Introduction
Performing a competitor traffic analysis is an essential part of any successful digital marketing strategy. It involves analyzing your competitors’ websites and evaluating their performance so that you can better understand the competitive landscape.
You’ll want to analyze website traffic, keyword research, and any other areas of their online presence so that you don’t miss any opportunities that they may have missed.
You’ll also get insight into the strategies they’re using to outperform you. By conducting this type of audit, you’ll find that even if your competitors haven’t implemented certain strategies, you have.
There may be valuable insights waiting for you in the data. With the right analysis, you can gain the upper hand and outperform your competitors.
What Is a Competitor Website Analysis?
If you want to make sure you have an edge over your competitors, a competitor website analysis can help. This involves studying what your competitors are up to online.
That way, you can spot any areas they’re missing and use them to give yourself an advantage.
Companies in all industries should take the time to do this kind of research so that they can stand out from the crowd.
How Can a Competitive Analysis Help?
Knowing what your competitors are doing online can help you make your own website better. By taking a look at what works for other businesses in your industry, you can get ideas on how to improve your own site. So you’ll know what to do and what not to do.
Let’s understand this with the help of an example.
If you are a B2B marketer, it’s possible that you think quizzes aren’t effective for your business because other people in your field feel the same way.
But what if at least one company uses them to generate leads and succeeds? An analysis of competitor websites can help you find out if this is true. So you can use the same strategy and get an advantage over the competition.
So even if the other companies aren’t doing something really new and creative, analyzing their websites could still show you a good strategy that they’re using that you aren’t.
Competitor analysis can also show you the weak spots in their strategies, giving you an opportunity to come out on top. Understanding what your rivals are up to is a great way to stay one step ahead.
Steps to Perform Effective Competitor Analysis & Competitor Research
Conducting a competitive analysis is an important step to gaining a competitive edge in the market. It helps you identify your competitors, their strategies, and the tactics they are using to drive traffic.
You can use competitor data to determine the organic traffic they get and any SEO competitor analysis.
Once you have studied all that, you can create a strategy to stay ahead of them in terms of driving more traffic and being more successful than them.
Competitive analysis is a great way to understand your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses and develop plans accordingly.
Furthermore, it helps you understand what they’re doing right so that you can adopt those strategies too for better success.
1. Identify Your Website Competitors
To find out who you’re up against, it helps to group your competitors into two types: Direct and Indirect.
Direct competitors make things that could replace yours in the same place you do business. Indirect competitors make stuff to meet the same needs or solve the same problems, but their products aren’t exactly the same as yours.
This can help you compare data better. When looking at what other brands are doing in the same industry, it’s important to focus on those that serve a similar target audience.
For example, Stitch Fix and Fabletics are both subscription-based services that offer clothes each month. But when we look closer, we see their actual products are different.
Stitch Fix provides stylish everyday outfits, while Fabletics specializes in workout clothing. Even though they satisfy the same need for women, they’re still considered indirect competitors since their target audiences may differ.
This doesn’t mean you should ignore your indirect competitors entirely, but you should prioritize studying those who serve a similar customer base.
Keep an eye on these brands because they might start selling products that are similar to what their competitors sell.
For example, if Stitch Fix started making workout clothes, it would affect Fabletics. That’s why you should keep checking in to make sure you know what changes have been made, so you’re always up-to-date.
2. Look for Relevant Information
If you want to analyze a competitor’s website, it’s important to know what you’re looking for.
Here are some ideas:
Check out the design and layout of their site, see if they have any features that are missing from your own site, take note of their prices, compare their product offerings, and look at their blog or news section.
With the right strategy and approach, you can gain valuable insights into your competition.
Other aspects you may look at on your competitors’ websites are as follows:
- When evaluating your competitors’ websites, take into account the targeted keywords they use that you may want to integrate into your own website
- Look deeply into their blog posts and consider the topics and formats they are using that you could adapt for your own content.
- Analyze what types of external tools or plugins they are using on their site and how it enhances the user experience.
- Make sure you check technical web design features like page speed, mobile-friendliness, as well as email capture forms, pop-ups, and other calls to action.
- Research the quality and quantity of backlinks they use to evaluate what might be a helpful strategy for you
Setting a goal will help you find what you need quickly and efficiently. Focus on the information you’re looking for and use the best tools to get it. Doing this will make sure you get the information you need in the style you need it.
