
Competitive Research
Competitive research in SEO means, in a nutshell, stealing your competitors’ rankings and traffic.
Well, not exactly stealing.
But it does involve reverse-engineering what's working for your competitors, and using that information to your advantage!
Competitive research typically follows a few common lines of inquiry: identifying competitors, keyword research, content gap analysis, and backlink exploration . If you're not sure where to start when it comes to establishing your competitors, check out the True Competitor feature in Moz Pro, and start building your competitive strategy.
In addition, we've listed some companion resources on competitive research and analysis for SEO.
How to Do a Competitor Analysis for SEO : A terrific introduction to SEO competitive analysis with a free template to copy for your own campaigns.
The SEO Keyword Research Master Guide : An effective competitive research process starts with keywords, and this guide outlines a step-by-step process you can implement today to identify keyword opportunities.
Link Gap Analysis for SEO : Identify opportunities to increase your authority based on your competitors’ backlink strategy.
SEO Competitive Analysis Certification : Learn how to confidently build an SEO competitive analysis plan and get certified with this 6-part series. This certification combines on-demand video lessons with tasks and quizzes to affirm your understanding.


Which of My Competitor's Keywords Should (& Shouldn't) I Target? - Best of Whiteboard Friday
Which of your competitor's keywords are worth targeting, and which can be ignored? Learn how to tell the difference in this fan favorite Whiteboard Friday. Plus, save a seat our upcoming webinar, Competitive Analysis for SEO: Size Up & Surpass Your Search Rivals!
Intro to SEO Competitive Analysis 101
In this Whiteboard Friday, Cyrus walks you through how to perform a full competitive analysis, including how to identify your true competitors, keyword gap analysis, link gap analysis, top content analysis, and a brand-new guide from Moz all about analyzing your SEO competition.
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