| The beauty of the Internet is the inherent | | | | optimization, check how many pages are |
| open nature of competition. It is so open, | | | | indexed in the relevant search engine. Do a |
| you can check indexes when analyzing the | | | | search for "site:competitorsdomainname." |
| competition to improve your site. | | | | You'll be presented with a list of their |
| | | | pages, the meta title and meta description. |
| Analyzing the Competition | | | | This works particularly well with Google. |
| | | | |
| A key step to any search engine optimization | | | | The resulting list of pages can be analyzed |
| effort is to analyze the competition. The | | | | in a couple of different ways. First, you can |
| simplest way to do this is to simply go to | | | | isolate the particular keywords being pursued |
| their site and look at the code. Most | | | | by the site. These should then be compared to |
| browsers let you do this by clicking the | | | | your site to ascertain whether you're missing |
| "view" tab and then selecting "source." | | | | anything. You almost always are missing a key |
| | | | niche. Second, you can analyze the meta |
| You competition isn't stupid. Many sites will | | | | description to see both the layout and |
| bar browsers from showing source code using | | | | particular formation of sentences and keyword |
| the above technique. If your competition | | | | placement they are pursuing. Again, compare |
| takes this step, is there anything you can | | | | it to yours. Using this process, you can get |
| do? Yes, there is. | | | | an idea of how your efforts differ from a |
| | | | competitor. |
| Indexes | | | | |
| | | | Importantly, this approach should not be |
| Almost everyone knows how to check if their | | | | overvalued. It is only a glimpse of the |
| site is indexed in a search engine. Simply go | | | | competitor's site, not a thorough review. It |
| to the engine and search for | | | | will tell you nothing about how pages are |
| "site:yourdomainname." This technique can | | | | arranged, keyword density approaches and so |
| also be used to see what your competition is | | | | on. You'll have to hunt and peck around the |
| up to. | | | | site for that information. Still, the meta |
| | | | information gained from this approach makes |
| If you want to see a glimpse of how a | | | | it worth a go if you are shut out from the |
| competitor is pursuing search engine | | | | code of a site. |