Business is certainly a field of fierce competition. We see new ads every now and then to help capture most of the market share in the fastest time possible. One tactic that companies often use to determine their position online is to find competitors. You have to know who you are fighting against and learn their strategies. This will help you devise better plans to get ahead of the curve.
Your best defense is to learn how to search for competitors online. See the tips below.
1. Check the SERPs
Type a specific product or service on Google and it will show you the most relevant results. As an online marketer, you can use this to your advantage.
To find competitors in your local area, you need to tailor your search in a specific format. The best practice is to add the name of your locality. For example, instead of typing “web developer,” search for “web developer in Denver, Colorado.” You now have a more targeted approach.
The top results either in the maps or link list will show you the best players in the niche. See if your business is in the list. If not, learn more about the companies that are shown and their advantages over you. Is it SEO related or the customer reviews? This will help you tailor your services or marketing strategies in the future.
2. Pay Attention to Ads
The exposure your business can get from advertising is very important. This explains why nearly all businesses invest in both online and offline platforms to get their brands to the top of the charts.
Google places ads at the top, bottom, and right side of the SERP if you are in desktop view. This gives you the brands that have secured the top spots in the bidding. To find competitors in your area on Google Ads, use the same trick of adding locality in your search keywords. This will give you the right results.
3. Use STAT
STAT is one of the best ranking tools that are regularly used online. To find who your search competitors are, you have to set up keyword tracking. You need to plug in your domain and keyword seed list, then allow this program to run for approximately 24 hours. Once ready and all the information is available, check the “Competitive Landscape” tab. Here, you will find your top competitors based on the keywords you have just given STAT.
Within the same section, you can also monitor the organic “share of voice” to see successful and failing domains and those that can become a potential threat.
This paid search competitor analysis tool has a keyword tagging tool. You can group your keywords according to type. It monitors your domain’s performance across all groups of keywords. You can also see whether you have dissimilar foes within every keyword segment.
For example, if one of your keyword segments is “car cleaning” and another is “car accessories,” you will probably notice that contenders differ between these two groups.
4. Try SEMrush
SEMrush is yet another competitive tool that can give you keyword ranking and traffic information. This comes with a charge to get unlimited data. To find competitors online, add your domain and look for the “Main Organic Competitors” section.
This tool determines the number of keywords present in each domain and the number of common keywords. The more keywords you share with a page, the higher the competition level.
5. Check Searchmetrics
Searchmetrics will also give you a good overview of your current position online, including some of your main competitors. This tool has a monthly subscription. Go to the “SEO Research” tab and choose “Competitors.”
One of the best features of this paid search competitor analysis tool is its competitor chart. This shows you the number of keywords you share with your top competitors in a form of a graph. On the right side, you will see the competitors with whom you share fewer keywords. This can display as many as 250 competitors in one single graph.
Knowing your competitors is just one part; studying their strategies and devising yours to be better makes up the rest of a successful venture. While you can use any of the above-mentioned techniques and tools, you can also check our SEO services for guaranteed results. Let us help you find competitors in your locality! Speak to one of our representatives by filling out the form below.
