source-https://blog.airtable.com/a-step-by-step-guide-to-running-competitor-analysis/

“The philosophy of your business and how you actually model that in processes and technology is always changing….You can’t just set your systems up once and assume they’ll still work years — or even months — later.”

Keyword list

Analyze -competitors keywords- keywords with high search volumes,links they are acquiring

Competitor -top pages- identify key words-pipedrive

Websites- ahrefs, semrush

number of referring domains

Organic search traffic

Airtable

Direct competitors

Direct Competitors are companies that solve the same problem, have the same core functions, and an overlapping user base. Direct competitors are typically the focus of competitor analysis. If you’re building a chat tool, your direct competitors would be companies like Slack, HipChat, and Campfire.

Direct competitors offer a lens into how you could do better and make more revenue today because that’s who potential customers are spending your money with today.

Indirect Competitors

Indirect Competitors either solve a different problem for the same customer base, or solve a similar problem for a different customer base. If you’re building a chat tool, indirect competitors would include email, Google Groups and potentially companies like Skype or Trello.

Indirect competitors help reveal opportunities down the line — while they’re not targeting your immediate customer base, or problem, they cover areas adjacent to your product where you might expand in the future

Search Strategies

specific keywords in Google, or by using Google’s Keyword Explorer. Then, dig deeper. Go to places like Stackshare and Siftery to see what products people in your space are using. Get on places where users are spending time like Quora or Twitter, and talk to them directly.

Key questions.

• What products do you currently use?
• How happy are you with the products you use and their features?
• Do you use multiple products or tools to solve the same problem?

Number of competitors

Create a list of 5–10 competitors and organize them according to categories like competitor type and pricing.

Criteria to choose

Running an effective analysis is all about how you narrow the field by figuring out the right criteria to use to evaluate the competition.

Doesn’t simply mean listing out features of competing products for a blow-by-blow comparison

Select criteria that will provide you with more context around

• What they’re building?
• Who they’re building it for,
• Customers don’t buy features, they usually buy something that solves a real or perceived need.
• How they’re reaching users through marketing and design?

Sources of data

• Competitor websites & marketing collateral: Website copy, design and marketing collateral in the form of white papers and content can tell you a lot about how a specific company is positioning themselves in the market.
• 3rd party sources: Search community forums like Reddit and ProductHunt as well as review websites to see what users are saying about the competition.
• User interviews & usability tests: Find users to test within your network, or use a tool like UserTesting.com, which sources interviewers for you. In our sample competitor tracking database, we’re drawing conclusions based on the website and marketing material from competing products.

Framework for excel

• Company
• Target Audience
• Features
• Message

Heuristic evaluation- Attach the notes

A heuristic evaluation simply means judging the product according to the criteria that you’ve outlined above. It helps you make judgement calls on competing products and how it relates to what you’re building.

How competitor is building link?

Old fashioned PR

SEO Campaigns

Product positioning and messaging