How to Do an SEO Competitor Analysis in WordPress (2 Easy Ways)

Are you wondering what strategies your competitors are utilizing to turn their integrated traffic?

Doing an SEO competitor study tin uncover a world of information. Instead of guessing which keywords to target aliases links to build, you tin spot what your title is doing and usage that accusation to amended your site’s SEO.

In this article, we will show you really to do an SEO competitor study successful WordPress.

Why Should You Perform an SEO Competitor Analysis?

Getting your WordPress SEO strategy correct tin beryllium tricky, particularly if you don’t cognize which type of contented to create, which hunt position to attraction on, and which backlinks to build.

This is wherever looking astatine what your competitors are doing tin thief you out.

By performing a competitor analysis, you tin spot what’s moving for others and really they attract integrated visitors to their websites.

Building connected nan occurrence of these strategies, you tin turn your ain WordPress site’s integrated postulation and outrank your competitors for different keywords.

There are aggregate ways to execute a competitor analysis. For example, you tin usage a WordPress plugin for illustration All successful One SEO (AIOSEO) to do an SEO competitor study wrong your WordPress dashboard aliases usage an SEO tool.

We will screen some these methods successful our guide, and you tin usage nan links beneath to jump up to nan conception you prefer:

Video Tutorial

If you’d for illustration written instructions, past conscionable support reading.

Method 1: Perform an SEO Competitor Analysis Using AIOSEO (Recommended)

The easiest measurement to do an SEO competitor study successful WordPress is by utilizing nan All successful One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin. It is nan best SEO instrumentality for WordPress and is trusted by complete 3 cardinal businesses.

AIOSEO makes it ace easy to optimize your tract for hunt engines without needing to prosecute an master aliases immoderate method knowledge. The plugin offers an SEO Analysis instrumentality that you tin usage to place what your competitors are doing to turn their integrated traffic.

You tin publication our complete AIOSEO review for much details.

For this tutorial, we will beryllium utilizing nan AIOSEO free version, arsenic it includes nan SEO Analysis tool. There is besides a premium type of AIOSEO that offers much features for illustration sitemap tools, redirection manager, schema markup, robots.txt editor, and more.

The first point you will request to do is instal and activate nan AIOSEO plugin connected your website. For much details, please travel our guideline connected how to instal a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, nan plugin will automatically motorboat its setup wizard. You tin spell up and click nan ‘Let’s Get Started’ fastener to continue.

For elaborate instructions connected AIOSEO setup, please mention to our tutorial connected how to group up All successful One SEO for WordPress.

Next, you tin caput complete to All successful One SEO » SEO Analysis from your WordPress dashboard and past spell to nan ‘Analyze Competitor Site’ tab.

After that, you tin participate nan URL of your competitor’s tract and click nan ‘Analyze’ button.

AIOSEO will show you an wide people of your competitor’s website on pinch a preview of nan meta title and meta description that appears successful nan hunt results.

You tin besides position nan keywords your competitor is targeting connected their site. This accusation is helpful, arsenic you tin get clues astir different search terms to attraction connected your ain website and amended your rankings.

Next, AIOSEO will analyse your competitor’s tract according to different parameters. It will item captious issues on pinch things that are moving good connected their website.

You tin commencement pinch nan ‘Basic SEO’ conception to position nan SEO title and meta explanation on pinch their characteristic lengths.

The plugin besides shows nan keywords utilized successful nan meta tags, H1 and H2 heading tags, whether your competitor uses image alt attributes, and nan full number of soul and external links recovered connected nan page.

Now, utilizing nan information from nan Basic SEO section, you tin comparison it pinch your website and find areas for improving your rankings and integrated traffic.

For example, you mightiness spot that your competitor has missing image alt attributes. Image alt matter helps hunt engines understand images and rank them successful nan image hunt results.

You tin capitalize connected this opportunity and usage alt attributes to optimize images connected your ain site. This way, you tin pull much visitors by grabbing apical rankings successful nan image hunt results.

After that, you tin scroll down to nan ‘Advanced SEO’ section.

Under this section, you tin find retired if a competitor uses a canonical nexus tag, if a page contains immoderate noindex headers aliases meta tags, and if nan www and non-www versions of nan URL redirect to nan aforesaid site.