3. Perform a Swot Analysis
If you want to learn what your competitor is up to, it’s time to analyze them. Doing a SWOT analysis can help you identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
For instance, if you want to know what keywords they’re using in their content, the SWOT analysis should point you in the right direction.
When conducting a SWOT analysis, one of the most important things to consider is keyword performance. It’s important to ask questions such as:
- What keywords are bringing this competitor success that you can consider implementing?
- In addition, ask yourself: which keywords aren’t working well for this competitor?
- You can also use this opportunity to determine if there are any keywords that your competitor isn’t targeting that you can leverage to get more traffic
- Finally, pay attention to any keywords that your competitor is targeting that could pose a threat to your own marketing efforts, like your company’s branded keywords
By asking these questions and doing some research into keyword performance, you can gain valuable insight into how you can improve your own marketing strategy.
4. Monitor Competitors to Assess Site Performance
Now that we’ve looked at how each competitor is doing, let’s look at something else. We need to figure out which websites are good and which websites need work.
This starts with seeing how quickly their websites run and how easy it is for people to use them. It is important to assess a website’s performance parameters to ensure it is user-friendly and functions as intended.
Here are some of the factors that you can consider while analyzing the performance and user experience of your competitors’ websites:
- Evaluating the speed at which a website loads is key to ensuring a good user experience.
- The layout of a website should be intuitive and easy to navigate, allowing visitors to find what they need quickly.
- Fonts should be well chosen and easy to read on all devices, from computers to mobile phones.
- Text should also be well formatted, with clear headings and subheadings, and correctly sized images will help pages to load as quickly as possible.
- Ensure that any hyperlinks or images on the page are working correctly, as broken links can have a detrimental effect on visitor numbers.
- Lastly, keep an eye on the overall design of the site; the more user-friendly it is, the more likely visitors are to stay (and return again) in the future.
To measure the performance of different websites objectively, you can create a rating system. You can use a scale from 1 to 5 for each factor to help compare different sites, including yours. Specialized tools that test user experience (UX) may also be used.
5. Use Competitor Site Analysis to Know Your Competitors Pricing
When pricing your product, it is important to look at what your competitors are charging for a similar item or service.
If you feel like your product can offer more than what the competition does, you may choose to charge a higher price than the industry standard. But make sure there is someone on hand who can explain why your product is worth the cost.
On the other hand, you may want to charge less if you think your industry doesn’t have affordable products. Consider what perks your competitors are offering and decide whether you want to match them or provide something unique.
It’s essential to stay up-to-date with industry prices and offerings in order to make sure you price your product reasonably.
6. Perform Gap Analysis to Assess Their Funnel
Looking at the different marketing strategies your competitors are using can help you understand what works and what doesn’t. You should pay close attention to their email campaigns, ads, and other retargeting methods.
The best way to get an understanding of their techniques is by experiencing them as a user. Take a look at all the calls to action on their webpages and click on them to see where it takes you.
This will allow you to gain insight into how they’re marketing their products or services.
Also, make sure to follow these tips while analyzing different stages of the sales funnel of your competitors:
- When examining the sales funnel, it is important to consider the type of copy used by the company.
- Digital assets such as images, videos, and audio can be used to engage potential customers and provide them with additional information.
- The ability to generate leads and convert them into paying customers is essential for any business.
So, by understanding how each stage of the funnel works, businesses can identify what strategies work best in order to maximize customer engagement and conversion rates.
To get an idea of a company’s marketing strategy, fill out the email capture forms on their website and take note of the emails that are sent to you.
Follow all the links on their site that don’t require making a purchase in order to have a better understanding of their approach.
7. Assess Competitive Shipping Costs
Did you know that costly delivery fees are the main reason customers leave an online shopping cart without transferring the products?
To make sure your business isn’t left behind, it’s essential to consider what shipping options competitors are providing and try to match them. In some cases, this could mean offering free delivery.
Alternatively, if this is something that isn’t achievable for your company, think about other methods to stand out from the competition. For example, offering loyalty rewards, seasonal discounts, and special offers on social media.
8. Know the Stack from Which the Website Is Built
If you’re interested in creating a website, it helps to look at other websites and see what kind of technology they use. Checking the stack used by your competitors is easy with services like BuiltWith.
With this service, you can learn where their website is hosted, what email services they use, what payment solutions are integrated, and more. This information can help you decide which platform to use for your own website.
9. Know Your Best Competitor Content Strategy
Find out what kind of content your competition is creating. Look at how many they have—are there lots of blog posts or only a few? How many white papers, ebooks, or case studies do they have?
