What's a good way to get started with competitive research?
-
Hi all,
SEO noob here. I'm doing an audit for a firm that makes specialized accounting software. It's a relatively new firm, with a barebones website.
My client has identified three direct business competitors. In addition, I see indirect competitors (such as product reviews) on the SERP for a relevant keyword phrase.
I want to provide actionable advice for my client. What information should I present? I'd like to help my client understand:
- Why my client's competitors are outperforming them on the SERPs
- What my client needs to do to overtake their competitors
What information should I present to my client?
Thanks, all.
-
Hi Chris,
In the end, I made recommendations to my client, based on their potential impact and ease of implementation. I recommended they add plugins to enhance security and speed up page loads. I recommended they set up a Google search console account and submit their sitemaps. I recommended they set up their analytics views to filter out visits from employees and others with a relationship to the business.
On the content side, I recommended they do keyword research and start building content optimized for variants of their main phrase. I also recommended some link building steps.
My client is new to SEO, but quite intelligent and a good listener. I think they'll do well.
Thanks for your advice.
Best,
AK
-
Andy,
The answer to your question has a lot to do with the specific keyword, or search term, you used in your competitive search. It is not uncommon for a client to misunderstand the difference between their off-line competitors and their online competitors. Online competitors can be specifically related to a target keyword. For example, page-one search results (i.e your strongest online competitors) for " widgets" would be different than your competitors for the "wingdings" search term--even though they may be similar products or synomical terms. That's to say, it's easy to identify the online competition for a search term--it's every site that shows up between where your (client's) site shows up and google's #1 spot.
The choice of keyword with which to compete online is more difficult but there are tools to make it a little easier. The tools may show you that "widgets" has 100K other sites optimized to compete for the top spot and that "wingdings" has only 50 websites optimized to compete for the top of that search result. In that case, it's easy to see how you might choose to tell your client to optimize their site for "wingdings"
There are two potential catches with that choice, though. One is that "optimization" is not a black or white thing. "Optimization" is what develops a site's capability to compete with other sites for specific keyword(s). Optimizations can be good or bad or more or less in their effort to create the perfect content formula that google's ranking algorithm will place at the top of the results, so the competition is quite like a moving target. The other catch is the issue of how many people actually use that term when they go to google and search for your client's product. It can be very possible that the reason so few sites are optimized for "wingdings" is because most people, in fact, use the search term "widgets." Why optimize for a term that few people search for?
So, to get back to your questions. It's kind of hard to say otherwise than it takes a knowledgeable SEO to help an uninitiated client understand how keywords and competition work online as well as to propose options the client can take to overtake their competitors for said keywords. Finally, I would say, it's very hard to sell an SEO project to someone who doesn't understand what it is. At the very least, they have to understand keywords, they have to understand search engine competitors, they have to understand the value of SEO, and they have to understand that they are probably going to have to make a good-sized investment in their website to affect the changes that will move the needle against their competitors.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Missing tab in Competitor research Template
The template provided in https://mza.seotoolninja.com/blog/competitor-analysis-for-seo is missing the 'Audit Data' Tab. Can you please update it or share the Original Template
Competitive Research | | AnkitaDwivedi3 -
Is my client's site penalized and if not, why are other lesser quality sites ranking with lower metrics than my client's?
Hello, I'm trying to explain to a client, as to why certain websites that appear in the top 50 listings for a keyword are there when they don't have very good backlink profiles, and for this keyword, seems you need a high PA above 20 or DA above 25, just to page for page 2 - 3. Running a full SERPs report, I have seen that backlinks to the page that's ranking seems to be as high of a factor as PA, followed by DA and overall backlink profile. Having a high score in one of these 4 areas seems to increase your ranking. However, going into page 3 and beyond, seems that things kinda take a weird turn. After comparing the client's site to those ranking on page 2 I could see that all of them had better PA and more links to the page ranking for that keyword, so page 2 I understand why we don't rank on yet. However, looking at page 3, I see that the client's site in question has better PA, DA, links to page and overall links to domain. Which leaves me to think we have a penalty that's keeping us ranking 50 or beyond. Since our metrics across the boards for what MOZ is showing as ranking factors. The more odd issue is that looking at the line graph, shows right at the time we implemented sitewide https our ranking for this one keyword dropped, while rankings for our other keywords increased. Am I to assume it's a keyword density penalty? What penalties are there with a outcome of ranking limits?
