Competitor analysis
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Are you optimizing your website to generate more traffic? Then it is crucial to look at the competitors in your market.
What is a competitor analysis?
A competitor analysis is, the name says it all, an analysis of a company’s main competitors. In such an analysis, there is an internal analysis (of one’s own company) and later an external analysis (the competitors). This way you can best compare your own company to your competitors. (1)
Based on a competitor analysis, you can see where there are areas of improvement over competitors. You know where opportunities lie that way. In this blog, we explain all about competitive analysis and what importance it has for SEO.
What does such an analysis look like?
A competitive analysis does not include all competitors. It mainly has to do with direct competitors. This could be geographical, for example.
Furthermore, several points emerge in the analysis on which you can base areas for improvement.
We give a few examples of things that recur in a competitor analysis:
- the goals of competition;
- The way competitors use marketing;
- competitors’ assortment;
- The strategy used by competitors;
- the prices charged by competitors.
Read more about conducting a competitor analysis for SEO
- How do I perform an SEO check for a website?
- How do I perform predictive analysis in SEO?
- How do I perform a complete SEO analysis?
- How do I perform an SEO content analysis?
- How do I perform a technical SEO analysis?
What is the purpose of a competitor analysis?
By performing a competitor analysis on your direct competitors, you can see where areas of improvement lie for your company relative to its competitors. When your competitors greatly excel in a specific area, you immediately know that there is work to be done in this area for your own company. In this way, you can greatly improve your position relative to this competitor.
Conducting a competitor analysis
There are several ways to perform the analysis, we give some general parts.
- Make a list of the five primary competitors to determine a focus.
- Identify the aspects you will analyze and want to know more about.(2)
- Try to see through what goals the competitor has set for the future.
- Find out who the customers are and their reasons for purchasing services or goods.
- Compare competitors’ prices and promotions.
- See how the competition handles customer service.
- Analyze the marketing strategy used by competing companies.
By identifying both the positive and negative aspects, you can improve the internal organization to better position yourself in the market. Online, this provides search engine optimization.
Why is this relevant to your SEO?
A competitor analysis is very important for your SEO. After all, you want to rank higher in Google relative to your competitors.
Within SEO, SEO specialists (or you after taking the SEO course) often do a keyword research to determine which keywords they are being found on. Your competitors are doing this, too. Make sure you win over your competitors by offering quality and relevant content for the target audience and they choose you.
You can also use handy SEO tools to see what keywords your competitors are ranking for. By capitalizing on these keywords as well, you will win over your competitors in Google!
- Silva, C. (2023, December 5). How to Do an SEO Competitor Analysis + Free Template. Semrush Blog. https://www.semrush.com/blog/how-to-do-seo-competitive-analysis/
- Miller, M. (2024, March 25). 4 pillars of effective SEO. Search Engine Land. https://searchengineland.com/pillars-effective-seo-strategy-435823
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Competitor Analysis?
As you might guess from the name, a competitor analysis is an analysis of your main competitors. This involves first an internal analysis of your own company and then an external one of your competitors. This will help you understand how your position is relative to the competition.
What is the impact of Competitor Analysis on SEO?
A competitor analysis is very important for SEO. You want to rank higher in Google’s search results than the competition at all times. A thorough keyword research to determine how you want to be found on the Internet helps you do this. The important thing is that you know how to stand out from your competitors. After this, provide quality and relevant content.
Can I do a competitor analysis myself?
Conducting a competitive analysis you could certainly do yourself. You will then do an analysis of your company’s main competitors. You do an internal analysis of your own company, and then another external analysis of your competitors. This is the way to compare your own business with the competition. Areas for improvement will emerge, and then you will immediately see where your opportunities lie.
It is important to map your competitive position well, as this is the way to capitalize on what the competition is doing and compete. Your goal is to be easily findable, but also to ensure that visitors come to you and not to the competition. To get that right, you will need to understand how that they are responding to the market now and where your opportunities are.
It takes a little time and effort, but it is important information. You can also outsource it if you don’t have time yourself. As an SEO specialist, I can then do it for you and do a comprehensive competitive analysis for you.
Are there any tools I can use during a competitor analysis?
If you want to do a competitive analysis of your business, it’s nice to use some tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs. First of all, I recommend the free tool SEMrush. SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing. This is a nice and clear tool and is going to analyze your website comprehensively. You have two variants, you have a free version with limited access and a paid version. As an SEO specialist, I use the paid version because it allows me to get even more out of it.
If you want to do your own competitive analysis with SEMrush, you get site optimization, you can do ad research and keyword and domain analysis. However, there is another tool you can use and that is Ahrefs. You will then see, for example, the volume per keyword. You then have to enter a keyword and a country and then you automatically see how many people have searched for that term within a specific time period. You can then decide what keyword is of interest to you.
Find out what that competition is well found on, then you’ll see where your opportunities lie and you can capitalize on those words to attract more visitors.
How do I determine my primary competitors?
You want to be found on certain keywords, when you enter them into the search engines, you see your competition. These are your primary competitors. Your primary competitors are competitors who do the same thing as you; for example, they sell the same product or offer a similar service. You are really competitors of each other, you will want to do everything you can to compete.
You want to be one step ahead of the competitor, but for that you need to know what they do and how that makes them think. What keywords are they using, where do they have external links placed, for example, and what content is valuable? If you go or commission a comprehensive competitive analysis, you will get a good idea of this.
Use these opportunities and see them as areas for improvement that you need to put in place as soon as possible to compete. You would like to get a better position in the search engines, and you do that by first doing extensive research and then acting on your opportunities. If you want to know more about it, as an SEO specialist I can also help you and do this work for you.
Is it better to hire a specialist to conduct a competitor analysis?
You may not feel like or have time for a competitive analysis yourself, or you may not know where to start. It is then wise to hire a specialist who can then perform the analysis for you. After all, it’s also quite a lot, coming at you. What keywords does the competitor use, where do they place external links, do they invest in ads, how do they address the target audience? What is the reason they are at the top and you are not?
You will do an analysis to get a good idea of where you are now and what it will take to beat the competitor(s) above you. For this, an analysis must take place, and you can also outsource this to me, an SEO specialist. I will identify all points, I will see your areas of improvement and then I will talk about opportunities and possibilities.
There is a foundation from which to work to improve your position. So first analyze, make everything clear and then seize every opportunity and possibility to gain a stronger position.
What insights can a competitor analysis give me?
A competitive analysis will help you understand your areas of improvement, your opportunities. You will see the objectives of the competition and gain a better understanding of how that competitor uses marketing, as well as the competitor’s assortment, the strategy they employ and the prices they charge. So it gives you comprehensive insight in many ways, you can then compare it to how you’re handling it.
Are there points you can improve so you can be more visible in the search engines, for example? Do you see that a competitor has more structure on their website than you do? Do they work with discounts? How do they make it attractive to visitors? Everything is extensively researched and these are all insights you need to be able to improve your position.
If you don’t have time to do your competitive analysis yourself, leave it to me. I always advise you to have a competitive analysis done, because that’s where your opportunities to be even better on the market lie. Use these opportunities and capitalize on them, I can totally do that for you.