Performing a competitive analysis for a company isn’t just about assessing the competition and how the company stacks up. It’s also a time to take a step back and do a self check on what is working and what isn’t working with your own company. This might be one of the most important assessments a company can do because of the amount of information that is gathered across the board. There are a few ways performing this analysis can expand the business.

1.Defining Competitors

If a business doesn’t know who their competition is then there is no way for them to succeed against them. There are a couple quick ways to gather this information. One is to grab the information through customers. The other is by doing a search of the web. Usually 3-4 competitors are enough to accurately assess a baseline. It’s not an arbitrary task. Some of the competition may be down the block, but others might be cities surrounding the area. It’s best to enter in common keywords to see where the customers are being directed.

2. Link Gap Analysis

This tactic allows for the business to see which sites are linking to the others businesses instead of yours. This is kind of like gathering the answers to the test. Here you can see why they are being directed elsewhere. Some of the customer’s can start to be directed back your way through this linking. This type of information works two fold. It allows a short term solution of regaining customers, but also acts as an index for information for the future.  

3. Keyword Gap Analysis

This is the act of seeing where you stand in line next to other businesses. Linking these keywords allow you to see which keywords rank well for other businesses but not your own. This is where a bulk of the work comes in. This is where some companies tinker around with their models while others change metadata and others throw out old content and replace it with new revamped versions. Virtually every successful company works with this analysis. It’s like brainstorming ideas using information that has already been gathered for you. From here the company can really iron out their differences. Allowing themselves to better understand this information can push them to make the proper changes and adapt so that they can grow in the future.

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