SaaS SEO Competitor Analysis 101

An SEO competitor analysis involves a deep dive into all the elements of your SaaS competitor’s digital presence — like keywords, content, backlink health, and other SEO factors.

This competitor research will help you compare how your website stacks up against your competitors and how you can use these insights to inform your SaaS SEO strategy.

You can build your SEO strategy based on proven tactics by understanding exactly what is (and isn’t) working for your competitors.

When you do SEO, especially if you’re just building an SEO strategy for your business, it’s highly tempting to focus solely on your website and what you’re doing.

However, when ranking on search engines, you need in-depth knowledge about how your competitors are doing and what tactics they’re employing to rank high on Google.

Now, if you’re already ranking for critical keywords in your niche, it’s still important to keep an eye out since there’s no guarantee that you’ll always keep that position. Therefore, you need to know what your competitors are doing to ensure that you can identify and address complications before it’s too late.

When it comes to a successful SEO competitor analysis, it’s all about understanding the moves of your competition and using this knowledge to your advantage. This process isn’t merely a one-time task; it is an ongoing strategy that needs regular revisits to stay on top of changes in the industry and competitor tactics. It’s an invaluable tool in your SEO toolkit that equips you with key insights and data-driven decision-making capabilities to enhance your online standing.

The primary goal of an SEO competitor analysis is to identify strengths and weaknesses in your competitors’ strategies. We’re talking about what keywords they target, how SaaS businesses build backlinks, the quality of their content, their targeted regions, social media presence, and user experience they offer. This allows you to leverage opportunities your competitors may have overlooked and guard against their successful tactics. In the following sections, we’ll walk you through each step in detail to assist you in crafting a superior SEO strategy for your SaaS business.

With that said, let’s take a look at each step in greater detail:

Before you scoff and move on to the next section, you may want to reevaluate the list of competitors you have in mind.

Knowing who you’re competing against is the first step towards a successful SEO competitor analysis. The task here is to identify your top competitors, both direct and indirect. Your direct competitors are those that offer a similar product or service as yours, while indirect competitors might be those that offer a solution different from yours but cater to the same audience or solve the same problem.

There are several methods to identify your competitors:

1. Google Search: Begin with a simple Google search using keywords related to your business. The businesses that appear on the first page are your main SEO competitors, as they are currently winning the SEO game for those keywords.

2. Use SEO Tools: Tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz can be beneficial in identifying your competitors. Simply input your website, and these tools will generate a list of competitors based on shared keywords and industry.

3. Social Media Platforms: Social media platforms like LinkedIn can also be helpful. Look for companies similar to yours, check who is following them, or even search for posts containing relevant industry keywords. More on this in a bit!

4. Ask Your Customers: Your existing customers can provide valuable insights. You can ask them about other businesses they considered before choosing your product or service.

Remember, while identifying your competitors, it’s essential to consider both local and global competition. This is especially true if you serve customers beyond your local area.

Look at their metrics

Once you’ve identified your top competitors, you can begin to analyse their strategies. You’ll want to take note of things like their keyword strategy, backlink profile, content quality, and more. The aim is to gain a comprehensive understanding of their SEO strategy, so you can identify opportunities to improve your own.

These metrics can provide you with a well-rounded understanding of your competitors’ SEO strategies. They can highlight gaps in your own strategy and unveil opportunities for you to capitalise on. Remember, the aim is not to copy but to learn and enhance your own unique strategy!

Here are the primary metrics you should focus on:

1. Organic Traffic: Organic traffic refers to the visitors that land on a website as a result of unpaid (“organic”) search results. Tools like SEMrush or SimilarWeb can provide estimates of a website’s organic traffic.

2. Keyword Rankings: Identify the keywords your competitors are ranking for. Tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush can provide valuable insights into the keywords your competitors are targeting and their respective rankings on search engines.

3. Backlinks: Backlinks are links from other websites pointing to your competitor’s site. They are an important ranking factor for SEO. Analyse the number and quality of backlinks your competitors have.

4. Domain Authority (DA): Domain Authority is a score developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine result pages (SERPs). A higher DA score could indicate a stronger ability to rank well in search results.

