Your Competitors Are Upgrading Their SEO – Are You?

At Salt Rank, we recognize that SEO is a never-ending process. Google, as the search engine giant, releases new updates (Core Updates, Targeted Updates) from time to time. To maintain relevance and authority, and, most importantly, stable ranking, businesses need to stay up to date with evolving trends. However, Google’s and other search engines’ updates aren’t the only thing SEOs need to focus on.

Maintaining authority in their niche also requires businesses to stay one step ahead of thei  r competitors. As the best SEO agency Kansas City, we know the importance of following a comprehensive SEO plan. A holistic SEO strategy focuses on competitor analysis, creating high-quality content, improving technical SEO, acquiring high-quality backlinks, and constantly adapting to Google’s algorithm changes.

Here’s a blog that covers key areas you need to focus on to strengthen your SEO strategy, along with a brief action plan following, which will help you stay ahead of the competition.

Key Areas To Upgrade Your SEO

SEO is a strategic, multifaceted discipline that aims to improve a website’s search engine rankings. However, there are several facets that you need to focus on to get results that count. Here’s a brief overview of the main factors that you need to focus on to secure quality SEO results.

Competitor Analysis

Think of competitor SEO analysis as a process of examining your competitors’ strategies to know about the weapons that they use to rank at the top. It involves researching rivals’ online strategies and creating a refined strategy to rank higher and attract more traffic.

Use Tools

Use Semrush, Ahrefs, Google Search Console, and other tools to see which keywords, backlinks, and content pieces they are performing well with. This tells you a lot about the key areas you need to focus on in your own site to get better results. See where the gap is and work to fill that.

Focus On Key Areas

It’s recommended that you focus on analyzing the core pages of your competitors, which include the homepage, category, and product pages, to know how they deliver a better user experience and technical elements.

Content & Keywords

There’s no doubt that content is king. However, a piece of content to be considered usable and practical needs to include the right keywords. You should know which keywords your competitor is ranking for so you can incorporate them into your content strategy.

Create Better Content

The primary goal of competitor analysis is to go beyond what competitors are offering. You must develop content that better addresses user intent than your competitors. Focus on providing unique value and ensuring the content is well-structured.

Keyword Strategy

Keep your focus on updating your keyword strategy and targeting high-value keywords while ensuring to update old content regularly.

Technical SEO

Your site’s technicalities have significant impacts on how it performs on search engines and how well you rank. Your website should be easy to navigate, load quickly, and be free of broken links. Here’s how you can optimize your website’s technicalities.

Optimize Site

Ensure your site is fast, mobile-friendly, and easy for search engines to crawl. An SEO agency in Kansas City can help you with this.

Site Structure

Ensure your site has the proper structure and easy navigation with breadcrumbs and menus. Use a strong internal linking strategy to distribute authority across the site and help users easily find content.

Off-Page SEO (Backlinks)

Your off-page efforts also determine how well you perform in search engines. Aim to strengthen your site’s authority across search engines, which increases your chances of ranking better.

Build Authority

Get quality backlinks from reputable sites, as strong backlink profiles give you a competitive edge and help build domain authority.

Stay Updated

Google introduces its algorithm updates regularly. It impacts a site’s SEO by causing fluctuations in rankings. It rewards high-quality, user-focused content while penalizing spam or low-quality content. Sites need to deliver a better user experience by prioritizing E-E-A-T and technical SEO to maintain visibility.

Adapt To Google

Stay updated on Google’s Core Updates and see how they change the various ranking factors. Adapt your strategy with the updates introduced.

Innovate

As mentioned before, competitors are about knowing your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses and using them to your own advantage. Hence, don’t just copy competitors’ strategies; instead, learn from them and adapt the ones that benefit you.

Your Action Plan

SEOs must plan and strategize before launching efforts to generate success metrics for their business. Here’s a brief action plan they can use to improve their business’s bottom line by boosting SEO performance.

Audit

Your competitor analysis will begin with an in-depth audit of the competitor. Use tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, and Moz to see how you stack up against competitors.

Strategize

Assess their strengths and weaknesses and develop an action plan based on the gaps and opportunities.

Execute

Effective SEO execution involves a multifaceted approach that focuses on improving content, technicalities, and off-page presence.

Monitor

An SEO’s job is continuous. You have to keep on analyzing every nuance to stay ahead in the ever-evolving SEO landscape.

Salt Rank – Top SEO Agency In Kansas City That Gets You Tangible Results

At Salt Rank, we believe that the fear of missing out is very real for SEOs. There are hundreds of businesses competing with each other, constantly trying to push past to secure the top-ranking spot. While they all adapt their SEO and online marketing strategies to current best practices, they often miss the opportunity to consider what their competitors are up to. Likewise, they also overlook creating content that addresses user concerns beyond what competitors’ content gives.

Businesses that are serious about growth and don’t want to be left out must stay abreast of the changes and key strategies their competitors are utilizing. Knowing what’s working for them and going beyond that can deliver impressive results. The above roadmap clearly defines the optimization essentials that SEOs need to focus on to stay competitive and secure the first ranking spot.

Those seeking a reliable strategy and growth partner to help them level up their SEO game and achieve real-time results can contact us at Salt Rank. With more than a decade of experience, we know what it takes to enrich a website to help it yield tangible results that drive your business.