Whatever your business choice, there are inevitably many other companies out there who offer similar products or services to yours. As a business, you need valuable information to maintain an edge over all your competitors in an average crowded marketplace. It’s not enough to just know what they offer. It is incredibly vital to conduct a regular and thorough competitive analysis of your competitors to stay ahead.

Competitive research is an area of study involving strategic research that focuses on collating and analyzing information about rival businesses. It is a vital tactic for figuring out what your rivals are doing and the unique threat they individually pose to your company’s success. In addition, a comprehensive competitor analysis can inspire and direct your content, SEO, and marketing strategy.

Here are seven tips on tracking your rival’s ranking and how you can use that knowledge to lead your content and SEO strategy.

Identify Top Competitors

Are you aware of your top competitors? For example, suppose you sell your products or services online. In that case, you are most likely in competition with dozens and sometimes hundreds of companies going after the same audience and group of qualified leads. It is impossible to win a battle if you don’t know who you are up against. If you desire a little assistance in identifying your competitors, Google is a helpful resource. All you need to do is search for the product and service you are offering. The search results will be filled with other firms providing the same or at least similar services.

Compare Marketing Positions

Once you have the names of your top competitors, start analyzing them. Carry out a SWOT analysis that compares information related to the brands and their respective customers. Use a competitive matrix to achieve this quickly. A competitive matrix is a chart that shows a brand’s strengths, weaknesses, offerings, and other details. Individuals and businesses can use it to pick out gaps, opportunities, and threats related to:

• Product features
• Messaging
• Benefits
• Quality
• Pricing
• Customer segments
• Customer sentiment

Compare Content

Analyzing their content will help you determine the avenues open to outcompete your rivals. What’s their content focus? Once you’ve identified their content, you can evaluate the quality and see how it compares to yours. Ensure to note their posting and updating frequency. Suppose your competitors seem to post content thrice every week compared to your single article every two weeks. In that case, it will benefit your company greatly to start creating more traffic to your site by frequently publishing more relevant content.

Analyze Their SEO

If your company already has an active blog, you know the importance of SEO. While conducting a competitive analysis on your competitor’s content, it is also helpful to consider its SEO. Using keyword stuffing to rank content higher on Google is a forgotten tale. The Google search bot is more intelligent and will classify your content as spam. Rather than stuff keywords, try to focus on outperforming your competitor. What keywords do they use? You can spy on your competitors using keyword.com’s rank monitoring tool, and when you take a critical look at their work, you should spot loopholes and shortcomings. Use your team’s creativity and expertise to cover those loopholes.

Compare Backlinks

Another good way to compare the authority of your competitor’s website is by investigating their backlink portfolio. Compare the quality and quantity of the backlinks leading to your site and that of your competitors. Also, observe the linking sites that all your competitors have in common. If they all have links from similar sites, you should strive to get a link from the same place.

Check Their Social Media

Companies now effectively use social media to interact with their customers and clients and generate new leads. Additionally, businesses use social media to share fresh content and also redistribute web content. Therefore, it’s imperative to study your competitor’s social media pages. You are to observe how effectively they use their profiles. Observe their posting frequency, engagement, brand tone, and content type. This will give an insight as to how effective their online community is. Remember, try not to skim the surface. Take your time to study their strategy and see what you can do better.

Identify Areas Of Improvement

You now have a better idea and understanding of what works for most of your competitors at this stage. With the information you have obtained, you can identify particular areas of your strategy that should be improved. If you look closely enough, you’re bound to find something. For example, you can significantly improve your content creation, search engine optimization, and social media engagement if done right. You can also help establish your company’s presence with blog readers/subscribers, potential customers, and more social media users.

If you desire to position yourself to be distinct from your competitors, begin with the research that’s close at hand. Then, gradually plan how you and your team can go above and beyond to ensure your firm outshines the rest and stands out.