All Episodes

May 27, 2025 16 mins

Did you know that doing a competitive review from an SEO standpoint is really important to your SEO strategy? It is! It's not about finding out what they're doing to copy them, but rather, understanding how well optimized their sites are so you can be strategic in your approach and outrank them. Learn how to find out what keywords they're ranking for, if their SEO elements are better than yours, if you need to adjust your content to rank higher than theirs, and more. Also, find out how often you should be researching your competition to stay ahead of them. 

Register now for the free live SEO class and find out the 3 secrets to being found on Google and in AI Search like ChatGPT.

https://www.etchedmarketing.com/registration-live-seo-class




My free resources, including the Beginner's step-by-step SEO Guide and my free class, are available here.

https://www.etchedmarketing.com/freebies



Join me in Simple SEO Content, my complete SEO and Content Marketing course that teaches you what to do step-by-step. It walks you through the entire process. (complete course)

https://www.etchedmarketing.com/yes

Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast? Ask it here -
https://forms.gle/Fbrqpmss6gxUnaMj7


Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Shure MV7 (00:00):
Hi, and welcome to the simple SEO podcast.
Today we are gonna have fun.
We're gonna talk about how tospy on your competitors SEO
without getting caught.
And if you're thinking Spy,Rachel, I don't wanna spy, I
don't wanna copy, I don't wanna,we're not doing any of that.
We are looking at their.
SEO strategy and determiningwhat's working and what's not

(00:24):
working, and how we can create astrategy for us to outrank them.
So I always tell you.
Your SEO keywords are dependentupon your competition, your
niche, the domain authority ofyour site and their site.
Like that's why I can't give youa list of keywords for your site

(00:45):
as much as I wish I could, itwould be the most amazing bonus
when somebody joins Simple SEOcontent.
If I could be like, here's alist of keywords that you use
for SEO, and you never have tothink about them yourself.
But because we all havedifferent niches, I can't do
that.
If I only taught SEO for peoplein one niche, I could do that.
But then I also would becreating an issue or situation

(01:08):
where everybody was targetingthe exact same keywords and I
had given everybody the samekeywords.
And so you would be trainingagainst your competition, and
that would be a disaster.
So what we're gonna do insteadis to really learn.
How to compete safely andeffectively and fairly, but
giving ourselves a competitiveadvantage by taking a look at

(01:31):
what they're doing.
So if you've ever gone to Googleand you've searched for a
keyword that you really want torank for and your competitor
ranks higher than you, thisepisode is gonna help you.
So what we're gonna do is talkabout like.
How we do this and what we do.
And so like I said, it's notjust that we're copying them, we
don't ever copy somebody.
We can use the information thatwe find to inform our decisions

(01:55):
and our strategies.
And we did this all the timewhen I was at the agency.
So you know, I worked for alarge agency that was based in
Manhattan.
I oversaw the SEO and contentteams for about five years.
The last five years I was in thecorporate world, I was with this
agency.
We did competitive reports onalmost every account that we

(02:15):
took over because it was reallyimportant to understand.
Where the client ranked andwhere their competitors ranked
and what their strengths wereand what the competitor's
strengths were.
More than that, we wanted tolook for the weaknesses because
you can exploit the weaknesses.
If your competitor is reallygood at one area, but bad at

(02:35):
another area, it is acompetitive advantage for you.
So we wanna look at this.
So what can we do?
How can we figure out whatthey're doing, what you're
doing, and how we adjust thisand how often do we need to do
this?
So I recommend you do this whenbeginning your SEO, so that you
can use this information to setyour strategy.
You also want to reviewperiodically.

(02:57):
You want to make sure that youare aware of what your
competition is doing so that youdon't find yourself surprised by
somebody suddenly outranking youand taking.
Traffic that you've worked sohard to achieve.
This is why SEO is not a set itand forget it strategy.
It is something that we do wantto look at, we do want to

(03:18):
review, and we do want to makesure that we're updating our
content on a regular basis.
So I would say if when you doyour competitive review the
first time.
You don't really have anyone inyour niche who is actively doing
a good job with SEO, then Iwould say you probably only need
to do a quick check maybe everysix months.
But if you are in a niche whereother people are doing SEO and

(03:43):
they are getting some results,you're gonna need to keep a
closer eye on them and whatthey're doing and just kind of
see where things stand.
So what are you gonna.
What you're going to want to dois take a look and use different
tools.
So the things that are gonnamatter are gonna be your domain
authority and their domainauthority.
So, you know, you can use MozBar, you can use, um, keywords

(04:04):
everywhere.
Uber suggests some of the otherplugins that we have to find out
what the domain authority is oftheir site and your site.
So if their domain authority isabout the same as yours, let's
say you're both 10, you're fine.
You're gonna be.
Pretty much seen as equal fromGoogle's standpoint.
But if you are 10 and they're18, Google's going to tend to
rank them higher because Googleis going to tend to think that

