Researching your online competitors is common business advice, but do you know what it really means? In order to really get ahead of the game, you must know what to look for. Empower yourself with the tips from the post.
Who Are Your Online Competitors?
This is the first thing to know, and one that most people pick up on right away. It’s a little more complicated than you might expect, though. For one thing, how many competitors do you have? If you are serving a global or national audience, and you aren’t providing something that is completely new, you probably have a lot of competitors, and some of them may be much larger than you are.
If you are a local business, you may have only a handful of competitors who have a business similar to yours. For a small number of competitors, focus on all of them. Notice who is the most successful and who is most like you in terms of their offerings and the age of their business, as well as their level of success. For a larger number of competitors, think about what the biggest guys are doing and the ones who are most like you. Your peers are the ones with whom you will mostly be competing.
What is the Age of their Online Presence?
When did your competitor(s) first establish their online presence, such as their website or social media? WhoIs.com offers a free tool to help you. One big factor search engines use to rank a website is its age. You need to know what you’re up against so you can plan accordingly.
How Many Backlinks Do They Have?
Backlinks, which are links to a site from other websites, are also a big factor in search engine ranking. Moz has a free Link Explorer tool that will help you do this. You need to determine how many backlinks your competitor has as well as the quality of their backlinks, so you can try to exceed them.
Modern, User-friendly Website
Websites using HTML rather than flash load faster and can be accessed on any device. These sites are more likely to rank in search engines and to convert visitors into sales. Use Wappalyzer to determine your competitor’s technology. Again, you’ll want to meet or exceed what they’re providing.
How Much Traffic Do They Get?
It’s hard to compete without knowing how well your competitor is doing. Knowing how many visitors you get is just part of the battle. Use SimilarWeb to search your competitors’ traffic. They will give you an approximate number that you can use to build new business goals.
How Do They Market Themselves?
Knowing how your competitor markets themselves can do two things. For one, it can give you an idea of how successful they are. The more money they have, the more money they can put into their marketing. It can also give you valuable insight into what they are doing that you also want to do and what they aren’t doing that you could do.
What Do You Offer That They Don’t?
Determine what you already offer that is unique. Advertise and build on what is unique about your business. Also, learn what your competitor is not doing. You can see some of these things for yourself from their website or find out about them from reading reviews. You probably noticed some things that they aren’t doing that you could be doing. Or there could be things that could be done differently. Consider prices, shipping times, customer support, branding, quality, and engagement on social media.
Contact Capstone Digital Marketing
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