4. Identify
broad
and
niche
competitors
Broad
competitor:
competitor
in
your
market
Niche
competitor:
competitor
for
a
segment
of
your
market
How
to
identify:
Take
note
of
competitors
routinely
showing
up
for
related
searches
Ask
client
to
compile
a
top
10-‐20
list
of
online
and
offline
competitors
Survey
customers
Research
industry
associations,
forums
and
networks
6. Goal:
Determine
w hat
t heir
s trategy
is,
how
s uccessful
they
a re
a t
implementing
it
a nd
to
learn
f rom
it
7. What
keywords
do
they
believe
are
a
priority?
What
keywords
they
are
targeting
that
you
should?
How
well
are
they
ranking
for
their
targeted
keywords?
How
are
they
optimizing
their
title
tag
structure?
8. What
keywords
are
they
focusing
their
headlines
on?
Are
they
focusing
heavily
on
branding
or
optimization?
Are
they
optimizing
their
internal
link
structure?
Which
keywords
are
they
using
the
most
as
anchor
text?
How
often
are
they
creating
new
content?
What
types
of
content
are
they
creating?
Is
it
link-‐bait
like
content
or
just
branded
content?
9. How
well
is
their
site
rendering
in
the
search
engines?
How
are
they
optimizing
their
navigation?
What
are
their
calls
to
action?
Are
they
obvious?
How
well
is
their
site
being
indexed
in
the
SERPs?
How
clean
is
their
HTML?
Does
it
look
they
are
actively
optimizing
their
code?
How
quickly
is
their
site
rendering?
How
does
it
compare
to
yours?
11. Goal:
Determine
w hat
t heir
e xternal
s ite
o ptimization
strategy
is
a nd
to
learn
how
to
c apitalize
o n
it
12. Total
number
of
backlinks
Date
backlinks
were
created
Pay
close
attention
to
growth
patterns
The
pages
receiving
the
most
backlinks
Outside
of
the
homepage
Anchor
text
being
used
Pay
special
attention
to
which
pages
are
being
linked
to
What
percentage
are
images/no-‐follow?
13. What
forums
are
they
participating
in?
What
associations/organizations
are
they
members
of?
What
conferences
are
they
sponsoring?
What
blogs
are
they
guest
posting
on?
At
what
frequency
On
what
topics
Can
you
tell
if
they
are
buying
links?
14. What
are
they
doing
to
acquire
these
links?
What
is
their
content
creation
strategy?
Are
they
inviting
guest
bloggers?
Are
they
creating
viral
content?
Are
they
creating
free
tools
and
widgets?
Are
they
conducting
interviews?
Are
they
holding
contests?
Are
people
reviewing
their
products
on
their
own
sites?
Where
are
they
getting
mentioned
and
what
is
the
sentiment
of
those
mentions?
16. After
initial
competitor
review,
revisit
every
quarter
Determine
how
their
strategy
is
evolving:
How
have
their
rankings
increased/decreased?
How
many
inbound
links
have
they
built?
How
much
has
their
site
grown?
Did
they
launch
any
major
link
bait
programs?
What
were
their
successes
and
failures?
How
does
this
compare
to
your
site?
Are
there
any
new
links,
communities,
keywords
for
you
to
target?
17. Taylor
Pratt
-‐
@RavenPratt
smx.raventools.com
For
a
complete
competitor
c hecklist,
e mail:
taylor@raventools.com