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How to do competitor research for content

Introduction

Competitors have a lot of content. You may not be able to write as much as your competitors, but you can still come up with some great ideas for your own writing. You need to do deep competitor research for content so that you know what they’re doing and use that information to create your own content.

competitor research for content

Competitor research for content

Competitors are a great source of inspiration for your own content.

You can use competitor research to find out what they’re doing well and how it might apply to your business.

Competitor research is an excellent way to get ideas for topics, keywords, and link-building targets that will help you grow organically in the long term.

What are the blog topic ideas competitors write about?

blog

You can use these ideas to find out what your competitors are writing about.

Headline

  • What do you want people to know about your blog?
  • Are you a food blogger?
  • A fitness expert?
  • A celebrity gossip site?
  • What are the blog topic ideas competitors write about?

This will help you decide if it’s worth it for you to start writing more content on that subject matter. If so, read up on what they’re doing and figure out if there’s any overlap between your interests and theirs.

What is their writing style?

know your competitors' writing styles

Your readers will be able to tell a lot about your competitors’ writing styles by the way they write.

  • Do they write in a conversational tone?
  • Do they use humor?
  • Do they simply tell people what to do, without any personality or insight into their own experiences as a writer?
  • Is it long sentences or short paragraphs?
  • Does it use lists of items like a menu or only one idea at a time like an essay?
  • Are there images on the page that distract instead of helping reinforce it with visual images in the reader’s mind while reading through this article?

What kind of content is more popular among the audience?

The most important thing to find out is what kind of content is more popular among the audience.

There are many ways to do this and you can use tools like Facebook Insights, Google Analytics, etc., or social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram to collect data.

How often do they post?

know the schedule of their post
  • How often do they post?
  • What day of the week do they post?
  • Is there a specific format for each of their posts i.e., is there an outline, or is it more stream-of-consciousness?
  • Do they ever have any recurring series that you can follow so that you know what to expect from them, even if it’s just once a month or so? If so, where could readers find those posts and how often would they come out?
  • What day do they post?

It’s important to know when your competitors post on. Generally, most bloggers post on weekdays, but some might choose weekends as well. Some bloggers will even post several times a day!

Is there a format for their post?

format of your competitor
  • Is there a format for their post?

If you’re writing a blog post, it’s important to follow the format of popular posts. You can use a template or create one yourself.

For example, if you have an image that needs to be included in your piece but you don’t know what it should look like, use image editing software and customize it according to your needs (e.g., add text).

Do they have any recurring series?

If you’re looking to turn your blog into a full-time business, then recurring series is an important part of the puzzle.

A recurring series is when you post something similar on your blog every week or month, like an article or video that you've written before.

It’s important to note that not all blogs have recurring posts—but if yours does. It can be a great way to keep readers coming back and build trust with them by showing them that they can count on you for consistent quality content.

What images or videos they use along with the text content?

Images and videos can be used to illustrate a point, break up text content and draw attention to a specific part of the post. They can also be used to add humor or emotion.

In addition, images and videos help make your post more memorable by adding visual cues that will help you remember what you read!

Internal and external links.

Internal and external links are the bread and butter of your content. They allow readers to navigate through your site, as well as find more information on related topics.

If you have a blog that focuses on fitness, then you might want to include fitness-related resources outside your blog in each post or link somewhere else that provides more information about this topic.

Keyword and topic research

keyword

Keyword and topic research is a crucial step in the content strategy process.

  • Use Google Keyword Planner to discover which keywords people type into Google when they search for your industry.
  • Use Google Trends to see how often specific terms are searched over time and see how that data changes over time.
  • Use Google News Archive as well as news APIs like Pressreader, which will give you access to more than 1 billion stories from around the world every month! You can also use the Google Autocomplete feature.

Find topics to write about

To find topics to write about, you need to start by looking at what your competitors are writing about. You can do this by using Google Search and looking at the top results for “competitor keyword” or “competitor topic” (e.g., “Best SEO tools for small business businesses”).

Once you’ve found a few topics that are relevant to your industry, go through each one and ask yourself:

  • What makes them interesting?
  • What would I want my readers/viewers/customers to know about these topics?
  • Where am I lacking in knowledge on this topic compared with my competitors?

Prioritize the topics and keywords you want to write about

Once you have a list of competitive topics, it's time to prioritize which ones are most important. Use a spreadsheet or other tool that helps you keep track of your ideas and organize them into categories.

For example, if one topic is “how to write an SEO article” and another topic is “How to write about social media marketing for business owners,” then put them both in separate columns on your list so that they’re easy for you to see at a glance when writing each day.

Content ideas from what competitors are covering

content ideas

To get started, you’ll want to look at what your competitors are covering.

  • What are they writing about?
  • Do they have a clear competitive advantage over you?
  • What topics or categories do they cover most often?

Look at their content strategy and try to figure out if it makes sense for your business model.

Are there any holes in their approach that could be filled by your own company’s offering?

You can also use this research process as an opportunity to learn more about the way that other companies operate.

What types of social media posts and links they share on their website pages, as well as how often those posts are shared across other platforms like Facebook or Twitter.

Content opportunities from link-building targets

  • Find out what your competitors are linking to.
  • Find new ways to write about that information.

Social sentiment for content topics

social sentiment

When you’re looking for content ideas, it’s important to know how social sentiment can help.

Social sentiment is the number of likes, shares, and comments on a post. It’s an easy way to see what people are talking about in your industry or niche.

If you want some ideas on where to start with social sentiment research, here are some places that might be worth checking:

  • Google Search Trends
  • Twitter Trends (search by @username)
  • Facebook Graph Search

Competitors can be a great source of inspiration for your own content.

blog

You can use competitors to find topics, keywords, and content ideas. Competitors are a great source of inspiration for your own content.

They may also be able to help you prioritize the types of topics you should cover in your blog.

When researching competitors’ websites, take note of the following:

  • What are the most popular blogs?
  • How many followers do they have?
  • Is there any kind of community around these websites (e.g., forums or social media)?

These insights will help you improve your own blog and make better posts that resonate with your audience.

  • Use these insights to improve the quality of your content. For example, if you find out that a competitor’s post is engaging readers because they’re offering useful information or helpful tips, consider incorporating this into one of your own posts.
  • Use these insights for inspiration when writing new content for your blog. This can be done by taking some time away from work and brainstorming ideas on how best to use the information from this report—and then implementing them!

Conclusion

When you’re looking for content ideas, it can be a good idea to look at what your competitors are doing. They may have already covered some topics that you haven’t thought about yet, or they may have even written about something completely different but it still relates back to your industry in some way.

I hope you like the blog post!

Read following blog post for more about content and content marketing ideas.

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