{"id":24401,"date":"2018-08-31T16:59:41","date_gmt":"2018-08-31T21:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.webfeatcomplete.com\/?p=24401"},"modified":"2018-08-31T16:59:41","modified_gmt":"2018-08-31T21:59:41","slug":"evaluate-competitors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webfeatcomplete.com\/evaluate-competitors\/","title":{"rendered":"An Actionable Framework for Evaluating Competitors"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Components of the Evaluation:<\/p>\n

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  1. Website Quality<\/li>\n
  2. Search Presence<\/li>\n
  3. Social Media Presence<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Each of these components can (and will) be broken into more specific pieces. For now, know that we\u2019ll evaluate based on the above.<\/p>\n

    Website Quality<\/h2>\n

    Website quality is the most important measure of how successful an internet-focused business will be. Websites directly affect both conversions and search presence. Unfortunately, website quality is also the most difficult component to measure. To do so, we will need to turn to something called a heuristic evaluation, which is a fancy term for a UX test. This test cannot be performed automatically and must be performed by a single person, which is a bit of a pain.<\/p>\n

    We don\u2019t have any real recommendation here. Google \u201cHeuristic Analysis,\u201d pick your favorite, and run through your own website and a competitor\u2019s. This will provide a baseline for how helpful users will find your website to be. The more helpful, the more likely users will take positive actions (those that contribute to your bottom line). The trend goes both ways, however.<\/p>\n

    We cannot overstate how important it is that your website be accommodating to users. Search and social media presence is nice, but your website is where your users put their money where their mouth is (figuratively and literally).<\/p>\n

    Search Presence<\/h2>\n

    Search presence is important insofar as people use Google to help them solve their problems. I\u2019ll focus more on organic presence, since paid presence is easier to evaluate. The process for evaluating both is extremely similar, though.<\/p>\n

    There can be two goals when evaluating search presence, both organic and paid:<\/p>\n

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    1. Discover competitors (by seeing which businesses appear for keywords that you rank for or would like to rank for)<\/li>\n
    2. Evaluate competitors (by assessing where these competitors appear for your most important terms)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Automated tools, such as SEMrush, are excellent at discovering competitors. However, to successfully audit a competitor, SEMrush is only as useful as you are good at determining which keywords are truly important.<\/p>\n

      How to Determine What Keywords to Look for<\/h3>\n

      If we are going to evaluate competitors based on keyword rankings, we\u2019ll be shooting blind unless we single out the keywords that are the most relevant and important. We are going to go over exactly how to do that.<\/p>\n

      Step 1: List Unique Services<\/h4>\n

      Think about your business and what services it offers. For every service that is unique, list it. Make a tree of them. We\u2019ll use our own business as an example:<\/p>\n