When should we perform competitive analysis?
There is no wrong time to perform competitive analysis. But when planning new content or preparing to launch marketing campaigns, a competitive analysis is likely to lead to more efficient spending. And after the campaign starts, analysis keeps marketing agencies honest by identifying and constructing meaningful, measurable metrics. Normal SEO reporting can help you see how your business is faring relative to itself, but SEO competitive analysis can help you see your business within an industry. Beyond that, if your business is experiencing a shock drop or sudden decline in results, competitive analysis may reveal process failures or changing trends in the landscape.
What should we expect from a competitive SEO analysis?
First of all, SEO competitors may not completely overlap your in-market business competitors. An effective analysis will begin with identifying relevant competition. From there, an SEO audit of the competition arms your business with the data needed to begin analysis. A good audit can cover everything from competitors’ pages and content structures to keyword gaps and backlink profiles. Finally, for a proper agency, analyzing and reporting on the data is an opportunity to demonstrate strategic business acumen. Soft skills and experience-backed intuition come into play, down to the probable search intent of your competitors’ audiences. Ultimately, competitive analysis should inform the strategic decisions of your business’s SEO campaign.
How can we stand out in a highly competitive search field?
Striving to stand out is not always the best way forward. Not every client has an unlimited budget. At Outpace, we may take a more creative approach by rerouting aspects of your marketing through keywords that are less hotly contested but still widely searched. Long-tail keywords, for instance, may present more winnable ground. Our goal is to help you uncover new audiences, or streamline processes for existing audiences that you are losing at key points in the customer journey. And knowing the competition is one of the primary ways we can make determinations about strategy.