{"id":14134,"date":"2018-01-23T12:51:56","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T10:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cognitiveseo.com\/blog\/?p=14134"},"modified":"2018-07-10T12:57:39","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T09:57:39","slug":"seo-competitor-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cognitiveseo.com\/blog\/14134\/seo-competitor-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"SEO Competitor Analysis | The Complete Framework to Analyze Your Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Knowing how to analyze your SEO competition is an important step in determining your overall keyword and SEO strategy. There are many factors involved in the process, and without the correct framework, it can get complicated.<\/p>\n

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This SEO Competitor Analysis Template will guide you through the exact steps you need to take in order to deploy a comprehensive analysis. Below the infographic, you can find a detailed explanation of each step.<\/p>\n

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\"cognitiveSEO<\/p>\n

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We\u2019ve tried to make the steps as clear and simple as possible, so grab your biggest cup of coffee and enjoy your reading.<\/p>\n

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    \n
  1. Perform Keyword Research<\/a><\/strong>\n
      \n
    1. Add top-of-mind keywords<\/a><\/li>\n
    2. Add seed keywords to the Keyword Explorer or GKP to get new ideas<\/a><\/li>\n
    3. Select top keywords based on relevancy and search volume<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
    4. Identify and Validate Your Top Competitors<\/a><\/strong>\n
        \n
      1. Consider your main competitors<\/a><\/li>\n
      2. Add competitors targeting the same keywords as you<\/a><\/li>\n
      3. Use the keywords from your previous research to spot competitors that keep ranking in top positions<\/a><\/li>\n
      4. Use Site Explorer to find competitors’ top ranking keywords and add them to your research<\/a><\/li>\n
      5. Select top 3-5 competitors based on rankings and frequency<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
      6. Analyse and Position Yourself Among the Competition Based On:<\/a><\/strong>\n
          \n
        1. Number of pages indexed for each site<\/a><\/li>\n
        2. Historical link velocity trends<\/a><\/li>\n
        3. Number of referring domains<\/a><\/li>\n
        4. Link quantity and influence<\/a><\/li>\n
        5. Webpage type\/Link position\/Link visibility<\/a><\/li>\n
        6. Deep Link\/Homepage link ratio<\/a><\/li>\n
        7. Anchor text distribution<\/a><\/li>\n
        8. Natural\/Unnatural link ratio<\/a><\/li>\n
        9. DoFollow\/NoFollow link ratio<\/a><\/li>\n
        10. Common anchor texts between sites<\/a><\/li>\n
        11. Common domains and links between sites<\/a><\/li>\n
        12. Most linked URLs (identify best-performing pages)<\/a><\/li>\n
        13. Content Visibility (identify social networks where content performs best)<\/a><\/li>\n
        14. Most shared pages (identify competitors’ content marketing strategies)<\/a><\/li>\n
        15. Keyword position in the title<\/a><\/li>\n
        16. Other On Page factors such as content quality, HTML structure, or website design<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
        17. Develop Keyword and SEO Strategy Considering:<\/a><\/strong>\n
            \n
          1. Number of competitors in SERP<\/a><\/li>\n
          2. Your rankings vs your competitors’<\/a><\/li>\n
          3. Keyword relevance and volume<\/a><\/li>\n
          4. Profitability of respective keywords<\/a><\/li>\n
          5. Your SEO visibility vs your competitors’<\/a><\/li>\n
          6. Time\/Budget required to create and optimize content accordingly<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
             <\/div>\n

            1. Perform Keyword Research<\/h2>\n

             <\/p>\n

            Any competition analysis should start with a keyword research. If you don\u2019t know the keywords you want to target, you can\u2019t possibly know your true SEO competition. This step will also determine what level of difficulty you wish to perform the analysis at.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            For example, let\u2019s assume we\u2019re in the shoe business and wish to open a web store. Depending on our budget, we can either start targeting very high search volume keywords or lower search volume keywords. Keep it realistic. It either takes money or time to get there. In fact, it takes time in both cases given you’re working with organic search.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            To begin the keyword research process, you can open a new Excel or Google Sheets file. This is where you will write and sort the keywords you choose. Niches and sub-niches should be separated by sheets, and the keywords should be sorted by search volume.<\/p>\n