(04:27):
they are a more authoritativesite, they're a better result,
et cetera.
So we're gonna wanna look atthat and really just kind of
understand.
Now, if you have the higherdomain authority, that's great.
It's gonna make things a littleeasier.
If they have the higher domainauthority, it's gonna be a
little bit harder for youbecause you're gonna need to now
work on boosting your domainauthority.
You can use a tool like OpensideExplorer, some of the other SEO

(04:51):
tools, just go with Google andsearch like backlink checker.
You can use a backlink tool tofind out what backlinks they
have versus what backlinks youhave, and then you can see what
type links they're earning andyou can then work on that.
I don't want you to ever pay forlinks.
You know that we've talked aboutthat before.
We don't pay for links, butmaybe it's time to focus on.

(05:14):
Guesting on some other podcastsor writing a blog post for
someone else, or sharing morecontent on Pinterest so more
people find it and use you as aresource.
All of those are ways that youcan build links to your site and
generally speaking.
The more links you have, thebetter the links are, the higher
your domain authority will be.
If I start to see a situationwith a client account or with my

(05:36):
own website where somebody elseis ranking higher than me,
that's usually the firststrategy that I take on, is to
try to boost the domainauthority of the website by
doing some additional linkbuilding.
You don't, like I said, don'tever buy links.
You wanna think of them assomething you need to earn.
That's where digital PR reallycomes in handy.
Partnering with.

(05:57):
Um, programs partnering withdifferent, um, journalists
becoming a source, you can signup for something called source
of sources.
SOS.
It is the replacement for Harrowthat I've talked about over the
years.
Harrow was help a reporter out.
It got sold.
It's now become a paid product,but SOS.

(06:18):
Is now founded also by PeterShankman, who was the original
founder of Harrow.
You can sign up for that one.
It's a freebie.
Just Google, SOS source ofsources, and you'll find the
information for that.
That's one where you can veryquickly respond and reply and
potentially be picked up andlinked to.

(06:40):
As a source, which can helpboost your website's domain
authority.
The other thing you can do ispitch yourself on podcasts.
It's a great way not only tobuild your audience, but also to
boost your domain authority.
So if you're seeing that, youknow you're doing your
competitive review and you seethat their domain authority is
higher than yours, if it'swithin five or 10 points, go

(07:00):
ahead and try that route.
If you are seeing that thepeople you wanna compete against
are like.
Domain authority, 50, 60, 70,and your domain authority.
10.
You need to pick differentkeywords, my friend.
'cause you're not going to beatthem.
And it's going to take you yearsof link building to get to that
level because those are very,very highly authoritative

(07:22):
websites.
So if that's what you're seeing,you need to look for different
keywords.
You're like, you're in the wrongpool, you're in the wrong pond,
my friend.
We gotta change where we are'cause we're not gonna rank in
that world.
Okay?
So that's the first thing tokind of understand.
The next thing I want you tolook at.
Is their content versus yourcontent.

(07:43):
Like look at it veryrealistically, if you are both
ranking and let's say you'reboth ranking and they're in
position one and you're inposition four and you wanna be
in position four, and yourdomain authority is pretty
similar, it's within a couple ofpoints you.
Probably have a good chance.
There's probably a reason thoughthat Google is ranking them
higher than you.
So now let's look at yourcontent, yours versus theirs.
What do you have?

(08:04):
What do they have?
What keywords are you using?
How are they done?
Do they do a better job ofmeeting EEAT?
Experience, expertise,authority, and trust?
Do they have more anecdotes init?
More stories, like whatinformation do they have?
Is there post longer?
Are they using betterformatting?
Are they better optimized?
Did they follow everything onthe SEO checklist?

(08:26):
And maybe you've only used yourkeyword in two or three places.
That can be something you cando.
Take a look at that.
Use your tools to see, you know,what is their title tag, what is
their meta description?
Um, take a look and see what isthe image file name.
Are they optimizing their imagefile names?
Do they have alt texts?
Like what are they doing?

(08:47):
And then what are you doing?
The other thing you can do, ifyou use chat GPT, you can go in
and you can ask it.
And if you're one of mystudents, it's built to do the
do this for you.
The Ai SEO assistant that Icreated for you.
Put their page in and your pagein.
And ask it to tell you what tochange on yours, and just say,
think like an SEO expert.
This page is out ranking mypage.

(09:09):
Put in theirs, then put inyours.
Make sure you let it know whichis which.
What can I do to have a betterchance of ranking higher than
this page?
Like, what am I missing?
Then it can give you some ideasas well to make it a little
easier to, um, compete.
The reason we wanna spy on allof this is to really understand
what is our niche?

