Competitor SERP Monitoring
Competitor SERP Monitoring
“Forewarned, forearmed; to be prepared is half the victory.”
–Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote
How well do you know your enemies? You can’t stay passive if you want to win the fight in the digital competitive landscape. If you are not keeping a close eye on your competition in your market, they may be outranking you on Google and Bing. This means lost business for your company.
Monitoring your competitors’ SERP (search engine results page) positions gives you the information you need to prevent lost sales by ensuring your site stays among the top results on internet searches. Invite Them Home tracks 3-5 of your most important rivals on a weekly basis and adjusts your SEO tactics to remain competitive. We have tools to see what keywords and phrases others in your industry and market area use and apply this knowledge strategically.
If you are interested in a free look at how your organization is positioned in the SERP wars, contact us today; we are here to help.
Let’s get your questions answered and see how ITH can help you rise above your competition, draw in more traffic and help move your business forward.
Table of Contents
- ^What is SERP ranking?
- ^Why is SERP monitoring important to your SEO strategy?
- ^What is competitor keyword tracking?
- ^Is competitor SEO analysis really necessary for a successful campaign?
- ^Do you need competitor SERP monitoring for local SEO?
- ^How do you monitor your competitor's SERP?
- ^What is the best SERP checker tool?
- ^Why do you need Invite Them Home for SEO competitor analysis?
What is SERP ranking?
The Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is the web page list that appears after entering a specific keyword query or asking a question in the case of a mobile or chat-based search. These pages show relevant information based on specific keywords or phrases entered and what the search engine determines as search intent. Typically, the most relevant or paid results are displayed at the top of the page. According to search engine algorithms, links become less relevant as the reader moves down the page.
However, every SERP is unique. Factors like the user’s location, browsing history, and social settings play a significant role in customizing the search results. Even if two users use the same search query and perform the search on the same search engine, their SERPs could differ slightly. To enhance user experience, search engines like Google and Bing constantly experiment with the appearance of SERPs. With the emergence of new technologies in search, SERPs have evolved significantly from their older versions.
Popular search engines such as Google, Microsoft Bing, and Yahoo offer features like webpage titles, URLs, short descriptions, related images, People Also Ask (PAA) questions, and ads. Despite sharing common characteristics, each SERP is tailored to the individual searching based on data like location and browsing history.
To improve the search experience, search engine providers continuously update their algorithms, integrate new technologies, and analyze new web pages. They also offer tools like Google Analytics to track webpage performance, collect user data, and identify trends to enhance a webpage’s ranking on the SERP. As of mid-2003 Google has over 80% of the US search market share, Google’s SERP design is a significant focus for the digital marketing and content creation strategies we use at Invite Them Home.
Why is SERP monitoring important to my SEO strategy?
The entire purpose of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) program is to rank as highly as possible on a SERP. Without SERP monitoring, you cannot know if your SEO strategy is effective. Featuring at the top of SERPs can be a huge win for your SEO efforts. To start, here are a few statistics:
- More than two-thirds of all clicks on SERPs go to the top five results.
- 68% of website traffic comes from organic and paid searches.
- The #1 result in Google gets approximately 32% of all clicks.
According to Enterprise World, there are 5 distinct reasons why SERP monitoring is critical to your SEO strategy.
1. It drives web traffic
Achieving a high SERP ranking can significantly increase traffic to your website. However, getting to page 1 of Google is no easy feat. By implementing a strong SEO strategy, your website can gain greater visibility, increasing traffic and enhanced content exposure.
While we aim for organic search engine rankings, it’s important to note that boosting your SERP visibility above your competitors can also be achieved through advertising, such as Google Ads. We will analyze your situation and determine if advertising expenses are necessary to achieve optimal results.
2. It brings the crawler
Search engines employ specialized software called crawlers to scan websites for their content frequently. When you enter Google search, its algorithms interpret your intent and prioritize the most relevant results to your search queries. With the advent of new Google updates like the Page Experience Update, prioritizing websites that provide an excellent on-site experience and are easy for crawling bots to access is key to ranking higher. If your site features quality content that appeals to your target audience, crawlers will reward it with higher SERP rankings. Because of this, understanding the importance of SERPs to SEO is crucial.
