TL;DR – How to Identify Your Competitors
Understand competitor types – Know the four categories: direct, indirect, replacement/perceived, and SERP (search engine results page)SERPs are the pages that show up when someone types in a query into Google or any other search engine. competitors.
Research both digital and real-world competitors – Analyse online keywordKeywords are the words and phrases that potential customers might search for to find your business. competitors and local offline businesses to cover all angles.
Use SEO to your advantage – Competitor research supports better SEO practices like link buildingLink building is a process of acquiring links pointing to your website. These links are obtained by creating content, participating in social media or commenting on other blogs., keyword targeting, and content strategy.
Analyse competitors’ tactics – Look at their content, backlink profiles, keyword rankings, and what gives them a search advantage.
Adapt and improve – Learn from your competitors’ successes and weaknesses, then go one step further to outperform them.
Competitor research is essential in all business, whether you are a start-up company, a small company, or a considerable business brand. Learning how to identify your competitors is not just a one-time thing, either; it is a big commitment which needs to continue through the course of your business, with competitor strategy evolving more and more over time.
You need to be aware of existing competition, new competition and how your competitors are faring when it comes to trying to achieve the same principles you are as a business. When identifying your competitors, it’s also essential to implement the best habits to set yourself apart and ensure that your business is the one which is found, such as exemplary link building and proper strategy when it comes to SEO backlinks.
Identifying competitors in marketing is not just about searching for keyword terms and seeing which other businesses come up within the search engine results. Identifying your competitors can be very tricky, and it will take a lot of time and attention to get it right.
The Different Types of Competitors You Need to Be Aware Of
When looking at how to identify business competitors, you first need to understand the different categories you are looking for. Business competition comes in many forms, shapes, and sizes, so you will need to be aware of all of them to know how best to look out for them.
The main four categories of business competition are as follows, listed to help you to know how to identify competitors in the market more easily:
- Direct Competition
This is perhaps the easiest category to identify, as it means finding a business or brand which is offering the exact same product or service you do. When providing an identical product as another business, it is even more essential that you can show why your business stands out, and why your product should be chosen. When considering this, think about what gives your business the edge and which personal touches can be added to tackle the competition. SEO link building will be essential for this.
- Indirect Competition
This is more associated with a crossover of specific products or services. It may be that another company does not provide the exact same product or service that you do, but it may be in the same realm of services offered, or it may have similar products which can offer the same result.
- Replacement or Perceived Competition
This type of competition is more in the realm of an end purpose. If your product or service exists to fulfil a purpose, it may be that an alternative business or product fulfils the same purpose in a completely different way, with a different product – but it still means that they could take your customer to achieve the same end result.
A vital example of this is a product or service tailored as a hobby. Another business may be pedalling a completely unrelated pastime product to yours. Still, if a consumer chooses to go with their product to fill their free time, then it is still relevant competition if your product is overlooked.
With this in mind, you’ll want sound link building strategies to ensure that your business is always found first and therefore, your product considered as the consumer’s first choice.
- SERP Competition
This relates to direct competition within the search engine results pages. More specifically, this will be competition for your chosen and targeted keywords. You can better identify your competition for keywords when you manually search for your chosen keywords and see which individuals, businesses or webpages are ranking (and targeting) for the same keywords you are.
Digital Competition vs Real-World Competition
While the majority of business is now done via online means, thereby highlighting the importance of finding methods for determining competitors online and being aware of keyword competition, it’s also important to note that real-world competition can exist too, in the form of brick and mortar stores, physical advertising and more.
It’s imperative to be aware of both realms of competition, therefore taking the time to develop a healthy link building service online while also being aware of your real-world competition, too.
Why is Competitor Research So Important for SEO Practices?
Not only is solid competitor research fundamental for your business strategy, but it also serves to benefit your SEO practices and link building services, too. You can actually gain insight and inspiration from any relevant competition by finding out what they are doing to promote their own business, and what is working most successfully for them. This means that you can develop better habits inspired by the competition if you learn that it works for them. It also means you can judge fairly what the competition is doing, and whether it is working or not.
Furthermore, competitor research regarding their own SEO practices means you can take successful habits that once step further. At the very least, you should be doing what the competition is doing, and then working to make it even better than the competition. Appropriate backlink services, content creation, keyword targeting and more should be tailored around what’s working for your competition, and therefore what can work for you.
How to Analyse the Competition
When conducting your competitor research, you should ask yourself the following questions:
- What sort of content are my competitors providing on their business website and relevant online pages?
- Which keywords are my competitors ranking for, and how are they targeting these keywords?
- Where is my competitor’s search engine ranking in comparison to my own business? If it is higher, then what are they doing differently which might be giving them the edge?
- What link building services are my competitor’s implementing?
- Is there any great content which my competitor has provided which I have extra information about, which I can, therefore, replicate and build upon?
If you’re looking for a marketing agency which knows how to best identify and assess competitors as well as an SEO and link building company you can trust, the team at Click Intelligence can help you.