(09:30):
What is our market look like sothat we know how to adjust our
strategy.
If you are the only one in themarket who is doing.
SEO and doing it right then,it's easier.
You have the competitiveadvantage, but if others are
already doing it and they'redoing it well, then you may be

(09:51):
playing catch up.
And so your strategy changes alittle bit.
Now, once you go through this,if you've gone through this and
you've done your competitivereview and you're not quite sure
what it means or how to analyzeit or what strategy to craft.
Join me in simple SEO content.
Ask me all the questions.
I will help you with this.
If you're in there, you're apaid student, you've got access

(10:13):
to me, we've got our q and acalls, like I'm here to help you
put this strategy together tobeat them.
You don't have to try to figurethis all out on your own.
I know it's a little hard tofigure out on your own.
I can only give you.
So much information here on thepodcast and in the blog, but
there's so much that we can do,and my SEO tool that I've

(10:34):
created, my little GPT guy canhelp you with.
So much of this really showingyou what to do.
So you pull together all theinformation and then you use it
to craft your strategy.
I need to create this typecontent.
I see this type content gap.
I see this type thing.
Oh, hey, this one is doing alot, but they're getting it

(10:55):
wrong.
So that's good, but I need toknow that I'm paying attention
to them because they are doingthis and they are trying.
I have a client who had thissituation for a long time, for
many, they've been with me,gosh, seven, eight years.
In the very beginning, we werethe only ones doing SEO.
And so it was easy.
We had lots of results, lots of,um, traffic.

(11:17):
It was fantastic.
And then we had a couplecompetitors who were like, huh,
why does that guy always showup?
And so they started doing SEO,but it was very easy from doing
the competitive research, it wasvery easy to see that while they
were doing it, they were notdoing it right.
And they were outsourcing it.
They were outsourcing it tosomebody who was offshore

(11:37):
because.
The title tags and the metadescriptions did not make sense.
They were not written by anative English speaker, and a
lot of the content that wasbeing created was not high
quality.
It was not going to work.
So it was like, okay, yes, theyare doing SEO, but they're doing
such a poor job of it thatthey're hurting themselves.

(11:58):
They are not going to be aconcern to you from a
competitive advantage unless.
They get a better consultant andthey figure out how to do this
the right way.
So we did keep track of them andwe did look at them.
We still look at themperiodically every like three to
six months, but so far they're,they haven't figured out that
they're spending money andthey're not getting results.

(12:19):
At some point they're gonnafigure it out, but for now, it's
an advantage for us.
So that's what I want you tounderstand, like.
Who am I really up against in myniche for the keywords that
matter the most to my business?
What are they doing?
Are they good at SEO?
Are they bad at SEO?
What type content do theycreate?
How does my content really.

(12:41):
Really compare to theirs.
Are my title tags and metadescriptions better?
Are theirs better?
You know who's better optimized?
Because all of that is going tomake a difference for you in the
long run, and I want you tosucceed.
If you've tried to do SEO beforeand it hasn't worked, or you're
not sure if it's worked, youknow, these are some of the
things that you can do to makesure it works in the future.

(13:04):
And like I say, just join me insimple SEO content.
I will make this so much easier.
It is the easiest way to getthis done.
And honestly, SEO is the bestway to recession proof your
business.
Because once we do this and wehave the traffic coming every
week, you don't have to worryabout ads, you don't have to

(13:25):
worry about social, you don'thave to worry about all these
other things because you're.
Website is getting steadytraffic.
You're generating leads, you'regetting enough people coming in,
your business is growing, and ittakes care of all of this for
you.
So if you've been sitting herethinking, I really wish I had a
way to do this.
I don't know that I have themoney to do it, but I really

(13:46):
want to be sure and take thefree webinar.
You can find that on, um, on mywebsite, on the freebies tab,
etched marketing.com/.
Freebies, get yourself signedup.
There's a discount If you gothrough that funnel, it's a
funnel.
You know that you have a funnel,I have a funnel.
We all have funnels.
Go through that funnel, getaccess to the discount.
There is an option now where Ihave very low price point, um,

(14:11):
monthly payment plans availablefor you.
I partnered with Klarna becauseI had people asking, Hey, can we
do this?
Can you offer this?
So I did do that.
It does cost me a little bitmore, but you know what?
It's okay if it's the differencethat gets you into the class so
that we can start working onthis together and makes it
easier for you.
I'm okay with that.
Sign up, take the class.

(14:31):
Join me in there, and then.
Come ask questions.
When you ask questions and youjoin the lives, or you watch the
replays, you do better.
So come join me in class, askyour questions, and let's work
on this together.
So if you're ready to spy onyour competitors SEO, without
getting caught, it's gonna helpyou really be more strategic in

(14:53):
what you're doing.
Alright, that's it for today.
I'll see you back here nextweek.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

Crime Junkie

Crime Junkie

Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.

Ridiculous History

Ridiculous History

History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.