5. Page Speed: Page speed can significantly impact SEO, affecting user experience and conversion rates. Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to check your competitor’s page loading times.

6. On-Page SEO: Review your competitor’s use of SEO best practices on their web pages. This includes title tags, meta descriptions, URL structure, and header tags.

Here’s an example

Imagine that you run a London-based SaaS company that offers project management software, with an ambition to rank for keywords such as ‘best project management software’. While we commend those goals, that’s a really hard one to try and score a first-page slot for, especially since you’re direct business competitors would be similar solutions like Monday.com, Asana, ClickUp and Trello.

Let’s say that you decide to diversify your website’s content and write informative blog posts like “How to optimise your team’s productivity?” — search engine speaking — you’d then also be up against publications like Forbes, Business Insider and even blogs like Lifehacker. These behemoths may have articles surrounding productivity, making your task of securing a top rank more challenging. It’s a difference ball game when you’re trying to dethrone these content titans, and you’ll need a well-formulated strategy for that.

Here’s the crux: you’re not just up against your direct business competitors; you must also contend with these larger networks that are your SEO competitors.

If your SaaS product spans multiple functionalities — for example, task management, time tracking and resource allocation — you might have to put in extra work. You should conduct a separate SEO competitor analysis for each of these segments, creating distinct competitor lists. Strive for minimal overlap. To identify your competitors, simply type your primary keywords into Google and list the top-ranking websites.

Exclude generic sites like Wikipedia or broad news websites as they are not your real competition. You can also disregard e-commerce giants like Amazon that sell a wide variety of products. Importantly, observe the type of content that’s ranking. Are they comprehensive guides, or do you see a preponderance of video content?

When identifying your SaaS SEO competitors, focus on two key aspects:

1. Local SaaS companies that are your direct business competitors.

2. The nature of content ranking in the coveted position zero, also known as the featured snippet.

Uncovering the keywords that your competitors target is a critical step in your SEO competitor analysis. This not only gives you insights into their strategy, but also helps you discover potential keyword opportunities that you may have overlooked.

Identifying and understanding the keywords your competitors target can provide you with a wealth of insights. However, remember that just because a keyword is successful for your competitor, doesn’t mean it will work for you! It’s important to consider the relevancy of the keyword to your business and whether it aligns with the search intent of your target audience.

So, pay close attention to the following:

High volume keywords

These are keywords with a high search volume. If your competitors are ranking for high-volume keywords, this could be contributing significantly to their organic traffic.

Long-tail keywords

Long-tail keywords are phrases with three or more words. They’re specific and often less competitive than shorter keywords. If your competitors rank for unique long-tail keywords, it’s worth considering whether these keywords are relevant to your business and if you should be targeting them too!

Keyword difficulty

Keyword Difficulty is a metric that estimates how hard it would be to rank for a particular keyword. It can be insightful to understand which competitive keywords your competitors are ranking for.

Keyword position and changes

Look at where your competitors rank for certain keywords and how their positions have changed over time. This can provide insights into their SEO strategies and their effectiveness.

Local keywords

If your business serves specific geographic areas, you should also identify the local keywords your competitors are targeting. Narrowing down your keywords would make it much easier for your customers to find your SaaS company as “SaaS company Bristol” is a lot more powerful than simply “SaaS company”.

Backlinks, also known as inbound or incoming links, are a critical part of any SEO strategy. Traditionally, they’re considered “votes of confidence” from other websites, signalling to search engines that your content is valuable and worth ranking. When a website with high authority links back to your site, it can significantly boost your own domain authority and improve your search engine rankings.

Understanding your competitors’ backlink strategy, including how many backlinks they acquire per month, can provide insightful data about their SEO efforts and the effectiveness of their content marketing.

To analyse your competitor’s backlinks, you can use SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz’s Link Explorer. These tools allow you to see the total number of backlinks your competitors have, the number of unique domains linking to them, and the authority of these domains.

When evaluating your competitors’ backlinks, consider the following:

• Number of New Backlinks: How many new backlinks are they acquiring each month? A high number of new backlinks could indicate that they’re actively engaging in link-building strategies.

