How To Analyze The Competitors In Your Micro-Niche

Competition analysis has evolved online and today's lesson covers the process to use when looking at who else is in your market in terms of direct competition, possible joint venture partners and cross promotion.

When looking at the competition in your market you need to look at what they are doing, what sort of things are they selling to the market and to get a real feel and understanding of the market in general. The way we will examine our competitors in The Challenge is by using Market Samurai's SEO Competition Module

Using some example sites, Ed shows you what to look for when evaluating a competitor site in terms of keyword density, dynamic content, what the site sells, etc. If the site you are looking at also appears in your SEO competition matrix, you can also look at the age of the site, number of backlinks, how many pages have been indexed etc.

Looking at top 10 results in your SEO competition matrix, you can also look at the age of the site, number of backlinks, how many pages have been indexed etc. All of these various elements will gradually inform about what the competitor sites in your market are like and what the market is looking for. This is obviously a skill that takes time to hone and get a feel for. Over time you'll begin to see the same elements and patterns emerging and the process becomes quicker and quicker to perform.

Ed takes you through the whole process, starting off by using the "View Results In Google" button at the bottom of the SEO Competition Module window. This opens up Google with search results showing for that specific keyword phrase.

Ed's next step is to look at the ads showing on Google for your keyword phrase, by using the "View Results In Google" button at the bottom of the SEO Competition Module window. This opens up Google with search results showing for that specific keyword phrase. the page and then choose sites to investigate further from the list of ads present.

Throughout today's lesson Ed show you firsthand how to use Evernote to collect information and details relating to your market. As you add to your Evernote notebook you will begin to both construct an overview of your market, as well as collect content for possible use as blog posts or content for your Posterous network.

Actions For The Day - 1. Perform a competitor analysis of the top 10 sites in the SEO Competition module for your keyword phrases. 2. Makes notes about the sites in terms of what kind of site they are (blog, ecommerce etc), what kind of information they provide, how often are they are updated, what are they selling? 3. Go to Google and also look at the ads for your keyword phrase, again using the same evaluation process.