These days, every brand, business, and personality seems to be after the coveted first page of Google’s search results, and it’s easy to see why. Most people tend to pick websites that are in higher rankings than those that aren’t, after all. And those that appear in favorable positions are more likely to attract inbound traffic to achieve high conversion rates. While many aspire to get to the top, the reality is that the majority of all prestigious spots have likely been taken already. But that’s not to say that it’s impossible to reach your goals of securing a good position. Through search engine optimization (SEO) solutions by expert agencies, a business can elevate its visibility by ranking high on the SERPs or search engine results pages. This is why it’s recommended to hire professionals like Boston SEO agencies if the company is in the Boston area, for instance.

However, it’s always a good idea to learn how to gain a competitive advantage if you decide to take over the reins yourself. In this guide, we’ll reveal strategies, practices, and tips on how you can edge out your competitors and get the desired positions through SEO. Continue reading if you wish to learn more.

Determine your competitors

Before you begin competing with your rivals, you must first determine who they are. When you get right down to it, you’ll end up wasting resources racing against those who aren’t after your intended audience. As a result, those who are will be reeling in and profiting from your target audience. It may sound like a tall order – and in actuality, it can sometimes feel that way – but there are tools available online that help you make the process a lot less tedious than it would have been otherwise like WebCEO. But make no mistake – you’ll still need to do a fair amount of work once you’ve scanned websites that rank for your chosen keywords to find who your real competitors are. Here are some of the criteria that you need to take a look at:

• Ranked keywords. In this column, you’ll be able to see who your competitors are and how well they rank in certain keywords. 
• Average position in ranking. Not all websites will rank similarly for different keywords. In this column, you’ll see their average positions in ranking for the selected keywords.
• Alexa global rank for traffic. This shows the daily volume of traffic a website gets. The reason why it is referred to as Alexa is because WebCEO draws the data from it.

Once you’ve evaluated the information, you must then select the websites who are outperforming yours in the above mentioned areas. Be sure to triple-check if they share the same niche and keywords as you do by visiting their sites. It will save you a lot of trouble.

Analyze their weaknesses and strengths in SEO

Identifying the competition might seem like enough preparation, but there’s a lot more that you can do with your competitive analysis of SEO to help you gain a competitive advantage. So don’t do things half-heartedly. Go the entire way and analyze the websites of your rivals. You may ask yourself, what you can gain from doing so. Incidentally, it gives you better insight to the weaknesses and strengths of their SEO campaigns that you might be able to take advantage of and benefit from:

• Keywords. The majority of tools for SEO can scan websites to find out if they’re optimized for the selected keywords. They can either be a strength or a weakness, depending on how they’re used. For instance, if a competitor fails to rank high in a for the targeted terms and phrases, you may be able to do a much better job.

• Backlinks. Commonly used for their ability to drive traffic and build credibility for a website, backlinks are a critical part of any SEO campaign. However, they’ll only fulfill their intended purpose if the sources are reputable. By checking those links to your competitors, you may find more backlinks that you can use.

• Brand mentions. While not as strong as backlinks, brand mentions can still strengthen the presence of a website. Keep in mind that there’s a difference between improving and strengthening. If, for example, someone says something negative about a website, it creates exposure for it, but not necessarily in a good way. By keeping track of both your competitors and your own mentions, you’ll find more opportunities to step up your efforts in SEO by being mentioned on similar websites as your rivals do.

• Secure SEO services. Let’s face it: there’s a limit to what we can do, especially with specialized jobs like SEO. It is for this reason that you must always pair your efforts with that of a professional agency.

 Conclusion

Search engine optimization is a process. Success won’t happen overnight – it will require time, a fair bit of work, and resources. By identifying who your opponents are and evaluating what they bring to the table, you’ll have a better understanding of what you need to do to get the results you’re looking for.