ELEKTRONIKPRAXIS column: Part 013: What is your competitor doing differently in the top 10 position of Google hit lists?

In search engine marketing, the company that has optimised its website for the right keywords and lands in the top 10 of search engine results has an advantage. Internet expert Sanjay Sauldie shows tools and tips on how you can learn from your competitors and achieve a top position through clever keyword optimisation.

Some time ago, I asked my personal fitness trainer how best to train. He said that the best way is to take a good role model and imitate him. His role model is a marathon runner who has already won several times, which motivates him to become just as successful. He compares himself to him and trains even harder to do the same. What can we learn from this for our website?

Training 1: Choose a sport

Firstly, we will look for a key term x. This will be our field of activity today. We enter this key term into Google and write down the results, or rather: the Internet addresses of the Internet pages appearing in the hit lists, complete, as they are displayed in Google (in green):

e.g. www.domainname.de/unterordner/unterseite.html

These are our role models, because they have something we would like to have: a top 10 position!

Training 2: Selection of role models

Of course, portals, directories and communities with which it is hardly worth competing (e.g. Wikipedia) are also displayed in the hits. These gain this high position through other criteria. Make the selection: Which company is in a good position? Depending on the term, search for up to the top 30 positions. This list of selected sites are better positioned competitors. You can imitate them if you know why they are so well positioned.

Training 3: Analysing role models

Now we should start analysing and clarify the why of the above question. One of the important points for search engines is the keyword density, i.e. how often which term appears on the individual website. This helps us later when creating texts. To do this, please click on Determine keyword density

Simply enter your website address there and print out the page. Now you can simply enter your competitors into this tool one after the other and then compare how your competitors' pages compare to yours. Although only one important criterion is analysed here, experience has shown that it is a very important criterion for Google, as Google uses this as the basis for its searches. If the keyword does not appear in the text, Google cannot do anything else with the page.

Training 4: Effects of the analysis

ATTENTION: A common mistake: only your own main page www.name.de is compared with these competitor pages and then optimised for them. You cannot optimise your homepage for all terms, only subpages of your offer. So please always compare a subpage e.g. www.ihrname.de/x.html with the competitor page www.konkurrenz.de/seite-x.html for keyword x. Only now will you find out how you can optimise your sub-page to get it to a top position.

Training 5: Applying the results

Because the tool always displays the current status of your website, you can easily change your text and analyse it again. This gives you a constant analysis of your subpage and you can adjust the density of terms accordingly. Make sure that you don't overdo it, because some copywriters fill the text with the key term in such a way that search engines then throw it out of the index. Need a prominent example? Then click here: Negative example

Training 6: Regularity and sustainability

I would use this procedure every 2 to 3 months. After all, new websites are added to Google's search results and it is a dynamic process. If it takes too much time to always do it yourself, then there are ways to automate the process, e.g. here: iWebanalyse.

The position analysis could be interesting if you are optimising yourself. Just find out more. A one-off training session didn't help me either, my trainer forces me to train every week ....

Training 7: Optimisation of the training

It is often even important in which position the key term is distributed. Ideally, the term should also appear in the link text, not just in the body text. Take a look at the pages of your competitors. Look at the design and the distribution of the terms. In this way, you will learn from your competitors and train your most valuable employee on the Internet, your website!