Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is about name awareness and competition.
"Thin the herd—by being out in front of it." - Daniel DiGriz
Competitive SEO
Where they're dull, be clever and you'll eat forever.
Problem
A competitive analysis is often either fluff, stuff you already knew, or not actionable.
Hurdle
You can stare at the other guys' flyers and websites, but you'll need knowing eyes on their digital strategy to find helpful gaps & opportunities.
Solution
Put a digital strategist on the team who analyzes the SWOT and plans the solution.
Mandate
You're in a competitive posture just knowing what the competition is up to, reading their digital like an RFP, spotting where they're weak.
Opt for a bigger slice of pie. Your competition has no problem taking clients that should be yours. Let's play to beat them.
Here's a real world example (minus the details) in SWOT format.
Strengths
- Well-aged domain
- Brand has some mentions
- Some customer reviews
- Some online industry press
- Lots of older content
- Strong CTAs & Use Cases
- See Notes
Weaknesses
- Thin content
- Slim On-page SEO
- Little fresh content
- Little ongoing content
- Some duplicate content
- Fewer than avg mentions
- See Analysis
Opportunities
- Competition: 80% no SEO
- 70%: weak content strategy
- 80%: dropped balls in 2019
- We have a content budget
- We have a brand story
- Unexploited case studies
- See Recommendations
Threats
Top competitor:
- Has more client assets +
- Aggressive off-page SEO
- Top 2 have on-page SEO
- Top 3 have content program
- With robust, aged content
- See Comparison
Narrow the actions
to the ones that gain traction.
If your mission is stronger, it matters who wins.
Analytics
It's not what we feel; the numbers are what's real.
Problem
Most SEOs use Google's data. But those metrics contain only PART of the story, and they're EASILY misinterpreted or misrepresented.
Hurdle
You can count hits & likes, but they don't tell you enough. It's the least important data: what's the $value of a "like"? Metrics should match actual business goals.
Solution
Raw data isn't ANALYTICS. You need actionable analysis, not just numbers—and better numbers than you get from a downloadable report.
Mandate
Demonstrate the size of field you're playing, where you’re leaving money on the table, & where the competition has ignored obvious opportunities.
You're done with reports that just spend money. We're going to tie each business goal to a metric. Search will be part of it, but not all. Let's position you like an NFL team against the competition and your own revenue objectives.
Page from a 2019 Year-End Analytics Report
Success is Seeing the Needle Move!
And everything else is codswallop.
You can only improve
what you can prove.
Tactical SEO
You've got no game, if they don't know your name.
Problem
You care about search. You know Google is important. It's a big market, and you don't want to be invisible or miss online referrals.
Hurdle
There are all kinds of spammy gimmicks, and a lot of SEO is a way to collect money for short-term manipulation of results that bites you later.
Solution
Align your brand reputation, sales goals, and SEO. That way, the results are sustainable & enhance (not compete with) positive industry perception.
Mandate
No spaghetti thrown at the wall. Search should work for you, achieving what you're already trying to accomplish as a company.
Don't leave it to the wizards. It's in the interests of technical wizards to obfuscate what they're doing. That way you can't tell if it aligns with the business goals. You cross your fingers, and hope. Let's talk in business terms—not oblique vocabulary about magic potions.
Your Brand | Average Competitor | Top 3 Competitors
-
Links that count ("doFollow")
-
Links that don't ("noFollow", no mention)
-
Mentions (with no link or "noFollow")
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Spammy Links (undesirable)
This example report page shows number of links to your brand (from other websites), sorted into: ones that count for SEO (green), one's that don't (red), and mentions of your brand which are treated as implied links (yellow). It shows the same 3 things for your competitors, so you can see where you are relative to them.
If it's not understood,
it isn't any good.
The goal of search is to make your name synonymous with the thing you want to sell.
OnPage SEO
The shortest path to improve, gets you in the groove.
Problem
You have a website, blog, & newsletter, but you aren’t maximizing the benefit from all that investment. So you work harder, because content is not optimized every time.
Hurdle
How do we know? If it’s not visible on the page in a way you can understand, 100% you’re leaving important optimizations on the table.
Solution
SEO is not set it and forget it. You can bake-in the basics, but now let's actively optimize every piece of content you produce. Why waste it?
Mandate
Make all content you produce more visible, more effective at satisfying the user journey, and more aggressive vs. the competition. Make it count.
If we're going to do this, let's DO it. Let's give every play you make the maximum impact. Who has time for anything less?
Get all the juice:
the maximum use.