Besides that, AIOSEO will besides show whether your competitor is utilizing a robots.txt file to amended their site’s crawling and indexing aliases utilizing schema markup to show further accusation successful nan hunt results.

By comparing your website to these factors, you tin find retired which areas to attraction connected and outrank your competitor.

Next, spell up and position nan ‘Performance’ conception successful nan AIOSEO SEO Analysis tool. Here, nan plugin will analyse your competitor and show what they are doing to velocity up their tract aliases eCommerce store.

Your website velocity is captious for SEO success. That’s because Google uses page load clip arsenic a ranking factor. So, if you tin make your tract load quicker than your competitor, past you tin summation a important advantage successful position of hunt motor rankings.

For much tips connected really to velocity up your website, cheque retired our guideline to boost WordPress velocity and performance.

Lastly, you tin position nan ‘Security’ conception successful AIOSEO.

Under this section, nan plugin checks if nan competitor has abnormal directory listings connected nan server. This mounting tin protect your delicate accusation from falling into nan hands of malicious hackers.

You tin spell done our guideline connected WordPress security for much tips and tricks to unafraid your website and summation a competitory advantage.

Besides that, AIOSEO will besides analyse your competitor and look for malware that Google would flag. If Google detects that your site has malware aliases harmful programs, past it whitethorn little your hunt motor rankings.

Another important point that nan plugin checks is if your competitor is utilizing HTTPS. Search engines springiness privilege to sites that usage HTTPS complete sites utilizing HTTP.

If you are still utilizing HTTP, past cheque retired our guideline connected how to get a free SSL certificate for your WordPress website.

Finally, erstwhile you person looked astatine each of these factors connected your competitor’s website, we urge running a afloat SEO audit connected your ain site. This will guarantee that you haven’t missed thing and that you are optimizing your contented to its afloat extent.

Method 2: Perform an SEO Competitor Analysis Using Semrush (Advanced)

Another measurement you tin behaviour SEO competitor study is by utilizing an SEO instrumentality for illustration Semrush.

It’s 1 of nan astir celebrated SEO checker and website researcher tools connected nan marketplace and is utilized by SEO experts, bloggers, marketers, online shop owners, and businesses of each sizes.

Semrush offers a powerful competitor study instrumentality that helps you uncover keywords nan title is using, their backlinks, apical content, and overmuch more.

You tin commencement by heading to nan ‘Domain Overview’ conception nether Competitive Research successful nan paper connected your left. After that, simply participate nan URL of your competitor and click nan ‘Search’ button.

Semrush will now springiness you an overview of your competitor’s website. You tin position its authority score, organic hunt traffic for nan existent month, paid hunt traffic, backlinks, and more.

It will besides show you which state contributes to nan astir important postulation share, on pinch a monthly breakdown of integrated traffic.

Besides that, you tin besides position different reports successful nan Domain Overview section, specified arsenic nan number of SERP (search motor results page) features, apical integrated keywords, integrated position distribution, main integrated competitors, apical paid keywords, and overmuch more.

The champion point astir utilizing Semrush is that it lets you position each of these reports successful much item truthful that you tin get insights into your competitor’s SEO strategies.

For instance, you tin usage nan Domain Overview study to spot really your competitor is performing astatine a glance. Using nan accusation from these reports, you tin group goals for your website and place areas for improvement.

For much elaborate analysis, you tin spell to nan ‘Traffic Analytics’ conception from nan paper connected your left. In this section, Semrush gives you a elaborate breakdown of your competitor’s postulation sources.

To start, position nan full visits, unsocial visitors, acquisition conversion, pages per visit, mean sojourn duration, and bounce rate.

If you scroll down, past you tin place nan apical postulation sources and spot which root attracts a batch of visitors.

For example, if nan competitor is getting galore users from social media and you aren’t, past you tin look for ways to boost postulation from societal platforms.

After that, you tin caput complete to nan ‘Organic Research’ conception from nan paper connected your left.

In this section, you tin observe your competitor’s apical keywords, position changes, apical pages, hunt motor results page (SERP) features for illustration featured snippets, and more.

You tin position nan Top Organic Keywords to spot which hunt position users are utilizing to find your competitor’s website.

