Are My Competitors Using SEO: How Can I Tell?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a critical part of your marketing effort that you need to incorporate if you hope to optimize your online visibility chances. With it, you can easily improve your visibility on search engines—both locally and internationally—so that when someone goes on search engines looking for what you provide, they can easily find your website and get in touch with you.

Sadly, the increase in the number of companies using the internet has also led to an upsurge in SEO applications. More companies have seen this component’s critical nature, and they’re using it to improve their market visibility significantly. So, while it is recommended that you also employ SEO in your efforts, you will be better served if you understand how competitors are working to know how best to capitalize on it.

Like everything else that has to do with your business, you must engage in thorough competitor analysis to launch your SEO efforts. Your competitors could eventually become your greatest allies when it comes to SEO if you allow them. By gaining insights into how they work, you can essentially reverse-engineer their success and capitalize on their weaknesses. Eventually, you can one-up their strategy to record better wins.

To do this, you will need some practical competitive intelligence. The objective here is to understand how others are employing SEO strategies. From there, you can adopt what works, improve on it, and gain the advantage you desire.

So, how do you get a look into your competitor’s SEO strategy?

Examine Your Competitor’s Keywords

Of course, this is a no-brainer. Keywords are the central element of SEO, and they form the building blocks of any company’s running strategy.

Besides organic searches, your rankings on search pages will be significantly affected by keywords. The better you can apply these keywords, the better you can optimize your strategy. To look into the keywords your competitors are using, you can take advantage of several tools.

Keyword Search Results

Perhaps one of the most prominent tools is checking the search results. Multiple tools work as a tracker. This lets you see your competitors’ keywords in organic search results, and it even shows you their keywords in Google Ads. Such tools, like Ubersuggest, will display top keywords and metrics like monthly pay-per-click hits and more. You will need to register to use its leading features, but Ubersuggest is among one of the many great ways to start.

Tracking Tools

You can also use tracking tools, another powerful resource that provides tons of features. Ahrefs, one of the available tools will show you top keywords, backlinks, most widely-used keywords, and even your competitor’s highest-ranking pages. The tool isn’t free, but you’ll find that it provides an excellent bang for your buck when you consider all its features. There are plenty of other options as well that may be a better fit for your industry or intent

The Importance of Keyword Research

It’s easy to see why this component is critical. By understanding the keywords that help your competitors rank, you’re seeing the secret to their SEO success and can draw ideas on possible keywords that will help you outrank them.

Look out for the term frequency-inverse document frequency tool to see your competitor’s approach to using keywords. If you’re looking to incorporate specific keywords into your content, this tool offers excellent help. 

For further help on SEO research and success, you can reach out to a local SEO company in your area for professional SEO strategy advice and more.

Checking for Backlinks and Domain Data

As you probably know, keywords aren’t the only critical component of SEO. Several other elements will affect you and your competitors’ rankings, and one of them is domain authority. Essentially, this component assesses a website’s relevance in the company’s physical location.

Backlinking is another critical SEO component. It essentially examines the links that point to your website or other websites in the content available on the site. Having backlinks communicates that your site is of high quality and that it’s worth linking to. Eventually, you rank higher that way.

You can use tools to check domain data and backlinking information. Ensure you check how many backlinks your competitors have. Also, look into the websites that feature their links and the websites that these competitors also feature.  

With all of this information, you have a better idea of how best to craft your content and the sites you should link to.

On-Page SEO Analysis

You will also need to look into your competitor’s on-page SEO. Essentially, this is the practice of optimizing your website using elements like image alt tags, meta descriptions, alt titles, and more.

To know more about your competitor’s on-page SEO, check out SEO inspection tools. Without a doubt, this is one of the most effective ways to check SEO. It will show you more details on your competitor’s website, including their metadata, page titles, and more. This way, you know what works and what doesn’t.

With page titles and metadata, SEO tools help you to know the correct format and length. Concerning image alt tags, the tool shows you the proper ways to apply meta descriptions so that Google’s algorithm and bots will be able to crawl through your site easily.

Social Media Checks

Beyond websites and search content, you should also look into your competitors’ social media pages for SEO ranking tips.

Brands are spending a significant amount of money on their social media presence these days. Whether you already have a page for yourself or are just looking into creating one, be sure to look into how your competitors handle theirs.

Look into how these companies interact and engage with their followers, including those that turn to customers and casual followers. Get to know what they post about, their post formats, and their activity levels.

Note that you don’t want to just copy their profiles. Understand their work and be inspired by it. Then incorporate some of their strategies into your social media campaign.

Does Social Media Matter to Your SEO?

Social media is critical to your SEO. By optimizing your profile and the content you post, you have a greater chance of getting people to go to your website. By extension, your chances of making higher sales are optimized as well.

It’s a delicate balance, but you’ll find that you need all the help you can get in today’s highly competitive SEO landscape. So, work on your social media as much as you can.

If you are ready to competitively market your company through SEO and other digital marketing tools, you can contact SEO Local for more information on digital marketing in Southampton, PA and the extended area today!