Q&A Spot: How do I measure my strongest competitors
QUESTION:
I have been doing the keyword analysis along the lines of the last lesson and have found some really good keyphrases which I'm sure will help my business. One thing occurred to me whilst I was doing this. We have assumed that if a web page out there includes our keyphrase - for example 'marine sound proofing' then they are a competitor, but surely just because they have the phrase in their text doesnt mean they have optimised their site? Is there another way of measuring competition?
Jim Bain, Hartlepool Marine & Auto Soundproofing
ANSWER:
I hinted to this at the end of the last lesson. (Lesson 5) Actually I think that if any web page includes your keyphrase it is a competitor. However they may not be a serious competitor. A better measure of how much serious competition there is, is to use the Allintitle command: If you go to Google and type in allintitle:marine sound proofing - in the search box. You will see that there are only 14 sites out there with this phrase in their title tag, so indeed very little serious competition (although there are over 28,000 pages which include this phrase in them).
The TITLE tag is the subject of this weeks lesson ( Lesson 6) - and you will see that it is a major factor in optimisation, so its a good assumption that those sites which include your keyphrase in their title tag have optimised their site to some degree. You can construct and prioritise another KEI list based on the allintitle results - but this is seldom necessary unless you are in a very competitive online business. The good news is,you have found a phrase with very little serious competition.
I have been doing the keyword analysis along the lines of the last lesson and have found some really good keyphrases which I'm sure will help my business. One thing occurred to me whilst I was doing this. We have assumed that if a web page out there includes our keyphrase - for example 'marine sound proofing' then they are a competitor, but surely just because they have the phrase in their text doesnt mean they have optimised their site? Is there another way of measuring competition?
Jim Bain, Hartlepool Marine & Auto Soundproofing
ANSWER:
I hinted to this at the end of the last lesson. (Lesson 5) Actually I think that if any web page includes your keyphrase it is a competitor. However they may not be a serious competitor. A better measure of how much serious competition there is, is to use the Allintitle command: If you go to Google and type in allintitle:marine sound proofing - in the search box. You will see that there are only 14 sites out there with this phrase in their title tag, so indeed very little serious competition (although there are over 28,000 pages which include this phrase in them).
The TITLE tag is the subject of this weeks lesson ( Lesson 6) - and you will see that it is a major factor in optimisation, so its a good assumption that those sites which include your keyphrase in their title tag have optimised their site to some degree. You can construct and prioritise another KEI list based on the allintitle results - but this is seldom necessary unless you are in a very competitive online business. The good news is,you have found a phrase with very little serious competition.
posted by Unknown at
3:17 pm
