How can you conduct competitor research to identify opportunities for off-page optimization?
Whether you’re just starting out with a new e-commerce business or are an established player in your industry, competitor research is crucial. It allows you to see the gaps in your market and helps you identify opportunities for off-page optimizing your marketing strategy.
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You can conduct your competitive analysis in a variety of ways, but it typically involves comparing your company to other companies that have similar products or services. It’s an ongoing process that you need to make sure to keep up with, since it can be useful for evaluating your market growth and predicting trends in the future.
First, decide on the type of competitors you want to evaluate. You may choose to do a high-level overview of your competition’s online presence, or you might focus on a specific aspect of their business such as their product offerings, distribution, or website design. It’s important to keep your approach flexible, so you can find what works best for your brand and the goals of your company.
Next, you should select between five and 10 competitors for your analysis. These should have a similar product or service offering and business model to yours. It’s also a good idea to include both startup and seasoned competitors, as well as companies that operate in different sectors.
If you don’t already have a list of your competitors, you can start by doing a quick Google search for your product or category. This will reveal the top results and give you an idea of what companies are competing for your customers’ attention.
You can then do a deeper look at each of these competitors by analyzing their websites and social media accounts. This can help you learn how they communicate with their target audience and what parts of their content are effective. It’s a great way to get ideas for creating content that your customers will love.
For example, if you’re a fitness equipment retailer and your competitor sells the same type of workout equipment but has a more polished, visually-appealing site, it could be a good idea to invest in a redesign for your own website.
Aside from improving your own site’s SEO performance, this will help you gain more exposure in the market and increase customer engagement. In addition, it’s a good idea to contact the websites that are linking to yours and ask them to change their anchor text to something that is more relevant to your brand.
While this can be a time-consuming process, it’s worth it for the long-term benefit of your business. It can help you avoid making costly mistakes and give you insights into how to improve your company’s performance in the future.
Once you’ve gathered the data, you should create a detailed report that outlines the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. This will allow you to implement strategic moves that will allow your business to grow in the future.
You’ll want to use a range of resources for your analysis, including customer surveys and interviews, social media data, and analytics. You can also take advantage of tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs to gain more information about your competitors’ search engine optimization strategies, such as their backlink profiles.