Semrush besides shows nan position of nan hunt term, its hunt intent, whether nan keyword is informational aliases transactional, full volume, and more.

Now, this is highly useful accusation for boosting your WordPress SEO. It helps you find caller keywords to target connected your website, place opportunities to seizure SERP features, and travel up pinch caller contented ideas.

For instance, you get to spot nan most important pages that thrust nan astir integrated postulation for your competitor. Once you person identified them, you tin past screen akin topics connected your ain site.

Next, you tin caput complete to nan Keyword Gap conception from nan paper connected your near and get much insights astir nan hunt position utilized by your competitors.

Semrush allows you to participate up to 5 domains successful nan Keyword Gap tool. You tin commencement by entering your website and your competitor’s websites, selecting nan ‘Organic keywords’ option, and past clicking nan ‘Compare’ button.

After that, Semrush will show a database of keywords that are shared betwixt you and your competitors. The cardinal present is to look astatine nan ‘Missing’ keywords report.

These are hunt position that are missing from your website but are being utilized by your competitor. They supply an fantabulous opportunity to find caller keywords to usage connected your website and turn your integrated traffic.

Aside from keywords, you tin besides identify backlinks utilizing Semrush. Backlinks aliases referring domains are an important Google ranking factor, and they supply a ballot of assurance for your site.

Since backlinks positively effect your site’s SEO, it’s important to find retired wherever your competitors are getting their backlinks from. Then, utilizing nan data, you tin besides effort to get much backlinks for your ain site.

To start, you tin spell to nan ‘Backlink Gap’ section, participate up to 5 competitor websites, and past click nan ‘Find prospects’ button.

Semrush will show a database of referring domains that are linking to your competitors. Next, you tin prime a competitor from nan ‘Prospects for domain’ dropdown menu.

After that, you tin select nan referring domains by best, weak, strong, shared, and unique. To uncover backlinks that only constituent to your competitor and not you, spell up and prime nan ‘Best’ option.

This way, you will find caller opportunities to get much backlinks for your tract and boost your keyword rankings.

Another measurement you tin usage Semrush to seizure backlinks from your competitors is by looking for mislaid links.

Simply spell to nan ‘Backlink Analytics’ conception from nan paper connected your left. Then, participate nan website URL of your competitor and click nan ‘Analyze’ button.

Next, you tin spell to nan ‘Backlinks’ tab and prime ‘Lost’ from nan disposable filters. Semrush will show each nan backlinks of your competitor that nary longer exist.

This provides a awesome opportunity for you to get much backlinks. You tin transportation your ain blog post aliases landing page to switch nan mislaid backlink to nan referring site.

Expert Guides connected WordPress SEO

Now that you cognize really to execute an SEO competitor analysis, you whitethorn for illustration to spot immoderate of our different guides connected WordPress SEO:

• Ultimate WordPress SEO Guide for Beginners (Step by Step)
• Tips to Optimize Your Blog Posts for SEO Like a Pro (Checklist)
• WordPress SEO Checklist for Beginners
• How to Use Google Trends to Improve SEO and Grow Your Business
• Beginner’s Guide to Image SEO – Optimize Images for Search Engines
• How to Do a SEO Content Gap Analysis (Beginner’s Guide)
• WooCommerce SEO Made Easy – A Step-by-Step Guide to Ranking #1 successful Google
• How to Check if Your Website Is SEO Optimized
• WordPress Site Settings That Are Critical for SEO Success

We dream this article helped you study really to do an SEO competitor study successful WordPress. You whitethorn besides want to spot our guideline connected how to move WordPress from HTTP to HTTPS aliases our master picks for nan best managed WordPress hosting.

If you liked this article, past please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You tin besides find america on Twitter and Facebook.

Disclosure: Our contented is reader-supported. This intends if you click connected immoderate of our links, past we whitethorn gain a commission. See how WPBeginner is funded, why it matters, and really you tin support us. Here's our editorial process.

About nan Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff astatine WPBeginner is simply a squad of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi pinch complete 16 years of acquisition successful WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started successful 2009, WPBeginner is now nan largest free WordPress assets tract successful nan manufacture and is often referred to arsenic nan Wikipedia for WordPress.