Study the Competition

bywelder381

279 followers

8 years ago

I took a couple hours today to study my competition for my main keyword. I'm aiming for number one on the first page, so I figure I should study these sites to see why they are there.

Here is a basic outline you can use to study your competition as well. I filled each of these out as I studied the first five sites that came up with a google search of my main keyword phrase. You may have more ideas to add to the list:

1. Website domain name

-also look at the URL that comes up for that specific page that ranked

2. Heading text (or introduction of the page)

3. Number of links on the page

-For my specific keyword, it was how many links to other pages on the site with relevant content they had.

-Pay attention to the wording in the URL itself (does it contain keywords)

4. How many keywords on the page

-I also counted how many times the individual words in the keyword phrase was used throughout the page

5. Other Observations

-use of visuals

-interaction in comments

-Link provided to their sitemap

-Anything that stands out to you

I'm new to this, so any suggestions you may have for studying the competition will be appreciated.

One of the obvious conclusions is that, especially with my niche, content is key. The number one site on google for my specific keyword has 28 links on the page that lead to 13 studies each. In other words, 28 X 13 = 364 pages of content!

Excuse me, I have some serious typing to do!