Online Competitor Research – Why They Get Your Customers
You’ve got your website.
A researcher has identified the best keywords for you to target.
A search engine optimisation person has optimised your website.
But you are still not getting lots of new business.
Why?
It’s usually because no-one has done any competitive research or analysis.
“But I know my competitors,” people say. Then they tell you the names of the three biggest companies in their industry.
Those competitors are in that position because of history and developing a strong brand which auto-generates leads for them. Very often, those big players are not at the top of Google but have that brand working for them. New entrants don’t have that self-sustaining history. They have to become competitive to their target market.
This is the big point.
Offline competitors are not the same as online competitors.
To get that stream of enquiries, a company has to be in front of potential customers which these days means being at the top of Google. That means you need to be ahead of the Top Three in Google search, which is generally not the same as the Top Three offline competitors.
Understanding Why Your Online Competitors Are Successful
To get to the first place in Google which is where the most enquiries go, you need to understand how your competitors got there.
This requires analysing two things:
On-page which is assessing their website, their content, how their site is structured, what they include and what they leave out.
Off-page which is researching what they are doing with other websites and platforms. This may sound odd but the World Wide Web is an interconnected array of websites joined together by links also known as backlinks to a site, In short, the quantity and quality of links to a site are the biggest impact on a site’s ranking in the search engines.
It sounds complex, that’s because it is.
If you need help understanding or analysing your online competitors, we can help. GIG Internet Marketing, an agency with over 14 years’ experience in SEO.