3. It improves your credibility
Establishing authority in your field is critical in attracting and retaining website visitors. One proven way to establish expertise is by ranking high on search engine result pages. This ranking helps your audience trust you over your competition because it indicates that you are doing something right to achieve such high recognition. For you to achieve authority in your field, we will help you create comprehensive content that adequately answers your audience’s questions and concerns.
4. It improves user engagement
Aside from the organic search results, there are multiple points of contact on a SERP. Other elements include featured snippets, the PAA (people also ask) section, and local map packs.
These features allow you to increase engagement with visitors if you know how to use them effectively. For example, appearing in the featured snippets section can show users the answers to the questions they are searching for and might motivate them to click through to your site to spend more time on your content.
5. It builds Domain Authority and Backlinks
Domain Authority (DA) is a ranking score that determines the effectiveness of your website’s search engine performance. This score, ranging from 1 to 100, provides insight into your site’s branding potential and customer engagement opportunities. Created by Moz, DA is now a popular alternative to Google’s PageRank. Indeed, most of the professional tools we use like SEMrush, SERPstat, Ahrefs, etc, have a domain ranking value to track trends, and get another view of your competitor’s position in the marketplace.
Calculated by evaluating 40 different factors, including root domains and inbound links, DA emphasizes the importance of authoritative and relevant domains linking back to your site. By understanding your DA score, you can identify areas for improvement and create a website that truly resonates with your audience.
What is competitor keyword tracking?
Effective use of target keywords is essential to stay on track with your content creation and let your audience know what they’ll find on your website. Understanding how your competitors leverage these same keywords to succeed in their marketing is equally crucial.
Free and paid tools help you identify content gaps in your marketing strategy, and our experts at Invite Them Home can show you how to make the most of these resources.
Is competitor SEO analysis really necessary for a successful campaign?
Search engines can’t experience your organization in the real world, so they rely on online factors. By performing an SEO competitive analysis, you can gain valuable information to make informed decisions about your digital marketing strategy. A checklist for an SEO competitor analysis includes keyword and content analysis, gap analysis, and backlink analysis.
Tracking your opponents’ SERP rankings is a powerful tool that can give you a leg up in the world of SEO. You can discover new search terms you may not currently utilize by analyzing the keywords used to find your competitors. By adding these relevant keywords to your campaign, you can stay competitive and enhance your overall SEO efforts.
Analyzing your competitor’s keywords is crucial for identifying what you’re doing well, highlighting weaknesses in your strategy, and discovering new ways to reach your audience. This analysis can help your business grow by identifying and adopting new strategies to improve your online visibility with search traffic and increase your bottom-line results. If your business’s online visibility is stagnant, a competitive SERP analysis can be the catalyst to help your rankings soar.
Do I need competitor SERP monitoring for local SEO?
Of course! Local SEO statistics reveal the importance of “near me” searches on Google.
- 50% of people who did a local search on their phone visited a physical store the following day.
- 78% of local searches on a mobile device end in in-person purchases.
- A 2023 survey by BrightLocal found that in 2020, 98% of consumers used web search to find information about local businesses.
At Invite Them Home, we have tools and methods that are specific to local SEO strategy. Outranking your local competitors is a game all its own, and we can show you how to win customers through local competitor SERP tracking.
How do you monitor my competitor’s SERP?
Determining how many and which competitors to track.
We suggest tracking the position of 3-5 of your biggest rivals. The number of competitors you track will depend on your industry and needs. You may think you know your biggest competition in your market, but you may be surprised who is landing on the top-ranking pages. Our rank tracking tools may uncover SEO competition you didn’t realize you had!
Using keyword research to find what your competition is using to outrank you.
