How to do a competitor SWOT

for a content based site?

[lorax]

I'm in the middle of a business plan rewrite. I'm attempting to determine and analyze my competitors in a logical and as accurate method as I can get.

I came across this thread [webmasterworld.com] in my research but it focuses on ecommerce which is not the revenue model I'm interested in. My site earns it's living from paid advertising - not Adsense or Aff programs.

So far I've listed the following criteria for the actual comparison. Granted I won't necessarily have access to all of this info for my competition but it's a place to start.

Page Views
Back Links
Page Rank (G toolbar)
SE page saturation for each general topic covered
Revenue generation models
Alexa Rankings
Stickyness

Perhaps the more difficult part of the analysis is determining who my biggest competition is. I've got an idea who they are but I want to create a way to perform a qualitative search for my competitors so I can periodically sample the marketplace for new players. Keyword searches are a skewed method of researching in my market sector. They can be used but I need to find another method to balance out the randomness of the SERPs.

SO, I'm looking for ideas and feedback.

[Marketing Guy]

- Brand searches (Overture KW search tool)

- SE saturation for brand term

- PR activities (grab some ballpark figures about press releases - how many, how often?)

- Age of site

- Company size (ie, one of many websites?)

- Business support (part of a brick and mortar business?)

- Level of SEO work carried out (natural rankings vs spam vs organic SEO)

- Focus (ie, if it's one site out of a hundred for a SEO, you don't really need to worry much but if it's the jewel in someone's crown then you can expect them to fight back)

- Number of indexed pages (could even monitor over time with BL's to give a rate of growth figure)

- Unique content vs freebie stuff?

- Vunerability (spam report is your friend! ;))

MG

[lorax]

Thanks for the reply MG.

>> brand searches

Are you referring to their biz name or the website name?

[Marketing Guy]

Usually the same thing, but both would work. Bit harder to do with keyword type URL / "brand" names, but you could make a guestimate based on search levels.

Generally checking for search levels on business name would give an indication of brand exposure - raises more with larger firms conducting offline marketing (as people tend to just type the brand name in to the address bar instead of the URL).

[lorax]

Got it.

I assume that for the age of the site I could use a combination of DN record and Way Back Machine.

[bunltd]

Did you come across this [webmasterworld.com] thread? It talks about SWOT and some other techniques.

Lisa

[Marketing Guy]

Again, either could work - not too familiar with DN records - is it possible for the initial date of registration to be changed (ie if the site was bought over)?

Age suggests reputation (in terms of traditional marketing) and possibly authority (in terms of SEO). Certainly a large factor to take into account before you roll up your sleeves to fight with someone! ;)

Also, a relatively new site (or one the same age as yours) could be used as a benchmark of performance - comparing link growth, SERP changes, etc over time.