Competition is a constant factor in every business. Regardless of your industry, there are always others vying for the same customers, subscribers, viewers, partners, etc. Even major companies like Google face competition — perhaps you found this article on Bing?
The key point is that competitors are always trying to outdo you. Are you aware of who they are?
“Of course, I know who my competitors are!” – You might think.
But do you know who your competitors are in search? Are you aware of who you’re truly competing against for organic traffic? It might not be who you expect.
Search is a unique arena where competition can change as search results evolve. Also, the barrier to entry for new competitors is relatively low—just an optimized website is needed.
Ultimately, search is a zero-sum game. If you’re not ranking on the first page, you’re losing traction. If a new competitor displaces you from the first page for a crucial keyword, it will impact your bottom line.
In this article, I will delve into these questions to help you better understand and identify the brands, websites, people, etc., competing for your audience’s attention so you can position yourself effectively and win.
### Start with Known Competitors
As you likely considered earlier, you know your typical competitors well enough to start your research. Those businesses traditionally competing with you in other channels are likely vying for many of the same keywords.
To better understand how they are competing with you in search, you might need to invest in an SEO tool like Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrush. These tools can help you analyze competitor keyword rankings.
Using these tools, compile lists of your competitors’ top keywords and compare them to your own. As you compare rankings, consider:
– Are they targeting the same key terms you find important?
– Are some competitors investing more in paid search instead of SEO?
– Are they outdoing you in essential search results? If so, what strategies and page types are they using?
– Are there significant gaps in your keyword rankings that drive traffic to competitors?
– Are there opportunities where a competitor ranks with weak content?
– Are competitors drawing organic traffic from you through long-tail keywords and phrases?
You won’t truly know how these brands compete with you in search until you analyze their keyword rankings. However, analysis means more than noting their position for a given keyword. You need to evaluate the search engine results page (SERP) to understand why they might be ranking there and if your site should too. Look at other ranking sites, as they might also be competition worth noting if the SERP is relevant to your audience.
### Expand Competitive Research to ‘SERP Competitors’
Did you notice some new sites consistently ranking with your competitors for the target keywords? Are media or news sites taking prominent positions on your relevant SERPs? Are government sites occupying key head terms?
The likely answer to these questions is yes. I refer to these as “SERP competitors,” and they are why it’s essential to explore actual search results to discover who you’re truly competing with for your target keywords.
A SERP competitor may have only one page competing with you, but if it ranks above you on an important SERP, they are your competition, and you need to understand why.
For example, if we examine the search results for [link building], a significant term for my company, we can observe this concept:
While we do rank on this page, there are also a few results above us from sites like:
– Moz
– Backlinko
– Wordstream
– Ahrefs
These sites offer consultation, paid search services, and SEO tools. While they aren’t direct competitors to our services, we are vying for space on this SERP with them, making them our SERP competitors.
Just as you would analyze a direct competitor, you need to review SERP competitors in areas such as:
– Content structure (format, length, depth, media, etc.)
– Number of referring domains
– Keyword focus and optimization
– SERP feature optimization (quick answers for snippets, videos for video results, FAQs for “People Also Ask” boxes, etc.)
Understanding how these pages are tailored for the specific SERPs you’re targeting will aid in optimizing your pages.
### Become a ‘SERP Competitor’ Yourself
Although the complexities and evolving nature of search mean more competition, it also offers more opportunities.
If your site is new and your main competitors dominate the top SERPs for your key terms, you need to become a SERP competitor yourself.
While you should still optimize both on-page and off-page elements for those competitive terms, that will be a long-term project, and you need ways to attract traffic now. Instead of focusing solely on the long-term, identify opportunities to compete for precise, long-tail search rankings. Rather than challenging big names or domains with extensive backlinks, aim to become a better option than the existing pages in those initial ten results.
Explore tangential topics related to your business, where search volume may be lower but still intersects with your audience and can bring relevant visitors. During research, look for search pages with:
– Poor results in addressing searcher intent
– Poor results in terms of formatting, aesthetics, number of ads, etc.
– Pages with few or no backlinks ranking
– Suboptimal keyword targeting by ranking pages.
These opportunities allow you to rank a page on your site and gain organic traffic while working towards better rankings for head terms. Securing these opportunities repeatedly can significantly benefit your website.
### Recap
As a business, competition is inevitable. The first step in overcoming these competitors is identifying them. However, in search, it’s not always clear who you’re competing against for attention and visibility.
Evaluating what your traditional competitors are doing in search is crucial, but it only represents part of the picture. You must also identify SERP competitors, those competing with you solely through search rankings, and analyze their winning strategies.
With a comprehensive understanding of who you’re truly competing against, you’ll gain the necessary insights to succeed in organic search.
