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You are here: Home / blog / Keep your friends close and your enemies closer

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer

in blog, search engine optimization, social media marketing on 02/05/14

Well, it’s just a saying right, but in life and business, it is still pretty important. First and foremost, you clearly know that you need to know what your consumers want and to provide that product or service for them.  At the same time, you need to be able to set yourself apart from other products and services. To do this, you need to be aware of what your competitors are doing.

I just wanted to share a few tips on how to keep an eye on what your competitor is doing online.

  • One obvious way is to check out their website, see what products or services they are offering, and at what price, what specials they are offering and the like.  On that same note, if you see they have links to their social media, this would be a good second place.
  • Check out their social media profiles, see how many followers they have, how often are they posting and what kind of things are they posting.  Most important is what things the followers are engaging in.  Sure, they could post this great article about a special, but if it goes unnoticed, it isn’t as important after all now is it?
  • Another cool thing that Facebook started recently was a watch list and you can watch 5 of your competitors and see what’s going on with their Facebook business page.
  • Want to know what keywords your competitor is using? If you are viewing their website, on the outside edge, right click and view source code.  Another window will pop up and if you do a search for ‘title’, ‘meta’, ‘keywords’ or ‘description’, you can get an idea of what they are using for their meta data. Meta data was discussed in another blog ‘What the heck is meta data’ so be sure to check it out.
  • Lastly, another great thing to do is to just search your competitor’s business name in the search engine and see what comes up. You should see their website result, any social media they have, maybe some Yelp or Superpages reviews, industry listings and other citations that they may be associated with.

Now that you have all of this information, now what?

This isn’t the time to redo everything you have done and copy what they have, as they may not have the best search engine optimization campaign or maybe they don’t post on their social media.  This research may tell you that they really aren’t a competitor for you and that you are actually more on top of things than you initially thought.

competitor research, social media watch list

Facebook watch list

However, if they have their social media in a buzz, maybe you should keep an eye (watch list) on what they are doing and take advantage of their efforts in knowing what consumers want.  Be mindful of what keywords they are tracking and see if that is something that you need to add to your keyword list. Lastly, keep in mind that you want to be where the consumers are and if your competitors are there, you should be too. If they have a business listing in mechanicaladvisor.com and you don’t, then maybe that might be something that you should look into. If they have tons of reviews on Yelp and you haven’t even updated or claimed your listing, then maybe that is something you should work on.

This isn’t meant to be a copy and paste type research but to help you keep an eye on your competitor and step up your game. If you are able to be where they are, it would be wise to seek out additional citations and get listed in places your competitor isn’t. Take it that one step further.

We hope that this little competitor research has been helpful to you. Don’t dwell on what they are doing but just be mindful, consider it, do something about it and step it up, then move on. Remember that your consumers are first and foremost, so keep that in mind.

If you need any more suggestions or need help with keyword research, meta tags or other search engine optimization, please contact us, send an email at 1kristenwilson@gmail.com or (757) 679-8348 for more information. We are always willing to help.  Thanks!

~Kristen

16 Comments

About Kristen Day

Kristen is a small business owner and thus dedicated to other small business owners by helping them improve their online presence with having a professional and mobile responsive website, then implementing search engine optimization and pay per click advertising all of which are necessary 'evils' in the digital marketing sphere but enables small business owners the opportunity to compete with larger companies. When not in the digital arena, you can find her hanging with her girlfriends, husband, drinking a margarita or shooting competition (not in that order).

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Comments

  1. Patricia says

    02/05/2014 at 9:50 AM

    Gotta keep you close!! hahaha! Interesting point about keeping up with your competition. Research is valuable for sure! great job! p

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      02/05/2014 at 5:14 PM

      Awww, I am honored that you find me a competitor. There are plenty of businesses to go around for sure! 😉 Thanks for the comments! 😉

      Reply
  2. Beth Niebuhr says

    02/05/2014 at 10:45 AM

    Great ideas. It is such a good plan to keep a close watch on your close competitors. I like your title – it draws the reader in.

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      02/05/2014 at 5:17 PM

      That was my plan… *evil laugh* bahaha… yep, got to keep an eye on those who are doing what you do. Thanks!

      Reply
  3. Michael Kawula says

    02/05/2014 at 10:48 AM

    Great tips! Definitely have to keep on top of what competition is doing.

    Reply
  4. Heather says

    02/05/2014 at 11:05 AM

    I have a list where I watch to see what they are posting. I have one for my competitors and one for my mentors so that I can keep them all in one place. I definitely want to expand this and add to it to really get it down. Great post!

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      02/05/2014 at 5:18 PM

      That is excellent Heather, and I would expect nothing less from you! atta girl

      Reply
  5. Lorii Abela says

    02/05/2014 at 12:25 PM

    The title itself is interesting. Good read! It’s true that we always have to know what our competitors are doing.

    Reply
  6. Patricia says

    02/05/2014 at 12:49 PM

    Great tips! Definitely, it’s good to see what competitors are doing! Great post 🙂

    Reply
  7. Jackie Harder says

    02/05/2014 at 3:03 PM

    Loved your suggestion about the meta data and the source code. Good stuff, Kristen. I bet not many people know how to do that. But as you mention — this is for information purposes…not to slavishly copy.

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      02/05/2014 at 5:19 PM

      Thanks Jackie. I had a client who provided me with a competitor that he knew was doing well in SEO, I do my due diligence to not only check out the SEO of my clients, but that of their competitors to be sure we are where they are… and more!

      Reply
  8. Crystal Peteson says

    02/05/2014 at 9:29 PM

    We can never underestimate our competition and its essential to be aware of what they’re doing so that you can adjust when necessary. Great post!

    Reply
  9. Jess Brown says

    02/06/2014 at 8:05 PM

    Hey Kristen, I enjoyed this post! I have to say I use these “sneaky” tactics regularly and it’s a great way to keep up with your competition. 🙂 I especially like the one where you can get the keywords by viewing the source code. Good stuff! Thank you for the post!

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      02/10/2014 at 3:29 PM

      Thanks Jessica. I mean, I guess it’s sneaky… it’s out there, so why not keep an eye on it, right? 😉 You are welcome, hopefully it will help. 😉

      Reply
  10. Edmund S. Lee says

    02/08/2014 at 8:20 PM

    Good point Kristen! Keeping an eye on the competition doesn’t mean you have to copy what they are doing, but rather, it helps to better position yourself to serve your niche.

    Reply
  11. Christy Lee says

    02/12/2014 at 1:30 AM

    Great advice and very true!

    Reply

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