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Have you ever heard the expression “Re-inventing the Wheel”?

Well, in the search engine optimization world, re-inventing the wheel should be the furthest from your mind. Analyzing your competitors websites and marketing strategies can not only help you increase your rankings in search engines, it can help you surpass these very competitors.

What can you expect to achieve through an effective analysis of your competitors?
At Primary Target, we’re often asked this very questions, because website owners simply don’t know the lengths their competitors may have taken to achieve these top results in search engines.

First of all, analyzing their content and keyword selection can help you identify the quality of content in which the major search engines are seeking. Reviewing how and where your competitors use specific keywords throughout their website, you are able to effectively your own copy and structure for your website.

Next, using the search engines themselves, you’re able to disect your competitors internal and external linking strategies. Internal links are links which appear within the competitors website, pointing to different sections of the same website. External links are those in which appear on outside websites, pointing to specific areas and pages on your competitor’s website.

Both of the above tactics can help you gain valuable insight on what your competitors are doing to achieve high search engine rankings.

Here are a few quick things to get you started… You may want to grab a pen and paper for this exercise.

By visiting your competitor’s website, have a look at their ‘title’ tag. This is the text that appears in the very top portion of your web browser (next to the minimize, restore and close icons). Does it appear well written, with quality keyword selection? What can you do to improve this very ‘title’?

If you’re feeling adventurous, take a look at the source code of the website and look for the “H” tags. They look something like the following: <h1>, <h2> etc. Do these tags exist within the page? If so, does this text include favorable keyword selection etc.? Again, what can you do to improve these tags?

These are just a few of the important “on-site” elements that make up proper search engine optimization techniques.

For a more in-depth analysis of your competitors, consult a professional, as they will know exactly what to look for and where to find it.

As usual of course, we recommend you call us here at Primary Target, however the choice is yours.

Next time, we’ll get more into structuring your content for search engines, so stay tuned!