What is the risk of focusing on competitor SEO strategies?

Today’s Ask SEO question comes from Peter, who asks:

“What’s the risk in focusing on what competitors are doing, as opposed to forging your own path? If all competitors are looking at each other, there are no differentiators.”

Great question, Peter! And one that comes up a lot.

If a company focuses on what its competitors and industry leaders are doing, it is not creating a better user experience and better solutions for search engines.

It goes beyond having no differentiators, but the idea is the same: If everyone is equal, there can still only be one winner.

That includes position one in SEO, but also which top funnel affiliate is promoting based on being unique, which company gets the SMS and email subscriber because it has better UX, etc.

But before I go into detail about your question, there are two important things to watch out for with your competitors.

Always Watch What The Leader Is Doing, And Who Is Mimicking Them

When you know what the leader is doing, and who is following the leader, you can see trends and patterns as they fall and gain.

This gives you insight into what works and doesn’t work.

When you know if it makes sense for you to try something, you’ve had time to learn by watching the mistakes of others, while using the time to create a better overall website.

Make Sure The Pages They’re Testing And Changing Are Important For SEO

I, and some of my colleagues, mark pages on client websites that are not important for SEO.

We test them for other channels, knowing that SEO traffic is not important for the specific page. We also know that competitors are looking at these pages and will make the same changes.

When the changes are made, the competitors shoot themselves in the foot, and we pull further ahead.

A great example is a company with a large amount of branded search traffic.

If brand search is the main traffic driver to the home page, and a few collections or categories, SEO on that page probably doesn’t matter.

These are the ones where we will test UX and average order value (AOV). Our tests won’t worry about what happens with SEO, because the brand traffic will find it anyway.

Our competitors normally do not think about this and harm themselves. Sometimes we did it on purpose to get ahead of them.

On the other hand, if everyone is watching the leader (and each other), and you do something different, you can be in the clear to get ahead of the curve.

Non-SEO professionals in those companies might say, “But they’re doing this, there must be a reason for it,” and follow suit.

That gives you a clear way to do your own thing and stay off their radars.

If this is your situation, use it to your advantage.

Create a lightning-fast website with clear messaging that says exactly what the page is about.

Now, add supporting documentation, easy checkout, trust builders, related content (if you’re a publisher) and features that other sites lack.

Features could be lifestyle shots, testimonials, FAQs, specifications or even additional copy blocks that share uses for the product and compatibility information.

When everyone is focusing on each other, you can use this opportunity to do what they are missing and focus on winning.

This situation also gives you an opportunity to search for related searches, entities and complementary topics.

Once you have them, create related videos for YouTube and see if you can find influencers and content creators to get attention for your content while your competitors are all doing the same.

You doing something different becomes more attractive because it is unique in the space.

By focusing on your own path, you set yourself up for success.

And by watching what everyone else is doing, you can learn from their mistakes – especially if they crash and burn themselves.

When they do, jump in and take over.

And don’t just think about SEO – look at it from all marketing points of view.

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How do you analyze a competitor website?

• Evaluate your competitors’ website content. …
• Pay attention to their brand. …
• Find out what websites they use. …
• Monitor competitors on social media. …
• Check out their pricing page. …
• Get a picture of their SEO strategy and traffic. …
• Become a customer.

What are the techniques of competitor analysis? SWOT analysis SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Use this framework to understand external and internal factors affecting your company, and can also be applied to analyzing your competitors.

Can I monitor the traffic of the competitors’ website? To study the traffic of your own website, Google Analytics is the way to go. To find competitor web traffic, however, Traffic Analytics is the best solution because it provides you with high-quality data about competitor traffic that you can use for your competitive analysis.

How do I find my competitors meta description?

You can find your competitor’s metadata in the source by looking at the top of the document within the <head> element (Or just search for “meta” using “Find on Page”!)

How do you find a meta description? You can find your page’s meta description within the page’s HTML markup section. Most CMS’s will allow you to edit this markup and change your meta description either directly within the code or via the meta description field within the page’s metadata settings.

Does Google show meta descriptions? Since meta descriptions aren’t displayed on the pages the user sees, it’s easy to let this content slide. But high-quality descriptions can be shown in Google search results, and can greatly improve the quality and quantity of your search traffic.

What is 4 components of competitive analysis explain?

This framework is based on the following four key aspects of a competitor: The goals of a competitor. Assumptions of a competitor. Competitor’s strategy. Capabilities of a competitor.

What are the types of competitive analysis? Types of competitor analysis include SWOT analysis, the customer journey map, and a growth-share matrix. The customer journey is the story your customer creates through your brand, digital footprint and products. A growth-share matrix is ​​a visual tool for determining where to focus business activities.

What are the 4 factors of competitive advantage? Four factors help the company establish and retain a competitive advantage, namely superior efficiency, quality, innovation and accountability to the customer. Each of these factors is the result of a company’s distinctive competence.

What are 4 competitive analysis components?

There are four diagnostic components: future goals, current strategy, assumptions and capabilities. …

What are the elements of competitive analysis? A competitive analysis should examine your competitors’ characteristics, market share, pricing, marketing, differentiators, strengths, weaknesses, geography, culture, and customer reviews.

What is competitive analysis explain with examples?

Competitive analysis is a strategy that involves researching major competitors to gain insight into their products, sales, and marketing tactics. Implementing stronger business strategies, fending off competitors and capturing market share are just a few benefits of conducting a competitive market analysis.

What does competitive analysis explain? Competitor analysis, also called competitive analysis, is the process of identifying competitors in your industry and researching their different marketing strategies. You can use this information as a benchmark to identify your company’s strengths and weaknesses relative to each competitor.

How can I spy on competitors marketing?

If you want to know your competitor’s keyword strategy, try using Semrush, ahrefs or SpyFu. These tools do MUCH more than just keyword research, but if you want to know which keywords your competitors are targeting with their SEO campaign, these tools have you covered.

How can I spy on competitors in Google ads for free? You can use Ahrefs’ “Site Explorer†option to evaluate a competitor’s paid search efforts. Add the appropriate URL, navigate to âPaid Search,â and then use Ahrefs data to see what PPC keywords a competitor is ranking for, what their top ads are, and which pages are driving the most paid search traffic.

How can I spy on competitors from social media? Step 1: Identify Your Social Media Competitors Find your potential competitors on Google using the right keywords. Identify businesses that buy advertising payments based on the keywords. Identify marketers advertising on similar industry platforms. Look for competitors on eCommerce stores like Amazon or eBay.