Remember Secret Shoppers? Back in the “analog” age, businesses would hire people to physically shop for them so they could research, analyze, and learn about their competitors. (Sometimes they still do!) These days, there are new, digital methods for competitor insight that don’t involve walking into a store and pretending to be a shopper. While these digital platforms can simplify the process, the abundance of data can be overwhelming. What do you do with it all?
BoxCrush is here to help! Ahrefs is one of the most comprehensive platforms for competitor insight into search rankings, keyword volume, organic search traffic, backlinks…the list goes on and on. Today, we’ll share a few of our favorite areas of Ahrefs you can use for competitive analysis.
Our Favorite Tools for Competitor Insight
If you’re launching a new site, overhauling your SEO strategy, or if you’ve found your competitors are significantly outranking you in search, you can start with a comprehensive competitive analysis using Ahrefs’
Organic Competitors tool.
Keep in mind that your SEO competitors might not necessarily be the same as your geographical competitors. For insights into search rankings in your area, check out the local packs, or “map packs” in the SERPs and read our
2024 Guide to Local SEO.
If you already have an SEO strategy and you’ve identified SEO competitors that have a similar domain ranking (DR) to you, there are other tools you can use to check in on them. We like to peek into these areas regularly when we’re doing monthly or quarterly SEO audits for our clients.
Content Changes
Ahrefs just introduced this tool in August, and it’s a banger! Did a competitor suddenly outrank you on a cherished high-volume keyword? This tool enables you to see exactly what content changes might have affected your - or a competitor’s - changes in traffic. You might also discover that a dip in traffic was caused by a change you inadvertently made to your own website. Either way, it’s a valuable tool to see the influence content has on rankings and traffic.
source: Ahrefs
Content Gap Analysis
Find what keywords your competitors rank for that you don’t. In addition to providing ideas for keywords you can target and new topics to cover, this tool can tell you if your competitors are targeting certain keywords as part of a current trend or an ongoing strategy.
Ads
See the ad copy your competitors are using, as well as the keywords for each ad, how they affected traffic, and where the ad ranks in paid search results. This tool not only provides content and keyword ideas, but you can also see how your competitors’ top ads influence their paid traffic.
Featured Snippets
Featured snippets are the prominent search results that appear above the main organic search results in a spot called “position zero.” (In this position, you might also find an “AI Overview.”)
Ahrefs says they’re worth pursuing because they take up a larger chunk of the real estate in search results and help build authority and trust in your brand. You can use Ahrefs to find keywords with featured snippets relevant to your industry and also check out which snippets your competitors are ranking for.
Backlink Gaps
Backlinks, like featured snippets, help search engines determine the importance and authority of your website. Checking out your competitors’ backlinks can help inform your own backlink strategy. You can use the link intersect tool to see if your competitors have any decent directory, listicle, or guest post links that you can replicate, and you can use the “last 30 days” filter to see how actively your competitors are working to build their backlink profiles.
BoxCrush: Your Partner in Competitive Intel
Does a competitive analysis sound like a great idea but it’s just not something you have time for right now? Talk to BoxCrush! Our marketing, design, and development teams perform in-depth site audits for our clients, providing crucial insights into search rankings, traffic, advertising, navigation, user experience, and content for you and your competitors.
Schedule a meeting to learn more about our Out-Of-Box (OOB) Analysis.
