10 replies to this topic

[Irony]

Hi everyone,

Together with my colleague we got stuck with our first SEO proposal. So it happened that we have to write it now when Google is constantly dancing and the results keep changing every 15 minutes.

The question, so, is about the 'Competitor Analysis' part of it. We've made Google our main target all through the document, for the obvious reasons of '80% of the current search market' and all this sort of staff. So our analysis of the current competitors' positions should be based on Google results, that's just logical.

Yet how can we include them if they are so unstable? They will get stale in a day, and our potential client will think we aimed to deceive him, or something like that. And this client is going to be our first real client, so it's quite important for us to look respectable.

There are no other places in the world where I trust everyone so much as I trust everyone here.

Please advise!!!!

[ajeshnair]

The question, so, is about the 'Competitor Analysis' part of it.

Hi Irony!!!

Think how relevant is YOUR website for top rankings.

[powerofeyes]

Hey Irony,
we ha similiar problems since florida update, We got quite some no of clients after florida but we know we cannot guarantee a ranking for niche phrases any more, It just keeps contantly changing, so we just changed our strategy more towards traffic basis,
Our Moderator Mr. Barry ( http://makemetop.co...._does_it_do.htm ) has some unique way of attracting clients this might help you,
This way you can be confident of your self as well as your clients will be happy about your results, Make sure you do what you say especially for new clients, You have do a lots of analyzis of the Market before getting into any sort optimization,

'Competitor Analysis for google'

Google has not changed totally, now all they want is an authority site to occupy the top spots in stead on some smaller sites, We still perform very well even after this "gladys" update, It depends on the site you work on,

If you are taking a project of a site which is pretty new better opt for lesser competitive phrases which will be more easily targeted if that client agrees for a long term agreement automatically that site will build into authority in their field and then you can target competitive phrases,
If you go for a site which is already established in that field it will be much more easier for you to straight away target medium competitive phrases, so it depends on the competition and then highly competitive Money phrases,
Hereafter it will be very difficult for any sort of competitive analysis in google, they are going to crack your brain with all sort of jumbled results, so better target your own site with the latest trends and the old trends in SEO,
One basic and the most important tip ill give you hereafter dont ever target 10 phrases or 20 phrases, If client wants to target 20 phrases you research and find atleast 40 to 50 phrases best suitable for their site, "Dont put all your eggs in one basket" a quote which was most debated after florida update,

my

[Irony]

Thanks a lot!

But my question was not "what to do in the new situation" but "how to finish our proposal". "Competitor Analysis" is an important part of it, but I'm afraid we will just have to eliminate this part completely, as Gladys has left us with no other choice.

The site we are about to take is a completely fresh field for SEO, as it existed for a long time without any attempt to optimize anything. Most of the competitors are in no better situation, so I can see a lot of ways to improve the rankings. I've already managed to achieve some good results with our own corporate site, and I'm quite sure I'll be able to repeat the process again. I can see some strategy. But proposal first. IT JUST HAS TO BE FINISHED. What will be the right decision:
- to remove "Competitor Analysis" part,
- to base it on MSN or HotBot results, or
- to take current Google result as the main source of information and just add other search engines for comparison? And, if so, to disregard Gladys.

[Randy]

Interesting question and problem Irony. One I hadn't thought of since technically I only SEO for our own sites, so no proposals involved.

If it helps any though, what I do now is take a much broader approach when trying to get a handle on the competition. I'll still use the advanced operators available via Google (allintitle: link: allinurl: etc) when looking at the individual stats for competing sites, but I get my list of Competing Sites to look at from a combination of Google, Inktomi Pure Search, Teoma and ,as of a few days ago, the MSN Beta results.

Truth of the matter is that I want to do well in all of those since that's the best approximation I can create as to what the search landscape is going to look at 3-6 months from now. I have mentally de-emphasized Google considerably from the routine I used a few months ago, in preparation for what's likely coming in the future.

Not sure that will help you all that much, but that's how I do it now.

I guess if I were writing a proposal for someone now I would probably include a blurb saying something to the effect of:

"Google dominates the search market today, though this is likely to change considerably over the coming months. While Google will remain an important consideration, other very capable competitors are waiting in the wings and will likely garner a significant percentage of the marketshare in the near future.

"Since search engine optimization is a long-term process and plan for your site's success, this proposal attempts to factor the expected major into its findings so that you can take full advantage of the change. It is based upon the best currently available information."

That's off the top of my head, so will need to be cleaned up of course. However that's likely the approach I would take. Warns the client up front that a change is on the horizon and shows them that you're watching after their best interests in the future. That could be a good selling point if other proposals they receive only talk about Google.

[Irony]

Thanks Randy!

it's really helpful.

[Randy]

Great! I'm glad somebody can find a helpful nugget or two in my rambling.

[Scottie]

Competitors are still competitors.. even if they don't rank well. As a business owner, I'd still want to know where the companies that sell the same products or service as my company stand in relation to each other.

Why would you change how you report it? It's a great way to show that Google is broken at the moment, which is something you'd want to advise your clients of to begin with, as Randy pointed out.

[Jill]

Irony, thanks for your kind words about the forum and our members!

I think if you're talking about showing a ranking report for the client, and you're afraid that when they compare the results manually they will see different ones, then you should address this by saying something like this:

"Google is currently in the middle of some major changes in the way they calculate the relevancy of sites, therefore the rankings you see in this report, may be different than what you'll see if we ran another report tomorrow.  This report is simply to give you an approximation of where your and your competitor's sites are currently showing up for your targeted keyword phrases"

Jill

[Irony]

Thanks to everyone.

Jill, your advice is great! Exactly what we were so desperately looking for. We've done it just as you suggested.

Thanks again.

[Jill]