• Quality of Backlinks: Not all backlinks are created equal. A backlink from a high-authority domain is far more valuable than one from a low-authority domain. Look at the quality of the sites that are linking back to your competitors.

• Link Diversity: A healthy backlink profile consists of links from a variety of different domains and includes a mix of both follow and no-follow links.

• Anchor Text: The visible, clickable text in a hyperlink is known as anchor text. It provides context about the content being linked to. Examine the anchor text in your competitor’s backlinks to glean insights into the keywords they might be targeting.

Backlink profile

A backlink profile, also referred to as a link profile, comprises all the backlinks that lead to your website. It’s a vital part of your overall SEO strategy because search engines, like Google, view these backlinks as endorsements of your website’s quality. A strong backlink profile can significantly improve your website’s authority, visibility, and rankings in search engine results.

Each backlink profile is unique, and its makeup will depend on various factors, including the number of backlinks, the quality and relevance of those backlinks, and the diversity of the domains linking back to your site.

Remember, the key aspects of a good SaaS backlink profile aren’t just about the number of backlinks but also the quality

In an increasingly globalized world, understanding your competitors’ geographic targeting can be pivotal. It can reveal their market priorities and offer you insights into potential untapped markets. Analysing which countries your competitors target can help you refine your international SEO strategy and make more informed decisions about future expansion.

Remember, when analysing your competitors’ geographic targets, the goal is not necessarily to mimic their strategy. Instead, you should aim to gain insights into potential opportunities or gaps in your own strategy.

For example, if all your main competitors are targeting the US market, but none are focusing on the UK, this could represent an opportunity for you to fill that gap and become a leader in that market. Alternatively, if you notice your competitors are heavily targeting a specific country, it could signal a thriving market worth exploring.

By understanding your competitors’ geographic targeting, you can make data-driven decisions that help your SaaS company compete on a global scale, improve your SEO performance, and ultimately, drive more leads and sales.

To discern which countries your competitors are targeting, there are several approaches:

Website language

Check if your competitor’s website is available in multiple languages. If it is, they’re likely targeting users in the countries where those languages are spoken.

Country-specific domains

If your competitors have country-specific domains (like .co.uk, .fr, .de), it’s a clear sign they’re targeting those specific countries.

Content and keywords

Review their content and keywords for any location-specific terms. This could give away the regions they are focusing on.

Backlinks

Analyse your competitors’ backlinks. If a significant portion of their backlinks come from websites in a particular country, they might be targeting that region.

SEO Tools

Using SEO tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs, you can gain insights into where the majority of your competitors’ traffic originates.

Content is the linchpin of any successful SEO strategy. High-quality, relevant, and engaging content can help attract and retain website visitors, increase backlinks, and boost your SEO rankings. When conducting an SEO competitor analysis, assessing the quality of your competitors’ content is crucial.

Here’s how to evaluate whether their content is good enough:

• Relevancy: Relevant content is tailored to meet the needs and interests of the target audience. It provides value, addresses pain points, and directly connects with the readers. When evaluating your competitor’s content, ask yourself: Does their content align with the needs of their audience? Are they addressing common questions or concerns? Are they providing actionable insights or tips? By thoroughly understanding what your competitors are doing well, you can craft content that not only matches but surpasses their efforts.

• Depth: High-quality content isn’t about skimming the surface of a topic; it’s about diving deep to provide comprehensive, detailed information. Assess the depth of your competitors’ content by checking if they cover topics thoroughly, provide data to back up their points, and offer unique insights or perspectives. If their content is shallow or lacks substance, there’s an opportunity for you to outshine them by creating more detailed and comprehensive content.

• Readability: A good piece of content should be well-structured, easy to read, and digestible. It uses clear language, avoids jargon, and breaks down complex topics into understandable pieces. It also utilises subheadings, bullet points, and images to make it more reader-friendly. Analyse your competitors’ content for readability, and if they’re not doing it well, ensure your content is easier to consume.

• Keyword Integration: Effective keyword integration can enhance a piece of content’s SEO performance. Assess your competitors’ keyword strategy by observing how they incorporate keywords into their content. If they’re seamlessly integrating relevant keywords and phrases, it suggests they have a solid grasp of SEO. However, if they’re keyword stuffing, or their keyword use feels forced or unnatural, this is a practice you’ll want to avoid in your own content.

