There are varying schools of thought when it comes to how much attention should be paid to a business’s competitors. Some people tend to ignore the competition. On one hand, it could be a considered a distraction, and you might have to take the focus off the key business areas to watch how other companies are performing. However, competitor and sector analysis provides invaluable insights to make better business decisions. Even though it is a time-consuming process, you can prepare a better marketing strategy to raise awareness or promote your brand effectively using competitor’s data.We believe it is a smart business decision to track how your competitors’ websites are performing. While you cannot get direct access to their analytics, you can easily gain valuable insights using free and paid software. Read on for suggestions of some of our favorite free and paid tools.There are several reasons why you should compare your website with your competitors. Firstly, you would get a quick idea of any missed opportunities by seeing what they are offering. Secondly, you will be stay aware of shifts in the industry, ensuring you don’t fall behind. Last, but not the least, you will get a hypothetical benchmark for your growth goals.Reaching the top of SERPs is a daunting yet worthwhile effort. Here are five effective ways to compare your website with your competitors in the name of maximizing your SEO campaign:
1. Digital Advertising and Pay per Click (PPC)
It is important to determine where your investors are opting to invest. What ads are they bidding on? What do their ads look like?Having information regarding organic rankings is crucial, but knowing the digital marketing presence and ad spending of your competitors is equally important. This latter information further gives you an idea of what might be a good investment for your business. If your competitors have well-optimized campaigns, you can gain valuable insights into what words and phrases they are using that are getting the most traction.
2. Social Media Networks
Do you know which content is getting the most likes, comments, or shares? Which social media network is producing the best result? What kind of people are sharing the content?As easy as social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter are to use, it is extremely hard to analyze competitor’s data. You can easily view the posts which are getting the maximum engagement. However, you might not know the reason behind the campaign or the goals your competitor wishes to achieve through that campaign.More important than post engagement -- but harder to track -- is the conversion rate due to social media posts. When it comes to analyzing your competitors, conversion rates based on their post engagement won’t be clear. However, marketers are still studying the correlation between post engagement and conversion. Some experts are skeptical any exists at all. Some companies are even eliminating their presence on all social media presence, because they are not seeing a worthwhile ROI from it. So, even though you can’t see your competitors’ data in this arena, rest easy knowing it might not even be a valuable set of data for them to have.
3. Website Traffic
Is your website performing better or worse than your competitors? Are you getting more traffic or your competitors? Who has the most user engagement?It is impossible to get an accurate look at your competitors’ analytics, but you can get estimates of their website traffic. There are different tools available that help you understand the big picture. You can get access to the data including website traffic, date and time of visit, behavior, and demographics (resources listed at end of article).
4. Page Speed
Nowadays, smartphones have become the primary access point to view a web page. Therefore, satisfactory page speed is crucial for businesses. Google has stated page speed as one of the ranking factors.
5. Organic Keyword Research
The odds are high that your competitors have an excellent keyword strategy, as they have to spend a lot of time developing the right list. Of course, you can prepare a list of keywords on your own, but do not miss out on the data produced by your competitors. This competitive intelligence might help you drive more traffic to your website. It is often worthwhile to consult a tech company to conduct a competitor analysis for your SEO efforts. KitelyTech, for example, includes a free competitor analysis with any of our SEO proposals, so get in touch today if you are interested in us tailoring a report to your competitive landscape.
RESOURCES
Getting information on the above efficient metrics is not easy if you do not use the free or paid versions of website comparison tools. Here, we have created a list of top three website comparison tools.
- SEMrush: SEMrush helps you access crucial competitor details such as advertising, authority, social media, and ranking. Over the years, it has become a popular and powerful tool to evaluate organic and paid search rankings of the website. All you have to do is enter the URL of your competitor’s website to see the data.
- Ahrefs: Using Ahref, you can gain the authority and ranking of the website. It does not offer a free version, but there is an option to get a two-week free trial. Ahref comprises of one of the largest databases of key phrases – nearly four billion of them to help you stay ahead of the curve.
- Alexa: Everyone knows about Alexa, right? It is one of the best metrics and tools for competitor website analysis. If you are a qualitative person, Alexa is a machine you will appreciate. Alexa also has an “Alexa Rank” that indicates the overall ranking and popularity of a website domestically and globally.
Contact KitelyTech today to discuss the details of how we can add value to you and your online business.Phone: (800) 274 2908Email: info@kitelytech.com
