Every SEO, whether they admit it or not, is obsessed with their competition. We're certainly no exception to that rule. That's why we employ these three competitive intelligence secrets to keep from getting blindsided by competitors.
1. Stay Plugged-in With Linkedin
LinkedIn, which was the firstU.S. social-mediacompanytosellsharespublicly, is a very powerful tool for sizing up the competition.
Here are two very easy things you can do with LinkedIn:
1) Using LinkedIn’s search bar, set the option to “People,” and type your competitor’s name + position you are trying to gain more information about.
2) Using LinkedIn’s search bar, set the option to “Jobs,” and type the industry + position.
Together, these two tips can help you learn more about the size of a competitor’s SEO department and if that competitor is investing in more SEO personnel. In addition, you also have names of copywriters who are creating valuable link bait and press releases.
2. Sign Up For Competitor Newsletters & RSS Feeds
Signing up for your competitors’ newsletter and RSS feeds provides you information on their promotions, products and services.
Additionally, it also clues you in on any long-tail keywords they are targeting via their blog.
3. Google Alerts
Setting up GoogleAlerts is a great way to monitor the content/backlinks your competitors are creating on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
We generally use this tactic once we’ve discovered an awesome piece of content created by a competitor. We simply type keywords from the author by-line and set up alerts for a weekly basis.
By the end of the week, we have a list of any new competitor content waiting in our email inbox.
