A Quick Guide on How to Perform SEO Analysis and Competitive Analysis
Search engine optimization, or SEO, as we all know it, is about optimizing the online content so as to be ranked as high as possible in the search results shown by search engines when a user searches for information through the aid of keywords. In today’s world, what is not “online” is not “on the mind.” The number of internet users has grown and is growing at a steady rate. Therefore, it is important for every content creator to keep its content as visible as possible because visibility is directly proportionate to business. The more visibility, the more are the chances of visitors converting into customers, which means more business.
Given the importance of content optimization, it is essential to conduct SEO tests on a regular basis. The test to analyze the effectiveness of the SEO strategy for one’s own website and the test to understand the effectiveness of the SEO strategies employed by competitors are equally crucial for every content creator. SEO competitive analysis is important to know your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses. This helps in directing your efforts in the right direction. Also, it helps in prioritizing and strategizing accordingly. Let’s look at some quick tips to undertake SEO competitive analysis. Note that there are various online tools available to conduct a thorough competition analysis.
- The foremost step is to know your competitors. They may be not only the ones around your locality but also the ones around the city or neighboring cities or towns or also from the neighboring states. There are tools to find out organic competitors.
- Do keyword researches to know the keywords that result in your competitor’s content or the keywords that show up or rank your competitors ahead of you.
- Do a thorough analysis of your competitors’ profile in terms of their backlinks, social sharing, domain authority, link building, keyword density, inbound and outbound links and so on.
- Analyze their content and design. This would include the use of media in content, word count, content uniqueness, website, and content design and so on.
- Next is to analyze the competitor’s presence on social media. Social media has a major impact, and it cannot be ignored.
- Analysis of the offline strategies is also very crucial to get a grip on the competitor’s direction of action.
- Once you understand the exact strategies of your competitor, it is time for you to create a strategy based on the analysis. Here, it is important to deal with the barriers to entry. The data from this research will give you a base to draw up your strategies.
Once done with the competitor’s SEO analysis, move on to the SEO analysis for your own website. This keeps you on your toes and helps you in updating your strategies and working on the loopholes if any. Let’s look at some of the tips below:
- When a user types the keywords in the search bar, the search engine throws up various search results. A set of keywords can represent every business. So, when a user types the keywords that relate to your content or business, then where does the search engine position you, if at all your content is considered by the engine. This is the first step to take before one proceeds with the thorough SEO analysis. Hence, the foremost step is to find out how visible is your content on Google or where does the search engine rank you when the users type in the keywords related to your content. There are methods to do it. Once you know how the search engines position you, you know where to on to next.
- To know whether your website content is right optimized for the search engines, consider the following questions: Are the titles and descriptions with the specified word limit, whether they are unique, is the URL rightly structured and formatted, is the text formatted as required, is your content unique and original, is your content free of grammatical errors and is it of the optimum size, have you used various forms of media in the content to make it more attractive, did you check for broken links, what is the page speed and what is the user experience like. These are some important questions to which you need the answers when undertaking onsite SEO analysis.
- Poor quality inbound links and broken links can take a significant toll on your search rankings. If your website is linked to multiple links that lead to a poor quality content or low authority websites, then this results in higher spam score. So, it is important to know your spam score, get rid of poor inbound links and improve your website’s authority. On the other hand, broken links can leave your visitors with a very upsetting experience. This not only leads to a fall in the rate of user-friendliness, but it directly impacts the SEO of your content. Hence, with the help of online tools, find out the broken links and fix them up or remove them altogether.
- Social media is very crucial for all your optimization efforts. Content can be presented on social media platforms in the form of audios, visuals, infographics and other forms of media. The shorter and crispier your data representation, the more it attracts attention. People might wonder how is social media related to SEO, but it affects your rankings directly as well as indirectly. Social media is a platform that helps to spread your content. The more the content is being spread, the more people view it, the more it gains popularity, the more are the chances of the content appearing higher on search rankings. It leads to an organic and natural link building.
In today’s dynamic world, it is not enough to set up top-class SEO strategies and be done with them. Regular Search engine optimization analysis of your content and your competitor’s content is very important to keep yourself updated with the new trends that are gaining popularity, trends that had been outdated, and the potential trends of the upcoming times. As they say, change is the only constant, and what doesn’t change for the good, gets stagnated and gets killed.
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