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How to Do SEO Competitive Analysis (A Step By Step Guide)

Sites compete to land on the first page of Google because those that successfully get a spot on that coveted list have a higher chance of increasing their traffic. Thus, also boosting their conversion rates. Performing an SEO competitive analysis helps understand the competition when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO). You will learn your strengths and weaknesses and that of your competitors, which you can use for improving your site’s SEO. Companies located in Orlando can use the expertise of a reputable Orlando SEO agency for this process and their general SEO requirements. To have a better understanding of SEO competitive analysis, we listed a step-by-step guide below.

Determine your competitors

The big names in your field are your obvious competitors. These are sites that rank in the popular keywords you use. However, they are not the only competitions that you should focus on. Other competitors may also rank on keywords related to your site or on snippets, which gets the visibility you are after. 

The first step in SEO competitive analysis is to know who your competitors are. One way to do this is to type the keywords you use on the browser, and the sites listed on the search results are the competitions, especially those on the first page. There are also SEO tools that make it easier for you to do the job. Enter your domain name, and these tools will show your competitions, including their rankings. 

Perform a keyword gap analysis

This process will determine the keywords your competitors use and rank high that you do not utilize yet on your site. Again, there are tools that you can use for this that will let you enter your domain name and the domain of one or more competitors. Once you have the result, see which keywords you can use on your site or content. Some tools also let you perform a keyword analysis on the page level. Enter the URL of the site’s page you wish to check and the page of those of your competitors. Like the domain level search, it lists the high-ranking keywords of your competitors that you can incorporate in your SEO.

Analyze the content of your competitors

Backlinks are some of the factors that Google considers when determining the ranking of a site. The more links it gets, the better the ranking is. Use an SEO tool to see which of your competitor’s content receives the most backlinks. Enter the domain name, and you will get the result. Another way is to use a tool that shows the pages with the most traffic. Check the content of those pages, and write something on that topic, but with better information or delivery. Then, share the content on sites, networks, or groups that your competitors shared it with. This audience will be more likely to check your content so that you will get more visits. 

Do a link gap analysis

The next step for competitive analysis is to determine which sites link back to your competitors but do not link back to you. Enter your domain name on your SEO tool and that of your competitors. You may also do this on the page level by entering the URL of the specific pages you wish to check. Once you have the result, you can target those sites to link back to you. 

Check user intent

It’s not enough that you know the right keywords to use, but you also need to determine the user intent. It refers to the specific information that users are looking for. Searching for the keyword on your browser will give you insight. For example, if you search “pepperoni pizza,” it will show recipes for pepperoni pizza. It means that most users look for this information. So, you may create content on this. 

To sum up

SEO competitive analysis can help you stay on top of the competition. It lets you determine the areas you need to improve on for your site’s SEO, and the guide above can be helpful for that.