at your competitors, you can easily identify trends in your niche and gauge where you stand in the market. This can help you to highlight the strengths of your business and make a specific plan of action regarding how to use them to your advantage.

2: Improve Your Weaknesses

At the same time, looking at your competitors can help identify your weaknesses. It can help you discover areas in which you may be lagging behind and make a plan to rectify them. This can help you to put yourself in a better position to compete in search engines and win over prospective customers.

3: Discover Strong and Relevant Keywords

If you search for a product on Google, you’ll see ads for similar products on the side of the screen. This is because Google has determined that you are likely to purchase these items based on your search.

That’s because those ads are based on keywords—keywords that the advertisers have bid on. You can do the same thing. As you look at your competitors’ websites, you can discover keywords they’re using and see which ones are getting the most traffic and conversions.

4: Boost Your Backlink Profile

Probably the most important thing you can do with a competitor analysis is to see where your competitors are getting their links.

A natural backlink profile, with a healthy mix of links from other websites, social media, and referring domains is essential for a good ranking in search engines. By looking at what your competitors are doing to get links, you can see what is working and improve your own link profile.

5: Reach Your Audience and Create More Meaningful Relationships

Finally, the most important reason to do SEO competitor analysis is to reach your audience. Building links and working on SEO are all about helping search engines understand what your website is about; they have nothing to do with helping customers understand your products and services.

This is why, as you research your competitors, you should be asking yourself two questions:

“What are they saying about themselves?”

“What are they saying about their customers?”

By looking at that information, you can create a more meaningful relationship with your customers.

The Bottom Line: Competition is Healthy for a Successful Business

If you’re going to go into business, you’re going to have to compete with other entities that are already doing business. What you don’t want, however, is to run blindly into the competition. You want to be informed, so you can be prepared to compete based on your own strengths.

By carefully looking at what your competitors are doing right and wrong, you can better understand the digital marketplace and create a strategy that fits your business model, your goals, and your audience.

Are You Looking for an SEO Competitor Analysis Tool For Your Business?

We’re happy to say that we have a solution for business owners who are looking for an SEO Competitor Analysis tool. Our Competitor Analysis tool gives you an easy way to track your competitors and see exactly what they’re doing. Find out more about our all-in-one SEO solutions at NinjaSEO!