Then check if they’re creating new content regularly, like every week or just once a month. If you see a lot of content, that means they’re probably doing a good job of generating leads.
Finally, look at the quality of their content, to help you understand their strategy better.
So, it’s important to make sure the content you post is of good quality because if it isn’t, people won’t find value in it. To make things easier, it’s best to pick a few samples to review instead of trying to review all of their posts.
When picking your samples, be sure to include different topics so you can get a better understanding of what your competitor is posting for their target audience.
Here are some of the tips which you can consider while analysing the content of your competitors:
- When analyzing their content, consider questions such as accuracy, spelling and grammar errors, tone, readability structure and depth.
- Look at how they are presenting the content; are they using generic stock photos or custom illustrations and images?
- Pay attention to their usage of text quotes or calls to action that are tailored to their business.
- Find out if their content is written by an in-house team or multiple contributors, with a visible byline attached to each article.
- Informative content should be free and available for anyone who wants to access it.
By assessing your competitors’ content, you will gain a better understanding of their strategies and be better equipped to create your own engaging and persuasive content.
10. Analyze Their Seo Strategies & Keywords
If you want your business to be more successful, it’s important to understand the SEO strategies of your competitors. You can do this by looking at their website and using tools like Ahrefs, Moz, and SemRush. These tools will give you details on-
- the keywords they’re using,
- What content is working for them,
- how many sites are linking back to theirs, and
- the types of links they use.
It’s important to remember that not every strategy will work for everyone and it’s best to create a customized version of the strategy that works most effectively for your goals.
11. Make a List of Strengths and Weaknesses
Once you have done all your research, it’s time to put it into a spreadsheet. This will help you see the big picture of who you are up against.
Look at each competitor and make a list of what they do well and what needs work. This list is the key outcome of this project, as it will show you exactly where each competitor stands.
12. Run a Competitor Website Analysis & Apply It
Gathering information about your competition is the first step to creating a successful digital marketing plan. A SWOT analysis looks at your competitor’s strong and weak points, as well as potential opportunities and threats in the market.
It can help you recognize areas where you may be weaker than your competitors. With this, you can make sure you are prepared for any potential problems.
This analysis will help you create a better marketing strategy and give you an edge over your competitors.
Competitor Analysis Tools
To analyze your competitors’ traffic data, you need a specialized software tool. The most reputable tools are mentioned below. These will give you the most accurate and reliable results.
1. SpyFu
SpyFu is a great way to learn more about your competitors. It helps you understand how their pages are ranking in Google for certain words and how many backlinks they have.
This gives you an idea of how reliable Google finds them to be. SpyFu is a valuable tool for anyone who wants to do competitor analysis.
2. Alexa
Alexa provides the same insights as SpyFu, plus it can tell you how much traffic a website gets. This is helpful because even though a website may be optimized for certain keywords, it may not get many visitors.
Alexa lets you know whether people are actually visiting the site or not.
3. SEMrush
SEMrush is an incredibly useful tool for managing your digital marketing presence. It builds on features offered by SpyFu, allowing you to view rankings, backlinks and also giving you insight into a company’s social media performance.
SEMrush is an essential part of any marketing strategy, keeping you informed and up-to-date on developments.
4. CompetitorSpyFX
CompetitorSpyFX is an excellent resource that provides an in-depth look into your competitors’ marketing strategies. It’s part of the larger MarketingCloudFX platform and helps you compare various metrics.
Some of these include keyword analysis, page traffic, backlinks, bounce rate, and more. This gives you a detailed understanding of how they’re approaching their marketing. So you can create a better strategy to outrank them.
Moreover, CompetitorSpyFX gives you the power to look at your current data. Then you can use it to anticipate what changes in your marketing will help you get ahead of the competition.
With this tool, you can make informed decisions about how to improve your online marketing strategy.
Conclusion
Thus, competitor website analysis is a great way to gain competitive intelligence and stay ahead of your competitors. With the right tools and plugins, you can get an overview of your competitor’s search traffic, website structure, content, linking strategies, and more.
This type of analysis can provide you with valuable insights into the competitive landscape and help you identify opportunities to outperform your competitors.
It can also give you a competitive advantage by helping you understand what specific competitors are doing better than you in terms of SEO, content marketing, or other areas.
By understanding how your competitors are performing, you will be able to develop effective strategies for driving more traffic to your website and improving your overall performance.
Good Luck!
