A strategic competitor analysis is a research method that helps businesses understand their competitors, their strengths and weaknesses, and how they operate in the market. The goal is to identify opportunities for growth and improvement and to develop a competitive advantage.
A strategic competitor analysis typically includes the identification of competitors, analysis of market share, product/service offerings, marketing and advertising strategies, distribution channels, strengths and weaknesses, customer base, and industry trends and future projections.
The analysis of market share involves assessing the customer base, revenue, and pricing strategies of competitors.
The analysis of strengths and weaknesses involves identifying the areas of expertise and areas for improvement of competitors.
Comparing the company’s performance with its competitors helps identify areas for improvement and develop strategies to gain a competitive advantage.
Conducting a strategic competitor analysis on a website involves analysing various elements of the website, such as its structure, content, functionality, SEO, performance, social media presence, and customer reviews, and comparing them to those of competitors.
Analysing website structure includes looking at the layout, navigation, and design of the website. Elements such as the use of white space, colour scheme, and typography are evaluated.
The website’s performance is analysed using website analytics tools like Google Analytics to track metrics such as traffic, bounce rate, and conversion rate.
The first step is to conduct a crawlability analysis to identify any errors such as 404 errors, redirect errors, and problems with your robots.txt file.
You can check if your website is being indexed by using the ‘site:’ operator followed by your domain (e.g., ‘site:example.com’) in Google.
During the on-page SEO check, you should review your titles, descriptions, headings, and content for SEO optimisation. It’s important to ensure your keywords are being used effectively and not being overused.
Auditing website content is crucial to identify duplicate content, thin content, or content that isn’t providing value to users.
Schema markup helps search engines understand your content and can lead to better SERP presentations.
Google prefers sites that are secured with HTTPS, so checking your site’s HTTPS status ensures it is secured with an SSL certificate.
A content audit for a website is a systematic review of all the content on the website to evaluate its performance and identify strengths and weaknesses.
The purpose of a content audit is to identify content that needs to be updated, deleted, or improved based on its performance.
You can use Google Analytics, Google Search Console, or other SEO tools to gather data on how each piece of content is performing. Key metrics to look at might include page views, time spent on the page, bounce rate, conversion rate, number of social shares, backlinks earned, and keyword ranking.
Content gaps are topics or keywords that you haven’t adequately covered yet. Identifying them can guide your future content creation efforts.
After identifying strengths and weaknesses in your content, you should decide on an action plan for each piece of content, which could involve rewriting content, updating outdated information, improving SEO, or removing or redirecting content.