Producing leads is not a haphazard activity. It's something you formulate and implement with intensity based on your search engine optimsation strategy.
Part of that campaign entails the very necessary activity of working out who your competitors are.
To do this efficiently, you choose to get the hang of:
- The traits of competition
- The two most significant considerations of competition
- How to estimate the competition in your niche employing a reliable Keyword Analysis Tool
Let's expand on each one them
1. The traits of competition
One of the best ways to generate leads to your home based business is to obtain a ranking on page 1 of Google.
Why is page 1 of Google so imperative?
Well, 90% of all potential clients achieved for any keyword is set aside to the 1st page, with the number one ranked website getting 42% potential clients.
Page 1 is good, but number 1 on page 1 is Gold!
Page 1 has space for 10 listings only.
If there are only 10 sites that can obtain 90% of the potential clients, do you realize what an assignment it can be to get past the "crowd" of websites and feature on page 1?
Often, that "crowd" consists of millions of websites.
Getting ahead of the crowd into the 'VIP' class is incredibly important.
In terms of keywords, 'VIP' means nothing less than a listing on page 1!
2. The two most significant considerations of competition
When I first started out on the internet, I would check the standard of a site according to its design. In other words the 'look and feel' interested me the most.
As a result, I always saw beautifully designed websites with flash and media as killer, profitable websites.
How wrong I was.
I am not for one second discounting a good design, look and feel for your home based business. But, I am turning the spotlight on the influence of "not so obvious" aspects of a home based business that are vital to your success.
And so I began to ask: "what exactly should one look for when you analyse your competition?"
The first aspect is the volume of competition.
Some keywords have a lot of websites competing for that 'VIP', 1st page on Google whilst others have very little websites competing for them.
The second, and more important, is the intensity of that competition.
These two factors will help you to prevent being deceived whenever you analyse opposition.
What do I mean by "deceived"?
Some keywords might have low volume of competitors, but have extremely weighty opposition.
Suppose a keyword you are targeting has 50 competitors as opposed to 6 million. However, if the first 10 websites are formidable competitors, it won't be worth your while to aim for that keyword.
Whilst the amount of contention is a straight forward number count, analysing the intensity or strength of the competition entails an evaluation of a number of "Off Page" and "On Page" SEO aspects.
Off Page SEO factors:
Domain Age (age of the site)
Page Rank of the site (indicates reputation)
Number of page backlinks
Index Count (number of pages on the domain indexed by Bing)
Number of links pointing to a blog from Government (.gov) or Educational (.edu) sources
Yahoo Directory (whether the site is listed in the Yahoo Directory or not)
On Page SEO factors:
Is the keyword in the title of the page
Is the keyword n the url
Is the keyword in the description tag
It's quite certain in one's mind that analysing the intensity of the competition is a complicated routine.
Rather devote some time upfront carrying out the imperative analysis than go in blindly and devote your effort, time and energy on keywords that are almost impossible to rank for.
3. How to estimate the competition in your niche employing a reliable Keyword Analysis Tool
Analysing your competition may seem like a dejecting assignment.
In fact it can be.
Carrying out proper keyword analysis and competition evaluation requires you to go through the process every time you compose content.
In my Free E-Course on how to build an internet business, I highlight the importance of broadcasting content on a regular (minimum once a week) basis.
As a result, you'd have to do this type of evaluation every week for every editorial you intend publishing.
Sounds like a crazy load of work right?
Well, it is - that's if you need to do it manually.
Personally, I use a google keyword estimator to analyse my keyword contention.
It's a really cool and user-friendly tool. In a matter of minutes, I can pick out a keyword I plan targeting and make out how many webpages mention that keyword in the same word order.
More importantly, I can create tons of keywords that are similar to the one I intend targeting.
I can then arrange a filter that allows me to select keywords that have low competition.
I then am able to hand pick keywords with least opposition and analyse the intensity of the competition.
I then base the content that I publish on keywords that I know have moderate and weak competition so I can rank on page 1 of Google.
