You've built your website or your blog and you've been furiously posting new and relevant content, adding optimization and generating links but you still haven't quite squeezed the full Google juice potential. You're frustrated! Well, it may be time to take a closer look at your competitors and see just what tricks they've done to get high up in the Google SERPs. In this post, we're going to discuss how to find your biggest competitors and do some research on what they're doing right - so you can add their tricks to your SEO bag.

What Are They Up To?

First, we need to understand exactly what it is your competition is doing. We're going to use Google to find and compare them on an element-by-element basis. We can enter your best keyword phrases into Google and see who comes up in the top 5 - if you're not there (sorry!) make a note of their URLs as we'll use them later.

Take a close look at each of the competitor sites and on a pad of paper, list the kinds of elements they use on their website. Make notes on the call to action, the various sections or categories they use, whether they have RSS feeds, ease of navigation, search engine friendliness, interactivity, everything. You could even create an MS Excel file with a column for each element to compare them. Do they offer a newsletter? Do they have posted press releases? Make a note of anything you think may be relevant to the growth of your own website.

We'll also want to examine each competitors site at Google to see how they're doing - in the Google search bar, type in "info:www.competitorsite.com" and hit 'enter.' Here you'll see a display of what Google has on file for each website - how many pages of the site are indexed, how many incoming links they have, etc. You may want to add this information into your Excel file along with each sites Google PR (Page Rank).

Are They Better Than Me?

If you discover a certain element on many of the competitor sites that your own website doesn't have, adding that element to your own site may significantly help both your SEO and the perceived value of your service. Often, website visitors will visit a great many websites before they make a buying decision, so you want to be sure you're "keeping up with the Jones'" and offering exactly what your target expects.

Remember that when users visit a number of sites that have certain elements incorporated, such as a virtual tour, that element becomes the norm. If your site does not have that virtual tour (or whatever that certain element is), they may feel as if you are not keeping up with industry standards, that you are not meeting their expectations. The bar is constantly being raised. Once a person sees something on three or four of your competitors’ sites, it becomes an expectation. The Internet has helped create very demanding consumers with very high expectations.

Now we take a close look at our Excel file and decide if there are any elements or "call to action" items on these competitor sites that we need to add to our own. Don't (DO NOT) copy your competitors content outright - that's just plain wrong. But it's perfectly alright to be inspired by elements of their websites and create your own. If you do decide to add any new content, be sure to do your SEO.

Their Friends Should be My Friends

Finally, we want to check out the incoming links of our competitors so we can research them to decide whether we want to request a link back. If you notice your competitors are listed in a great many directories like DMOZ, and you're not - you'll want to submit your site right away. Compile a list of sites that make sense for you to submit your link to and try and send out 3-4 link requests per week.

In closing, if your competitors have better content, better optimization and more links - you'll never be able to beat them. So, take a look at what they're doing right and beat the pants off of them! Let me know in the comments your tips and tricks to improve your website. Good Luck!