Here’s how easy it is….
1. Go to compete.com, sign up for an account, and buy credits.
2. Type in the name of your competitor’s site and buy a report on search analytics on your competitor’s URL. If your competitor is a start up and has low traffic compete.com will inform you there’s not enough data for a report. In that case I would try to search on a larger company in the same category until the start up competitor gets more traffic.
3. Compete’s report will allow you to sort online or easily dump the data into an excel spreadsheet. You can sort by:
Volume Rank - a ranking of the total number of searches generated by a keyword.
Keywords
Site Search - percentage of all search referrals to a site from a keyword.
Keyword Engagement - Average amount of time spent on a site after entering a specific keyword.
Keyword Effectiveness - Total amount of people referred by that keyword combined with the total amount of time spent on the site.
Powered by the largest pool of online consumer behavior data in the industry,Compete.com is the only online competitive intelligence service that combines site and search analytics in one site to help you quickly master online marketing. With Compete.com, you can identify rival search marketing strategies to take your SEM and SEO efforts to the next level, and stay on top of rivals with site metrics and audience profiles.
Learn more about Compete’s self-service tools by selecting a service from the list below or by visiting www.compete.com.
Compete Site AnalyticsTM - allow marketers to stay on top of rivals with site metrics and audience profiles for the top 1,000,000 web domains.
Compete Search AnalyticsTM - are the starting point to build search marketing campaigns, helping marketers dissect rival search strategies, and discover the keywords they should focus on.
Compete BlogTM - highlights how people are using the internet and provides deeper insight into the role of marketing in the online world.
Compete ToolsTM - allow users to bring the power of Compete Analytics to their desktop and provide real time access to data powered by the clicks of 2 million online consumers.
4. Analyze Volume Rank and Keyword Effectiveness. They tell us which keywords are drawing the most traffic and which result in the most time spent on a web site.
5. Enhance your Web Marketing tactics by adding the keywords that are working for your competitor in your web advertising campaign and bid them up.
I suggest making this an ongoing process at a frequency level that matches the dependency of your business on web marketing. Also, keep an eye on upward or downward changes in traffic levels on competitive web sites to determine who is succeeding and who isn’t.
I’m a big fan of pragmatic approaches that deal in reality. Thanks to compete.com you have incredible visibility into activity within your market.
P.S. Here’s a pasted description of compete.com’s services from their web site.
Also, check out the positive reviews from customers.
