Why are they ranking higher than me?

SEO competitor analysis.

Feb  2014  Kelvin  Newman  –  Founder  Rough  

Agenda    @kelvinnewman

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WARNING  !

Super  simplified  explanation  of  SEO  ahead

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Technical  Stuff  +  

Good  Links  =  

Profit

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Technical  Stuff  +  

Good  Links  =  

Profit

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Technical  Stuff  +  

Good  Links  =  

Profit

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SocialCrawlyticsGOOGLE  AREN’T  THE  ENEMY  THEY’RE  THE  REFEREE

Competitive Informed link building

• The  most  successful  of  your  link  building  efforts  will  be  informed  by  understanding  what  has  worked  for  you  compeUtors.  – There  are  a  number  of  tools  and  techniques  available  to  beXer  understand  the  “context”  of  your  link  building.  • MajesUcSEO  • SEOmoz  OpenSite  Explorer  • SocialCrawlyUcs  • Tom  Anthony’s  Link  Profiler

Determining Who Your competitors are

• InsUncUvely  you’ll  know  who  your  main  compeUtors  are  however  you  need  to  also  understand  the  compeUtors  who  are  link  building  effecUvely.  – There’s  several  approaches  to  finding  similar  sites  online.  • The  “related:domain.com”  advanced  search  query  • LinkedIn  Company  Insights  “People  Also  Viewed”  • Who  ranks?  

MajesticSEO• hXps://www.majesUcseo.com/

MajesticSEO

• MajesUcSEO  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  and  comprehensive  link  building  tools.  It  is  one  of  the  best  tool  and  understanding  the  ‘when’  in  link  building.  – QuesUons  to  be  asking  yourself  when  using  the  tool.  

• Any  URL’s  which  get  the  lion’s  share  of  links?  • Which  pieces  of  content  don’t  just  get  the  most  link  but  the  most  trusted  and  diverse  links.  

• Are  there  academic  or  educaUonal  insUtuUons  which  are  parUcular  supporUve  of  your  sector.  

MajesticSEO Findings...

• Using  Econsultancy  as  an  example  compeUtor  we  can  learn  the  following.  

• Topics  about  avoiding  negaUve  tend  to  get  beXer  linked  that  posiUve.  

• List  posts  tend  to  the  get  well  shared.  • Are  there  academic  or  educaUonal  insUtuUons  which  are  parUcular  supporUve  of  your  sector.    

• Blog  posts  tend  to  aXract  more  links  than                                                  reports  but  the  quality  of  the  links  are  much  higher.

SEOmoz OpenSiteExplorer• hXp://www.opensiteexplorer.org/

OpenSiteExplorer

• OpenSiteExplorer  doesn’t  have  the  depth  of  index  or  funcUonality  of  MajesUcSEO  but  it  is  far  more  intuiUve  and  easy  to  master.  – QuesUons  to  be  asking  yourself  when  using  the  tool.  

• Does  the  different  index  of  links  highlight  different  well  linked  content?  

• Understand  the  most  trusted  linking  domains  to  see  who  links  oien  to  a  lot  of  different  content,  these  are  worthy  of  extensive  relaUonship  building.  

• OpenSiteExplorer  is  much  beXer  at  communicaUng  how  different  sites  compare  on  metrics,  why  are  some  site  strong  in  some  areas

OpenSiteExplorer Findings

• One  of  the  best  features  of  OSE  is  how  easy  it  is  to  benchmark  yourself  as  agains  compeUtors.  – Using  Econsultancy,  Smart  Insights  &  Mashable  we  can  learn  the  following.  • The  raUo  between  followed  and  no-­‐followed  links  on  SI  and  M  are  similar,  E  has  a  much  lower  raUo  of  no  followed  links,  why  is  this?  and  what  can  we  learn  from  that?  

• Outside  of  brand  name  anchor  text  Econsultancy  has  a  high  number  of  ‘author  brand’  anchor  text  links,  is  this  a  deliberate  strategy?  

• The  Nemlix  piece  is  well  regarded  by  OSE  despite  not  having  many  social  shares,  what’s  unique  about  this  piece?

Social Crawlytics• hXp://socialcrawlyUcs.com/

SocialCrawlytics

• Understanding  which  pieces  of  content  are  mostly  widely  shared  on  your  and  compeUtor  sites  will  help  you  appreciate  what  works  and  what  doesn’t  in  your  niche.  – QuesUons  to  be  asking  yourself  when  using  the  tool.  • Is  there  a  parUcular  content  type  that’s  popular?  i.e.  infographics  v.s.  videos  v.s.  podcasts  etc.  

• Does  sharing  on  one  network  vastly  out  number  another?  • What  are  the  underlying  ‘needs’  the  popular                                                        content  is  addressing?

SocialCrawlytics Findings

• It’s  widely  reported  that  social  share  do/could  influence  search  results.  We’ll  cover  how  and  why  later.  – InteresUng  findings  based  on  the  Econsultancy.  

• The  Content  that  is  most  widely  socially  shared  doesn’t  always  ‘match’  with  the  most  linked.  

• TwiXer  and  LinkedIn  share  the  content  more  widely.  • Google+  really  seems  to  favour  content  about  Google  properUes.  

• Lists  conUnue  to  dominate,  but  trend  lists,  • i.e.  13  thinks  in  2013  seem  to  get  widely                                                          shared  but  less  widely  linked.

Tom Anthony’s Link Profiler• hXp://www.seomoz.org/blog/link-­‐profile-­‐tool-­‐to-­‐discover-­‐linking-­‐acUvity

Tom Anthony’s Link Profiler

• This  is  one  of  a  growing  number  of  shared  Google  docs  available  which  takes  out  much  of  the  heavy  liiing  of  link  analysis.  – It  requires  either  a  SEOmoz  API  or  to  manually  cut  and  paste  some  data  

from  Open  Site  Explorer    – QuesUons  to  be  asking  yourself  when  using  the  tool.  

• Is  there  a  compeUtor  in  the  space  that  is  ‘unusual’  in  how  it’s  links  are  distributed?  

• Even  if  there’s  a  good  general  fit  what  causes  the  anomalies?  • How  does  the  distribuUon  in  this  sector  differ  from  others?  is  their  normal  different?

Not  about  the  actual  links  but  the  themes

TRACK  DOWN  THE  TIPPING  POINT  LINKS

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Any Questions?

• Any  follow  quesUons  do  get  in  touch  – kelvin@roughagenda.com  – twiXer.com/kelvinnewman  – 07917  851  501