Search engine optimization (SEO) holds the key to gaining online visibility, expanding the reach of your business, and increasing revenue for your company. In this intensely competitive market, SEO tactics and techniques can give you an edge over competitors and help you get noticed by the right people at the right time.
To survive in the current age, all businesses are investing in digital marketing strategies. The goal here is to get the best rankings on Google and appear as frequently as possible on search engine result pages (SERPs). For that, your website needs to be optimised, and you need to run effective marketing campaigns. A Digital Marketing Course can help you learn various SEO skills and stay ahead of the competition.
However, digital advertising strategies often cost a lot of money, which might not be feasible for small businesses. Focusing too much on such campaigns may not be profitable for local business owners or startups. In such a scenario, SEO is the best marketing channel to boost your business’ ROI and beat your competitors.
There are several SEO services available in the market that can revolutionise the performance of your business and expand your customer base hugely. Depending on your company’s scale and industry, you need to find the right plan for you.
But what is common for all industries is the massive competition and the constant struggle to get noticed among thousands of similar offerings. This is where SEO competitive analysis comes into play.
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What is SEO Competitive Analysis?
SEO competitive analysis refers to the act of identifying the strong and weak points of your SEO strategy and comparing it with those of your competitors’. With this, you can discover any shortcomings in your marketing approach and plan on how to close the gap with your competitors.
Analysing the performance of your competitors helps you gain an understanding of how the audience is responding to specific SEO strategies. It also makes your future SEO tactics better and more fruitful.
Competitive analysis in SEO lets you:
- Evaluate your current SEO performance
- Identify the strengths and weaknesses of your strategies
- Reveal competitor weaknesses
- Get acquainted with others’ effective SEO strategies
- Introduce revisions and modifications in your current approach
Once you can figure out where your competitors are lacking, you can apply new SEO tactics to outrank them.
Top 6 SEO Tactics That Can Help You Outrank Your Competitors
The following SEO tactics help you gain an edge over your competitors and also remove any underlying factors that may have been affecting your online performance and traffic.blogger outreach service
Keyword Research Is the Key
Keywords are the backbone of any SEO strategy. For highly successful results, you must focus on keyword research and find the right words and phrases that will attract your target audience. Make sure your keyword choices are organic, relevant, and business-specific.
To beat competitors, find out what keywords they are using and how much these keywords are scoring traffic for them. You can find plenty of keyword tools, like Google Ads, Keyword Planner, etc., that help you find popular keywords in your domain and location.
- Optimise your website and its landing pages for the right keywords.
- Distribute the keywords evenly in your content; do not overstuff.
- Find out which keywords are working for your competitors and try to implement them.
- Add keywords in URLs, metadata, titles, descriptions, FAQs, etc.
- Research on which niche keywords would work best for you, rather than just picking the most popular ones.
Backlinks and Internal Links Bring Back Traffic
Effective backlinks work wonders in bringing traffic to your website. If reliable and high-authority web pages link to your content, the audience will trust you more and Google will also give you more weightage in SERPs.
Apart from collecting backlinks from high-domain websites, make sure to place internal links on your website. This ensures visitors click more links and spend more time on your website, thus fetching revenue, improving search rankings, and controlling the bounce rate.
However, make sure all your links are relevant, organic, and engaging to the target audience. Overdoing the backlinking strategy or focusing on quantity over quality may end up hurting your SEO effectiveness.
Website Speed and Loading Time Matter
Suppose you search for something on Google and click a relevant link, and the website takes ages to load. What would you do in that scenario? Well, most people would lose patience and click the next best link on the SERP. This is exactly why website speed matters.
To gain an edge over your competitors, keep the speed and loading time of your website optimised. Make regular updates and fix any bugs or issues that may affect the user experience. It is also a great idea to have a mobile site.
It was reported at the end of 2021 that mobile devices accounted for 63% of all organic search engine visits. This is why you need to provide an optimised browsing experience to visitors, irrespective of the device they are using. Even Google gives more precedence to mobile-friendly websites while deciding search ranks. Visit Here
Social Media Can Create Magic
Your target audience is likely to be very active on social media. And in this day and age, social media marketing is a crucial part of SEO. Whether it is Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, each platform has its own type of audience. Depending upon the focus of your business, choose the right platforms to target.
- Be regular with posts and stories.
- Run social media-based ads.
- Collaborate with influencers of your domain.
- Add the relevant links, buttons, and references to your social media pages.
- Provide accurate contact information of your business.
- Provide engaging content, like images, videos, contests, reward programs, etc.
- Connect with your followers organically.
- Have a distinct and uniform brand voice across all platforms.
Competitors’ Websites Have Answers
To do this effectively, make a list of who your chief competitors are. Then, focus on their websites to see if they rank higher than you for specific keywords. Once you get an idea of where your competitors are drawing traffic from and what your SEO strategy lacks in that respect, it will be easy for you to reevaluate your strategies for better results.
You can use online tools like SEMrush, Ubersuggest, etc. to analyse competitors’ data and get a detailed report on the performance of your SEO strategy compared to theirs.
Better User Experience = Better Brand Reputation
The user should be at the heart of all your marketing strategies. Without keeping their needs and choices into consideration, an SEO strategy can never be successful. This is why you should focus on making the user experience better.
- Optimise your website regularly for speed and functioning.
- Remove bugs, errors, and malfunctioning links.
- Update content and media when required.
- Make the UI design efficient and easy to navigate.
- Ensure your website is mobile friendly.
- Integrate necessary third-party features like payment methods, multi authentication, etc.
If your website visitors retire happy, they are likely to return sooner and also recommend your business to friends and family. This helps greatly in building a positive brand reputation, which in turn will bring more traffic and revenue than your competitors.
Final Thoughts
SEO strategies should be designed to get you better rankings and beat competitors in your niche. The above tactics will not only help you gain more traffic and visibility, but also build up your brand through organic engagement. And if you find these strategies difficult to implement, you can always opt for SEO services that will take care of all your marketing needs at a reasonable price.