Competitive Research | | Deacyde0 -
Why is this Page ranking so good?
This page has a high moz domain authority but compared to the other one abouve and bellow ranking for the keyword "audio pc" i dont see the factor why its ranking on #2 in germany in google serp. http://www.musicstore.de/de_DE/EUR/cat-COMPUTER-PCMDESKTOP what would you do if you would be on the places 1 or 2 or 3 bellow?
Competitive Research | | Exscape0 -
SEO Keyword Research
Hi, We are SEO beginners so please bear with us! We are trying to promote "Web based Invoicing Software". The SEO company we have signed with offer us 5 keywords for the package we are on with them. They have suggested\offered us: 1. Invoicing Software - Fine
Competitive Research | | Studio33
2. Online Invoicing - Fine
3. Online Invoicing Software - Covered by 1 and 2
4. Small Business Invoicing Software - Covered by 1
5. Invoice Template - Fine. Will Invoice templateS be covered on this one too? My question is does number 3 cover number 1,2 & 4 anyway? If so I am thinking to not go for 1,2, & 4 just keep 3 and choose three other new keywords. Would this be a better strategy and "more for our money?" Or, keep 1 and 2 and lose 3 and 4, would that be a good option. So, in summary options are (all assuming keeping number 5) 1. Keep all
2. Keep 1 & 2 - Lose 3 & 4
3. Keep 3 - Lose 1,2 & 4 4. Any other combo you can suggest? Any advice welcomed Thanks nutnut0 -
One client - 2 domains / same business - good or bad idea?
This is a follow up to a previous question actually: My client has one domain that has 'hardwood flooring' in it and one that has 'concrete polishing' in it - both services they offer. **Would it be wise (for seo purposes) to have them both point to ONE domain (more general of course) ** **- They only have a few local competitors that aren't doing anything to rank well. ** **- They aren't trying to rank nationally. ** If the smart thing to do is to have them point to one (more general) domain using a 301 direct will there traffic drop significantly? (at least for a short time) Does it matter if they continue to keep the existing domains they are using now on their literature, business cards, etc. and let them continue pointing to the new domain or should they really start promoting the new domain name? (They do NOT want to do this). My only concern is saving them time and money by not having to build links, submit articles, social media, on and on for two different sites OK, that's like 3 questions Thank you VERY much for any thoughts or opinions on the matter! 🙂 Have a great week everybody! Matthew
Competitive Research | | Mrupp440 -
Keyword Research Tool Problem
Hi, I had been in SEO for around 2 to 3 years, I am looking for your suggestion if there is any best keyword research tool. I tried almost most of the keyword research tool (both paid or free) but I found the following problem: -Worktracker: I think it is too difficult to use and understand as a non technical person. I always wonder the data accuracy because when the same keyword appear in Google for few thousand traffic, it only appear in Wordtracker for few dozen or hundred of search. Also I don't think they suggest any long trail keywords in my view. The long trail keyword you can also find in free keyword search tool. -Google Keywords Tool- Good, but it can only show 100 results. I cannot get a better pictures of related or niches keywords. I always find some competitive keywords can rank easily but some non competitive keywords usually very difficult to rank in some case. It will depend on how you interpret the data results. -Keyword Discovery and Wordstream-Although I really want to subscribe, but they are a way too expensive (you have to subscribe for 12 months). I check with their free keywords tool but only shown very limited results. Although there are some other like spyfu.com or keywords spy...... Is there any one can suggest me which is the best tool to start with keyword search for the long trail and niche keywords ? or is there any way or trick to find the best keywords ? Thank you. Tom
Competitive Research | | Stevejobs20110 -
Competitive Link Research Tool is not working
I receive a busy message each time I try. This has been out of commission the last several times I've tried it.
Competitive Research | | cmiller0 -
How do you perform competitive research for SEO?
What metrics tell you the most when you're looking at your competitors across the search landscape? PageRank/MozRank Inbound links Keyword rankings Alexa/QuantCast/etc. Pages indexed Something else entirely? What numbers speak volumes to you when you want to get an idea of how you benchmark against your competitors? And how do you communicate these results?
Competitive Research | | jcolman2