If the public is not clicking in your website, they're doing it in someone else's. Conducting competitive research will provide you with important Intel to grow your brand and outgrow the competence.

Conducting competitive research every once in a while, is not only a way to out -do our competition, it keeps us in touch with the market. By being aware of the strategies of others, we can discover new resources, tools and opportunities for our own brand.

Through competitor analysis we can identify beneficial actions in our core market and solutions to common problems. Having vast knowledge about our competitors is also useful to overpower them when it comes to fulfilling the user's needs.

The great value of conducting a competitive research.

To know who is who in the market, allows you to recognize your place in it. Moreover, you can also find out what it is that you're missing to be at the top. This information is key to understanding the ways in which you can improve your digital media strategy according to your own weaknesses. 

Let us remember that for a digital strategy to succeed, keeping up to day is very important. By taking the examples of other's mistakes and problem solving, we can jump over the same mistakes.

Benefits of conducting a competitive research

In current times, we have access to a lot of information about our competitor's strategies than ever before. We can discover so much browsing the web without the need of having an informant on the inside. 

We can get anything, from product and service information to all about their website traffic. Things such as its source and management can be found if you know where to look.

Other of the great benefits of analyzing your competence is the discovery of new and improved associates and suppliers. Generally speaking, analyzing your competitors is fundamental to improve your positioning strategy. It is also a great way to expand your contacts.

How to conduct a competitive research

Now that you know about the importance of this strategy, as well as its benefits, let us guide you in the process of preparing your own analysis of competitors:

Pinpoint your online competitors

The first thing you have to do is differentiate your online competitors from your offline competitors. The main difference between them is that off line competitors are normally located near you. These businesses offer the same service or products than you in the same area you do it. 

An off line competitor might not be in the list of websites that try to position the same keywords as you.

Once you discarded your offline competitors, you can make a list of all of the informative sites and blogs that relate to your brand. These agents might be positioned in the same search terms than you, but they are not considered competence in SEO terms.

It would be a waste to put your efforts in trying to oust them. It is better to let them be and consider them as possible alliances. These influential sites that are in some way related to you, could send you links in the future and collaborate with your project.

You should also rule out all websites that follow a different strategy to yours. Remember to write down every page that shares some significant qualities with you. For example, your target audience and products.

Create a directory 

Creating this is as simple as a Google search. The first results you'll find in the SERP are all websites that paid to be the first results. It is important to include them in your list even if they didn't achieve their place organically. Web pages like these, allow you to discover the value of the keywords you're using.

Because of the incredible length of results shown in each keyword, it is important that you include only the websites that you share things in common. Keep special attention to websites that work with more than one of the keywords you want to position.

This process can be as long as the time you can afford to put in it. Keep in mind that every site you analyze, will give you valuable information to your brand. Which is why to want to spend all the time you need to create a detailed directory.

Every step of SEO can be automated, and this is not the exception. There is a vast variety of online tools that will help you to fasten this process. A useful website to detect competitors is Similar Web. Using it is very simple, all you have to do is insert a web domain in its browser to analyze it.

Once you do it, you can go to a section called Similar Sites. This tool will inform you of all the websites that share alike keywords and content with you.

Analyze the competition 

Once you've identified your main competitors, you need to gather the following information:

• Traffic volume
• Positioned keywords
• Display channels that bring traffic (links, social media adds, etc.)

Finally, we should also pay attention to the more technical side of our competitor’s websites as well as their domain's characteristics.

Competitive research is a reliable way to grow your brand. By analyzing your main competition strategies and techniques on their website, you can gather information to overpower them and new resources to yourself.