Online marketing is taken to the next level with competitor analysis. SEO strategy to attract more traffic to your site can be effectively honed based on the outcome. The top spots on search engine query result pages is vied for by a number of niche e-commerce players and to rank higher mandates effective analysis of the prevalent and potential competition.

You can gain productive insights into your competitors’ methods of brand promotion and marketing along with the platforms they have been using to arrest the attention of niche consumers. Competition analysis helps you in building a rich database of varied promotional opportunities to gain an edge over the opponents.

Why is competition analysis vital?

Kick starting the eCommerce SEO mandates beginning from scratch by conducting a broad based keyword analysis to strike a chord with prospective consumers. You will be required to look for quality back-linking and content marketing platforms for influencing and enticing leads. Further, a prudent social media marketing strategy will be needed to engage with consumers in real time. All these will consume significant time wherein you stand the risk of losing the edge to opponents who have capitalized in the meantime through superior promotional strategies.
 

Analyzing competitors will make a spate of benefits come your way, prominent among them being

• Arrive at keywords which when targeted will yield explosive results in the shortest possible time
• Learn about tactics employed by competitors for page optimization around targeted keywords
• Get a feel of website design strategies that would definitely click
• Vary keywords in the anchor text
• Numerous back-linking and link building opportunities
• Successful content marketing strategies being embraced by competitors
• Successful social media optimization strategy that will help in building constructive relationship with focused consumer base

When to go for this analysis?

It is better to go for the analysis in the initial stages after you have conceived of the site. This will expose you to a flurry of options pertaining to choosing the most laser targeted keywords, best site design concepts to offer leads the most intuitive and rewarding shopping experience, and systematic arrangement of information to facilitate seamless site navigation. The driving force behind the competitors’ sites will serve as inspiration to gear your site building and branding endeavors in the most productive direction. If you have already a site which has been lost in obscurity, you can again steal the limelight by redesigning your e-commerce site as per competitors’ best strategies.

You need to shortlist the most result oriented keywords that resonate with consumer sentiments and have been hugely successful in the chosen niche. Make a list of the sites that are benefitting optimally from chosen keywords. You need to solicit the expert help of tools like SEMrush etc. Now, build a list of sites which have emerged after comparing different combinations of keywords. The sites that consistently appear for different sets of keywords are the real competitors. You need to observe and adopt the strategies that have catapulted them to heights of business success based on your niche size, demographics and locality. You now have the key to unparalleled success with shortest turnaround time.

About the author:

The author has penned numerous columns in leading e-commerce magazines. He has been actively associated with eCommerce SEO analysis and link building for the past decade.