The name of the game when it comes to improving a business’s SEO is to overtake your direct competitors. To do this, you will need to know which keywords you’re optimising the website for, then set about working on improving both on-page and off-page search engine optimisation.

However, this is not that straightforward, as your direct competitors, well, they may have been forking out to a local SEO agency for, say, 10 years solid! So, you do have to have a marketing plan of action, but before that, we recommend that you carry out a competitor analysis.

Written by: Ryan Walsh
Date: 30/01/2025

17-minute read

Proactive competitor analysis uncovers actionable insights that can give you a significant edge. By dissecting your rivals’ tactics, you’ll identify opportunities they’ve missed and weaknesses you can exploit.

Undertaking a competitor SEO analysis is a bit like planning a big hike. You have to be mindful of your ability and time. For example, it often wouldn’t be recommended that somebody who’s very unfit start climbing Everest as their first hike.
Everyone likes a challenge, but that’s taking it too far.

The same applies when you’re undertaking competitor research. A direct competitor or many of them have very high domain authority scores. Yet your website might have no DA score, so unless you have deep pockets to employ a marketing agency, you might be setting the plan up to fail.

So it’s a balance—planning yet realistic about what can be achieved. Now, that might sound defeatist, but it’s not, as some companies, let’s say in the city of Bristol, might have forked out hundreds of thousands of dollars in marketing already.

 

What exactly is an SEO competitor analysis?

A competitive analysis is simply gaining an idea of how strong your competitors are. How good are their backlinks? How good is their content marketing? What’s their DA score?

 

Keywords

How competitive is that keyword? Is it super competitive or a walk in the park?

 

How good is the direct competitors’ content marketing?

What’s the Google E-EAT score for your direct competitors? Is there work top quality or content thin?

Links?

How many backlinks do they have, and what’s the quality like? How many good do-follow backlinks do they have?

Good design?

What’s the site architecture like? How well-designed are the competitor’s websites? Do they have a good page layout? Do they offer a good user experience?

Identify your competitors

So, this might sound straightforward, right?

Well, sometimes it’s not that straightforward; here’s why:

You may sell a broad range of products or services; now, each will have different keywords.

So, depending on the keyword, there there will be different competitors. For example, let’s say you run a family law practice. Well, depending on the service you are optimising the website for, whether mediation or collaborative law, you will have different competitors.

So, work out which keywords you are optimising the website for and which competitors you want to look at to understand why their SEO is so strong.

 

Backlinks are often crucial.

We recommend using Moz Pro for this task. Once you have a list of direct competitors, you should look at their backlink profiles.
Moz Pro makes looking at your competitors’ backlinks very simple. Now, you might be presented with 4,000+ links. Yet, don’t be detected. You should work with a link-building expert to pick out the right links, the links that your business might want to build.

Then, you can improve and enhance your business’s backlink profile. In a nutshell, a stronger link profile can give your business a substantial SEO advantage.

Large agencies spend heaps of time building links because backlinks are still a very important ranking factor.

 

Site structure

It’s crucial that if you want to optimise your website for, say, “diamond-encrusted dog collars,” you have a section or a page for this.
A one-page website can offer a nightmare situation to any SEO agency, as how do you optimise all of the different services and products if they’re mentioned on just one page?

So, take the time to obtain a well-designed and well-thought-out website with good site artwork. This is important, so don’t rush it. Again, use your competitors’ websites for some inspiration on page layout.

DA scores

Contrary to what some might say, DA score, or “domain authority,” is not baked into Google’s algorithm.

Nope. Some of the aspects, the components, if you like, are part of Google’s ranking factors, such as backlinks.

However, Google does not use DA as a ranking factor. Instead, it was first developed by Moz.

Now, for those not in the know, Moz is a very good SEO tool. It’s the bee’s knees, and we actively use it at this marketing agency.

And what is DA used for?

Well, you can paste in competitors’ URLs—we recommend using the homepage for this—and then gain a good idea of the DA score. This gives you a good idea of how strong or weak that business’s search engine optimisation is.

So, you can weigh your competitors’ strengths in the blink of an eye.

Now, why is this important?

Well, if you’re about to start selling luxury watches, and your direct competitors all have DA scores of over 70, you have a small mountain to climb. It could take over a year to catch up with such strong competitors.

However, if you’re about to start a new hotel, you should take a gander at your direct competitors’ DA scores; they come in at 11—well, a good SEO consultant should find overtaking them a walk in the park. Well, it’s not easy, but do you understand?

 

How good are the other pages?

The website, that is, your direct competitor, might have been blogging for many years.

So, do have a good gander at their blog posts.

How well-written are they?

How many inbound links do they have?

What’s the Google E-EAT score?

When reading through them, is it as clear as day that they have put tremendous effort into writing them?
Is it likely that because of the Google Helpful Content Update, Google’s algorithm will find this work helpful, placing it high in Google’s SERPs?

Basically? How well-written is the work? Is it clear an expert writes it?

 

Is the website fast?

Technical SEO improvements are essential; part of this is ensuring that your company website is a lean, mean fighting machine.

Now, what do we mean by that?

Well, a company website must be fast.

It must be fast. Today’s shoppers are impatient, and if they are held up just for a few seconds, the bounce rate will increase.

Google will spot a high bounce rate and then move the business down Google’s SERP’s.

So, how fast are your competitor’s websites?

We recommend using GTmetrix for this task.

 

How long have they been at it?

Businesses often want an SEO company to wave a magic wand and move them up Google’s SERPs.

However, if done right, SEO needs to be high quality and slowly implemented.

And why is that so?

Well, link velocity is one good reason.

Build a ton of links in a week or in a short window of time, and Google will suspect you of implementing spam.
Or, you can blog and add content marketing as if you have had 100 espressos and your hands are on fire typing, and again, this is likely to look spammy.

You need to build trust and improve your Google E-EAT score over a long period.

So, how long have your competitors been at it?

That’s improving their search engine optimisation?

Have they been at it for 5 years, 7 years or longer improving their SEO?

In that case, be realistic about how fast you can catch up. Don’t get us wrong; we have overtaken companies with over a decade of experience, sometimes within a year, but it’s not easy and straightforward. So, be realistic with your timescales on what can be achieved if the competition is intense.

Helpful?

Just as some people are more naturally helpful and nice than others, the same is true for businesses.
Google likes a helpful website that goes the extra mile to help customers.

For example, FAQ sections, good product descriptions, and staff explaining the benefits of a product in YouTube videos.

If you go the extra mile to help your customers and offer helpful and valuable advice, Google will spot this. Googlebot will ensure that you provide helpful and useful advice to your customers, which will help you move up Google’s ranks. Couple that with high dwell time and a low bounce rate, and you’re on to a winner.

 

Come to the best

We represent construction companies, solicitors, and online retailers with warehouses crammed full of goods.

If done right, search engine optimisation can be a game changer for some businesses. Yet, it does involve hard work. Any companies that cut corners, thinking they can cheat Google’s algorithm, will often get hit by Google’s algorithmic penalties, and the website vanishes off Google.

So, pick your SEO agency wisely and talk to one of the best in the business—speak to us.