Analysing The Internet Competition Before Deciding On Your Own Website Content To Avoid Wasting Effort And Expenditure

May 27th, 2010 by Marcus Schroefel

If you are a website operator or if you participate in any form of online retailing then you will be aware that your website will need to compete in the Online Marketing world to achieve a high Search Engine Placement. The obvious word here is “compete” which means there is another company out there who is trying to do something very similar or indeed the same as you. Very possibly they are doing exactly the same as you and this is where you will find it necessary to define your Unique Selling Point or USP.

Competition is like stress. It’s both good and bad. If you are under stress then it’s generally accepted that it’s a bad thing but there is no such thing as absence of stress unless you’re asleep or dead! Almost the same goes for rivalry , especially Online Marketing competition. If it doesn’t exist you may well have the worlds first really]genuine unique product or service. You will not engage the services of a search engine optimization Company as you will always be top of the search engine results lists. In fact you will be the only one on the search results list. Your Search Engine Placement will always be number 1 and the sun will always shine and the money will just flow in.

But the one product that is genuinely unique is a very scarce thing and even if you do find the worlds best mousetrap you can guarantee that you won’t be the only retailer for very long. Someone else will be selling exactly the same thing as you soon and in the Online Marketing world that will happen sooner rather than later.

The good news is that, in real life, it’s more probable that you will be the competition. Your product or service will be in competition with a horde of other vendors all fighting for the same little bit of the internet where you can sell and profit from your endeavours. In reality, like stress, some competition is good for you. It validates your product. After all who wants to be selling an item that is so unpopular that nobody wants to sell it. OK so you will need to take your own spin on how you do this but one point is important to remember. Examine what the competition is doing.

Nowhere is this more required than if you are selling on the World Wide Web. Online companies often are not represented by bricks and mortar companies so what you see on the website are everything to a potential customer. If you have a bricks and mortar store and your online arm is a small part of your business then your rivals may be able to undercut you via a clever Online Marketing Campaign and higher Search Engine Placement than you. If you don’t have a bricks and mortar business then your online frontage is everything and you cannot afford to fall behind with respect to your competition.

Consistently updating your website to reflect changes that your digital competitors may be doing is crucial to the success of your business . It may be that they have similar products to you but it is important to study their Online Marketing in detail to reveal any weaknesses. This is where the services of a search engine optimization Company can be useful after you have identified keywords that represent gaps in the market that can be fully exploited and used to your advantage.

To identify where your competitors are doing it right think of all the keywords you can and see where their sites rate on one of the major search engine. Look at the source code using the “View Source” command on internet explorer and see that tricks and tips this can offer you with regards to what the competition have been using. And most importantly see where your product has a unique placement in the market that can be exploited to its full advantage.