As one of the leading media companies in Denver we hear it all the time in marketing meetings, “we want to outrank the competition.” “How can we be the best out there?”
As a business owner, it is common to keep tabs on the type of content that is posted by your competitors. In order to outrank the competition, you need to outperform them when it comes to your content marketing strategy.
Here are a few things that you should look at when you are analyzing the competition's content:
What makes this content stand out? Would your target audience really read it? Is their audience really reading the content? While the Internet and digital world give off the perception that thousands of followers, a ton of website traffic and first page rankings are what the end all is, it is important to understand that this glitz and glam could be exactly that and nothing more.
Just because they have 1K website traffic each month, does not mean they are that more successful. You could have half of that traffic, but better inbound leads coming to the website and the right audience visiting the website.
Sure, your competition’s content is great, but is it worth mimicking? It is important to create content that consumers want to read and engage with. While your competition’s social media posts are great, is it really that great?
As one of the leading media companies in Denver, our company tells everyone to be themselves. (Well we will be your content curator, we can be your voice!) In the digital world, being original is hard to come by, and to be honest, no one’s idea is really original. However, it can be original to your consumers whether it be a blog post or social media post.
Yes, it is important to see what your competition is doing, but it is just as important to give it your own spin which makes your company unique!
Now, this is where a myth needs to be debunked. Do not assume that your competition has done their keyword research and that the keywords they are ranking for are the best keywords. “But, they are ranking and we aren’t ranking for anything.”
Yes, that is correct, but are they ranking for the correct keywords. In our world, if you aren’t ranking for the correct keywords, you basically are ranking for nothing. The first step is to understand YOUR company’s goals with SEO. While you want to outrank the competition, what is your company searching for with SEO.
Plus, while they are a competitor they might not have the exact same audience. It is important to find competitors who have the same audience as you, but on a national level as well. Who is your competition in Colorado, Denver, or in the surrounding states?
Another thing to understand is that just because a competitor does rank for that keyword phrase, is it worth your money and time? That could be a high dense keyword, which can be achieved but will take twice as long to rank for overtime. Are there better ones you can rank for faster which have just as good of inbound traffic?
As one of the leading media companies in Denver, these are three notions to keep in mind the next time your company’s C-Suites are searching for SEO strategies.