anything you can do i can do better - sam crocker

Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better

a4uexpo 2010

@SamuelCrocker

SEO Consultant > sam.crocker@distilled.co.uk

Distilled > www.distilled.co.uk

> twitter.com/crockstarltd

Sam is a lead SEO in Distilled’s London offices.

He is an SEOmoz Global Associate and Distilled’s resident meme expert.

He regrets never having made any money in affiliate marketing.

www.twitter.com/samuelcrocker

Why Do You Want To Do Competitor Analysis?

1. Are you just entering the market?

2. Are you worried about new entries to the market?

3. Are you just keeping an eye on a certain group of competitors?

4. Are you looking for new tactics?

5. Are you at the board level, looking for new opportunities/threats?

@SamuelCrocker

Not Losing vs. Winning

Offence (Winning)Defence (Limit Losses)

Monitor SERPs

Identify Sites Linking to Competitors

Market Analysis

Identify Subjects to avoid discussing

Robots.txt

Identify potential industry “game changers”

Patent Applications?

Monitor Job Boards

Replicate Competitors links

Create links that CANNOT be duplicated

Check competitor’s Robots.txt

Identify Competitors

Figure out how to get a link from a competitor

Expand on Competitors Links

Make your site faster than Competitors

Create new revenue streams

Track competitors

Find “Movers and Shakers”

Scrape Competitors for 404s

@SamuelCrocker

Static vs. Dynamic

Monitor SERPs

Identify Sites Linking to Competitors

Market Analysis

Identify Subjects to avoid discussing

Robots.txt

Identify potential industry “game changers”

Patent Applications?

Monitor Job Boards

Replicate Competitors links

Create links that CANNOT be duplicated

Check competitor’s Robots.txt

Identify Competitors

Figure out how to get a link from a competitor

Expand on Competitors Links

Make your site faster than Competitors

Create new revenue streams

Track competitors

Find “Movers and Shakers” Scrape Competitors

for 404s

Dynamic

Static

@SamuelCrocker

The Four Quadrants

Static

Advantage GainingLoss Limiting

Dynamic

Identifying Your Weaknesses &

Learning Your Market

Stalking

Identifying Your Competitors’ Weaknesses

Beating them at Their Own

(Evolving) Game

@SamuelCrocker

The Goal: Leadership and Protection

Simply put: our aim should be to lead the market and protect what is ours.

Defence Will NOT Win Championships...

@SamuelCrocker

Competitor Stalking

@SamuelCrocker

Dynamic Stalking

@SamuelCrocker

Industry News & Blogs

AUTOMATED, WIN!

Use Google Docs and Xpath to Scrape Blog & News Results

@SamuelCrocker

Watching All of your Competitor’s Subdomains?

@SamuelCrocker

Stupid is as Stupid DoesDon’t make these mistakes.

Shady Tip –

Common Test/Dev Sites:•Dev.competitor.com•Playground.competitor.com•Test.competitor.com•Sandbox.competitor.com•Preview.competitor.com

@SamuelCrocker

Turn Defensive Tactics into OffenceKnowing your competitors weaknesses and doing nothing about it is stupid.

@SamuelCrocker

Turn Defensive Tactics into OffenceStep 1: Find 404’s on a Competitor’s Site

@SamuelCrocker

Step 2: Find Backlinks to those Pages

@SamuelCrocker

Step 3: De-dupe and Outreach

@SamuelCrocker

Turn Defensive Tactics into OffenceKnowing your competitors weaknesses and doing nothing about it is stupid.

@SamuelCrocker

Competitor Downtime

@SamuelCrocker

Competitor Downtime

@SamuelCrocker

Next-Level Defence

Get that weak s**t out of here!

@SamuelCrocker

Defence Against the Dark Arts

IP Capture for price listings? Not in my house!

@SamuelCrocker

They Climbin in Yo’ Windows... They Snatchin Yo’ Data Up

Break into my dev site? In your face!

@SamuelCrocker

Defence Meets StalkingKeep your eye on Job-boards, Linked In and patent applications!

@SamuelCrocker

Image Creditshttp://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:Ao8dGmSQtnDMdM:http://pix.motivatedphotos.com/2009/7/26/633842115949330060-NEGOTIATION.jpg&t=1

http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2008/0324/ncb_g_green_block_300.jpg

http://www.wdtprs.com/images/08_11_29_chickenvader.jpg

http://anonymousradioshow.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/xenu7.jpg

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/01/29/404-error-pages-one-more-time/

http://www.apartmenthomeliving.com/404.html

http://madmikey.mu.nu/archives/Assknob.jpg

http://activerain.com/blogsview/999308/be-vewwy-vewwy-quiet-

http://flashtrue.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/asimo-robot_48.jpg

http://www.giantbomb.com/magic-johnsons-fast-break/61-1725/

http://www.wirelessfundraiser.com/

http://www.fabbricantidiuniversi.it/universi/hpswENG.htm

http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/21/so-a-blogger-walks-into-a-bar/

ResourcesCrawling/Find 404s:http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.htmlhttp://pro.seomoz.orghttps://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/https://www.majesticseo.com/http://www.opensiteexplorer.org

Sitespeed:http://www.webpagetest.orghttp://tools.pingdom.com/

Stalking:http://docs.google.comhttp://www.w3schools.com/xpath/default.asp

Changes to a Competitor Site:

http://www.changedetection.com/monitor.htmlhttp://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/

Downtime:http://monitor.finalwebsites.comhttp://pingdom.com/http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com

Defence:A good developer!

@SamuelCrocker

SEO Consultant > sam.crocker@distilled.co.uk

Distilled > www.distilled.co.uk

> twitter.com/crockstarltd

Sam is a lead SEO in Distilled’s London offices.

He is an SEOmoz Global Associate and Distilled’s resident meme expert.

He regrets never having made any money in affiliate marketing.

www.twitter.com/samuelcrocker