Story Based Question
You’re the content manager for an eCommerce website that sells outdoor gear. Your company has been growing steadily, but recently, you’ve noticed that traffic to your blog has plateaued. You’re aware that competitors are consistently showing up in search results with content similar to yours. You suspect that there’s room for improvement but aren’t sure how to approach it. How do you perform a competitive analysis to guide your content creation strategy and gain an edge over the competition?
Exact Answer
To perform a competitive analysis for content creation, start by identifying your top competitors. Use tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to analyze their top-performing pages, keywords, and content strategies. Compare their content with yours, looking for gaps in topics, keywords, or content quality. Create better, more in-depth content, target underserved keywords, and find ways to improve your user engagement.
Explanation
A competitive analysis is crucial for understanding where your content stands in comparison to others in your industry and identifying opportunities to outperform competitors. Here’s how you can conduct a thorough competitive analysis and use the findings to create content that stands out:
1. Identify Your Top Competitors
First, identify who your competitors are. These could be direct competitors who offer similar products, as well as indirect competitors who might be targeting the same audience with different products or services. You can use Google to search for relevant keywords in your niche and see who ranks in the top positions.
Why It Matters:
Knowing your competitors allows you to pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses in their content strategies, helping you understand what’s working in your industry and what isn’t.
Tip: Start with organic search results to identify content that ranks well. Use SEO tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz to discover your competitors’ top pages and keywords.
2. Analyze Competitor Content
Once you’ve identified competitors, dive deeper into their content. Look at their blog posts, product pages, videos, and other types of content. Analyze the topics they cover, how well they answer user queries, and the overall quality of their writing, visuals, and structure.
Why It Matters:
By analyzing competitor content, you can uncover the strategies that are driving their traffic and discover areas where you can outperform them. Look for trends in content quality, format, and the level of detail they provide.
Tip: Pay attention to the length of their content, how they use keywords, the number of backlinks they have, and the way they structure their posts. Are they using multimedia like videos, infographics, or podcasts?
3. Find Content Gaps
After analyzing competitor content, identify the gaps—topics or subtopics that your competitors aren’t addressing. These gaps present an opportunity for you to create content that provides more value, targeting underserved areas in your niche.
Why It Matters:
Content gaps are opportunities to differentiate yourself from competitors. By covering topics they haven’t, you can attract traffic from users who are searching for these specific queries.
Tip: Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to find keywords that your competitors rank for, but that you don’t. These tools will highlight content gaps, showing you exactly where you can improve.
4. Evaluate Keywords and SEO Tactics
Next, take a close look at the keywords that are driving traffic to your competitors. What are the high-performing keywords they are targeting? Analyze the keyword difficulty, search volume, and user intent behind those keywords. Use this information to build a targeted list of keywords for your content.
Why It Matters:
Targeting the right keywords is essential for improving your search rankings. By using the keywords your competitors rank for, you can potentially rank higher if you improve on their content and provide more value.
Tip: Use keyword tools to evaluate how difficult it would be to rank for certain terms. Identify long-tail keywords that may have lower competition but still drive significant traffic.
5. Improve User Engagement
Lastly, look at how your competitors engage their users. What types of calls-to-action (CTAs) do they use? Do they ask for comments, shares, or email signups? How interactive are their posts (e.g., polls, quizzes)? This is important because user engagement signals like bounce rate and time on page affect SEO rankings.
Why It Matters:
High user engagement is a ranking factor for Google. If your competitors are getting a lot of engagement, you’ll need to match or exceed that to stand out.
Tip: Experiment with interactive elements like quizzes, polls, or comment sections to boost engagement. Also, ensure your content is well-structured with clear CTAs, making it easy for users to take the next step.
Example
Imagine you manage an outdoor gear eCommerce site. You notice that your competitors’ blog posts, such as “The Best Hiking Trails in the U.S.” and “Top Outdoor Gear for Beginners,” consistently rank well on search engines. But when you look at your blog, you realize your hiking trail guide is only a short list with minimal details, and your gear recommendations are outdated.
Here’s how you can perform a competitive analysis and improve your content:
- Identify Competitors:
After doing a search for keywords like “best hiking trails in the U.S.” and “top outdoor gear for beginners,” you see that a few competitors dominate these search results. You use SEMrush to identify their top-ranking pages and keywords. - Analyze Competitor Content:
You review their hiking trail guides and gear recommendations. They include detailed descriptions, user reviews, photos, and even downloadable PDFs. Your content, in contrast, lacks depth and has fewer multimedia elements. - Find Content Gaps:
You notice your competitors have guides for specific regions, like “Hiking Trails in California” or “Best Gear for Cold Weather Hiking,” while your blog posts are generic. This presents an opportunity to create region-specific or season-specific content. - Evaluate Keywords:
You use Ahrefs to analyze the keywords driving traffic to these top-ranking pages. You discover that your competitors are ranking for long-tail keywords like “best lightweight hiking boots for beginners” and “beginner-friendly camping gear.” These are the keywords you haven’t targeted yet. - Improve User Engagement:
Your competitors have comment sections where readers ask questions, share their experiences, and engage with the content. You don’t currently have a comment section or interactive elements in your posts. You decide to add a Q&A section at the end of your guides to encourage more engagement.
By improving your content with these insights, you create more detailed, user-friendly, and engaging blog posts that target specific keywords and provide better value than your competitors. This can help you attract more visitors, increase rankings, and stand out in a competitive space.
Performing a competitive analysis is essential for staying ahead in the content game. By identifying competitors, analyzing their content strategies, finding content gaps, and improving user engagement, you can create content that stands out and outperforms the competition. The more strategic you are in your approach, the higher your chances of driving traffic and boosting SEO rankings.