Article Directory :: Internet Marketing/Online Business Articles How To Carry Out Competitor Analysis By Roddy Smith Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 31Mar2012 Word count: 526 Viewed: 52 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site Many ecommerce packages include competitor analysis, a very useful part of an SEO management system which enables you to keep an eye on the opposition. You can assess their strengths and weaknesses and use these to your advantage. Define your competitors Before you conduct any analysis you need to be clear about who your competitors are. Conduct research into this which allows you to see who they are; what they offer, their USP's and success rates. Undertake some form of profiling in which you obtain in-depth knowledge about your competitors that includes: • Background information, e.g. experience, history, organisational structure and location. • Detailed information about products or services • Brand values • Market segmentation • Marketing channels and promotional strategies • Employees • Customer demographic and retention rates • Prices/Rates • Key objectives • Future plans, e.g. growth and expansion This will enable you to learn more about your competitors and their markets. Your aim is to stand out from your competitors by offering a range of products or services which they don't or a unique selling point (USP). Avoid competing on price alone. In other words: know thy competitor. Planning your analysis Once you have this information you can then plan your analysis. Find out as much as you can about your competitors websites: see where they rank in the search engines, the volume of traffic to their sites, keywords that they use, backlinks etc. Learn as much as you can about your particular industry and who the 'players' are. Competitors' online presence Find out how well know (or not) your competitors are online. Do they make full use of social media and if so, how effective is this? Do they employ the necessary tools to raise their profile and if so, has this been successful for them. If they use Facebook, Twitter or other social networking tools then have a look at these. View their tweets, wall or blog postings to see what they are saying. Also have a look at these tools to see what their customers are saying about them. Aim of competitor analysis The reason behind this analysis is to determine whether a competitor is a threat or an opportunity. In some cases they present a potential opportunity for collaboration which benefits both parties. A strategic partnership is another option. If, however, they present a threat then try to ascertain what these threats are. Do they offer the same product or service but at a more competitive price? Are they a large business with more employees which means greater resources? Are they early adopters of new technologies? Plus there is the ever constant threat of new competitors entering the market which reduces your share. It is important that you conduct as thorough an analysis as possible as part of your SEO strategy. Adaptive Consultancy is a London-based digital agency company specialising in website design, eCommerce, and internet marketing, including SEO, PPC and SMO. For more on digital agency visit www.adaptiveconsultancy.com/ EasyPublish™ this article - publishers click here More articles by Roddy Smith

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