Competition. First it makes you sick, then it makes you better. You’ve probably heard this phrase and it’s true. Competitors keep us on our game and having them nipping at our heels or leaving us in the dust is a strong motivator to try harder in sales and in every area that supports it.

In this issue of Promotional Consultant Today, we’re sharing five steps to help you conduct a review of your competitor’s web content, from business blogger Dan Tighe.

1. Identify Your Top 10 Competitors. This might be silly to ask, but have you identified your company’s top 10 competitors?

Whether yours is a local, national or international company, there is probably someone in your company, specifically on the sales or marketing team, who can quickly rattle off your top competitors as well as what differentiates them from you. Chances are, you are competing with hundreds, even thousands of companies going after the same group of qualified leads. Google is another great resource to find competitors. Simply Google the type of service or product you are offering. Another great way to discover your top competitors is by using online tools such as SEM Rush.

2. Analyze And Compare Competitor Content. Once you've identified your competitors, you can kickstart your competitive analysis and dig a little deeper to gain a better understanding of what type of content they're publishing. Analyzing their content can help you determine the opportunities to outperform your competitors. What types of content creation do your competitors focus on? Blogs? Case studies? Premium content?

Once you've located their content, you can determine the quality, and most importantly, see how it compares to yours. Be sure that you look at how frequently they are blogging, adding and updating new content, as well as what topics are they frequently discussing. Are they doing anything that you aren't?

Once you know what type of content and the quality of the content your competitors are publishing, you’ll have a better perspective of where you need to put in more effort and resources.

For example, if your competitors are consistently publishing product case studies, this could be a part of the reason why your quality leads are going to your competitors. If your competitors tend to blog three times a week compared to your one article every two weeks, you might be able to start generating more traffic to your site by blogging more frequently about relevant topics.

3. Analyze Their SEO Structure. Perhaps you have found that your competitors have the same type and quality of content as your company and they update it just as frequently. So, what are they doing differently from you?

It might be the structure of their search engine optimization (SEO). While conducting a competitive analysis on the type of content your competitors are generating, it is also beneficial to check out the SEO structure of that content.

How are your competitors using keywords? They may be included in these areas:

  • The page titles
  • The URL architecture
  • H1 Tags
  • Content
  • Internal links
  • Image alt text

4. Look At Their Social Media Integration. A company's presence on social media is becoming increasingly important and every company is using the platforms differently. Determine how your competitors are using social media and integrating it into their marketing.

Not only is it important to see if your competitors can be found on social media platforms, but you also want to see how effectively they're using their profiles. What type of information are they posting? Are people following them? Do they have cover photos and profile photos? Are there ideas you can borrow to help establish your presence on social media?

Even if the company is not a direct competitor, find those who develop great content and learn from the key influencers in your industry.

5. Identify Areas For Improvement. After performing a competitive analysis, you will have a better understanding of what your competitors are doing. Take the information you gathered about each competitor and identify gaps, opportunities and areas that need improvement. This process will help you improve your content creation, search engine optimization and social media engagement, and help establish your company's presence with potential customers, blog readers/subscribers and social media users.

Source: Dan Tighe is an account executive with Impact, a market agency and web resource that provides articles, events and educational resources.