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Beating your Competition at SEO

Take a moment to do a search for your target keywords. Make a note of the other websites above your page’s position, and even a few of the spots below. When it comes to getting your page in the top spots on a search engine results page, these other websites are your competition, and you can use the SEO on these sites to improve your own page rank.

To determine the SEO techniques used by your competition, you can use many of the same tools that you use to monitor your own pages. Many free SEO tools, including many different browser extensions, can allow you to analyze what the other pages are doing. Some of the easiest to use include Firefox’s SEO Toolbar and Chrome SEO. You can visit competitor sites and use these tools to learn about the keywords used, keyword density, meta data and more.

Create a data file (using Excel or similar program) to compare your findings. List the site name, the keywords used, along with the incidences of each keyword, any site errors, the total number of words in the content of the page, and other relevant data. You should also include the current page rank of the site, and which keyword(s) you were using in your search.

Why do you need to know all of this? SEO is not an exact science. Not all keywords have the same requirements for ranking. For example, while most keywords work best with a 2-3% density, there are some that will do better with 1.5%, or even 4% density. You won’t know for sure the density you should be using until you do the research. There can also be a difference in the total number of words used in the content for best results, along with almost any other aspect of SEO. You need to be able to spot the patterns, and use this information to improve the SEO on your own site.

Doing this research also shows you weaknesses in your competitors’ SEO and websites. This is your chance to do better than your competitors. See what their mistakes are, with site errors, misused SEO and other common errors, and don’t make the same ones. This can put you a step ahead of your competition, and allow you to benefit from their mistakes.

Knowing how to do all of the research is important, but you also need to keep the best SEO practices in mind. If a competitor is doing something that is unethical, or “black hat”, don’t copy them. While some of the actual requirements for SEO ranking (such as keywords density) may change some based on the keyword used, using black had SEO methods is never a good idea, even if it seems to be working for a competitor. There is a very good chance that the search engines will eventually catch on, and your competitor will be penalized with either a very low page rank or even removal from the search engine’s index. Don’t follow them.

Related posts:

1. How Important is SEO?
2. Grouping and Using Keywords Correctly