Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2406842/5-steps-for-seo-competitive-analysis-research
Strategize your approach to SEO by looking for terms your site can rank for by doing a keyword research. Perform a backlink check on your competitors to see link patterns and how they earn links. Supplement your strategy with a good look at their social media and content marketing scheme to get some ideas on how they earn followers and leads. The key is to get as much data as possible and analyze it to your advantage.
Competitor analysis tips
Here are some steps to check on your competitors:
Step 1: Keyword research
Build your keyword list by using these tools:
- Semrush – see list of the keywords your competitors are ranking for
- Spyfu – look at what keywords your competitors are bidding and estimate of their marketing budget
Step 2: Identifying top competitors on your niche
You can do this by searching terms on Google and looking at the top 10 ranking positions. Add sites that keep on showing up in the top 10 results (most likely your top competitors) but don’t include retail brands like Amazon. Use SEMRush to know if the competitor’s domain is authoritative by looking at high search volume terms, more keywords means authoritative.
Step 3: Analyzing competitor’s link profile
Use LinkResearchTools to get more information about your competition regarding the amount of social shares, domain authority metrics, link velocity etc. Use Ahrefs to check on backlinks, anchor texts and domain ranks to look for opportunities and possible sites that you can earn links from. With this tool, you can also check anchor text snippets to know how sites earn links. Next is to use Majestic’s backlink tool for trust flow metrics and backlinks categorized topically.
Step 4: Checking out content marketing and social media strategies
Reverse engineer their content marketing strategy by looking at the amount of social shares of their post, followers in social media, posting template, etc. Get as much clues as to how and when they post their articles and the tone of their article that makes them receive user engagement.
Step 5: Planning your strategy
Lastly, you need to work on your strategy based on the gathered data. It’s always best to avoid highly competitive keywords for startup businesses and focus more on long-tail keywords with low search volumes but are high in conversion.