Examine Your Competition before Starting an SEO & Marketing Campaign,

Thinking to add an effective search engine optimization strategy to your advertising and marketing campaign this year? Prior to starting your program, it is significant to first know who your online competitors are and what type of online marketing strategies they are already doing. You need to take some time to research and examine your local and national competitors online...before they evaluate you first.

Here are a few guidelines and questions to consider during performing research on the Internet about your competitors:

Website Design and Layout

Is your competitor using a search engine friendly Web design, like HTML or ASP site?

Are they using JavaScript, frames, a dynamically-driven site or tables that would prevent search engines from properly indexing their sites?

Are there any Web sites built entirely in flash?

Are their sites simple to navigate with a practiced look and feel by using the same font and sizes and similar color schemes all through?

How heavy are the graphics on the Web site?

How many Web pages does each of your competitors have in their site? Does your site require improvement on the content-rich Web pages you have?

Does the complete Web site focus on one central theme alone?

Position of Keywords

Where your competitors are using their chosen keywords? The META title tag or the META description tag? The META keywords tag or in ALT tags? What about the in link text and caption tags? The page URL and image names?

How often those keywords appear on each Web page?

Where does each of their keywords appear first on the pages of your competitor's sites?

Do they achieve good rankings for chosen keywords online in Google, MSN and Yahoo!?

What is the keyword weight and mass of the entire content of your competitors? Are their keyword spamming?

What are their chosen keywords that are targeted on their sites?

Off Page Factors

Check your competitors Alexa traffic rank and compare it with yours. Do they get more or less Web traffic to their sites, in accordance with Alexa.com?

What is their Google PageRank? Once more, is it higher or lower than yours?

Go to a reputable link popularity checker online and evaluate the number of incoming links your site have versus your competitors. How much improvement in link building does your site need to effectively compete online?

What type of incoming links they are receiving, how top quality is these links, and how much traffic does a link from these sites make for your competitors each month?

Are your competitors registered with any popular link directories, like dmoz.org, Yahoo! Directory, Business.com or other high traffic directories online?

Do they have sign up box for an industry email newsletter on their sites?

Uses of Spamming Techniques

Is the competitor's site using any spam or unprincipled search engine practices? If so, what is it?

Do any of these sites have doorway pages?

Do they have similar color text on a same color background?

Are they deliberately keyword spamming?

Are these sites publicly listed or allied with gambling or adult-oriented sites?

posted by Skarmund @ 2:51 PM permanent link   |

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