Loading ...What your competitors do can have a big effect on your own site’s optimisation. Competitor analysis is an important stage in search engine optimisation, and should be performed early enough in the process so that the information can be put to good use. One of the aspects of competitor analysis that can be particularly helpful is analysing their backlinks.
A high-ranking competitor may prove a tough challenge in the search engine results pages, but their links can be your allies. Some of the best linking opportunities can be found within your competitors’ backlinks. All it takes is a little analysis with the proper tools and experience.
Choose your tools wisely
It’s impossible to analyse a site’s links without the proper tools. There are a few backlink analysers out there for free, which is great. These tools are not all of the best quality, which is not so great. If you’re accessing the services of an SEO company, they will be able to assist you with backlink analysis. You can discuss this with us at SEO Consult Australia. Using an SEO professional means that you have access to quality tools for analysis and other elements of search engine optimisation.
If you do pursue your competitors’ backlinks using a free tool, make sure you go through the help files that come with the software. These can provide you with a few really handy hints for your analysis.
Going beyond Google
While it’s true that Google’s PageRank ranking system is the one that is most important to your search engine optimization, it’s not the only form of ranking that’s important. When you assess the links of your competitors, it’s important to move beyond PageRank. Every system has its flaws, and PageRank certainly has a few. By using more than one form of ranking system, you can cut out many of each system’s flaws. When you have the data from your backlink analysis, sort it by the types of ranking system to see which sites come up tops in both.
How to make the assessment
Once you have the data from your backlink analysis, the most important tool you can access is a simple spreadsheet. Paste the data sets into separate work sheets according to the ranking system you’re going to measure them on. Sort the data, and remove all links that have a bad ranking. This gives you at least two separate, tidy lists of links that are really providing your competitors with an edge in the search engine results.
If you’ve sorted the list well, you now have a list of sites you might approach as part of your search engine optimization. You also have information on how your competitors are doing so well.
Important note on nofollows
Nofollow tags complicate the lives of anyone involved in SEO. First of all you have to deal with them when trying to build a link profile. You also have to deal with them when analysing backlinks, because not all analysis tools will separate nofollow links from ordinary links. Check the settings of whatever tool you’re using.
Related posts:
- Web Analytics Logfile Analysis
- How to dismantle your competitors
- Analysing Competitor Link Profiles
- Guide to building backlinks
- What your competitors can do for you
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