Knowing how to create online competitive analysis can come handy at times. It can be used to analyze your competitor’s website, line of products or even one particular product. The 5 tips below will highlight tips to create competitive analysis when evaluating your competitor’s organic search result potential. Let’s get to it.
1. Domain Age – The age of the domain i.e. when the domain was first registered is highly regarded by the search engines. The older the domain is, the more authority potential it will carry. To check the domain age of your competitor, head to Domain Tools and use their free whois tool.
2. Indexation – This competitive term relates to getting more pages included in Google’s index so they have the opportunity to rank well. It can also be viewed as an indication to your competitors website potential, for example if it has 100 products and they are all indexed you can safely assume it’s been build in a search engine friendly manner. To check the number of pages indexed in Google type [site:site-name-here.com] and for more precise results try to fine tune this query on a folder level, for example [site:site-name-here.com/folder-name/]
3. Back Links – The number of external websites linking to your competitor is a crucial matrix in the online competitive analysis. The more quality websites linking naturally to your competitor the more likely they are to influence its ranking positively. To check how many external links your competitor has, head to Yahoo Site Explorer and type the domain name.
4. Number of Products / Services – The number of products or services offered by your competitor could provide an advantage when it comes to organic search result potential. The more products or services offered, the more chances are each will have a unique page which will help indexation and improve web traffic.
5. Site Technology – Some types of web technology are more search engine friendly while others are less. For example, websites build using flash will find it harder to rank well compared to websites build using html coding. To find which technology your competitor is using head to Built With and type the domain name.
Now that you have the different key matrix to check, create an excel sheet and compare your competitors. Hopefully my tips will point you in the right direction when conducting online competitive analysis.
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Guest article by Michelle Strassburg Head of Sales and Marketing at online wooden worktops vendor Wood and Beyond. Michelle has over 10 years experience managing online marketing.
