Before we can identify the keywords our competitors are ranking for, we have to first identify who our competitors are in the first place. When investigating who you’re competing against for space in the SERP, be sure to consider the following.
1. Your online competitors may be different than your “real life” competitors
This may be particularly true if you have a physical business (e.g. a brick-and-mortar store, a service area business, or any business that meets with customers face-to-face). Investigating and tracking competitors directly in the area of your business should be a component of your strategy but make sure not to neglect your online competitors. Be sure to research what businesses, physical or online-only, are coming up in the search results for your target keywords, industry, and niche. This can help you get a well-rounded picture of your competitive landscape and help you spot competitors you may not have had on your radar.
Pro tip! If you have a local business, you can use Moz Local to track and monitor your rankings, spot competitors in your space, and see who is ranking in Google Maps results
2. Products, services, or verticals may have different competitors
Depending on your business, you may have more than one set of competitors to keep an eye on. For example, if I have a cupcake business that offers mail-order cupcakes and I also offer paid online cooking classes, my competitors for selling my cupcakes may be different from the ones for my cooking classes. I will need to make sure I do research around both to ensure I have a complete understanding of how I am showing up in SERPs for my target keywords.
3. Guessing who your competitors are can lead you down the wrong path, wasting time and money
Don’t just guess who your online competitors are. Not only can this lead to mistargeted content, but also blindspots in your overall SEO strategy. When doing comprehensive competitor keyword analysis, it’s important to make sure you are tracking the right competitors and examining the right SERPs.
4. Be realistic
When considering who your competitors are, make sure you’re being honest with yourself and your team about who you can truly compete against. This means that if you are a smaller business and are seeing large brands like Amazon or Apple in the search results for your keywords, you are not likely to compete with or overtake those competitors in the SERPs. Instead of aiming to be number one in those results, identify the highest-ranking site or page that is similar to your business or brand’s size and authority as a target to aim for.
Pro tip! Curious how your brand stacks up to your competitors? With Moz’s Brand AuthorityTM metric, you get a quantitative understanding of your brand strength and salience. You can see your score compared to your top SERP competitors in the Domain Overview tool.