• Engagement: Content engagement can be a strong indicator of content quality. Engaging content sparks conversations, incites shares, and encourages likes. Check the comments, shares, and likes on your competitors’ blog posts and social media updates. If a piece of content has high engagement, examine it closely to understand what makes it effective. Conversely, low engagement can indicate an opportunity for you to create more engaging content on similar topics.

• Freshness: Search engines favour content that is fresh and regularly updated. Evaluate how frequently your competitors update their existing content or publish new blog posts. If they’re frequently adding fresh content, it suggests they’re committed to keeping their audience informed with the latest information. If they rarely update their content, it could provide an opportunity for you to step in and offer more timely and updated information.

Perform a content gap analysis

In this SaaS SEO competitor analysis technique, you need to study the different types of content and content strategies that your SaaS competitors are producing. Here’s a rough idea of the steps involved in a content gap analysis:

a) Word Count.

What is the general length of content they’re going for? What is the word count of blogs that they’re ranking well for?

Here’s the thing: It’s always a good idea to create longer blog posts. So if your competitors are creating 2000-word blog posts for a particular keyword, going for a higher word count is good practice.

However, that doesn’t mean you should simply focus on the number. We’ve seen multiple shorter blogs outrank longer blogs. This is because Google finds the content they share as valuable.

Therefore, focus more on providing value to your audience over everything else!

b) Be unique.

Don’t plagiarise content from your competitors. That’s the worst thing you can do to your site, and Google will penalise you for it. If you do get penalised, it may take months, if not years, to get back into Google’s good books.

Instead of copy-pasting, take inspiration from your competitors. Use their website to find quality content ideas and add your own uniqueness to it. Plus, even if you manage to cover everything your competitor has included, Google may not push you over them since you have nothing new to offer.

c) Types of content.

Are your competitors doing something other than simple textual blogs?

Maybe they’re being creative with their pictures? Perhaps they include infographics at the end of their listicle blogs summarising all the points? Or maybe they’re creating valuable video content?

User experience is a major part of Google ranking factors. So, even if you may not see actual numbers behind these varied efforts, they are probably helping your competitors outrank you on Google.

d) Snippets or Position Zero.

Google usually picks up quality excerpts from blogs if they answer direct questions based on the user’s search intent.

With SEO competitor analysis, you can determine how some of your competitors rank for these snippets.

What are they doing differently than you? Can you spot anything in common between competitors ranking for these snippets? What content format have they used within the blog to rank for them?

If they’re using question-based queries, you may want to incorporate them within your SEO strategy.

Having a social media presence is nearly as important as having a website, regardless of which sector you’re working in. Social media platforms allow businesses to engage with their audience, promote their content, increase their visibility, and boost their SEO. In fact, social signals, such as likes, shares, and comments, can positively impact search engine rankings.

Analysing your competitors’ social media presence can provide valuable insights into their digital marketing strategy. You can uncover what they’re doing well, identify gaps in their approach, and use this knowledge to refine your own social media strategy, all of which can support your SEO efforts and boost your online visibility.

Here’s what you should pay attention to:

Presence across platforms

Determine which social media platforms your competitors are on. Are they only on Facebook and Twitter, or do they have a presence on Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest as well? The platforms they choose can tell you a lot about their target audience and their content strategy.

Frequency of posts

Look at how often they’re posting on each platform. Regularly posting relevant and engaging content is key to maintaining an active social media presence and keeping the audience engaged.

Type of content

Evaluate the type of content they’re sharing. Are they sharing blog posts, industry news, infographics, videos, or user-generated content? The content they share can provide insights into their content strategy and how they engage with their audience.

Engagement

How well does their audience engage with their posts? High levels of engagement can indicate a strong connection with their audience. If a competitor’s posts garner high engagement, try to understand what they’re doing right so you can incorporate similar strategies into your social media plan.

Followers

Look at the number of followers they have on each platform. While a high follower count can suggest brand popularity, it’s important to remember that engagement is often more valuable than sheer follower numbers.

