Competitive analysis is the comparison and evaluation of a company or product with other competitors in a competitive environment. This analysis helps companies identify their competitive advantages and develop their marketing strategies. It involves gathering and analyzing information about competitors' strategies, products or services, market share, pricing, distribution channels, and customer relationships. It is the work done to research competing companies and obtain the desired information.

Done correctly, competitive analysis looks at what competitors are doing and develops marketing strategies accordingly. The first step is to identify your top ten competitors. Then analyses the content published by these companies and review their performance. In addition, the SEO activities of these companies should be examined and the company's own website should be frequently updated with similar content.

The purpose of competitor analyse is to gain insight into the competitive environment and understand how competitors position themselves in the marketplace. It helps companies identify their own competitive advantages and areas for improvement. By understanding competitors' strategies and actions, companies can make informed decisions about their own marketing strategies, product development, pricing, and customer targeting. 

Competitor analysis can be conducted through a variety of methods, including market research, industry reports, analyzing competitors' websites and social media presence, monitoring advertising and promotional activities, and gathering customer feedback and comments.

In general, competitive analysis is a valuable tool for companies to stay competitive and make informed decisions in a dynamic market environment. It enables companies to identify opportunities, anticipate threats and develop effective strategies to gain competitive advantage. 

Competitive analysis is an important aspect of business strategy because it allows companies to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of their competitors. By conducting a competitive analysis of their products or services, pricing and marketing strategies, companies can identify opportunities for improvement and areas where they can gain a competitive advantage. 

How to Perform Competitor Analysis?

1. Identify competitors: The first step is to identify other businesses in the competitive sector. These may be companies offering the same products or services, or targeting the same audience. You can identify your competitors by using sources such as internet research, industry reports, and market analysis and customer feedback.
2. Analyse the competition: You need to carry out a detailed analysis to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. This analysis should include the competitors' marketing strategies, products or services, pricing, distribution channels and customer relationships. You can gather information by examining your competitors' websites, social media accounts, advertising campaigns and customer comments.
3. Market share and performance analysis: It is important to assess the market share and performance of your competitors. This involves analysing data such as your competitors' revenues, sales volumes, customer bases and growth rates. You can use industry reports, financial reports and market research to gather this data.
4. Identify competitive advantages: Competitor analysis helps you identify your company's own strengths and competitive advantages. These advantages may be based on factors such as product quality, pricing strategies, customer service or brand equity. By identifying your competitors' weaknesses, you can gain a competitive advantage in these areas.
5. Strategy development: Based on the results of the competitor analysis, you can develop your company's marketing strategies and competitive advantages. These strategies can be created by targeting competitors' weaknesses or by creating competitive advantage through differentiation.

Competitor analysis helps your company to succeed in the competitive environment and contributes to the effective planning of marketing strategies. However, it is important to remember that each business has its own specific needs and objectives when conducting competitive analysis.

Competitor Analysis Tools 

Ahrefs

The first of the most preferred competitor analysis tools that brands that want to do SEO competitor analysis can use is Ahrefs. 

• Keyword research
• Rank tracking
• Backlink monitoring
• Broken links
• Best pages
• Paid keywords
• ADS Campaigns
• SERP statistics
• Keyword research
• Rank tracking
• Backlink monitoring
• Broken links
• Best pages
• Paid keywords
• ADS Campaigns
• SERP statistics

It is a feature that allows you to analyse your own site on many issues such as If you want to use this free and paid competitive analysis tool for your own website, you need to register with the tool using the email address associated with your Google Analytics and Google Search Console account. This will allow you to perform your free site analysis.

In order to perform SEO competitive analysis with Ahrefs, you need to get Ahrefs Premium Membership to take advantage of all the above processes and to perform competitive analysis. By getting Ahrefs premium membership, you can easily analyses your competitors' keywords, rankings, backlinked websites and anchor texts, and content differences with your competitors. This way, you can easily create your own SEO strategy by making an accurate competitor analysis.

Semrush

Semrush, which you can use while doing competitor analysis, is also one of the very popular seo competitor analysis tools.

• Domain name analysis
• Traffic Analysis
• Keyword gaps
• Backlink Gap
• Organic keywords
• Social media analysis
• Content marketing keyword research
• Content Audit

Which has many features like Semrush, allows you to perform both paid and free Seo competitor analysis. The information you can access in your analyses with the free version of Semrush is limited. This is because the free version of this tool allows you to query up to 10 keywords. However, if you are just starting your SEO studies, you can easily perform your basic SEO studies with the free version of this programme.

Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog, one of the first tools that comes to mind when it comes to SEO competitive analysis, is a competitive analysis tool launched in 2010. Thanks to this tool, which should be used by any company that wants to carry out a detailed SEO analysis and develop a good SEO strategy, you can analyse your competitors;

• Link structure
• Robot.txt files
• H1, H2 headings in the content
• Meta descriptions, meta tags and page titles
• Mobile SEO works
• URL errors
• Sitemaps
• Broken links

Can be studied in detail. Thanks to these studies, you can develop your company's SEO strategy as a competitive SEO strategy and stay ahead of your competitors.