What's a good way to get started with competitive research?
-
Hi all,
SEO noob here. I'm doing an audit for a firm that makes specialized accounting software. It's a relatively new firm, with a barebones website.
My client has identified three direct business competitors. In addition, I see indirect competitors (such as product reviews) on the SERP for a relevant keyword phrase.
I want to provide actionable advice for my client. What information should I present? I'd like to help my client understand:
- Why my client's competitors are outperforming them on the SERPs
- What my client needs to do to overtake their competitors
What information should I present to my client?
Thanks, all.
-
Hi Chris,
In the end, I made recommendations to my client, based on their potential impact and ease of implementation. I recommended they add plugins to enhance security and speed up page loads. I recommended they set up a Google search console account and submit their sitemaps. I recommended they set up their analytics views to filter out visits from employees and others with a relationship to the business.
On the content side, I recommended they do keyword research and start building content optimized for variants of their main phrase. I also recommended some link building steps.
My client is new to SEO, but quite intelligent and a good listener. I think they'll do well.
Thanks for your advice.
Best,
AK
-
Andy,
The answer to your question has a lot to do with the specific keyword, or search term, you used in your competitive search. It is not uncommon for a client to misunderstand the difference between their off-line competitors and their online competitors. Online competitors can be specifically related to a target keyword. For example, page-one search results (i.e your strongest online competitors) for " widgets" would be different than your competitors for the "wingdings" search term--even though they may be similar products or synomical terms. That's to say, it's easy to identify the online competition for a search term--it's every site that shows up between where your (client's) site shows up and google's #1 spot.
The choice of keyword with which to compete online is more difficult but there are tools to make it a little easier. The tools may show you that "widgets" has 100K other sites optimized to compete for the top spot and that "wingdings" has only 50 websites optimized to compete for the top of that search result. In that case, it's easy to see how you might choose to tell your client to optimize their site for "wingdings"
There are two potential catches with that choice, though. One is that "optimization" is not a black or white thing. "Optimization" is what develops a site's capability to compete with other sites for specific keyword(s). Optimizations can be good or bad or more or less in their effort to create the perfect content formula that google's ranking algorithm will place at the top of the results, so the competition is quite like a moving target. The other catch is the issue of how many people actually use that term when they go to google and search for your client's product. It can be very possible that the reason so few sites are optimized for "wingdings" is because most people, in fact, use the search term "widgets." Why optimize for a term that few people search for?
So, to get back to your questions. It's kind of hard to say otherwise than it takes a knowledgeable SEO to help an uninitiated client understand how keywords and competition work online as well as to propose options the client can take to overtake their competitors for said keywords. Finally, I would say, it's very hard to sell an SEO project to someone who doesn't understand what it is. At the very least, they have to understand keywords, they have to understand search engine competitors, they have to understand the value of SEO, and they have to understand that they are probably going to have to make a good-sized investment in their website to affect the changes that will move the needle against their competitors.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
What are some good SEO tactics to defend our position against an upcoming competition in a near monopolistic market?
I'm doing SEO for a medium sized client whose area of business is targeting a very niche audience, in an almost monopolistic market. We're currently in top 3 ranks in our head terms. However, market research has indicated the threat from an upcoming competitor. The competitor is relatively larger and is well established in other countries. Is there something I could do from my end to defend/maintain our current position?
Competitive Research | | iQuanti0 -
I am looking to find the top pages based on traffic volume on my competitors websites, does anyone know of any good resources?
I want to know how which pages on my competitors websites are the most popular based on the traffic volume. I do not care how many links or directed to that page or any other metric. Only thing I am looking for is the traffic volume. It would also be nice to know the length of time spent on that page.
Competitive Research | | kanteenboy0 -
Moz Rank Moz Trust and Authority higher than my competitor but still getting outranked
Hi There, I'm new to SeoMoz but ive been using it for the past month and I've been using the tools to try to optimize my site but for some reason even though my metrics are showing that my rank and authority are rising past my competitor they still rank higher in the searches. my website is the site on the far left with the domain authority @27. the competitor that keeps outranking me is the third from the left with a domain authority of 12. If anyone can advise as to why I'm being outranked that would be very helpful. I'm stumped here. Thanks guys! eYtMRr9.png
Competitive Research | | SamRaskin1 -
My site is ranked in the top 5 for my keywords, but howcome I'm low in an organic search results for my key words?
Are the other factors such as page rank, Alexa rating and mozRank used to determine where I will show up in search results, over Goggle's key word rank for my key words?
Competitive Research | | allstatetransmission0 -
Better tactics for keyword research
I am paying for monthly Adwords Google. I am planning to build out and optimize my website content with the findings from the Adwords campaign. What is frustrating me is the Google list of keywords recommended. Is there a better tool for determining excellent, "long-tail" keywords specific to my industry, products and services? -Feeling Left Out
Competitive Research | | natearistotle0 -
What's the best way to make sure a link is worth getting?
I know what tools to use and I use all of SEOmoz's tools daily. PA, DA, MR, & MT are all things I take into account, but sometimes all you have to do is look at a site and you can tell it's not worth it. I'll analyze the page's backlink's and everything in between. Are there any tricks out there that can help the decision making process? I'm tired of trying to get links on sites that clearly are not worth it, but all of their stats say otherwise. So do you stick with stats, or is it a judgement call? I'm particularly curious about determining the amount of possible traffic from a link. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
Competitive Research | | MichaelWeisbaum0 -
How do I get listed in DMOZ? I have submitted 2 times, but no luck..
Hi All, How do I get listed in DMOZ? I have submitted 2 times, but no luck.. Is there another way besides the site? I have not even received a reply from them.
Competitive Research | | doctormac0