Chapter 2. Competitive Research Techniques and Tools

In This Chapter

  • Finding out how to equal your high-ranking competitors

  • Calculating what your site needs to gain high ranking

  • Running a Page Analyzer

  • Using Excel to help analyze your competition

  • Discovering other tools for analyzing your competitors

  • Diving into SERP research

  • Using the SEMToolBar for competitor research and more

If you read the previous chapter and followed our suggestions, you spent some time finding out who your real competitors are on the Web, and you might have discovered that they are quite different from your real-world, brick-and-mortar competitors. You also found out that for each of your main keyword phrases, you probably have a different set of competitors. If you're starting to feel overwhelmed that you'll never be able to compete in such a busy, complicated marketplace, take heart! In this chapter, we show you how to get "under the hood" of your competitors' sites and find out why they rank so well.

Realizing That High Rankings Are Achievable

No matter what type of market your business competes in — whether broad-based or niche, large or small, national or local, corporate or home-based — you can achieve high rankings for your Internet pages by applying a little diligence and proper search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.

Your site may not be coming up at the top of search engine results for a specific keyword (yet), but someone else's is. The Web sites that do rank well for your keywords are there for a reason: ...

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