Response to engagement

Observe how they respond to comments, questions, and reviews. Quick and helpful responses can improve customer satisfaction and foster a positive brand image.

User experience (UX) is a crucial factor in SEO. Search engines like Google are increasingly prioritising user-friendly websites in their ranking algorithms. A website that is easy to navigate, quick to load, and visually appealing can significantly improve user engagement, reduce bounce rates, and increase conversion rates, all of which can positively impact your SEO performance.

Remember, a user-friendly website is not just about making your users happy; it’s also about satisfying search engine algorithms and improving your visibility online.

Here’s how you can assess the user-friendliness of your competitors’ websites:

Website navigation

Is their website easy to navigate? Can you find information quickly and easily? A well-structured website with clear navigation menus helps users find what they’re looking for, increasing their chances of staying on the site longer and engaging more with the content.

Page load speed

How quickly do their web pages load? Slow-loading web pages can frustrate users and increase bounce rates. You can use tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights to check your competitors’ load times.

Mobile responsiveness

Is their website mobile-friendly? With the majority of web browsing now happening on mobile devices, having a mobile-optimised website is essential. Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool can help you check the mobile responsiveness of your competitors’ websites.

Website design

Is their website visually appealing? The design of a website can greatly influence a user’s first impression and overall experience on the site. An aesthetically pleasing, modern, and clean design can enhance user engagement.

Content layout

Is their content well-structured and easy to read? Content should be broken up into digestible chunks using headings, subheadings, bullet points, and images. Much like this blog post you’re reading right now!

Call-to-Actions (CTAs)

Are their CTAs clear and compelling? Effective CTAs guide users towards a desired action, such as signing up for a trial, downloading a whitepaper, or contacting sales.

The aim of a competitive SEO analysis isn’t just to copy what your competitors are doing but to gain insights into their strategy, learn from their successes and mistakes, and use this knowledge to refine your own SEO strategy. This can help you gain a competitive edge, improve your SEO performance, and drive more organic traffic to your site.

A comprehensive SEO competitor analysis should be thorough, covering all aspects that influence a website’s SEO performance. Ahrefs has a great guide on how to run a successful SEO competitive analysis and it details all the steps you need to take.

In a nutshell, here’s a brief overview of the key areas your competitive analysis should include:

1. Competitor Identification: Identify who your direct SEO competitors are. These are typically businesses within your industry that rank well for keywords relevant to your product or service.

2. Keyword Analysis: Understand what keywords your competitors are targeting. This can provide valuable insights into their SEO strategy and reveal potential keyword opportunities for your own strategy.

3. Backlink Analysis: Evaluate the quantity and quality of backlinks pointing to your competitors’ websites. A strong backlink profile can significantly enhance a website’s SEO performance.

4. Geographic Targeting: Determine which countries your competitors are targeting. This can help you refine your international SEO strategy.

5. Content Evaluation: Assess the quality of your competitors’ content. High-quality content can attract backlinks, boost SEO rankings, and increase user engagement.

6. Social Media Presence: Examine your competitors’ social media activity. Social signals can impact search engine rankings, making social media an important part of your SEO strategy.

7. Website Usability: Evaluate the user-friendliness of your competitors’ websites. A superior user experience can improve engagement, reduce bounce rates, and enhance SEO performance.

Let the Experts Help You Boost Your SaaS Organic Growth

Replicating a few things you’ve noticed your competitors do is well and good; however, the deeper goal is to gain an in-depth understanding of your competitors’ SEO strategy as a whole.  If you simply look at SEO in bits and pieces, you may not gain a broader view of your competitors’ strategies and tactics that have helped them rank on Google.

In this blog, we’ve discussed three key SEO competitor research strategies that you can focus on to build a strong SEO foundation for your site. You can use this knowledge to uncover hidden SEO strategies you can implement for your website.

If your business doesn’t have the time or the expertise needed to perform an in-depth SEO competitor analysis, we can help. Through our specialist experience working within the SaaS SEO space, you can rely on us to skyrocket your organic results over time. Sound like a plan? Book a discovery call with Teranga today, no-strings-attached!