How to do competitor analysis for seo? Businesses of all sizes are investing in digital marketing, since it will help them generate a larger number of leads. Most businesses prefer to invest in search engine optimization (SEO) , since research indicates that it is the most cost effective digital marketing technique. For ranking first in the search engines for the different keywords, the business should optimize its website, so that it has a better ranking than its competitors. So businesses should be first find out how to do a competitor analysis for seo, so that they can plan their seo strategy accordingly.
The first step in doing competitor analysis is finding out the online competitors for the business. Most businesses are aware of their competitors selling similar products or services, to customers in the same region or having a similar profile. However, all these competitors may not be having a website. So the business should first identify the main keywords related to the business. They should then make a list of ten or twenty of the websites which rank well in the search results for the business related keywords. These websites will usually belong to competitors.
Then the business should identify the keyword gap, the keywords for which it is not ranking, while the competitors websites are ranking well. It should also identify the high traffic and high value keywords related to the business. Prospective customers are more likely to use some keywords when they are looking for a supplier of the products which the business is selling, and the business should make a list of these more frequently searched keywords. It is better for the business or the seo agency it hires to focus on these keywords initially for improving the ranking.
If the business is already ranking well for the main keywords, it should mainly focus on maintaining its rank. If it does not rank well, it should first do backlink research for competitor websites, especially the main keywords. The business should try to find out the number of backlinks which the competitor website has, the domain authority and relevance of these backlinks. The business can then try to get backlinks from the same websites for their own business website, or similar websites if possible. They should also track changes in the back-link profile of their competitor.

While back-links can help improve the ranking, the business website will not rank well for all keywords, if it does not have relevant content with the keyword. So in addition to the back-link analysis, the business should also do a content analysis of the competitor website. It should check the content to find out how all the relevant keywords are incorporated, and make the necessary changes in the website content, adding more pages if required to improve the website ranking. The business should also be aware that search engines are updating their algorithms periodically, and there may changes in the ranking after a few months. So it is advisable to do a competitor analysis, periodically, at least once or twice a month, and make the necessary changes if the ranking will worsen.