We have professional SEO tools to compare your SERP position with your competitors for multiple keywords and phrases needed for your website to appear on the first search results page. This list can often number in the hundreds and can be tracked both locally and nationwide, depending on the nature of your business. We do keyword research for both organic traffic and Google ads campaigns.
Continuing SERP analysis and making necessary adjustments to keep up with your competitors.
We analyze your SERP position against your competition on a continuing basis and use this information to adjust your SEO strategy. We look at our SERP trackers every week to see who moved up and down in position from the previous week. This data can be emailed to you for your top 3 competitors.
What is the best SERP checker tool?
Many tools are available to help you with keyword competitor analysis, many of which have a free option but require a paid subscription to get all of the resources. At Invite Them Home, we invest in the best tools that have served us and our clients well for years. We currently spend more than $25,000 a year on these tools because we feel the data and insights offered are critical to our customers success. Some of our favorite research tools include:
Google Search Console is one of the popular free ranking tools that lets you monitor and maintain your site's presence on Google SERP. It offers tools and reports that help you understand and improve how Google sees your site. With Search Console, you can easily confirm that Google can crawl your site, fix indexing problems, track search traffic data, receive alerts for site issues, and troubleshoot site speed and mobile usability issues. Plus, you can even see which sites are linking to your website.
Semrush is a valuable tool for running reports and researching your and your competition’s SERP performance. With Semrush, we can easily compare your website traffic to your competitors and gain valuable insights into their strategies. We use it to discover their total traffic volume, top sources, and key metrics like bounce rate and time on page. This information helps us gain a competitive edge by analyzing their organic search keywords and uncovering overlooked gaps. Additionally, we can stay ahead in paid search by gathering deep advertising insights and analyzing your rivals’ ads. Semrush can also help us track your audience’s preferences on social media and find new ways to boost engagement.
Serpstat gives you a competitive edge by targeting and tracking individual pages or categories on your website and helping you find keywords with high search volume. Their comprehensive keyword position tracker allows you to assess your potential market share and evaluate which SERP features are driving traffic to your site.
This tool gives you insights into your website’s keyword rankings and compares them to your competitors. Their tool allows you to track your site’s position out of the top 100 search results for any particular keyword.
By analyzing the dynamic changes in your site and competitors’ positions, we will help you make data-driven decisions and increase visibility. Our daily reports provide an overview of your keyword positions in mobile and desktop searches, allowing you to compare them with your competitors.
SE Ranking’s competitor research tool is great for local SEO analysis. This tool provides a comprehensive view of a particular domain’s performance in a specific geographic area. We can also learn how many backlinks your competitors have and assess their quality. In addition, we conduct Pay-Per-Click (PPC) competitor research to see what keywords your competition targets in their ad campaigns so we can use this information to build better PPC search campaigns for you.
Spyfu helps us discover the complete online presence of any domain with their powerful search tool. We uncover valuable insights such as the keywords your competitors have purchased on Google Ads, their organic ranking, and even their ad variations dating back 17 years.
That’s not all -their platform also equips us with the tools to effectively connect with your competitor’s domains.
Ahrefs collects, processes, and stores large amounts of data for search marketing professionals like us. This data is then presented in their online tools, and, perhaps most helpful to us, emailed to us each week for each of our customers so we always have an up-to-date understanding of changes to their digital footprint.
Like a search engine, Ahredfs crawls the entire web 24/7 and stores petabytes (1PB = 1000TB) of information about live websites. This data gives us insights like how websites link to each other and what keywords they rank for in search results. A clue as to why professional digital marketing tools cost so much, Ahrefs spends almost a million dollars daily on cloud infrastructure in addition to their own in-house servers!
Why do I need Invite Them Home for SEO competitor analysis?
Digital marketing is a complicated game. If you aren’t continuously tracking your online performance, you risk losing prospective customers to your industry rivals. If you’re still unsure what SERP competitor monitoring is all about or if it is right for you, feel free to contact us for a complimentary SEO audit. Don’t let your business sit on the sidelines – get in the game today!