Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better
a4uexpo 2010
@SamuelCrocker
SEO Consultant > [email protected]
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 > [email protected]
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
