Competitive Research

Kristopher B. Jones Founder / CEO of KBJ Capital

Founder and Former President / CEO of Pepperjam Author, “SEO Visual Blueprint”

About Kris •  Founder of Pepperjam, a full-service internet

marketing agency / affiliate network sold to GSI Commerce (NASDAQ – GSIC) in 2009

•  Best selling author of “SEO Visual Blueprint” (Wiley – 1st ed. 2008, 2nd ed. 2010)

•  Founder of KBJ Capital, an early stage technology angel fund (i.e. APPEK Mobile Apps, Highlighter.com, VigLink.com, Yumm.com)

•  Internet Marketing Consultant / Overpaid Public Speaker; New Venture is Supposedly Imminent.

Why Do Competitive Research? •  Identify your competition; benchmark for SEO /

PPC purposes •  Better understand your competition for purposes

of optimal resource allocation •  Gain insights into trends; identify opportunities •  Save time; Create efficiencies •  Duplicate success; Avoid failure •  It’s fun! •  Sometimes too much fun!

Search-Based Competitive Research •  Helps you understand what, why, and how high

your competition ranks for specific keywords •  SEM / SEO competitive research tools are a

great source for keyword generation, as well as comparative analysis (How you rank for specific keywords versus competition)

•  Provides insight into keyword popularity and serves as a measure of duplicating rankings

•  Using the following “retail” tools will save you an extraordinary amount of time and resources

Trend Analysis with Google Trends •  Serves as a great resource for you to identify all types of

trends; trends allow you to anticipate demand and take action before your competitors do

•  Provides relative data on how often a particular search-term is entered relative to the total search-volume across various regions of the world, and in various languages.

•  Google Trends is a great place to begin thinking about competitive research; it gets the juices flowing

•  DEMO - http://www.google.com/trends

Search Trend Data with Google Insights for Search •  More advanced version of Google Trends; Provides

insights into the search terms people have been entering into the Google search engine.

•  Unlike Google Trends, Google Insights for Search provides a visual representation of regional interest on a country's map.

•  It displays top searches and rising searches that may help with keyword research. Results can be narrowed down with categories that are displayed for each search terms.

•  DEMO - http://www.google.com/insights/search

Keyword Research with KeywordSpy •  Allows you to perform keyword research based on what

keywords your competition is bidding for on a pay-per-click basis, as well as what keywords your competition ranks for organically on major search engines.

•  Offers real-time keyword tracking technology which allows you to easily assess the effectiveness of your keyword ranking, which in turn can influence your keyword research strategy.

•  Offers limited free version; Prices range from $90 up per month.

•  DEMO - http://www.keywordspy.com

Keyword Research with KeyCompete •  KeyCompete is an online keyword research tool

that identifies the keywords your competitors are using in their pay-per-click campaigns.

•  KeyCompete also identifies the competition that is bidding on your keywords.

•  Pricing ranges from $19 per day to $300 per yr.

•  Popular tool with affiliate marketers

Analyze Your Competition with SEMRush •  Shows you how well you rank for specific keywords

versus your competition (PPC & SEO)

•  Provides estimates of keyword popularity

•  Includes international competitive research data

•  Offers limited free version / monthly plans start at $49.95

•  DEMO – http://www.semrush.com

Analyze Your Competition with Compete.com •  Allows you to analyze your competition, including

the keywords your competitors rank for on search engines, as well as how Web site users interact with your competitors’ Web sites.

•  Compete’s large data set is made possible through the distribution of the Compete toolbar, which collects information as a user surfs the Web

•  Limited free version; Costs $199 and up per month •  Learn more at http://www.compete.com

“Other” Research Tools that Deserve Your Attention

•  Google Keyword Suggestion Tool - https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

•  Wordtracker Keyword Suggestion Tool - https://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

•  SEObook Keyword Suggestion Tool - http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/

•  Facebook / Twitter / Delicious / Reddit / Digg

Building Links: Evaluate Potential Linking Partners •  One of the most effective ways to find potential

quality link partners is to mimic the efforts of your most successful competition.

•  However, not all links are created equally, so you should evaluate each potential linking partner for quality. This can be accomplished by analyzing numerous link-quality factors.

Determine Link Popularity and Analyze Backlinks with Open Site Explorer •  Provides high level data on a range of metrics,

including page authority, domain authority, linking domains, anchor text distribution, and a range of other important link analysis data

•  Free version provides limited data; part of the SEOmoz premium family of tools; offers a 30-day free trial and plans range from $99 per month up - http://www.seomoz.org/plans

•  DEMO - http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/

Enterprise Competitive Research Tools

•  Enterprise tools are used primarily by large corporations and agencies. Tools range in price from a few thousand dollars per month up and include competitive intelligence on the internet’s most popular Web sites.

•  Enterprise tools are derived from very large data sets and tend to be highly functional versus retail tools.

•  Enterprise examples include ComScore, HitWise, Adobe’s Omniture, and Conductor

Other Competitive Research •  Google Analytics – mine your own data! •  Google News Alerts -

http://www.google.com/alerts •  FlipBoard (for the iPad) and other news

aggregators •  Neilson helps media companies better

understand viewers, listeners and the industry as a whole.

•  Industry conferences

Now what? •  “It's not what you know, it's what you do with what

you know.” •  Competitive research is fun, but you can suffer from

Paralysis of Analysis or over-analyzing (or over-thinking) a situation, so that a decision or action is never taken, in effect paralyzing the outcome.

•  In short, my recommendation is to take action in baby steps; Understanding that solid, actionable competitive research is integral to your success, but shouldn’t dictate your every move. J

Thank you!

•  Stay in touch with me! •  I blog @ www.krisjones.com •  E-mail - kris@krisjones.com (I answer all emails) •  Twitter @krisjonescom •  Facebook - www.facebook.com/krisjonescom •  Linkedin – www.linkedin.com/in/internetceo •  My book “SEO Visual Blueprint” is available in all

major bookstores, online, and digitally on the Kindle

Seth Besmertnik Founder / CEO of Conductor Inc.

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Powering SEO for Over 100 Leading Brands

Largest SEO Technology Company in the World

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Optimizing Over $3 Billion Worth of SEO revenue

Founded in 2005

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”…who are my search competitors?”

Understanding who your traditional and non-traditional competitors are is the first stage of a long term competitive intelligence strategy

Google Operator SEMrush

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”…where is my competitive keyword overlap?”

Determining the competitive overlap is a sure fire way to begin identifying new opportunities and tracking your competitive progress

SpyFu Kombat

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”…why are my competitors outranking me?”

Intelligence into the search strategies of your competitors gives you the power to make accurate business decisions and stay ahead of the curve.

Yahoo SiteExplorer Backlink & Anchor Text Analysis

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”…can competitive intelligence help me get investment for

search?” Analyzing how much your competitors invest in search and

resources they have will help you build a business case for search.

Linkedin Conductor Share of Search Report (Free Resource)

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”…how do I balance my natural and paid competitive

strategies?” Integrate your paid and natural platform to maintain high rankings and keep the edge in search while your competitors use up resources and budget.

Paid & Natural Integration Google AdWords Keyword Research Tools

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