Website competitors, what to look at.

[musivarius]

I'm looking at getting to appear further up the page (aren't we all ;-)

There is a website that always appears at the top on so many searches. Is there something I can look for on their homepage/website which may give me an idea as to how they manage it or do I need to go into the whole SEO thing? (I'm basically looking at any search with the phrase 'roman mosaic' in it)

My ranking's improving but it always seems to be the same one at the top.

Thanks

 

[rich06]

This is really two fold; checking onsite and offsite content.

Onsite
Check their keyword density for the landing page on the particular keyword and compare it to your own. There are loads of tools for this. SEO Book use a pretty good one I think or try this one:

http://www.seologs.com/keyword-analysis/page-optimizer.html

Also check their page rank against yours. This will give a good indication of their authority and whether they have some juicy links.

Offsite
Check the number of backlinks they have compared to yours. Yahoo Site explorer might be a good place to start, but you will also need to check if they are targeting specific keywords in their link building. There are a number of tools for this as well, but you usually have to pay.

Edit: also don't link build around one keyword. Use a range of long tail variations.

 

[terryuk]

The seobook.com toolbar has almost everything you can look at in an instant, keeps playing up with me though?

 

[Deleted member 106254]

Try a SERPS competition analysis for your main keywords and it should show why they are top. Search for "Competitive Analysis in Under 60 Seconds Using Google Docs" and it will walk you through how to do the analysis. Or drop me a PM with your keywords and domain name and I'll do one for you.

 

[Birmingham]

here's a good example of competition analysis based on simple checks which can be done by using online tools

http://seoexample.co.uk/market-analysis-seo-birmingham

notice the main things here are exact & partial matches in title tags and urls (emboldened in google search results), age of domain registration (use any whois tool) and site archives (use the wayback machine), and quantity of total inlinks (seen in yahoo site explorer) and how many inlinks come from distinct domain homepages!

but that's all just to give an indication. if you told me your site, your competitor, and the search term you're aiming to rank for... i could give much better tailored feedback

 

[VinceSamios]

Honestly, comparing with a competitor is fruitless - you need to work as hard on your site as possible, add as much quality content, link internally as best you possibly can, build lots and varied links, etc etc etc. Just keep taking positive actions and you will see positive results. Chasing a competitors is the wrong way to go about it.

 

[Birmingham]

well, simple competition analysis can give you an impression as to how hard your job will be before you enter the industry or consider cranking up your campaign, but once you're doing your thing better just do your own thing like vince says - good advice from him

 

[The Boy Holty]

You can always view the other site's source code and look at their keywords, meta tags etc.

I would think the top four or five sites in a search are probably more or less equally likely to get clicked anyway, through the rules of what you might call 'assumed endorsement' i.e. most people will think that a site that has made it into the top half of page one, is a good site. Obviously those in the know realise that its not neccessarily the case, but my point is, don't fret over being #1 when #2 through #5 are just as likely to result in a hit on your site.

 

[Birmingham]

well they say 90% don't go past the top 3, but i guess business category searches (where people are looking for suppliers of a certain sort) would have more of a "research" factor than the average search

 

[VinceSamios]

don't fret over being #1 when #2 through #5 are just as likely to result in a hit on your site.

Terrible Advice.... Not only does the top spot get the most traffic, it also converts into ££££ at a higher rate than position 2...

Even if you rank #5 and get loads of traffic, that traffic will convert at a spookily low rate compared to a #1 listing.

 

[Birmingham]

Even if you rank #5 and get loads of traffic, that traffic will convert at a spookily low rate compared to a #1 listing.

good point and logical too, because if they've gone all the way down to #5 they are more likely to go even further on to other sites after yours

 

[JohnnyCash]

I would think the top four or five sites in a search are probably more or less equally likely to get clicked anyway
....
but my point is, don't fret over being #1 when #2 through #5 are just as likely to result in a hit on your site.

Its absolute nonsense like this which makes this forum a waste of time for anyone trying to learn seo...

 

[VinceSamios]

Its absolute nonsense like this which makes this forum a waste of time for anyone trying to learn seo...

Only a little bit harsh... there are the odd stupid comments, but they get shot down reasonably quickly.

 

[VinceSamios]

Ahh... "The Boy Holty" works for or owns a web design company...

So many web design companies think they know internet marketing and SEO...

 

[JohnnyCash]

Only a little bit harsh... there are the odd stupid comments, but they get shot down reasonably quickly.

I think anyone serious about learning seo would be far better logging out of here permanently and paying $300 a month for seobook forums... the signal to noise ratio is 10,000 times better.

Some of the "seo advice" you see getting thrown around in here has potential to do way more than $300 of damage anyway...

 

[musivarius]

Thanks for the comments, I'll follow those up. I know stuff all about SEO but the advantage of this forum is that there are so many people here that you rarely get the same replies to a question so at least you can get an idea.

 

[Codefixer]

Honestly, comparing with a competitor is fruitless - you need to work as hard on your site as possible, add as much quality content, link internally as best you possibly can, build lots and varied links, etc etc etc. Just keep taking positive actions and you will see positive results. Chasing a competitors is the wrong way to go about it.

I'd agree with alot of this, though I would still check out the competition initially to judge the level of competition, find hubs quicker, find opportunities, keywords, and see what people are missing.

 

[VinceSamios]

I'd agree with alot of this, though I would still check out the competition initially to judge the level of competition, find hubs quicker, find opportunities, keywords, and see what people are missing.

Agreed - but I think doing a competition analysis and actually implementing SEO are two separate processes.