Techniques for analyzing competition?

I'm about to implemented a new method that I found on the forums. However, how can I analyze the competition so I know what I'm getting into? I know you usually only want to check the competition on the front page of Google, but I plan on doing it for Bing/Yahoo as well.

How can I make sure I know what I'm up against before I use a keyword/method I found?

I personally like using a tool to narrow it down to a smaller number of keywords. I'm currently using NicheCracker but there are tons more out there. I then hand check the results that are given to me by the tool because they are never 100% accurate.

Use websites like OpenSiteExplorer and ahrefs to see what kind of links are pointing back to the websites in position 1-3. Also check ranking factors ie. Title, h1, keyword density etc. Obviously you also need to check the traffic [exact] coming through Google Adwords Keyword Tool.

Usually you will only have to worry about Google. Don't worry about analyzing competition for Yahoo and Bing there isn't really much point because they use very similar ranking factors.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any specific questions!

0_00_0 said:

I personally like using a tool to narrow it down to a smaller number of keywords. I'm currently using NicheCracker but there are tons more out there. I then hand check the results that are given to me by the tool because they are never 100% accurate.

Use websites like OpenSiteExplorer and ahrefs to see what kind of links are pointing back to the websites in position 1-3. Also check ranking factors ie. Title, h1, keyword density etc. Obviously you also need to check the traffic [exact] coming through Google Adwords Keyword Tool.

Usually you will only have to worry about Google. Don't worry about analyzing competition for Yahoo and Bing there isn't really much point because they use very similar ranking factors.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any specific questions!

Click to expand...

Thanks! This actually helps a great deal to be honest. Now, what if I didn't want to use a tool just yet? I can't really afford one at the moment anyway. What are some methods to analyzing the competition manually?

I heard about onsite SEO but I don't know too much about how it works and how to beat the competitions onsite SEO. I actually remember there being a few threads that taught you how to analyze competition.. but I don't remember what they were called.

I think if I understood basic SEO better, I would understand how these websites rank. I'm going to check some of the stickies but if you have any threads saved that I could read I would be very appreciative. I understand some of the things you can do for onsite SEO, such as linking one page to another. However, I don't know WHY these work. If I knew why It'd help a great deal.

Thanks again, I really appreciate it.

voinsevera said:

Thanks! This actually helps a great deal to be honest. Now, what if I didn't want to use a tool just yet? I can't really afford one at the moment anyway. What are some methods to analyzing the competition manually?

I heard about onsite SEO but I don't know too much about how it works and how to beat the competitions onsite SEO. I actually remember there being a few threads that taught you how to analyze competition.. but I don't remember what they were called.

I think if I understood basic SEO better, I would understand how these websites rank. I'm going to check some of the stickies but if you have any threads saved that I could read I would be very appreciative. I understand some of the things you can do for onsite SEO, such as linking one page to another. However, I don't know WHY these work. If I knew why It'd help a great deal.

Thanks again, I really appreciate it.

Click to expand...

Well NicheCracker is like $30 but I understand if you can't afford it. I think the other tools range from $40-100. You will just have to do it manually through Adwords Keyword Tool, ahrefs and Open Site Explorer.

On-page SEO is just something you just have to do. If their page is not optimized for the keyword then you will have an easy time (generally speaking) ranking for the keyword. You usually won't 'beat' someone's on-page SEO but there are general guidelines you should follow when optimizing your website. You can use the search function on the forum and it will probably show up hundreds of threads on how people determine competition. A lot of them i find unhelpful though.
This is a very basic on-page checklist: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/on-page-factors
It doesn't cover everything but it will get you started.

Yes you should figure out how basic SEO works so you can determine how well optimized the competition is and how long it will take you to achieve a similar optimization level on and off-page for your website. In one sentence - Google gives authority to websites that have more websites linking to them. I can't explain all of the facets because it would simply take too long. You will need to read around this forum for a while to get a proper handle on the concepts.

Good luck!

There was a big post about analyzing competitors keywords. Search keywords on bhw, it has many replies.