Who are my competitors
-
Hello,
Quick question.
for the term
"NLP" and the site nlpca.com
I'm analyzing backlinks of competitors. Is wikipedia a competitor, or are competitors only sites like mine. I'm thinking that if someone links to wikipedia they wouldn't necessarily want to link to nlpca.com
Thus, should I still analyze wikipedia?
Thank you.
-
Yes, Brad I would like to know too.
-
Great articulate reply Brad..what tools do you use for longtail research? Wordtracker/SEO Samurai?
-
Wow, I will keep that in mind EGOL
-
What a nice thorough answer, thank you.
-
John, I don't think your images got posted right. I'm curious what they are.
-
Hi Link
All of the comments above are on the money, but the qualification here is that there are two types of competitor.
-
Competitors for Search (includes Wikipedia and other authority sites, but has no effect on your business unless the information there either endorses or disendorses the type of services you offer)
-
Competitors for Business as addressed by Brad.
As to whether you should analyze Wikipedia back links, the answer is absolutely yes. One thing to keep in mind is that we now have evidence that linking out to authoritative sites is correlated with improved search engine rankings. This is discussed in the Free Webinar Video Ranking Factors 2011 and Blog post Search Engine Ranking Factors 2011. Before watching the video you might find it helpful to read Rand's Blog post New Edition of Ranking Factors for 2011 is Now Live! and watch his explanatory video in that post.
Since Wikipedia is an authoritative site, but not seen as a business competitor, it is highly likely there may be business competitors who link to Wikipedia as a benign information source. Therefore, analyzing Wikipedia backlinks can identify other competitors in your market.
-
-
My feeling is that back links are important but much more important is your long tail key word. Who is your competition based on sites that provide training and services like you do? What is your long tail term vs theirs. If they are a match then ding they are your competition. Are you local or national, look for local competitors with qualifiers in your area. I do not know much about your subject but this site appears to be your main competitor on a national basis. http://www.nlpcoaching.com Wikipedia is a resource search engine but not a tool for goods and services. Ask these questions first. 1. what are my main long tail terms 2. Does my offer or site have a local, national or global appeal? 3. Have I added qualifyers to my search if it is local or national, such as San Diego or United States? Build your search based on that. NLP Traning vs. NLP Traning California. Type that in and the top 3 who actually do what you do, are your competitors. I hope that helps. Use that to analyze your linkage vs. theirs.
-
Your competitors are anyone who has a website in the same SERPs as your important keywords. So, yes, Wikipedia is your competitor and they can really damage your traffic.
Also... keep in mind that your traffic is just one new page away from many other websites. For example... if you start making a lot of money selling widget cases and widgets.com hears you are making big money. They could place a new page about widget cases on their website and be at the top of your SERPs tomorrow.
The most dangerous competitor is usually the one who has not yet arrived.
-
If your goal is to rank #1...then yes wikipedia is a competitor..however wikipedia does not offer training and people will would naturally go to your site at #2. I would analyze the wiki page for links.
[http://imgur.com/vwP1z.png](<a href= "Hosted by imgur.com")" target="_blank">a>
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Competitors black-hat link building?
Hi Mozzers, <a>http://www.alivenetwork.com/ </a>is a close competitor of ours. They're ranking far better than us even though many of our search metrics are the same...except one! links! To give you an idea, we've got a fairly large backlink profile for the industry with quality links.
Link Building | | ChimplyWebGroup
34,981 links from 276 Root Domains = about 127 links/domain. Alive Network has 1,692,256 links from 705 root domains = about 2400 links/domain. Surely that looks a bit black-hat right there? Is it just a matter of time until they're penalised? Perhaps they're just a bunch of domain-wide links? Thoughts would be appreciated.1 -
Backlink count is WAY high vs. competitors
Hi all! My site was managed by a SEO company that is no longer around. I started to look for a new agency and in the process, found Moz and decided to try out the report. While running the report, found out that my I have 3K links vs 173/1600/6344 links that my three other competitors have. Any simple guidance will be appreciated.
Link Building | | fullerton0 -
Massive Jump In Competitor Domain Authority In 1 year...How?!
We have noticed a competitor of one of our clients has leapfrogged massively in terms of their Domain Authority, Links, actually pretty much everything in the space of a year. We have been working diligently with our client building up a solid seo strategy based on content and organic link backs, but we're at a loss of how to try and explain the gains by the competitor over them. I have attached the competitor analysis from April 2012 and Feb 2013 below. Any help, ideas, conspiracy theories etc. are welcome! Thanks RQXM5Pp
Link Building | | Zersi0 -
I'm thinking about buying a competitor and 301 redirecting? How much SEO value?
I'm thinking about buying a competitor and 301 redirecting their site to mine. The high level stats are as follows. My site has a DA of 46 and the homepage has a PA of 55. 375 root domains, 170,000 links. The site sells millions of dollars worth of product each year. The competitor (who I had never heard of) has a DA of 58 and a homepage PA of 64. They have 634 root domains and 260,000 links. They aren't selling much of anything (less than 100,000 per year). We might be able to operate their site but I'm concerned about maintaining 2 platforms. My question is about the value of buying this site and 301 redirecting it to my site. Would this create long term SEO value or not? Any examples that have been documented are greatly appreciated.
Link Building | | bradwayland0 -
Competitors with thousands of links
Looking at my competitors link results on OSE some of them have 30,000 links to their websites. They are top rank on google whereas I am page 2. I know its quality over quantity but am I ever going to compete with that number of links? Is it worth getting some low value links just to bump up numbers while continuing getting good links? thanks for any advice!
Link Building | | bridaldesigns0 -
Finding competitor's 301's
Is there a way to find out what domains a competitor has 301'd to their main site? I am wondering if a competitor has hidden back links using a 301'd site.
Link Building | | EugeneF0 -
Competitor Targeted Keywords
What is the easiest way to about and specifically finding backlink anchor text and links for specific keywords? E.G Our competitor ranks highly for the term "Army Fleece Jacket" whats the easiest way to weed out the links which hold the most weight for this particular term?
Link Building | | Anest0 -
Should I follow a key competitor onto business.com?
A key competitor of mine has just purchased a link on business.com, my question is should I follow them in? We’re close in terms of Domain Authority and little things can make the difference in our case. Also does the farmer update (which is yet to hit the UK) influenced your answer? As we’re yet to see the effect of this update should I exercise caution?
Link Building | | RodneyRiley0