Search Engine Optimization can be very daunting for someone new to online marketing. No doubt you have heard the term SEO mentioned online, and how important it is for your business.
The problem is that many SEO experts charge huge fees with the intention that you, the unsuspecting business owner, will believe what they say because of their use of confusion and fancy sounding terminology.
Well, the non-tech savvy business owner deserves a fighting chance. Clearly defined explanations without a lot of jargon go a long way to making clients feel comfortable and not intimidated by the seo professional.
So just what is SEO intelligence and why is it your best investment in online marketing? It is basically what you should do before you engage in any SEO plan of action. It is knowing who your competition is and what they do and how they do it.
Get intel on your competition.
Several pieces of information if correctly gathered is paramount to your success. Simply having that information will not be helpful though. One must either know, or be shown HOW to interpret the information, and then HOW to implement a strategy that best suits your business goals.
Once you have the information, it becomes a matter of diligence. Consistent diligence is the most powerful tool any website owner can have. I have seen folks who knew literally nothing about web site creation learn the basics of online marketing go on to start earning an income from their site with very little marketing.
High quality content is key, but these days, anything wonderful that is not visible is basically useless. Intelligence is partly learning how to disseminate information that you gather on your competition.
Your research on what your competitor is doing will repay your many times over especially if you are using that information to gain an advantage. “Competitive advantage is your ability to perform in one or more ways that your competitor can’t or won’t match”.
Your strategy begins with planning. If you fail in this area you are guessing and shooting at a moving target. Business owners who are ignorant in this area will waste more money on useless advertising by rushing the process through without careful thought to the desired outcome and how to best achieve it.
4 Things to Consider for a Competitive Advantage
1. The content of your competitor’s site should be analyzed to determine whether or not your site is competing or can compete with it. If you are not, why aren’t you. If you cannot, what else can you offer that your competitor won’t or can’t?
2. How are they marketing their services online? Social media campaigns, email campaigns, free services, special discounts etc.. Gaining insight into how they market their service is worth evaluating.
3. What is their SEO link building strategy online? Where are their most valuable links coming from, how are they being acquired, what avenues are they exploring to gain those links? What is the quality of the links they receive and how can you best that strategy.
4. What are the technical advantages/disadvantages do they have? Sometimes a well ranking website, performs horribly on conversions. Does the site load slowly, is it hard to navigate or is it confusing to use (i.e.: bad user experience).
It can sometimes be expensive to gain an advantage over your competitor, especially when you are not aware of cheaper alternatives to getting the job done.
Obviously, we’ve just scratched the surface on this subject and I know that many seo/sem experts might disagree with me on some of these, however, these should give you a starting point.