A huge part of business involves keeping ahead of competitors and reacting to what they do to keep ahead of the competition. The same applies for the online business platform. For those who always seem to be lagging behind their competitors, even when they seem to be doing the very same things, with the Competitor Analysis Tools detailed below, it will be much easier to understand what competitors are doing differently and what exactly is giving them that extra inch in the market.
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SpyFu
One of the most common channels over the years for growing traffic is the pay per click route. For many, though, it often seems a tad bit expensive, and requiring skill levels that they do not seem to have. The truth is that pay per click is an effective way of increasing leads and generating traffic to one’s site, especially for beginners. On average, it is thought that for every dollar businesses spend on pay per click, they get two dollars back in revenue. In order to maximize the returns on pay per click investment, though, it is important to target the right keywords. For many online businesses, owners find that they invest the same in keywords as their competitors, yet always seem to be lagging behind. The biggest possibility is that the keywords they use are not profitable. This is where the SpyFu tool comes in handy. It shows businesses the keywords that are not profitable, as well as those organic search keywords which can improve the site’s SEO performance.
The first step when using SpyFu is to find the profitable keywords that the competition uses. Simply type the competitor’s URL into the search box and search. After receiving the results, analyze the organic and paid keywords the competitor uses. The third step is to export one’s keywords.
Compete
Compete is a digital performance measuring tool which helps one discover business opportunities, make better decisions and monitor steps that the competition makes. To use compete, simply type in the competitor’s URL into the search box. Compete is different in that it allows the user an insight into their competitor’s numbers. The second step, then, is to check the unique visits on the competitor website. One can be able to see visitor data for up to several months in the past. Although it is a free tool one can upgrade to more advanced features. Compete pro, for instance, allows users to add sites reviewed to their saved groups. User behavior is important in the SEO field, and compete helps users understand the behaviors of their competitors’ visitors.
QuickSprout
It does not matter how reliable one’s products and services are or how good the content is if they do not generate traffic to their blog or website. In fact, the biggest focus for any blogger or webmaster should be to generate the right kind of traffic to their sites. The QuickSprout competitor analysis tool helps bloggers understand why competitors generate greater traffic to their blogs. The first step is to input the competitor’s URL, then click on yes I want more traffic. The second step involves the data analysis. QuickSprout can also be used to estimate the traffic, social share, and SEO and bill scores.
SEMrush
Even with so many competitor analysis tools, the hardest part still remains the actual turning of the data into actionable insights that one can put into practice. Even though most marketers have a strategy that is not documented, industry expert suggest that a documented strategy is an important part of success in one’s line of work. SEMrush is a competitor analysis tools that not only helps the business spy on competitors but also helps it organize the results into actionable information that can be used to optimize one’s campaigns. With this tool one can be able to accomplish a site audit, competitor research, keyword research and backlink analysis. It shows search engine results pages and any keywords as they are updated in real time.
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SimilarWeb
Without access to their analytics, it is almost impossible to guess the number of unique visitors that competitors generate. Similar Web can help with that, though. It is an analysis tool for digging into the numbers of apps, sites or platforms. Its versatility and relative accuracy makes it one of the most used tools by the top brands. To get started, either choose the website or mobile app tab and input the competitor URL, then click search and get statistics from the competitor. It is possible to get statistics from two or more competitors for comparison. All one has to do is click on the add competitors tab. Similar Web helps users understand the competition as well as their main traffic drivers. It is free but one can upgrade to for a fee to gain access to more useful tools.
Alexa
Bloggers are always looking to optimize content for new visitors given the fact that up to 80 percent of blog visits come from new visitors. Blogs that have a consistent daily posting pattern have as much as 5 times the number of visits than those that do so inconsistently or erratically. Still, content needs to be of utmost quality, otherwise potential visitors will always turn to the competition. Content needs to be practical and useful to get more shares and attract more visitors. In order to grow an online business, one needs knowledge of the right traffic metrics, strategic insight and competitive intelligence. It is a job requiring heavy resource and time investment, as well as high levels of creativity. With Alexa, though, all this has been made just a little easier. Alexa is an amazon company, with a history of providing deep insights for comparison and optimization of online businesses.
Alexa is useful for three categories of online entrepreneurs. For digital marketers, Alexa gives insights into how to optimize content for users. It also has tools for benchmarking against competitors. Site owners and publishers get accurate site metrics like monthly page views, unique visits, bounce rate and time of visit, with which they can develop an effective strategy. It is also helpful for content strategists in idea generation content creation and management and distribution.
To learn about audience demographics, visit alexa.com and input the URL, then click the find button. Next, scroll down to the audience demographics section and study the results.
Google Advanced Search Operators
Google is the most popular and most utilized search engine worldwide. However, to get the most out of Google, just like any other search engine, one should improve their chances of getting the most relevant, valuable and accurate results from searches. Google search operators help one find exactly what they are searching for by tweaking search terms. They also query words and symbols used in searches, giving the most accurate results. With these queries, one can set up filters such that they do not get irrelevant results.
When looking for something simple, Google search operators might not make too much of a difference since Google will likely bring the best results no matter how the words and phrases are arranged. Even with the tremendous evolution of search algorithms, Google will still read words and try to decipher meanings. However, for the more advanced searches, one can use Google Search operators. With this tool, one can get a deeper insight into competitor action through filtering. Other search operators similar to this include filetypes: pdf which allows Google to serve results in the specific pdf format, or the info: google.com with which one can get information about a particular URL.
Siteliner
Links are important in ranking. In fact, there is a known connection between external links and Google ranking. Without links, the content might be useful but not be visible in the top organic listings. One of the most effective link building tactics is broken link building. It is Google friendly and content focused, because Google wants publishers to create content that will get more editorial links. Broken link building helps webmasters replace dead links and avoid the potential penalties. Siteliner helps in the discovery of link building opportunities. To use it, input the URL of the site from which a natural link is to be acquired, then click on the go button. It will take time to scan, but results already discovered can be viewed as the scanning continues. Expand the broken links and download the site report.
Keyword competitor
Keyword competitor is somewhat different from the typical analysis tools mentioned. It is an all-in-one tool that shows both keyword opportunities as well as what other competitors have been ignoring. With this tool, it is possible to generate the right keywords into one’s blog posts. Content does not have to be data only. As other competitors struggle with quality, with keyword competitor one can create multimedia content like videos, infographics and other animated content. Keyword competitor helps users discover their competitors’ paid and organic keyword phrases, check the keyword position rankings without attracting restrictions or penalties, understand what is happening to ads by competitors as well as receive email notifications when competitor campaigns perform better.
