How do you perform competitive research for SEO?

[jcolman]

What metrics tell you the most when you're looking at your competitors across the search landscape?

• PageRank/MozRank
• Inbound links
• Keyword rankings
• Alexa/QuantCast/etc.
• Pages indexed
• Something else entirely?

What numbers speak volumes to you when you want to get an idea of how you benchmark against your competitors?  And how do you communicate these results?

[jcolman]

Thanks Pashmina - I think you really hit the nail on the head when it comes to traffic share.

I believe that tools like Hitwise and comScore can present some pretty compelling data around traffic share - have you used them, are they worth the cost, and do they work any better than the tools you list above?

[flowsimple]

Jonathon, this is a good idea for a post. Let's cover the metrics you've listed here quickly first, then other things not mentioned.

• Page Rank - ignore and don't present. It's not exactly easy to move the needle on this month to month.
• Moz Rank - better than page rank, and present as a baseline and compare to competitors.
• Inbound Links, not just number, but number of unique domains.
• Keyword Ranks, aggregate by #1, top 5, top 10, top 20.
• Alexa, in the same chart/area as Moz Rank.
• Pages indexed, yes, only if they're running flash, or have no content to speak of. And educate why redoing website or serious content dev is priority numero Uno for their SEO.

I also think it's important to present them with data that acts as a "carrot" The above stats can show them how they rank against their competitors, but the connection in terms of what they'll gain by out ranking them on those stats isn't clear. I also like to collect data from Spyfu, Keyword Spy or Compete on their comeptitors traffic. If the data is there, you can chart their **traffic share. **This shows them how much traffic & clicks they're missing out on by not ranking high enough.I think this number speaks volumes.

[charliesaidthat]

Although I am still learning a lot from everyone here I usually start off on competitor research by asking my client who they think their competitors are. Then I perform searches for a range of their keywords and identify online competitors (who are often a different bunch to the clients).

Things that I look at include:

• Search Trends (Use Google Insights for keywords)
• Likihood Client + Competitors sites are to convert from users perspective
• Competitors Ranking URLs Page Authority (and Page Rank)
• Competitors Domain Authority
• What elements of onsite they are optimising
• The range of other keywords they are targeting
• Inbound Links (to domain and ranking URLs)
• Link Velocity (Majestic SEO is pretty damn good for this)
• Whether they have keywords in their URLs
• Anchor Text of inbound and internal links
• Internal Linking of sites
• Their Use of social media

This isnt an exhaustive list by any means and each time I run audits and competitive research I find new things that are (probably) affecting rankings.

The thing is, there is no way to cookie cut research as search engines themselves are evolving.

[DanDeceuster]

All you need to know is right here:

http://www.seomoz.org/keyword-difficulty/

Type in your keyword and the SEOmoz tool will determine the difficulty for you. It analyzes all sorts of metrics for you so you don't have to. However, if you were to do it manually, here's what I would look at:

1. How many root domains link to you vs. your competitors?

2. What is the Page Authority/Domain Authority of you vs. your competitors?

3. How do you score with this tool vs. your competitors? http://pro.seomoz.org/tools/on-page-keyword-optimization/new

4. Using Majestic SEO, how fast are you acquiring new links compared to the rate of your competitors?

That's the biggies I would look at.