             <\/div>\n

            1.1 Add top-of-mind keywords<\/strong><\/h3>\n

             <\/p>\n

            Top-of-mind keywords are phrases that pop up in your head right away when you think about a niche. It\u2019s like a brainstorming process. They are also frequently called seed keywords<\/em>.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            You can use the Google search engine to get real-time suggestions. Simply go on Google and start typing your keywords, and new ideas will appear right under the search bar. A highly competitive keyword would be, in this case, \u201cbuy shoes online\u201d.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            Phrases with the word \u201cbuy\u201d in it are called buyer\u2019s keywords<\/em>. They are usually the most competitive, as we know from the phrase itself that people are already set to buy the product. Ranking for those keywords practically guarantees that some sales will indeed be made. Where sales are guaranteed, big players come.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            A lower competition keyword can be \u201cbest shoes for …\u201d.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            More niched phrases tend to be less competitive. One reason might be the fact that they are untapped, meaning that not many people actually discovered them. They are called longtail keywords<\/em>. Many think that the name is related to the number of words the phrase contains, but that\u2019s not correct. Read this article<\/a> for the correct definition. Review and comparison sites often try to rank here. People are still inclined to buy, but they might just be looking to compare products or find ideas.<\/p>\n

            \"Add<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            Write some of these keywords down in the Excel file.<\/p>\n

             <\/div>\n

            1.2 Add seed keywords to the Keyword Explorer or Google Keyword Planner to get new ideas<\/strong><\/h3>\n

             <\/p>\n

            Use the seed keywords you acquired from the previous step to generate a list of keywords.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            You can go classic and use the Google Keyword Planner<\/a>, though data is limited if you don\u2019t have a paying Adwords account. You can try multiple keywords here, export the data as CSV, sort the keywords, and add some to your list.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            \"Make<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            The cognitiveSEO Keyword Tool<\/a><\/strong> is an analysis tool that will give you great insights on the keywords you use. You\u2019ll be able to make an idea of how difficult it is to rank for those particular keywords. It also shows you how relevant other keywords are compared\u00a0to the current ones.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            It\u2019s best if the keywords you\u2019re trying to rank for have a high search volume and a low difficulty. High search volume<\/em> means the phrase is popular and many people are typing it in their browsers. Low difficulty<\/em> means that not many strong competitors are trying to rank for it. Combining these two metrics will result in profitable phrases that are easy to rank for.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            \"keyword<\/p>\n

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            1.3 Select top keywords based on relevancy and search volume<\/strong><\/h3>\n

             <\/p>\n

            For the purpose of this analysis example, we\u2019ll just stick to these keywords: \u201cbuy shoes online\u201d and \u201cbest shoes for\u201d. One is broader and the other is narrower, but both are attractive in terms of relevance and search volume. Let\u2019s assume that we start from the bottom (narrower keywords), but leave room for expansion in the future (broader keywords).<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            From these two keywords, we can observe that the broader ones tend to return root domains as results, while narrower ones return pages from websites. This is a good indication of what our homepage should be targeting, and what we should target with pages.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            \"Broad<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            The final list should include keywords around your general niche and some current or possible (future) sub-niches. You can group them into separate sheets. This way you\u2019ll be able to select top competitors from multiple sub-niches easier. The more keywords you\u2019re willing to analyze, the better you\u2019ll understand what you\u2019re dealing with in the long run.<\/p>\n

             <\/div>\n

            2. Identify and Validate Your Top Competitors<\/h2>\n

             <\/p>\n

            To analyze the SERPs and keyword search volume, you need to do some keyword research. Simply head to the Keyword Tool<\/a>, add your targeted keyword, hit enter, and then click on SERP analysis. This will point out the top 10-100 results on the web on a chosen key phrase, and you will be able to easily identify competitors.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            \"serp<\/a><\/p>\n

