You can use Google for competitor research and see if it is worth your while to try and outrank them. First, we will look at head keyword. Then a longer tail keyword.
Before You Start Google Competitor Research
Open incognito window in your Chrome browser. In Chrome, you click top right menu and select new incognito window. When you do this, Google will not take your previous searches into account. Otherwise, Google would show you results based on your past searches. Since you probably visit your own site a lot, the chance of your site popping up is much larger based on your search history. Therefore, your search results will not be skewed when you use incognito window.
Type your keyword into the Google search bar. For example, a Medicare company may consider the head keyword “Medicare Part A.” The top organic result is Medicare.gov. This site is a very well know domain for Medicare. In fact, it is the authority on Medicare. As a result, you are very unlikely to ever become the number one result for this keyword. The second and third results are the same domain Medicare.gov. However at top of results is a Google featured snippet providing a definition of Medicare Part A from the domain ehealthmedicare.com. In addition, Google provides answer boxes of related questions people have asked with answers from other domains.
It is important to look at answer box results and consider if you can give a better answer than the current results. If you can, that is a smart way of not ranking form top three, but being high up and visible in the search results anyway. When you optimize, make sure your answer is reflected in the content along with this keyphrase (question). Use this keyphrase in title tag, h1 tag, and meta description of your post or page. Moreover, place your answer in the first paragraph.
Structured Data Results
Next, look if competitors are using structured data. If so, how are they using it? No competitors on first page of Google use structured data. Therefore, implementing structured data may be a way you can stand out form the competition. In out long tail keyword, I will show you structured data results.
Now search longer tail keyword, for example, “What are Medicare costs 2020?” Anything related to Medicare will be very competitive. Not surprising the same dominant domain Medicare.gov take the top 3 organic search results. The next two results are cms.gov and cnbc.com. However, right after this is video carousel featuring six mostly recent published videos.
The Abt Youtube video channel has only 1800 subscribers. Medicare on Video has 17,900 subscriber which is small compared to CNBC which has 1.28 million subscribers. You can use structured data to get this video carousel result. Therefore, even mall Medicare companies can rank using videos on the first page of Google.
Digital Marketing
Keyword research is the first step to successful SEO. Your next step is to develop the content that matches these keywords. Get more information about digital marketing.
