March 27, 2008 Comments (4)
Coming from an agency, there are often times when there is need to perform a competitive analysis for a client in order to better understand the client's position in the competitive landscape. The main purpose of a competitive analysis should be to gain awareness of the competitive factors analyzed and to leverage the client's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) to their advantage. So what kind of factors should be included in an online competitive analysis? Below are a few that I feel should always make the competitive analysis list:
Domain Age: The age of your domain can have an affect in the way search engine determine authoritativeness for your site. Theoretically, the longer the domain has been active, the more value it receives from search engines. Webconfs has a great tool for calculating the age of your domain and your competitors' http://www.webconfs.com/domain-age.php.
Search Engine Visibility: Take your vertical's main keyword basket and analyze how visible your site is compared to its competitors in Google, Yahoo, MSN, ASK and AOL. Comparing the number of top X rankings can give you a sense of your keyword market share.
Site Traffic: This one is difficult to compare unless you have access to your competitors' analytics, however Compete.com's search analytics does a fairly decent job of providing some insight.
In Bound Link Quality: Using a combination of Yahoo Site Explorer and a batch PageRank checker you can begin to determine the quality of back-links for a given domain. The quality of links is more important than the quantity.
In Bound Link Anchor Text: The quality of links is partially based on the theme of the linking site as well as the anchor text that is linking to you. Image or branded links aren't as high quality as keyword rich links. http://www.webconfs.com/anchor-text-analysis.php
Meta Tags: This maybe considered simplistic and old school but meta description and title tags are still important in SEO. Analyzing description and title tags can help you determine which competing sites best differentiate themselves as well as the messaging the site is providing visitors.
Paid Search Campaigns: On the other side of the fence their is sponsored campaigns and a tool like SpyFu can give you some insight on PPC competitors and keyword costs.
Blogs: Got a blog? Check out Blog Juice from Text Link Ads, which looks at Bloglines, Alexa and Technorati to compute a "juice" score.
Obviously there are other online factors to consider and I would to hear about what other people think.
My site is new - November 2007. I originally bought my domain name for one year only, but realizing the importance of longevity, I renewed the domain name for another 5 years. Does this matter - can anyone tell me, or is it simply domain age that carries SEO weight? Thanks, Jill
Getting the age of the domain is good tip. I would expand that you can also find out the age of the pages on the domain (and sections as well). You can use Link Diagnosis Firefox Extension to do that - http://www.linkdiagnosis.com . You can then figure out which sections of the site has been launched by your competitors first. The age works by checking when Google has first indexed the site. That is a difference between age of the domain. The domain may have been registered ages ago but the google index date will give you better estimate when the site has actually gone live.
Thank you Manoj -- this will definitely be built into my review process. You might also consider adding crawl rate, usually it's a symptom of good SEO and a plugin like SEOquake can shed some light...
I'll add crawl rate to my process as well.
Thanks Paul.
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 Manoj Jasra has been in the search marketing industry since 2002 with Enquiro Search Solutions, where his technical background in programming and software made him a key member in the development of several proprietary industry tools. Since then, his learning in marketing and business strategies as they relate to online has led him to become a resident expert on Search Marketing/Web Analytics. Manoj also authors the blog, Web Analytics World, which features Manoj’s insight on the Search Marketing and Web Analytics Industry.  Enquiro offers a complete solution for your business needs - everything from Organic SEM & SEO to managing your Sponsored SEM strategies (PPC). Enquiro also provides in-house research to help you build stronger Search Engine Marketing relationships through usability resolutions with your target market - leveraging technology to bridge the disconnect between intent and lead. However, more than anything else, Enquiro knows the value of having a robust analytics solution to track and measure success. |
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