Taylor  Pratt  Raven  Internet  Marketing  Tools  

smx.raventools.com  

  Identifying  targets    Operation:  Search  

  On-­‐site  optimization  information  gathering    Operation:  Anchor  

  Off-­‐site  optimization  tactics    Enemy  surveillance  program  

  Competitive  analysis  strategy  

Determining  Who  Your  Competitors  Are  

  Identify  broad  and  niche  competitors    Broad  competitor:  competitor  in  your  market    Niche  competitor:  competitor  for  a  segment  of  your  market  

  How  to  identify:    Take  note  of  competitors  routinely  showing  up  for  related  searches  

  Ask  client  to  compile  a  top  10-­‐20  list  of  online  and  offline  competitors  

  Survey  customers    Research  industry  associations,  forums  and  networks  

On-­‐site  optimization  information  gathering  

Goal:  Determine  what  their  strategy  is,  how  successful  they  are  at  implementing  it  and  to  learn  from  it  

 What  keywords  do  they  believe  are  a  priority?  

 What  keywords  they  are  targeting  that  you  should?  

 How  well  are  they  ranking  for  their  targeted  keywords?  

 How  are  they  optimizing  their  title  tag  structure?  

 What  keywords  are  they  focusing  their  headlines  on?  

  Are  they  focusing  heavily  on  branding  or  optimization?  

  Are  they  optimizing  their  internal  link  structure?    Which  keywords  are  they  using  the  most  as  anchor  text?  

  How  often  are  they  creating  new  content?  

 What  types  of  content  are  they  creating?    Is  it  link-­‐bait  like  content  or  just  branded  content?  

  How  well  is  their  site  rendering  in  the  search  engines?    How  are  they  optimizing  their  navigation?   What  are  their  calls  to  action?  

  Are  they  obvious?  

  How  well  is  their  site  being  indexed  in  the  SERPs?    How  clean  is  their  HTML?  

  Does  it  look  they  are  actively  optimizing  their  code?  

  How  quickly  is  their  site  rendering?      How  does  it  compare  to  yours?  

Off-­‐site  optimization  tactics  

Goal:  Determine  what  their  external  site  optimization  strategy  is  and  to  learn  how  to  capitalize  on  it  

  Total  number  of  backlinks  

  Date  backlinks  were  created    Pay  close  attention  to  growth  patterns  

  The  pages  receiving  the  most  backlinks    Outside  of  the  homepage  

  Anchor  text  being  used    Pay  special  attention  to  which  pages  are  being  linked  to  

 What  percentage  are  images/no-­‐follow?  

 What  forums  are  they  participating  in?  

 What  associations/organizations  are  they  members  of?  

 What  conferences  are  they  sponsoring?  

 What  blogs  are  they  guest  posting  on?    At  what  frequency    On  what  topics  

  Can  you  tell  if  they  are  buying  links?  

 What  are  they  doing  to  acquire  these  links?   What  is  their  content  creation  strategy?  

  Are  they  inviting  guest  bloggers?    Are  they  creating  viral  content?    Are  they  creating  free  tools  and  widgets?    Are  they  conducting  interviews?    Are  they  holding  contests?  

  Are  people  reviewing  their  products  on  their  own  sites?  

 Where  are  they  getting  mentioned  and  what  is  the  sentiment  of  those  mentions?  

Competitive  analysis  strategy  

  After  initial  competitor  review,  revisit  every  quarter    Determine  how  their  strategy  is  evolving:  

  How  have  their  rankings  increased/decreased?    How  many  inbound  links  have  they  built?    How  much  has  their  site  grown?    Did  they  launch  any  major  link  bait  programs?    What  were  their  successes  and  failures?  

  How  does  this  compare  to  your  site?    Are  there  any  new  links,  communities,  keywords  for  you  to  target?  

Taylor  Pratt  -­‐  @RavenPratt  smx.raventools.com  

For  a  complete  competitor  checklist,  email:  taylor@raventools.com