How to Research and Analyse SEO Competition

SEO traffic analysis enables web admins and marketers to see which keywords drive traffic to their competitors’ websites and how that traffic is performing. When performing SEO analysis, there are several methods you can use to gauge your competition and better understand which strategies are working for them.

This blog will show you how to research and analyse SEO competition using various traffic analysis methods.

Through tactical SEO analysis, web admins can learn about their competitors’ weaknesses and find ways to improve their performance. Before one can compete, athletes spend countless hours studying their opponents to identify potential gaps in their playing field.

Having the necessary analysis and insight to improve one’s digital marketing is also a must. This process can help one identify potential keywords and build effective link building strategies.

Initiating Competition Analysis

Before initiating an SEO traffic analysis, web admins must first understand what their goals are for the given website. Once these goals have been decided, it’s time to analyse the competition.

This will give web admins a general idea of where their website stands in comparison to others.

The SEO analysis should offer insight into what the competition is doing, how they are doing it, and what gaps exist that can be exploited.

When conducting an SEO traffic analysis, the first step is to assess the bigger picture of one’s competitors. Start by using Google and typing in the main keywords to see what sites show up in the rankings.

Once this has been done, web admins can use tools to help them drill down and get a more detailed understanding of the competition.

Determine the Competition

Using Semrush, start by identifying competitors in the Organic Research report.

This will help SEOs identify their main competitors. There are various data points that can help better navigate through this process like the Competition Level, which refers to the number of keywords the domain has in common with one’s website. This can help SEOs determine how likely they are to compete with this particular domain on a keyword-by-keyword basis.

Next, analyse each competitor’s SEO traffic. This will provide SEOs with an indication of their level of authority and visibility when it comes to organic search traffic.

Finally, take a look at each competitor’s paid keywords. This can help SEOs identify additional potential competitors bidding on the same keywords and thus provide them with more insights into their strategy moving forward.

Analysis of Backlink Profiles

Once SEOs have come up with a list of competitors, they need to analyse each competitor’s website to understand their link profile. This process helps SEOs determine how many backlinks they need to acquire in order to compete for specific keywords.

There are a few factors that SEOs need to take into account when analysing a competitor’s backlink profile:

- The number of unique referring links that the competitor has

- The quality of those links, including the domain authority and page authority of their backlinks

- The link velocity – how quickly or slowly a competitor is acquiring new links

In Backlink Analytics, go to the root domain and type in the desired domain name. Web admins can then add up to four competitors to see their backlink metrics side by side.

The overview will show how one’s profile stacks up against other competing sites for the same keywords.

The number of referring domains shared by web admins and their competitors is very important. To see how one’s site stacks up against others, click on the Referring Domains link at the top of the report.

If a website has multiple referring domains, it might not have enough authority to rank against other sites that have better inbound links.

The various reports in Backlink Analytics in Semrush will help one learn about the number of links that are followed or nofollowed, as well as the types of links related to the topic. Also, analysing the anchor text will help web admins determine if the link building work has been completed.

The backlink analysis will prove very useful for any upcoming research. It will allow SEOs to select the most relevant keywords for their analysis.

For instance, a website with an Authority Score of 25 that has competitors who have an Authority Score of 45 will not be able to outrank them for keywords. Instead, it would have to look for other keywords with less volume.

One’s content and keyword data should also be closely linked to their analysis to ensure that they will select only the most relevant keywords.

Site Traffic Analytics

The traffic analytics tool from Semrush can provide SEOs with estimates for their competitors. Google Analytics will reveal how many people visit a website.

Performing Keyword Research

One of the most overlooked skills in SEO is keyword research. This is very important as it can help determine the right keywords for businesses.

Although keyword research is not sexy, it is necessary to carry it out in order to improve one’s rankings on the search engine results.

Consider the Concept of “Keyword Sets”

Before starting, it’s important to group keywords into sets. These should be long-tail and seed keywords.

Search for Long-Tail Keywords.

SEOs can use the Keyword Magic tool of Semrush to find out which seed sets have the most common keywords. After typing in the seed set, the tool will display a list of possible keywords.

Determine the Degree of Competition

Before ranking for seed keywords, it’s important to determine the viability of one’s campaign. Doing so will help determine which keywords will most likely help achieve the campaign goals. Having the right keywords will allow SEOs to rank based on their current authority score.

Most tools will also use a metric to identify difficult keywords. This is based on various factors such as the site’s age, structure, and backlink profile.

Rise Above the Competition with Position1SEO

Analysing the competition is a crucial first step in any SEO strategy. Position1seo.co.uk offers comprehensive and detailed traffic analysis to help you get ahead and stay above the SEO competition for good. We can uncover keyword popularity, site performance metrics, organic search traffic trends, and more with our proprietary tools.

Position1SEO also offers an in-depth SEO audit to overview your website’s strengths and weaknesses. You can use this valuable information to make changes and improve your site’s ranking.

Our professional services include free SEO analysis, keyword research, content creation, on-page optimisations, and link building. With our help, you can achieve higher rankings in search results and start driving more traffic to your website. To learn more about our services and start boosting your SEO today, visit our homepage, or contact us for a free consultation at jason@position1seo.com.