The steady increase in search engine use is rewriting the rules of marketing as organizations decide how best to incorporate the realities of Web 2.0 into their plans. One effect of search is that dissimilar entities become competitors when they are listed alongside each other on the Search Engine Results Pages. Now being competitive requires that you position your brand properly – not only against companies in your traditional space — but also against those who appear in the results of Google and Yahoo. Here Catalyst Search Marketing Strategist Sarah McCracken answers questions about defining your online competitors.
Q:Â What is the difference between online and traditional competitors?
Sarah: Traditional competitors are those in your market space. They are companies in your industry that provide the same products and services as you do to your target market. An online competitor is very different. This is actually an entity that is competing with you for the top 5 to 10 spaces on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). This may be an organization that does not share your industry or your target market.
For example, the Discovery Channel is one of the History Channel’s biggest traditional competitors since it offers similar programming. On the other hand, online competitors of the History Channel are government sites, educational sites and Wikipedia because they contain historical information and appear when a searcher is looking for that type of content online. The global nature of the Internet and the fact that control has shifted from advertisers to consumers are factors that allow non-traditional competitors to move into new spaces online.
Q: Why is it important to differentiate between online and offline competitors?
Sarah: Many companies are so focused on conquering their offline competition they don’t realize they’re being ambushed online. An organization that does not properly identify and differentiate between these two will lose qualified website traffic and potential customers. Online competitors may be companies that you would not consider as being in your space and therefore not a factor in attracting customers. But although they may not be your direct competitors for revenue they are your rivals for visibility, which ultimately impacts revenue.
One example is the competition between Coke and Pepsi. If you search for “soft drinks†online you expect to see Coke and Pepsi at the top of the SERPs, but that is not the case. Instead the SERPs include informational sites, health sites discussing the effect of soft drinks on our overall health, and educational sites. While these organizations are not competing in the soft drink industry with Coke and Pepsi, they are gaining prominent online visibility, pushing Coke’s and Pepsi’s rankings lower, and possibly redirecting potential customers.
Q. How can you find out who your online competitors are?
Sarah: The first step is to search on any major search engine for keywords that relate to your core business practices and see who comes up on the first page of the results. Companies selling products should search on the names and types of high converting products. For example, if you are a company that sells Red Sox memorabilia you could search on “Red Sox t-shirts.â€
Q: What is a pitfall you should avoid?
Sarah: People tend to search for problems online, while companies tend to optimize around the solution they offer. If you are looking for competitors in your space, you also need to search on the problem, not only the solution. For example, if you spill red wine on your shirt, you may search for “remove red wine stain†instead of a specific product name. If you are a company that specializes in stain treatments and laundry detergent you want to make sure your pages are optimized beyond the terms “stain treatments†and â€laundry detergent†to include tips on how these products can remove specific stains. One of the best reasons to work with a search marketing firm is their expertise in figuring out what the consumer is searching for on the SERPs and defining the proper search terms.
Q: How does knowing your competitors influence your keyphrase strategy?
Sarah: We use online competition as one input into designing a successful keyphrase strategy for our clients. The first step is to identify your competitors in order to analyze their sites. This analysis reveals the keywords they are targeting — terms that relate to your business that you might not have considered. These are particularly important if they are high volume keyphrases. In addition to identifying your competitors, you need to know how they describe their products and services, as well as the amount of content they have on their site, including the keyphrase density and whether they use keyphrases not only in the text on pages, but also in optimizing images and videos.
Q: Is this something a brand manager can do or do you recommend professional help?
Sarah: A trained brand manager can absolutely do it; however, in order to maximize visibility and really understand what’s going on in the online space it is beneficial to get assistance from someone who specializes in search. People trained in search are taught to think about the Web in a way brand managers might not be used to. They also have access to tools and studies that may not be available to brand managers.
About Sarah McCracken
Sarah McCracken is a Catalyst Search Marketing Strategist who is dedicated to The History Channel, Iron Mountain and Biogen Idec. She has seven years of experience in Search Marketing. Before joining Catalyst she worked as a Marketing Manager for Shoebuy.com and as an Algorithmic Team Leader for iProspect.com. She has a B.A. from Susquehanna University in Corporate Communications.