             <\/div>\n

            2.1 Consider your main competitors<\/strong><\/h3>\n

             <\/p>\n

            If you\u2019re already a player in your niche, then you surely already know some competitors. If you\u2019ve been noticing a particular site ranking on top positions over and over again, you probably remember their name.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            Write these websites down and consider adding them to your analysis. Most of the time, you will find these top-of-mind competitors among the researched competitors as well.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            We will add bestproducts.com<\/em> as our top of mind competitor. It\u2019s a much broader website, but it does rank for more than one keyword beginning with \u201cbest shoes for\u201d.<\/p>\n

             <\/div>\n

            2.2 Add competitors targeting the same keywords as you<\/strong><\/h3>\n

             <\/p>\n

            It\u2019s about time we chose “our own” website for this analysis.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            Let\u2019s go with shoefinale.com<\/em>. It doesn\u2019t rank at the very top for keywords, and it has a broader domain name, which means future expansion on other sub-niches will fit it well. Also, it\u2019s already trying to target multiple sub-niche keywords. We know this from the menu of the website.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            \"Menu<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            This is a hypothetical website. We don\u2019t own this website, nor do we know who does. <\/strong>We only use it for explanatory purposes.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            Our website seems to be targeting \u201ctop 10 shoes for running\u201d and \u201cbest shoes for running\u201d. Both times, the top position is taken by a page from runnersworld.com<\/em>, so we\u2019ll add it\u00a0as one of our competitors.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            Perform this step on most of the keywords you\u2019re trying to rank for, or at least the most important ones. Try to notice if the same competitor shows up for the majority of keywords you\u2019re targeting. That\u2019s your real enemy.<\/p>\n

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            2.3 Use the keywords from your previous research to spot competitors that are ranking in top positions<\/strong><\/h3>\n

             <\/p>\n

            Our broader keyword, \u201cbuy shoes online<\/em>\u201d, has some variations, but the rankings are usually similar. A broad variation example could be \u201conline shoe store<\/em>\u201d. If you check the top results, they are pretty similar.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            \"Ranking<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            The narrower one, \u201cbest shoes for\u2026<\/em>\u201d has many variations, and the rankings here differ significantly. We can see phrases like \u201cbest shoes for walking\u201d, \u201cbest shoes for running\u201d,<\/em>\u00a0or \u201cbest shoes for standing<\/em>\u201d as sub-niches of our market. These sub-niches we identify for our website will have different competitors most of the time.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            Using the Keyword Explorer\u2019s SERP Analysis feature, compare different keyword variations and identify competitors that show up multiple times in these variations.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            Sometimes, when extremely many sub-niches are present, you might need to run multiple analyses for each sub-niche, and then compare the results of these analyses themselves to identify your true top competitors.<\/p>\n

             <\/div>\n

            2.4 Use Site Explorer to find your competitors\u2019 top ranking keywords and add them to your research<\/strong><\/h3>\n

             <\/p>\n

            Knowing your competitor\u2019s top ranking keywords is useful from two points of view:<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

              \n
            1. You can target those keywords too, and try to outrank the top competitors;<\/strong><\/li>\n
            2. You can spot other competitors that are fighting their way to the top.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

               <\/p>\n

              Depending on the level you are at the moment, top players might not provide as good insights as a rising website would do. Over time, you can observe the journey of a website that gradually rises in the search results, and extract their practices.<\/p>\n

               <\/p>\n

              To analyze your competitor\u2019s top ranking keywords, you can use the Site Explorer<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0; simply enter your competitor\u2019s domain name and hit Explore. After the data is analyzed, go to Rankings and select the targeted country. At the bottom of the page, some of the competitor\u2019s best rankings will show up. You can add them to your analysis directly from there.<\/p>\n

               <\/p>\n

              \"Site<\/a><\/p>\n

               <\/div>\n

              2.5 Select top 3-5 competitors based on rankings and frequency<\/strong><\/h3>\n

               <\/p>\n

              Depending on how many sub-niches you want to target, this process can be repeated. By “this process” I mean: research keywords, and analyze the rankings and the number of Google searches.<\/p>\n

               <\/p>\n

              For this particular analysis we will stick to the following 4 competitors:<\/p>\n

               <\/p>\n