The web is a vast ocean where businesses raise their masts, explore unchartered territories, and claim their own domains. There will be times when others will outpace your ship, and the only thing that can help you maintain and defend your position is to change your gears and find out how your rivals are faring. This is where competitive SEO audits become necessary.
The complexity of finding out how your competitors are doing will depend on the industry, the similarities between the businesses, and the scope of the practices. Working with a top-notch SEO agency will be helpful in this regard.
The Competitors
You will not gain control over the competition if you do not know who your rivals are. The simplest thing to do here is use your keywords to find whom you are competing with. This will enable you to determine the number of websites to outperform.
Once you have potential competitors on your list, validate their authorities by reviewing their website. You should check the following elements:
- Keywords used
- Content relevance
- Volume of external links
- Web design
- Branding
The Look of the Competition
Before joining the competition, determine if your tools and methods will allow you to survive. Identify the areas where you think your website is outranked, and work on improving these aspects.
Look closely how each competitor goes against each other. Utilise intelligence and analytics tools to keep tabs of their activities. Google Trends and Google Alerts are some of the best choices here.
Competitors’ Presence on Social Media
Social media may be part of the technical requirements in rankings, but you should treat it as an independent and separate aspect. This is because social media is one component that allows your brand to assume a persona. Most things involved in this segment of SEO strategy are subjective, as it is all about your brand’s relationship with the customers.
In this regard, you ought to find out how influential your competitors across different social media platforms. Find out how many followers they have. Look at how they respond to the queries and complaints of their communities. See what they share and how they reward their fans.
Monitoring how your competitors are faring in the game should give you solid ideas on how you can revamp and improve your own methods. It should also make you realise your weak points. If you find these tasks taxing and confusing, work with a reliable SEO firm. Contact our customer service group to learn more about our solutions.