subject: Search Engine Marketing Tool - Analysis Of The Competition [print this page] Probably the most common mistake internet marketers make is not to investigate the strength of the competition. In their eagerness to get their business rolling, they forget to objectively assess their chances of success against their competition. Heed the following warning. If the competition is too strong--because they have gained a strong dominance over your niche--your best option will actually be to find another one which is not "ruled over" by competitors.
This article will give you a glimpse of the elements that come into play in the analysis process of your strongest competitors. By gauging the preeminence of the competition, you will be able to make an authoritative decision on whether a candidate niche will be worth pursuing.
An excellent way of visualizing the process of page ranking is to imagine that Google sends out automated robots--which we will call as Googlebots--to tabulate the faithfulness of websites against certain criteria elements. Two general criteria groups are probed: on- and off-page elements.
On-Page Elements
As the Googlebot explores a site, it gets information on specific aspects to assess the relevance of its individual web pages to online users. The web page titles, descriptions, header tags and whether the appropriate keywords can be found on the domain name are individually checked. Google considers the correct integration of these element as positive points for each web page that comply. The Googlebot makes a report on "points garnered" with respect to its in-house criteria. Google proceeds to make a record (which techies call a cache) of the updated reports on websites the Googlebots visit. This is done at regular intervals so that rankings do not have to be constantly generated.
Off-Page Elements
Googlebots also assess domain age and the number of indexed pages on each site; the older a site and the more compliant content pages it has--the better. Additionally, the Googlebot reports the number of back links there are to a website. When sites with high authority or legitimacy such as educational (.edu) and government (.gov) sites link to a domain, the Goooglebots interpret this as a strong plus; that a site is delivering good quality content. Also, if a site is listed in the Dmoz and Yahoo directories, the Googlebots will likewise give additional points on a site's ranking.
A thorough analysis of both On-Page and Off-page elements can be difficult or almost impossible to do without the proper tools. Possibly the easiest and fastest way for this is to use the SEO Competition Module of the Market Samurai software.
With it, a complete and authoritative analysis of your niche's top competitors can be available for your study after a few short minutes.
