By its very nature, SEO is a competitive sport. You’re not working alone in a vacuum to improve your search result rankings; you’re working to do better relative to your competitors. Improving your rankings is a delicate balancing act because you need to be able to keep your head down and constantly focus on improving your own content and SEO strategies, while at the same time, keeping an eye on what your competitors are up to. You should never devote too much or too little time to one or the other. Here, in order of priority, are the most important things you need to do to improve or maintain your rankings:
• Always Work to Perfect and Increase Your Content
Both quantity and quality of content are essential to attracting visitors to your site. Keep your eye on the ball and keep honing your content to a fine point, while also building up its scale. Remember that, at the end of the day, search engines reward great content.
• Rethink Your Keyword Strategy Constantly
This is the frontline of your attack, so to speak. You need to do your research and use a more responsive approach. Focus on search queries that yield the highest total traffic. You may want to push keywords that remain effective, while allowing lower-ranking ones to slip to your competitors. Check the traffic data regularly and adjust accordingly.
• Watch the News
While focusing on your content and monitoring keyword traffic fluctuations, also watch the news and trends in the field of SEO. This is a growing and shifting field, with new insights and techniques being added all the time. Read blogs like this one, consult with SEO experts and use the information to sharpen your tools.
• Watch What Your Competitors Are Doing on Their Sites
Visit your competitor’s websites every day. If you notice a change in their SEO activities, you should definitely dig deeper. Take a look and see what the changes are doing to their search rankings. Maybe they’ve hit on a new optimisation technique. See how you can adjust your activity accordingly.
• Monitor Your Backlink Profile – And Your Competitors’ Too
Negative SEO activity can destroy your rankings and strategy. And, by checking up on your backlink profile, you can monitor whether or not this has become a problem for you and take appropriate action.
When it comes to your competitors, check out their backlink profile to see if you can pick up on any new linking partners and strategies that they might be using to get an edge on you.
While you shouldn’t spend too much time away from your own creative endeavours, it pays to be alert and fully aware of what is going on elsewhere in the field in which you’re playing.
WSI OMS can help you plan, execute and monitor competitor-beating SEO strategies. Contact us to discuss your digital marketing objectives.